Sufjan Stevens recently joined Chris Thile on Live From Here to sing the Methodist hymn “Ah! Holy Jesus.”
The two banter back and forth about how gloomy the song is before they begin. And when they finally start, you realize they were not exaggerating.
The opening few syllables are so dark tonally, and they move so slowly that it’s immediately tempting to turn it off. But if you give it a few seconds, the song evolves into beautiful harmonies. The audience sings along as though it were a congregation. It is a dark, stunning and moving moment.
