uniquely American folk hymns. African Americans adopted this religious folk music, adding their own style and themes such as slavery and emancipation. "Sacred music, both a Capella and instrumentally accompanied, is at the heart of the tradition. Early spirituals framed Christian beliefs within native practices and were heavily influenced by the music and rhythms of Africa." Spirituals are prominent, and often use a call and response pattern. "Gospel developed after the Civil War (1861-65). It relied on biblical text for much of its direction, and the use of metaphors and imagery was common. Gospel is a "joyful noise," sometimes accompanied by instrumentation and almost always punctuated by hand clapping, toe tapping, and body movement." Work songs Sea shanties Sea shanties functioned to lighten the burden of routine tasks and provide a rhythm that helped workers perform as a team. One of the oldest sea shanties sung in America may have been "Haul in the Bowline" which could date back as far as the rule of Henry VIII in the sixteenth century. Other popular shanties include "Blow the Man Down", "Blow, Boys, Blow", "Reuben Ranzo", "Shenandoah" and "The Greenland Whale" as well as African-American shanties such as "Mobile Bay" and "I'm Goin' up the River". Cowboy songs Cowboys songs are typically ballads that cowboys sang in the West and Southwest. The familiar “Streets of Laredo" (or "Cowboys Lament") derives from an Irish folk song of the late 18th century called "The Unfortunate Rake", which in turn appears to have descended from the even earlier "The Bard of Armagh". While "Streets of Laredo" uses the same melody as "The Unfortunate Rake", "St. James Infirmary Blues" adapts the story to a different tune. This illustrates how folk songs can change in the retelling and appear in a variety of versions. Similarly the popular cowboy song "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie, about a dying cowboy begging not to be buried alone in the wilderness, is based on an earlier poem, "The Ocean Burial". Similarly, the popular song "Buffalo Skinners" is based on the earlier lumberjack tune "Canaday-I-O". Other songs originated wholly on the frontier such as the famous "Home on the Range" written in Kansas in 1873 by Dr. Brewster Higley and Dan Kelly. "The Old Chisholm Trail" too was a distinctly American ballad tied to the experiences of cowboys on the long treks on the Chisholm Trail. Following the Civil War,