Sacred and secular Black music traditions have existed side-by-side in Tennessee since the arrival of large numbers of slaves to Mississippi River lowland plantations in the early 19th century. Although church-oriented music has remained separate from entertainment and work-related musics in performance, meaning and genre, it has influenced and, in turn, been influenced by them over time. Many well-known blues performers have "gone to God," and an equally large number of religious performers are attentive to the style, if not the ideology, of blues.