I sat down tonight after tucking Pinky in to bed {and thankfully dodging yet another night of Tater's newly discovered fear of the dark} and clicked on the TV.
I know; I actually sat down.
I'd meant to click over to The Weather Channel to check out the forecast for tomorrow as I prepare for our first official Girl Scout overnight; when I turned on the TV, PBS was still on from one of the kids end-of-the-night shows.
And this documentary, Awake My Soul, about Sacred Harp singing, mesmerized me.
Here's the trailer from the movie:
The music is simple yet hauntingly beautiful.
And the singers?
They are so joyful.
I found myself wishing I lived in a small southern town with a white clapboard church that shook to the shingles with this music.
And for the second time today, I had snippets of To Kill a Mockingbird running through my head; surely Sacred Harp would have been common knowledge in the world of Jem and Scout.
After the documentary was over, I scrambled through our CD collection until I found the soundtrack from O Brother, Where Art Thou? I love that old-timey music sound and just needed more.
But the O Brother soundtrack pales in comparison to this:
Do any of you out there have Sacred Harp singing in your town?
Have a great weekend and thanks for reading Writer-Mommy!
Your remarks about Sacred Harp singing are right on target.
ReplyDeleteWe have a regular singing that meets in Savannah, GA. We have been singing together for over 4 years now and, although only one of our members (an 89-year old lady from Bremen, GA) was raised in the singing tradition, it has become an important part of our lives. We have a website,
www.savannahsacredharp.com
Gene
Gene: Thanks so much for sharing. I was utterly entranced by this documentary. Beautiful!
ReplyDelete