Various – Sacred Harp & Shape Note Singing – 4CD

The Sacred Harp singing style is unique to America, treasured today both for its hauntingly attractive harmonies and its links to a seemingly lost rural past. Evolving from church singing-school organisations of the 18th century, it was and remains a community movement, with all-day singing conventions as much a social as a musical gathering, these days concentrated mainly in the Deep South.

Track Listing:

CD1: 1928-1940
Dye's Sacred Harp Singers: 1. Amazing Grace - 2:44   2. How Firm a Foundation - 2:51   The Denson Quartet: 3. Soar Away - 3:39   4. Sabbath Morning - 2:47   Fa-So-La Singers: 5. Rejoicing on the Way - 3:12   6. Jesus Walks with Me - 2:56   7. Happy on the Way - 3:02   Rosewell Sacred Harp Quartet: 8. Weeping on the Way - 2:40   9. Odem - 2:44   Allison's Sacred Harp Singers: 10. Bound for Canaan - 2:40   11. Antioch - 2:46   12. Sweet Prospect - 2:29   13. The Old Ship of Zion - 2:27   14. Sweet Canaan - 3:05   15. Exhilaration - 3:06   16. Long Sought Home - 3:01   17. Weeping Pilgrim - 2:35   18. The Loved Ones - 2:43   Elder Golden P. Harris: 19. My God the Spring of All My Joys - 3:07   20. My Christian Friends in Bonds of Love - 3:12

CD2: 1928-1950's
Alabama Sacred Harp Singers: 1. Rocky Road - 2:50   2. Present Joys - 2:57   3. Religion Is a Fortune - 2:55   4. Cuba - 3:07   Denson's Sacred Harp Singers Of Arley, Alabama: 5. The Happy Sailor - 2:33   6. Protection - 2:20   7. Ninety Fifth - 2:52   8. The Christian Hope - 2:56   Middle Georgia Singing Convention: 9. Bells of Love - 2:51   10. Walking with My King - 3:01   Okeh Atlanta Sacred Harp Singers: 11. Return Again - 3:18   12. Penick - 3:09   13. Edom - 3:21  14. Parting Hand - 3:11   Huggins & Phillips Sacred Harp Singers: 15. Blooming Youth - 2:53   16. Lovers of the Lord - 2:41   Lee Wells & His Jasper Alabama Scared Harp Singers: 17. The Christian's Flight - 2:50   18. North Port - 2:39   Pioneer Sacred Harp Singers: 19. The Promised Land - 2:36   20. Raymond - 2:39

CD3: 1927-1928
Allison's Sacred Harp Singers: 1. The Heavenly Port - 2:47   2. Hallelujah - 3:01   3. The Golden Harp - 2:58   4. Heaven's My Home - 2:53   5. I'm a Long Time Travelling Away from Home - 2:57   6. I Belong to This Band - 2:53   7. Sharpsburg 2:30   8. Murillo's Lesson - 2:41   9. Jewett - 3:03   10. Pisgah - 3:08   11. Primrose Hill - 3:08   12. Weeping Mary - 2:44   13. Penick - 2:52   14. Sweet Morning - 2:39   15. Esther - 2:26   Daniels-Deason Sacred Harp Singers: 16. Pryel's Hymn - 3:20   17. Hallelujah - 3:04   18. Primrose Hill - 3:00   19. Coronation - 3:03   Bassett Quartet: 20. Jubilee - 2:09   21. I'm Not Ashamed of Jesus - 1:22

CD4: 1922-1934
Dye's Sacred Harp Singers: 1. Land of Beulah - 2:37   2. Calvary - 2:37   3. Victoria - 2:36   4. Bethel - 2:40   Denson-Parris Sacred Harp SIngers: 5. Conversion - 2:20   6. The Good Old Way - 2:39   7. The Heavenly Port - 2:36   8. Blooming Youth - 2:37   9. Ragan - 2:46   10. Raymond - 2:40   The Denson Quartet: 11. Christian Soldier - 2:48   12. I'm on My Journey Home - 3:22   Georgia Sacred Harp Quartet: 13. Wondrous Love - 3:11   14. Windham - 2:58   Moody Bible Sacred Harp Singers: 15. Liberty - 3:07   16. In That Morning - 3:12   Original Sacred Harp Choir: 17. Soft Music - 3:13   18. Canaan's Land - 3:12   19. Pleyel's Hymn - 2:48   20. New Britain - 2:35

Reviews:

1. AllMusic - Timothy Monger
Introduced in the 1800s, shape note singing was a popular form of choral music in the American South. In the shape note style, musical notes are printed using special shapes that help the reader identify them on the musical scale. Eschewing the more complex figures of standard musical notation, shape note singing was accessible and easily learned, and the resulting group was both primitive and powerful. The Sacred Harp, published in 1844 by Benjamin Franklin White and Elisha J. King, was a gospel tune book printed in shape notes that spawned an entire style that became known as Sacred Harp singing. This exhaustive four-disc collection from British jazz and blues label JSP features three decades' worth of wonderful field recordings from a variety of different choirs and vocal groups singing in the shape note and Sacred Harp tradition. The 81 tracks featured here are from the private collection of noted musicologist Chris King beginning in 1922 and spanning into the mid-'50s.