Alabama Sacred Harp Singers

A rural Alabama choir of "sacred harp" (or shape-note) singing, the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers recorded for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Columbia%22">Columbia</a> during the late '20s and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22the+Library+of+Congress%22">the Library of Congress</a> in the early '40s. The sacred harp tradition, which had journeyed from Britain to the early American colonies and later spread to the southeastern United States, relied on a starker, Biblea-based form of gospel music than traditional Black choirs. Led by Paine Denson, A. Marcus Cagle, and "Uncle Dock" Owen, the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers recorded several sides for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Columbia%22">Columbia</a> in 1928 (two were later compiled on the 1952 folksong compendium Anthology of American Folk Music). In 1942, <a href="spotify:artist:1u8YzEYh6gvvFog95WtAao">Alan Lomax</a> and George Pullen Jackson recorded the group for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22the+Library+of+Congress%22">the Library of Congress</a>, a series of songs that were later reissued on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Rounder%22">Rounder</a> as Sacred Harp Singing. Similar recordings can also be found on volumes nine and ten in the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Rounder%22">Rounder</a> series known as Southern Journey. ~ John Bush, Rovi