Hey, Terry:

Occasionally, I wished that I had a formal musical education so that I could express myself more intelligently. There's a particularly British/English harmony that I can recognize and yet can't identify what it is about it that makes it sound like the Copper Family, not the Carter Family. Friends of mine took one of my very American songs, Milwaukee/St. Paul and gave it an, English sounding harmony. I thought that they did a nice job on the song (they recorded it) and appreciated their support. But why did they make it sound English? It's about a railroad line in the upper Midwest.

Two things I notice when there are sing-alongs at Folk Festivals in this country. That English harmony thing is very prevalent. I actually like the sound of it a LOT, but it gives a different feel to the songs. They all start to sound like sea chanteys.

The other thing I find, interestingly, is that when The Gospel Messengers are leading singing in a folk festival workshop or concert in a folk club, the audience likes to hold out the notes at the end of the line ... kinda savor them. Black gospel is often very rhythmic and the way I describe it is that you "snap" the last word of a line, rather than hold it out. There's often a subtle tug of war going on when we sing for a folk audience, trying to get them to get into the rhythm of the music rather than slowing down the rhythm to fit their usual style of singing. It's a challenge at times, but great fun, too. Once you accept that it's a different style of singing and get into it, it's very liberating and invigorating. Wouldn't work very well on a sea chantey or murder ballad, but it really drives the music home in black gospel.

Always nice to hear from you, Terry

Jerry