Hi susan,

Hope the vacation was great.

What follows is very much my lay, uninformed perspective and opinion, steeped long in real ignorance regarding the scholarship around folk music.

The point is not that they are ORB, or any particular demonination. But the Old Regular and United Baptists are very to extremely conservative (in the classical sense of the word). As such their congregational singing is a living tradition in terms of rural American (and especially Appalachian) music. The evolution of 'folk' congregational singing is apparent and contiguous when listening to these modern recordings of congregational singing, and then comparing them to, as in your example, Max Hunter's field recordings in the Appalachian digital library. One hears how the singing, even the lined out singing, is changed by the fact that isolation is nearly non-existent. The voices of the congregation, no longer isolated from the rest of the country and the world, through media exposure if nothing else, are changed. The mountain accents are diluted. The tone of voices is different from the Hunter recordings. While still regional, they are not so very distinct as they were even 30 years ago. Compare these recordings to the field records of not just Max Hunter, but a number of collectors who moved through eastern Kentucky, West Virgina, southwest Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina from the late 60's to the mid to late 70's. Both are sets of field recordings. (Pawpaw was asked to do some field recording by someone, I forget who - it wasn't Lomax -whoever was the main name behind the Berea Collge archives. To my great regret, he declined. Decided it wasn't a Godly thing to do.) One hears the change over time in the 'folk' singing of the congregations, brought about by the end of virtual isolation. What we have, in comparing these recordings that are 30 to 40 years apart, is documentation of the folk process.

You've 'heard' me talk about my grandfather's voice and singing. He sang in the 'old way.' But he was not a performer, and wasn't in the business of preserving a way of singing. He sang like everybody else of his time, region and culture, including his religious culture. It just happened that he was a fine singer. His own church and Association were ultra conservative, to the point of not allowing PA systems or instrumental accompaniment (yment?) in church. (That may have changed, I've had no direct contact since he died in 1993.) He was 97 when he died. Among the congregation at his funeral, I noted some fine voices, but they were younger voices. They sang lined out hymns, and they sang them deloriously slow. But no one among them sang with the pure 'old timey' mountain voice of my grandfather. He was one of the last to whom that style of singing was absolutely usual and natural. They were younger (even those by just 10-15 years). Their youths were not so isolated. Even those born just post WWI had much greater exposure, beginning in childhood, to the radio, to immigrants, accents, voices - from outside of the hills and hollers of eastern Kentucky. And their natural voices reflected a greater degree of homogeny with the larger world.

In our American ballads, especially in the mountain ballads of the Appalachians, we can easily trace the songs from their origins in the British Isles. but we can not directly trace the evolution of the voices and the song styles over time from across the pond. With the advent of technology that allows field recordings, however, we can observe in a pretty continuitous (did I just make that word up?) way, the process of change and transition of the music sung by the people in their daily lives. We can observe the process of the 'folk' in terms of their music.

Only in churches has the music remained a part of the routine, integral life of people in this country. You don't hear field hands, prisoners, or sailors singing to mark the cadence of their work.    Singing and music, outside of church, has been largely consigned to the arena of performance in our modern life. That is not to say that some families and friends don't gather to make music, but it is no longer commonly a part of living, working and home entertainment.

I'm rambling and will stop now. One of these days I'll learn to use fewer commas and more periods. But you get my drift.

Janie