Spirituals in Contemporary Performance

Subject: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Sep 01 - 05:28 PM

Folks, many of you responded in the thread about "Favorite Spirituals" with titles of the songs dear to you among African-American Spirituals. And the list of spirituals posted at Mudcat (and in DT) is getting longer and longer.

Now I need to know, for summary in the African-American Spirituals Permathread, what you DO with your favorites.

Do you do them for your own pleasure or in your sets?

Do you use them in a religious way or for their historical value?

Do you sing them solo, in a group, or leading a group?

Do you do them a capella, or with instrument, and if so what?

How does the way you do them relate to how they may have been sung originally? Do you use dialect? Are they somewhat translated textually or stylistically?

Do you make up new verses?

If you do these in public, do you say anything about the difficult issues involved?

How did you learn the ones you love, and how would you go about learning more?

If you care to share, it would also be great to hear how you first discovered this music, and what-all you remember about that time.

THANKS!

~Susan

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: John Hardly
Date: 26 Sep 01 - 06:05 PM

I arrange 'em for fingerstyle guitar and play and sing 'em for anyone who'll listen. So far that's been...

...about 4 people.

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 05 Oct 01 - 09:37 PM

Hi, Susan: My group, The Gospel Messengers does Roll Jordan, Roll.Our Bass, Joe Evans, and baritone, Frank Cummings both grew up in the south. When they were children, there were ex-slaves still living in their home town. We forget how recent slavery was. The Baptist Church that we go to in Connecticut was founded by 25 ex- slaves. Joe sings the lead on Roll Jordan, Roll, and like us white folks, doesn't have to sing in dialect. He is dialect. I am white and grew up in Southern Wisconsin. I don't try to sound "black." My singing has been influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and soul music, but I think it's truest to be who you are when you sing, not try to imitate something you haven't lived. We sing for the joy of singing, with a commitment to bring the Word of God out into the World. [e-mail].

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 05 Oct 01 - 09:42 PM

Hi, again, Susan: My name is Jerry Rasmussen. I lead the group playing electric (gasp!) guitar. I get a lot of flack for it at folk festivals, but as I point out, being a die-hard traditionalist, I play the traditional instrument for black gospel... an electric guitar. I started out switching to electric, because I couldn't hear what I was playing on an acoustic guitar, once the Spirit started moving. Of course, I could play acoustic guitar with an electric pick-up, run it through an electric amplifier, through a sound system, balanced to my voice, amplified electrically through a microphone, and remain acoustic. Electricity isn't the issue. Singing from the heart is.

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Oct 01 - 09:53 PM

Jerry, I play *gasp* electric autoharp. No one's died yet! *G*

Tomorrow I will use it in a small chapel, and alternate between that and a capella, to lead our congregation in the music for our weekly Saturday Night service (Episcopal). Most times we are in the big church-- a big ole stone beauty. But this week is the antique show and people will be too tired to set up and tear down the electronics array, so we scaled down.

Thanks for bringing this thread back up and contributing. If you are ever passing within an hour or hollering distance of north central PA, I hope you might honor us (with your group of course) with a Saturday night visit. I think we might have us a TIME.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 08:16 AM

Susan: Electric Autoharp! What would Maybelle think? For several years I was on the Board of the Adirondack Folk Gospel Festival, and was graced one year by hanging out with Janette Carter, one of the un-glittery Carter Family daughters. We had a great time swapping songs, and just sitting around, talking. There was a feature article on her in U.S.A. recently because she runs a weekly folk music program out of her store.She doesn't allow electric instruments there, because she's trying to keep a tradition alive, but she's open-minded and FUN. Sometimes in our zeal to keep the tradition alive, we forget to have fun. That's a mistake I've never made. The Messengers take our mission seriously, but no one has more fun singing than we do. We never know where the Lord will lead us. Maybe Pennsylvania. Went to Missouri in April to sing at the Big Muddy Festival.

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 08:21 AM

Susan: If you'd like a tape of the Messengers(not yet produced to sell, I'd be happy to send you one. Just e-mail me your address at [e-mail]. We sing at churches of all flavors, all the time... we're doing a benefit concert in CT. on October 13 to help raise money to install an elevator. We're in Soutwest, Conn., so central P.A. isn't beyond reason..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: wysiwyg
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 10:05 AM

! ! ! !

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: sed
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 11:43 AM

I share them whenever I can with whomever will listen, of course, and as a street performer with anyone who passes by. Also I play some recordings of them on my weekly radio show. I have a strong desire to produce and possibly host a daily Christian Folk Music show on radio or tv. http://www.geocities.com/sedberrysteve/radio.html

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 12:50 PM

Dear SED: My friends call me Jerry Rasmussen. Sounds like you're doing good work. Taking it to the streets is a special blessing. I have a gospel quartet, and one of our most enjoyable performances was singing at a Christmas party at a Homeless Shelter last year.

Have to run... more later...

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 05:34 PM

Hey, Sed:

Where's your radio station? Probably can't get it from here in Derby, CT, but I thought I'd ask...

Jerry Rasmussen

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 10:21 PM

Hi, John: You know who loves to listen to spirituals and gospel music? People in nursing homes and health care centers. There is a whole audience out there, who would love to hear you. I've sung in nursing homes for the last thirty years, by myself and with my gospel quartet, the Gospel Messengers. We always encourage residents and health care staff to contribute, too. It's a beautiful experience, and while the pay is not monetary, it's the best paying job in town. It took me a little time to get beyond my initial discomfort to see the strength, faith, love and good humor of people whose lives have been stripped down to the essentials. I always feel like I have been lifted far more than the people I sing for, when I leave.

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: John P
Date: 07 Oct 01 - 11:49 AM

The closest we come to a spiritual is Wayfaring Stranger. We recorded it on our last CD and perform it now and then at concerts. Our version tends towards a blues sound with fingerpicked guitar, solo voice, and penny whistle on the breaks. We do it as a folk song, not as a religious song. There is a short sound sample of part of it on our website.

John Peekstok

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 09 Oct 01 - 10:53 PM

Hi, Susan: In answer to some of your other questions. We sing gospel, not in a historical sense, but for the spiritual strengthening and joy that we find in the messages. When we first started singing, we tended to closely approximate (copy) arrangements on records. Much like we all started as folk singers. As time's gone by, when someone brings a song to the group (I almost always end up suggesting a song that I feel will fit a particular member,) we may listen to the original recording once or twice, and then strike out on our own. I've also written many songs for the group, and there's no original recording to listen to. Just like in folk music, the song usually dictates whether or not we use accompaniment. Some of the older songs that we do just seem to flow more freely and rhythmically when not locked into a guitar accompaniment. How did I come to this music? I suppose it goes back to the rare gospel tunes that were popularized back in the 50's. A inter-racial group, the Mariners, did a version of You Must Come In At The Door, and I bought an old ep of the Four Lads and Frankie Lane doing gospel, including a wonderful version of Didn't It Rain. The Four Lads, when they were still on the O.K. label recorded The Mockingbird..a gospel song. I heard very little real black gospel... mostly white singers doing versions. When I first started to hear folk music, I was drawn to some of the gospel on the Anthology of American Folk Music, and first heard Blind Willie Johnson. I was living in the Village, and had the chance to hear Rev. Gary Davis countless times. The last black gospel I really heard in full bloom was the gospel that I love most... the old quartets like the Swan Silvertones, the Five Blind Boys, the Harmonizing Four, and all the rest... had a chance to hear the Fairfield Four when their lead singer of many years was still alive.. can't remember his name off the top of my head.

You asked...

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Oct 01 - 11:13 PM

That's great, Jerry. Your posts always seem to have the sense you are feeling your way through them-- it says a lot.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 11:55 AM

Funny thing is, Susan, it's mostly white folkses who are singing black spirituals. If you check the thread, Singing in Dialect, I asked how people felt about singing in a dialect, not their own. As the discussion has evolved, it's focused almost exclusively on Scots/Irish dialects. Probably because other than white blues singers, most white folkses don't sing a lot of black folk music or gospel. The same principle applies, whether you're from New York City and are affecting a southern white dialect, or you're Chinese, trying to imitate Frank Sinatra. I periodically check out two communities: Black Gospel and Jazz, and Black Gospel Musicians. One of the please made there is that black gospel singers include spirituals in their performances, as most young blacks have never heard spirituals. As far as singing black spirituals in dialect, everyone has to find their own comfort level. I sing what I feel, and part of that is a love of the music, so I may subconsciously pronounce certain words slightly differently when singing a black spiritual, or black gospel. I never try to imitate... anything... But, we carry out influences in our hearts and voices, and that's good. There are also certain mannerisms and phrases in black gospel... sometimes lifting the end note of a word at the end of a phrase, or humming between verses, that have slowly become more natural to me. Not as imitation, but because the music is part of me. I don't sing the songs for historical reasons. I sing them because they speak to me.. an upper Midwestern White guy. The yearning of the heart knows no color.

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: wysiwyg
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 12:06 PM

Jerry, we need to get together. SOON.

I would like to correspond with the people asking about teaching the spirituals to young black folk. Can you help me connect? Would it make sense to continue that discussion in e-mail?

~Susan

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: Burke
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 01:27 PM

Jerry, I went to the Adirondack Folk Gospel Festival once, years ago. Is it still going on?

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 01:55 PM

Susan: I don't know the people who were requesting that black gospel groups introduce spirituals into their performance... I'll go into the community on the internet and see if they respond... The Black Gospel Musicians community isn't like Mudcat... you're lucky if one person enters a message a week... So far, no one has responded to anything that I've posted. But, I'll try.

The Adirondack Folk Gospel Festival. Ah, yes! No, I'm sorry, but it ended a good ten years ago. I went the last four years, and was on the Board their. I've recently tried to track down Field Horne, who was the Director, but my contacts can't find him. (That sounds creepy...) When Field called and booked me the first time, I couldn't out why he asked me. I'd written three or four gospel songs that I performed, but I would hardly have considered myself a gospel artist. I didn't even know who Field was, but he heard me do a concert at Cafe Lena, and sensed that I had a love for gospel. It was really through that festival that I became more committed to gospel, and did a gospel album, never released, with friends of mine in Mass., Jim and Cindy Bean, and The Beans. The festival created a hunger in me that I've never satisfied, and led me to black gospel... something there was very little of at the festival. I've been feeling the need to get back up into the Albany area to bring the Gospel Messengers up there. If I do, if you send me your e-mail address, I'll keep you posted. I don't know what part of the country you live in, but the Messengers are performing farther and farther from out home base here in Connecticut. Last April, we performed at a folk festival in Missouri. If you'd just like to get in touch with me, my e-mail address is [e-mail].

Subject: RE: Spirituals in Contemporary Performance
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Jun 05 - 12:28 PM

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