Joan, I understand where you're coming from, being a North Carolinian myself, but there is a certain sort of irony in your complaint since Sacred Harp is after all, a Northern import which took hold more prominently southward, much like football.

The electronic mixes are a good learning tool, but of course, are not beautiful.

I would agree that trying to be too prim and proper with sacred harp tends to ruin it. Whenever I listen to, for example, Last Words of Copernicus (thread), I always enjoy the "flyers" and gravelly voices which would never sit in a trained setting. I've heard sacred harp described as a patchwork quilt of voices, and to me it's most beautiful if they're not too neat and organized. It's good to have a little rough around the edges.

That being said, singing it is the best way to learn it, and if you haven't had formally learned the "dots" then sacred harp could be a good way to start. I won't belabor the point too much, but (depending on the system you learn) it's all made to be either 4 or 7 sounds based on the musical scale, with the shape of the note (hence, shape-note singing) determining the exact sound. Of course, you still have to learn the half, quarter, whole, and eighth notes, etc, but it's a simple primer.

I looked into learning it on my own, but to echo Joan, learned immensely more in about 30 minutes at a single Sacred Harp teaching session at Merlefest one year.