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AL BASFORD,
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170 July–August 2013
tallahasseeMagazine.com
“I heard of Sacred Harp and sang it in my early to mid-20s and immediately loved the sound of it,” she said. “It definitely was in my blood, and I was motivated to go to those sings in North Florida and South Alabama. And the people are so friendly. If you sang Sacred Harp, they loved you. No questions asked.” Reaching out to other groups led her to the Lee family of Hoboken, Ga., a tiny town just east of Waycross on the northern edge of the Okefenokee Swamp. The Lees are a family community of shape-note singers and, even though Sacred Harp isn’t meant to be a performing art, family members made two appearances at the Florida Folk Festival back in the late 1950s. But for 50 years or so after that, the community of shape-note singers kept themselves isolated, Bejnar said. That is, until they were invited to the first big Tallahassee group sing in 1994. “The Lees came to our sing, and friendships began between that family and not just the Tallahassee singers but the singers in Southeast Alabama and North Florida, and they got to know each other,” she said. Kahre said the Lee family developed their own unique singing practices during the time they were separated from the larger Sacred Harp community. “So, they kind of became celebrities in the Sacred Harp world after they rejoined, because they’re such a strong singing family and they sing so well. They also sing differently in interesting ways,” she said.
Striking a Chord
Shape note singing may have close ties to religion and the South, but today it is non-denominational and can be found all over the United States. It spread because it was a distinctly American folk art that appealed to everyone regardless of region or religion. “(Sacred Harp) was really an underdog book,” Kahre said. “Not that many people were singing from it up until the mid-20th century when music scholars started discovering it in the late 1920s. About 1976 people started getting really interested in American history, so there’s some involvement there. Also, some influential leaders in Georgia in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s really worked on getting Sacred Harp spread nationally … because people were so interested in American folk music. So it appeals to people in that sense, across the country, and that’s why you can find it all over the place now.” While it may have been largely divested of its “church” background, it can still touch some people in a spiritual way. Different people will get different things out of it, but others may just turn completely away, according to singer Morgan Bunch, 65, a data administrator at the Florida Department of Transportation. Bunch said he’s known about Sacred Harp for more than 40 years but started singing it at the first Tallahassee all-day sing that Bejnar started some 20 years ago. “People tend to have very strong reactions to the music,” he said. “The first time I heard a Sacred Harp song, I thought it was the most incredible thing I had ever heard. This was a recording. It was some years later before I actually went to a Sacred Harp