Music always resonates on so many different levels and I marvel how it strikes when you least expect it – what I mean by that is if you leave your self open to anything, then everything has potential to appeal? I love how my taste has evolved, even more-so since the LP blog came into fruition. This is an escape and delivers supreme fulfilment! Anyway, back to today’s song which, like many of the other tracks I’ve featured this week, is a random find I stumbled upon earlier!
Again, I’ve only really heard today’s song, but am investigating more of this music as I type! I am struggling to find anything out about the band behind today’s song, but this could be because this music is relatively obscure and rather old! The Good Old Way could’ve been recorded anytime between the late 1920’s and the mid-1930’s! What I have found out is that Sacred Harp singing is a form of Southern gospel music that appears to be rather mysterious and not so well-known? The music “is characterized by mass participation, full-voiced singing, lack of instrumental accompaniment, and rotation of song leaders.”
So far, I’ve found two interesting compilations, both documenting and exploring this old sound. The first is an album that was in 2006 (courtesy of Dust To Digital) entitled, I Belong to This Band: 85 Years of Sacred Harp Recordings. The second is another album called, I‘m on My Journey Home: Sacred Harp Singing, 1928-1934 which was issued in 2016 on London’s Death Is Not The End label!
Both albums includes today’s primitive, melodic delight, but both don’t really outline details of featured individual bands/artist unfortunately. This trip into the (almost) forgotten sound of America’s folk roots digs deep and though I’m not religious, I do find that a little bit of this tugs at the old spirit, don’t you think?
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