14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gospel music like you've never heard it before, September 29, 2004
This review is from: Religion Is a Fortune (Audio CD)
More rare old 78s, profiling the arcane art of shape-note, or sacred harp, gospel singing, an unusal and distinctive American style. These are all artists from the 1920s and '30s that very, very few people have ever heard of, vocal groups such as the Fa-So-La Singers, Dye's Sacred Harp Singers, Daniels-Deason Sacred Harp Singers, Lee Wells Sacred Harp Singers and others. The music is alien and bizarre, rough-hewn harmonies that tear across standard tonality in odd, zig-zag patterns, a sound so unusual it is one of America's great "outsider" art styles. The Allison's Sacred Harp Singers ensemble is the subject of an entire separate disc (also out on the County Records label), though they are represented here by several tunes as well... The sacred harp style is still kept alive by devoted churchgoers throughout the South, but here is a chance to hear some of its earliest recorded examples, some spooky old music that definitely has the Holy Spirit surging through it. Recommended!
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