Liberty Baptist Church, in the northeast Alabama town of Henagar, has cradled the sound of Sacred Harp singing for 110 years. There's no harp in Sacred Harp singing -- no instruments at all. Just the ...

Groups of Sacred Harp singers are working together to revise their hymnal The a capella tradition uses shape-note music to sight-read songs from the hymnal's 554 options Families pass the musical ...

In the movie Cold Mountain, news that the Civil War has started comes as residents of a small North Carolina town are charging through I'm Going Home in the music's rough-edged vocal style. American ...

Surrounded by other singers arranged in a square, Judy Hauff rocks her feet heel to toe, rhythmically slashes the air with her arm and sings “Fa la sol la sol.” This is “shape note” music, an a ...

You knew Chicago was a sanctuary for blues and gospel, but you’ve probably never heard of this rural-born musical tradition—even though it was probably America’s first ever. Sacred Harp music was a ...

Singers at Holly Springs Primitive Baptist Church in West Georgia treat their red hymnals like extensions of themselves, never straying far from their copies of “The Sacred Harp” and its music notes ...

BREMEN, Ga. (AP) — “The Sacred Harp” hymnal is beloved by those who sing from it, carrying on the Christian songbook's more than 180-year-old legacy. They are young and old — and all ages in between.

Observing a Sacred Harp singing session is quite different from any other performance experience. Singers are seated in a large square facing each other, taking sides based on their voice range as ...

The sound defies mere singing, pulsing though the church sanctuary with sufficient force to put hell on alert. For three days this month singers from the United States, Canada and Britain gathered to ...

Going to church on a Sunday is a usual occurance for a majority of people, regardless, if they follow the good book, line for line or just practice religion on a casual basis. Church does involve a ...

It can be disorienting at first, if you’re not used to hearing it. It’s loud, for one. And wild, and raw. It’s rarely sweet. Raucous voices spill out of the little country church, past the creaky ...