Unaccompanied Singing Traditions of Southern Appalachia

by Esther Morgan-Ellis

This article was written by Esther Morgan-Ellis and published in Accessible Appalachia: An Open-Access Introduction to Appalachian Studies, edited by Lisa Day. The original chapters in Accessible Appalachia are openly licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and are freely available for reuse or adoption. Ballad of America, Inc. added images, audio examples, and playlists to the original work for publication on this page.

Contents

Introduction

Unaccompanied singing is characteristic of remote communities. Because it does not require instruments, which are often expensive, fragile, and difficult to construct, it can be practiced by those of extremely limited means. Three unaccompanied singing traditions of Southern Appalachia have attracted considerable interest over the past century: ballad singing, lined-out hymnody, and shape-note singing. On the surface, they have little in common. Ballad singing is practiced by an individual, while both lined-out hymnody and shape-note singing require a roomful of people. Ballads describe horrific crimes and tragic love affairs, while hymns and shape-note texts reflect Christian beliefs. Both ballads and lined-out hymnody consist of a single melody, while shape-note songs are harmonized in three or four parts. And finally, ballads and lined-out hymnody are passed primarily through oral tradition, while shape-note songs are learned from printed tunebooks.

Despite these basic differences, the three traditions have more in common than it may seem. To begin with, the binaries listed above are not so clear-cut: Ballads can serve as religious allegories, for example, while oral tradition is central to shape-note practice. The similarities extend further. Many shape-note melodies are taken from secular songs, while ballad singers sometimes retext hymn melodies. This genre-crossing is possible because the melodies, whatever their source, have similar musical characteristics. Singers in all three traditions employ related means of vocal production, often favoring loud volumes, straight tone, and minimal expression; indeed, the same individual is likely to sing ballads one day and shape-note songs the next. Singers might also make use of the same ornaments—added slides or pitches that decorate important melody notes. All three traditions feature strophic song forms, in which many verses are sung to the same melody. And all three traditions, while important to Appalachian life and community, originated outside of the region.

Ballad Singing

The word ballad has meant many things in different eras. In the 21st century, it connotes a slow, expressive song on a romantic topic. In the medieval era, a ballad was a dance song. In modern musical traditions, however, a ballad is a strophic song that tells a story. This definition describes European (and later American) ballads that have been in circulation since at least the 15th century and that are common in Southern Appalachia into the present day. The stories told by ballads can be historical, allegorical, or mythological in nature.

Ballads were brought to Appalachia by immigrants who fled economic depression in the Ulster province of Ireland, journeying to the colonies in great numbers between 1730 and 1775.1 Known as the Scots-Irish, these immigrants were largely impoverished, and many secured passage to the New World as indentured servants. After working off their debt on the plantations of Pennsylvania, they headed into Southern Appalachia in search of affordable land.2 Historians and folklorists have made much of the persistence of Scots-Irish culture in the Appalachian Mountains, turning their attention to stories, crafts, and speech patterns. It was the ballad, however, that attracted droves of collectors to the mountains in the first two decades of the 20th century. As such, it became the first Appalachian musical practice to attract the attention of people from outside the region.

As many early collectors have noted, ballads were primarily the property of women, who sang them as they went about daily household tasks and cared for their children. Ballads were almost always sung without instrumental accompaniment, although they were sometimes paired with fiddle or mountain dulcimer. Although many of the ballads sung in Southern Appalachia have British ancestry, others are indigenous to the mountains. Older singers recorded in the mid-20th century typically employed an unemotional, speechlike style, rendering the many verses with no particular sensitivity to the meaning of the text. The stories that ballads tell are most often cautionary or sorrowful and usually concern a love affair gone wrong. Common in the repertoire are murder ballads, which almost always describe the death of a young girl at the hands of her deceitful lover. Some such ballads were based on crimes that actually took place, and all served to warn the young women who sang them about the dangers of premarital liaisons. “Pretty Polly” is one of the better-known examples.3


Granny Sue "Pretty Polly"

Ballads documenting the misdeeds and comeuppances of real-life criminals were common, and many were first produced as broadside ballads immediately following the arrest or execution of the subject. Broadside ballads, which were common in English-speaking lands between the 16th and 19th centuries, consisted of newly composed verses printed on cheap paper that were for sale in the street. While these printed lyrics might commemorate a historical event of any type, ballads about murder proved to attract the most attention.

The Carpenter
This popular ballad—later collected in the Southern Appalachians—was published as a broadside in London in 1795.

Ballads have long circulated in both print and oral traditions. It is typical for a ballad to appear in print many times throughout the course of several decades, or even centuries. However, no two print examples are likely to be the same. This variation occurs because ballads are typically learned by ear and rendered from memory. Each singer will make minor changes, either due to forgetfulness or personal preference. When a ballad is recorded after having passed through the hands of several singers, therefore, it will inevitably have changed in both text and melody.4 This process results in families of related ballads that might differ significantly in the details and even be known by different titles but which tell essentially the same story.

Perhaps the most famous of all British ballads—and one that flourished in Southern Appalachia—is “Barbara Allen.”

Barbara Allen
This version of “Barbara Allen” was included in "The Forget-Me-Not Songster," published in New York around 1840. From "Reliques of English Poetry" by Bishop Thomas Percy, 1765.

This ballad traces its roots to mid-17th century Scotland, where it might have been written for a stage performance by a professional actress. “Barbara Allen” tells the story of a young woman who rejects the man who loves her but is overcome with remorse when he dies of heartbreak and quickly follows him to the tomb. In many versions, the rose and briar that grow from their respective graves combine into a lovers’ knot. Although the story told in “Barbara Allen” is sentimental on the surface, it is widely believed to be a mocking reference to the ongoing affair between English King Charles II of England and Barbara Villiers (the king and his mistress had five children out of wedlock). The earliest account of “Barbara Allen” being sung dates to 1666, and the oldest extant broadside was printed in 1675.5 Over the following two centuries, “Barbara Allen” was frequently included in songbooks, printed in newspapers, and distributed in broadside form. While it also flourished in the oral tradition, many of the versions collected by folklorists can be traced back to printed sources.

When English folklorist Cecil Sharp visited Southern Appalachia in 1916, he collected ten versions of “Barbara Allen” from singers in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia.6 Although each version has a unique melody, they are clearly related, often sharing musical phrases and an overall melodic contour. The text varies as well although the essential contents of the story remain consistent and individual lines and stanzas appear again and again. As an example, Sharp includes the stanza beginning “He turned his pale [face to the wall],” in five of the versions he collected:

Barbara Allen Text Comparison

Each version of the stanza is unique. Although all of the versions start with the same material, they end in two different ways: either Barbara scorns William, or William bids farewell to Barbara. It is easy to imagine how these varieties arose. The image evoked by the opening line is striking and would stick in the mind of a singer even if they forgot the exact wording.

Because Sharp did not have access to audio recording technology, he notated the melodies while his assistant, Maud Karpeles, took down the words. Later collectors would capture performances of “Barbara Allen” by traditional ballad singers. In the mid-20th century, folklorist Alan Lomax recorded Texas Gladden (1895-1967) of Saltville, Virginia, singing her version of “Barbara Allen.”7 Gladden—herself a ballad collector—first gained modest fame as a performer at the White Top Festival in the mid-1930s. She later recorded hundreds of ballads, lullabies, and stories for the Virginia Folklore Society and for Lomax.8


Texas Gladden "Barbara Allen"

Another traditional singer, Jean Ritchie (1922-2015) of Perry County, Kentucky, recorded her version in 1961.9 Although Ritchie grew up in a rural, working-class White family, the folk revival made it possible for her to pursue a career as a performer of Appalachian music. She and her siblings sang ballads that they learned from members of their own family.10


Jean Ritchie "Barbara Allen"

Lined-Out Hymnody

The singing practice known as lined-out hymnody has roots in England, where it was inaugurated in 1644 by the Westminster Assembly—a council tasked with restructuring the Church of England. The practice soon took root in colonial New England, where it persisted for over a century. Although it was largely driven out of New England by shape-note singing in the 18th century, it found a home in Baptist churches of Southern Appalachia, and it is still in use among Old Regular Baptists and certain Black congregations.11

Lining out offered many practical advantages in the colonial era, when musical instruments were scarce (and not always welcome in church), printed hymnals were expensive, and churchgoers often lacked the ability to read music. In the practice of lining out, a precenter is tasked with calling out the words to each line of a hymn. He will do so rapidly, using an improvised melody that ends on the first note of the hymn tune. Then the congregation will respond by slowly singing the words to the hymn tune, which each member has previously learned by ear and memorized. Although each congregant sings the same melody, they do not sing in perfect unison. Instead, each individual singer is free to add ornaments, slides, or extra notes. The resulting texture is described as heterophony. This process is repeated for each line of the hymn. It is typical for only the precentor to have a hymn book, and even that will usually include text alone, without notated melodies.12

In the early years of the practice, lining out was applied only to verses from the Book of Psalms, which were sung to melodies from the oral tradition. Soon, however, singers developed a taste for more recent hymn texts, especially those by Isaac Watts (1674-1748).

Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts

Perhaps the most influential of all hymn writers, Watts began his labor by versifying the Psalms for congregational singing but eventually authored many original hymns as well. His verses are common in both the lining-out and shape-note traditions.13 However, any text can, in theory, be sung using the lining-out method, and congregations adopted new poetic repertoires into the 20th century. Likewise, the melodies can come from ballads, folk songs, or other hymn traditions. In 1959, for example, folklorist Alan Lomax recorded Baptists in Blackey, Kentucky, lining out the hymn “Ye Nations All” to the tune of the ballad “Barbara Allen.” The singing style used in lining out is also not all that different from that of ballad singers. The most significant contrast is between the solo voice of the balladeer  and the collective voice of the congregation.

In 2002, music scholar Jeff Todd Titon recorded lined-out hymnody at the Defeated Creek Old Regular Baptist Church of Linefork, Kentucky. His recordings, which exemplify the practice as it is still carried on today, offer a glimpse into the variety of texts and melodies. “A Poor Wayfaring Stranger,”14 for example, might be familiar to fans of commercial country music, as it has crossed over into the secular performance repertoire. The words were first printed in an 1858 songster, although they were adapted from an even older German-language hymn that was written and published by Virginia minister Isaac Niswander in 1816 and later circulated as a broadside. The tune first appeared in the 1936 revision of The Sacred Harp, a tunebook that will be introduced in the next section. However, the tune originated in oral culture and had long been used at revivals—probably in combination with various texts.15 In this one example, therefore, the singing method is fluid, enabling a song to pass back and forth between print and oral traditions and between sacred and secular performance contexts.


Indian Bottom Association of Old Regular Baptists "A Poor Wayfaring Stranger"

Titon also captured a rendition of “Precious Memories”16—a gospel song credited to Tennessean J.B.F. Wright in 1925. Although Old Regular Baptists have been stout in their rejection of recorded gospel music, that does not mean they cannot adapt songs from that tradition for their own purposes.


Indian Bottom Association of Old Regular Baptists "Precious Memories"

Another interesting example is “Amazing Grace,” which has been recorded several times. Like “A Poor Wayfaring Stranger,” “Amazing Grace” has roots in the shape-note tradition. Although the text was written by the English curate John Newton in 1772, it was paired with the melody most people recognize today by South Carolina shape-note composer William Walker in 1835.17 When folk revivalist John Cohen recorded Old Regular Baptists singing “Amazing Grace” in 1959, the tune had undergone significant transformation although it was still recognizable.18


Old Regular Baptist Church "Amazing Grace"

In 2018, however, field recorders documented quite a different rendition at Antioch Old Regular Baptist Church in Betsy Layne, Kentucky.19 While adhering to the principles of lining out, these singers introduce harmonies—a practice that is less common but that has been documented throughout the 20th century.20


Antioch Old Regular Baptist Church "Amazing Grace"

Shape-Note Singing

The tradition that would come to be known as shape-note singing has its roots in 18th century New England. It was developed in response to dissatisfaction with lined-out hymnody, which church music reformers considered to be drab. They yearned for a more complex and energetic style of congregational music, sung not in unison but in four-part harmony. For this performance to be possible however, churchgoers needed to be able to read music.21

Image of Solfege
The four solfège syllables and their corresponding shapes, as used to notate a scale. Image created by Esther Morgan-Ellis.

Shape-note singing gets its name from the fact that it is printed using shaped noteheads instead of the more typical round noteheads. Each shape corresponds with a solfège syllable, which in turn is associated with a scale degree, or a specific note in a musical scale. The idea of associating syllables with scale degrees is about 1,000 years old, and it has persisted because it is a powerful music-reading tool. Solfège was invented in the early 11th century by the Italian monk Guido of Arezzo, who also pioneered staff notation. The latter allowed melodies to be committed to paper, while the former helped with the reading and memorizing of those melodies.22 In the shape-note tradition, only four syllables are used, even though there are seven scale degrees. This practice is because the solfège syllables outline patterns of intervals between notes, and those patterns repeat. Beginning with the 1802 publication of The Easy Instructor by William Smith and William Little, differently-shaped noteheads were printed to correspond with the various syllables. This method made music reading even easier, as it eliminated the need to understand clefs or decipher key signatures.23

Even before the system of shapes was invented, church music reformers were using the four-syllable system to spread music literacy. Educated young men with musical talent established themselves as itinerant singing masters, traveling from town to town to offer singing schools. A school was usually two weeks in length and was offered during seasons when there was little farm work to be done. Participants in a singing school would learn how to read music and be offered the chance to purchase tunebooks (likely published by the singing master himself). Singing schools also served an important social function-particularly for young men and women who had few opportunities to mix socially without a chaperone present. When the singing master departed, he left behind a community of singers who could read music in four-part harmony. He was reimbursed for his trouble by means of tuition fees, book sales, and/or donations.24

The hymns written by singing masters had many unusual characteristics. These composers self-consciously rejected European traditions: They wanted to create music that was original, innovative, and decidedly American. And when they did adopt European practices, such as the use of the four-syllable system, they tended to be old-fashioned. For example, in shape-note songs, the melody is not in the high female voice (the soprano or, to use the shape-note term, treble voice) but rather in the tenor (the high male voice). Although this designation was characteristic of early European church music, the practice had largely been abandoned by the 18th century. American shape-note composers also ignored the conventions of harmony and voice leading, preferring instead to follow their intuition and draw inspiration from natural sounds and settings. As a result, shape-note songs are full of musical irregularities that lend them a unique sound.25

In the early 19th century, shape-note singing began to lose popularity in New England. As northeastern cities grew in size and sophistication, music reformers sought to adopt modern European practices—including a more refined style of hymn-singing, complete with organ accompaniment. However, shape-note singing flourished in the South, where a new generation of singing masters, composers, and publishers continued to develop and popularize the repertoire and its associated practices. Southern composers were soon publishing their own tunebooks. One of the most important volumes, The Southern Harmony, was published in 1835 by William Walker, a singing master from South Carolina. However, it was Walker’s brother-in-law Benjamin Franklin White, who in 1844 collaborated with fellow Georgia resident Elisha J. King to publish the most successful of all shape-note tunebooks, The Sacred Harp.

White and King’s tunebook quickly gained an avid following. The first convention dedicated to singing from The Sacred Harp was organized in Upson County, Georgia, in 1845, and the tunebook remained in constant use even through the Civil War. White himself oversaw revisions in 1850, 1859, and 1869 (King died almost immediately after the initial publication). After White’s death, other singers took on the task of editing and publishing new editions of The Sacred Harp. Each revision introduced new songs and eliminated old songs that were no longer commonly sung, meaning that the volume always reflected the tastes of the singing community. However, without White at the helm, revisions produced by different singers entered into competition with one another, and tunebooks with “The Sacred Harp” printed on the cover could no longer be trusted to contain standardized contents. Eventually, singers coalesced around two editions, known after their early editors as the Cooper revision and the Denson revision.26 Although the two revisions share more than half of their contents in common, the Cooper revision also includes a large number of songs in the newer gospel style, which emerged after the Civil War. These songs tend to be cheerful in affect, with swinging rhythms and passages of call-and-response.27

The Sacred Harp has remained in use into the present day, and both the Cooper and Denson editions continue to be revised and printed. Although some practitioners feared that Sacred Harp singing, as it is called, faced extinction in the mid-20th century, a widespread revival in the 1980s attracted new singers from outside of the South, and today there are communities of singers throughout the United States and in Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Japan, Norway, Poland, Scotland, South Korea, and Sweden.28 Participation in Sacred Harp singing, however, means much more than just singing out of The Sacred Harp. It means adhering to practices and values that are unique to the shape-note tradition, most of which date to the early 19th century.

Sacred Harp singers come together at various local and regional singings that take place throughout the year. The smallest of these are weekly “practice” singings, which are informal gatherings of singers who live in the same area. “Annual” singings are formal, all-day events that attract participants from considerable distances. They include elements such as opening and closing prayers, a memorial lesson (during which those who are sick or have died are remembered), and dinner on the grounds (a lavish midday meal provided by the hosts and served outside). Conventions—to which singers might travel great distances—are two- or three-day events organized along the same lines.29

Shape-Note Singing
Esther Morgan-Ellis leading a Sacred Harp song at the Florida Folk Festival in 2024

Although singings vary in size, length, and formality, the basic practice of singing a song is always the same. Initially, participants form what is called the hollow square, with singers in each of the four sections facing a central point. There is no single “leader”; instead, individual singers take turns calling and leading songs from the center of the square. Once a song has been announced (always by its page number, not its title), a designated singer will key the song, or give starting pitches for each section. This part is important, since Sacred Harp singing does not incorporate instruments. The keyer does not try to sound the pitches notated on the page but rather selects suitable pitches based on the melodic ranges of each part. Next, the leader starts the song, establishing the tempo by moving one arm up and down. Although the leader will select which verses are to be sung, participants always begin by singing the syllables. If a song is particularly complicated, the leader might cue the entrance of individual parts, but usually the singers are confident and need little guidance. After a song is over, a new leader takes the center and calls the next song.30

For many listeners, the most striking characteristic of Sacred Harp practice is the singing style. In general, participants sing as loud as they can, producing a sound that could be described as raw or unadorned. Singers do not use vibrato, and they seldom vary the volume. Indeed, it might be argued that they sing in a way that reflects no sensitivity to the meaning of the text or shape of the musical phrase. However, such an evaluation applies an inappropriate metric, as Sacred Harp singers engage with the music emotionally—and often physically—at a particularly intense level.31

Traditional shape-note songs assume three basic forms.32 The first is the strophic hymn, which is likely familiar to anyone who comes from a hymn-singing tradition. In this type of song, several verses are sung to the same melody, and all four voice parts (treble, alto, tenor, and bass) sing at all times. “Windham,”33 composed by Connecticut tunebook publisher Daniel Read (1757-1836) in 1785, is a fine example. Like so many American hymns of the era, it sets to music the words of Isaac Watts. The text concerns the immanence of death—a common theme throughout The Sacred Harp. Finally, the song is in the minor mode, meaning that it uses a scale with several pitches lowered in comparison to the more common major scale. Most Western listeners hear minor-mode music and interpret it as being sad or serious. Later gospel hymn writers would largely abandon the minor mode, and it is also uncommon in most mainstream hymn-singing traditions; however, it was favored by shape-note composers. One recording was made by Alan Lomax at the Alabama Sacred Harp Singing Convention in Birmingham in 1942. Characteristically, the singers slide between pitches while producing a bright, powerful sound.


Alabama Sacred Harp Singers "Windham

Some strophic hymns contain a refrain, or a passage of repeating text that usually occupies the second half of the melody. “Bound For Canaan,” for example, contains three verses, but each concludes with the refrain “I’m on my way to Canaan, To the new Jerusalem.”34 This major-mode song was composed by King for inclusion in the first edition of The Sacred Harp, although the fourth voice part (the alto) was not added until 1902. It sets a 1793 text by John Leland (1754-1841), a Baptist minister from Massachusetts, that is used in no fewer than six Sacred Harp songs.35


Wiregrass Sacred Harp Singers "Bound for Canaan"

The appearance of a single text paired with multiple tunes is typical of the tradition. For example, the Newton text “Amazing Grace” appears twice in The Sacred Harp: once as “New Britain,” with the melody that is familiar to most people today, and another time as “Jewett,” set to quite a different melody and with a refrain that begins “Shout, shout for glory.”36 The “Jewett” version is more frequently used as a “callback” song, such as at the conclusion of a break during the 2020 Ireland Sacred Harp Convention. Individual lines from “Amazing Grace” also appear in other songs. All this repetition reflects the influence of oral tradition and the significance of a particular song.


Tenth Ireland Sacred Harp Convention "Jewett"

Although The Sacred Harp contains many of these strophic hymns, students in singing schools became proud of their ability to read and carry independent parts, and they wanted something more challenging to sing. To satisfy this need, singing masters wrote fuguing tunes. These unusual songs begin with all four voice parts singing together, but following a resting point or cadence, the voices re-enter one at a time, most often with the same text and music as one another. The texture is similar to that of an 18th century keyboard fugue—thus, the name “fuguing tune.” Because each voice part enters at a different time, singers need to be confident in their own rhythms and pitches, with the result that fuguing tunes are considerably more challenging to sing than traditional hymns. “Evening Shade,” written in 1805 by New England singing master Stephen Jenks (1772-1856), is a straightforward example of a fuguing tune.37 The 1792 text by Leland, typical of The Sacred Harp, warns the singer that “the night of death is near.”


Harrod's Creek Singing (Bob Meek Memorial) "Evening Shade"

Finally, shape-note composers wrote extended odes and anthems, which are long and highly variable in terms of form and texture. They often include passages in which one or more of the voice parts is omitted and also feature internal repeats and changes in meter, making them the most difficult to lead and sing. One of the most frequently sung anthems is “Easter Anthem,” composed by Boston singing master William Billings (1746-1800) in 1787.38 Billings, along with Read, was one of the most influential early shape-note composers and did much to establish the style and conventions of shape-note hymnody. Edward Young’s text, first published about four decades earlier, draws from the biblical chapters of Corinthians and the Gospel of Luke.39


All Day Sacred Harp Singing "Easter Anthem"

Blurring the Lines

Reflecting the interconnectedness of these traditions and their influence on other singing practices, two final examples emerge. In each case, an Appalachian musician draws on their experiences with one or more of these traditions to create something unique.

During the 1930s, coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, were involved in a protracted and violent conflict with the mine owners. Poor management following a World War I-era coal boom meant that the onset of the Great Depression hit the mining industry especially hard, and it was working-class miners who were expected to absorb the financial losses. When miners unionized and demanded better pay, mine owners responded by firing strikers, withholding medical services, and sending hired militiamen to threaten workers and their families. Countless miners and children of mining families perished as a result of direct violence, starvation, and lack of access to medical care.40

The wives of miners played an integral role in the Harlan County War, as it came to be called. In some cases, they took up arms themselves.41 However, their most lasting contributions were musical: a rich body of songs intended to capture their individual suffering and to inspire collective action. Perhaps the most powerful of these songs is “Dreadful Memories.” Two women—Aunt Molly Jackson and her half sister Sarah Ogan Gunning—both claimed authorship of “Dreadful Memories.”42 Jackson had a particularly colorful personality, and she developed a reputation for sometimes stretching the truth. All the same, her devastating account of the events leading her to write “Dreadful Memories” accurately reflects the conditions under which mining families persevered:

After the miners was blacklisted for joining the union March 5, 1931, the company doctor refused to come to anyone of the coal miners’ families unless he was paid in advance. So I had to nurse all the little children till the last breath left them. . . . Thirty-seven babies died in my arms in the last three months of 1931. Their little stomachs busted open; they were mortified inside. Oh, what an awful way for a baby to die. . . . My nerves was so stirred up for four years afterward by the memory of them babies suffering and dying in my arms, and me sitting by their little dead bodies three or four hours before daylight to keep some hungry dog or cat from eating up their little dead bodies. Then four years later, I still had such sad memories of these babies that I wrote this song.43

Gunning’s version is very similar to Jackson’s and reflects the same experiences.44


Sarah Ogan Gunning "Dreadful Memories"

“Dreadful Memories,” like all of Gunning’s and Jackson’s songs, consists of a new text paired with an old melody. This practice is typical of the ballad and hymn singing traditions, both of which use familiar melodies as vehicles for new texts (and sometimes, especially in shape-note singing, familiar texts as vehicles for new melodies). In most cases, the source of the melody is not important. For example, the most famous of all the Harlan County songs, Florence Reese’s “Which Side Are You On?,” uses a gospel hymn melody that Reese knew as “Lay the Lily Low,” but that song itself is derived from the ballad tradition and has gone by several titles over the course of centuries.45 In this case, there is no particular connection between text and tune. Reese simply chose a melody that was familiar from her own churchgoing experience.


Florence Reece "Which Side Are You On?"

In the case of “Dreadful Memories,” however, the original song—the gospel hymn “Precious Memories”—served as the source of inspiration. Jackson and Gunning would most likely have come to know the song in the context of lined-out hymnody. The hymn ponders “precious memories” of home and family, portraying peaceful scenes of domestic bliss. “Dreadful Memories,” on the other hand, reflects on the deaths of children brought about by the actions of the mine owners. It borrows phrases from the original text, turning them on their head to convey the reality of working-class hardship.


Jim Reeves "Precious Memories"

Exemplifying the fluidity of these singing traditions from another angle, Doc Watson recorded “And Am I Born To Die?” in 1964, accompanied by his father-in-law, fiddler Gaither Carleton.46 Doc Watson (1923-2012) is best remembered as a virtuosic guitar player, although he also played the banjo and was a fine singer of ballads and sacred songs. Watson was born in Deep Gap, North Carolina, a community where it was uncommon for even the most talented musicians to pursue performing careers; there was a much better living to be made as a laborer. Because a childhood eye infection took away his vision, however, Watson was able to work as a musician. He mostly played for dances, which meant that he had to adapt to changing tastes and master new styles of music. Although he began his career accompanying the banjo player Clarence Tom Ashley, he was soon playing electric guitar in bands that specialized in Western swing and rock ’n’ roll. In 1960, folklorist Ralph Rinzler sought out Ashley with the hope of making some recordings of his traditional repertoire. Ashley introduced Rinzler to Watson, who quickly revealed himself to possess both extraordinary musical ability and a vast store of traditional songs and tunes. Rinzler convinced Watson to return to his acoustic guitar and “old-time” repertoire, promising to introduce him to a new audience of folk revivalists. Watson ended up making countless influential recordings and is remembered as one of the finest Appalachian musicians.47

Although Watson recorded this hymn under the title “And Am I Born To Die?,” it is perhaps better known as “Idumea”—its title in The Sacred Harp.48 “Idumea” is a simple strophic song composed in 1816 by Ananias Davisson (1780-1857), a singing master and tunebook publisher in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. It sets a three-verse text written in 1763 by the English Methodist reformer Charles Wesley (1707-1788). As a shape-note song, “Idumea” is sung in four-part harmony without accompaniment.


Sacred Harp Singers "Idumea"

Watson’s performance, however, is more reminiscent of ballad singing. He sets a relaxed tempo and adds vocal ornaments that are typically employed by ballad singers. Carleton doubles the melody on the fiddle, adding a few drone notes for harmony. This approach to crafting an accompaniment was commonly applied to ballads. In short, Watson and Carleton performed a shape-note hymn as if it were a ballad—a reflection of their varied interests and experiences.


Doc Watson and Gaither Carleton "Am I Born to Die?"

Conclusion

Although scholars are inclined to draw lines between genres, repertoires, and practices, these artificial divisions seldom reflect the experiences of people who create and consume music. In the course of a week, an early 20th century mountaineer might sing ballads with and without accompaniment, dance to fiddle tunes, attend a singing school, hum lullabies to a newborn, sing popular songs learned from recordings, and participate in lining-out at a revival meeting. They would have felt little concern for the unique practices and characteristics of each tradition. Although each has its correct place in daily life, the voice that sings hymns and ballads is the same.

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Bibliography

Alabama Sacred Harp Singers. “Windham.” November 6, 2014, by Rhino Atlantic, Video, 0:28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAV7pPHXzrg

Antioch Old Regular Baptist Church. “Amazing Grace.” August 11, 2018, Dolceola Recordings, Video, 0:15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0hnDURAbkU

Bealle, John. Public Worship, Private Faith: Sacred Harp and American Folksong. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997.

Blethen, H. Tyler. “The Transmission of Scottish Culture to the Southern BackCountry.” Journal of Appalachian Studies Association 6 (1994): 59-72. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41445662

Campbell, Olive Dame, and Cecil Sharp. English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1917.

Caudle, Judy. Sacred Harp Singings: 2020 Minutes and 2021 Directory. Huntsville: Sacred Harp Musical Heritage Association, 2021.

Cobb, Buell E., Jr. The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1978.

Cohen, John. “Texas Gladden: Ballad Legacy.” Association for Cultural Equity. March 4, 2021. http://www.culturalequity.org/album/texas-gladden-ballad-legacy

Crookshank, Esther R. “‘We’re Marching to Zion’: Isaac Watts in America.” In Rethinking American Music. Edited by Tara Browner and Thomas L. Riis, 103-37. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2019.

Doyle, Charles Clay, and Charles Greg Kelley. “Moses Platt and the Regeneration of ‘Barbara Allen.’” Western Folklore 50 (1991): 151-69.

Fasola. “Easter Anthem.” May 30, 2015, by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Video, 0:30. https://youtu.be/rWck2DTNAnA

Fasola. “Idumea.” May 30, 2015, by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Video, 0:30. https://youtu.be/-Ug2U7io1sw

Fumerton, Patricia. The Broadside Ballad in Early Modern England: Moving Media, Tactical Publics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020.

Gladden, Texas. “Barbara Allen.” September 5, 2019. Association for Cultural Equity. Video, 4:52. https://youtu.be/8F9nTKfwSDQ

Goff, James R., Jr. Close Harmony: A History of Southern Gospel. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.

Goldstein, Kenneth S., and Jean Ritchie. “Child Ballads in America, Volume 1.” Liner notes for British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Volume 1. Jean Ritchie. March 4, 2021. https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/folkways/FW02301.pdf

Gunning, Sarah Ogan. “Dreadful Memories.” December 29, 2016, by Topic Ltd., Video, 2:27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6CwCW93ErE

Harrod’s Creek Singing. “Evening Shade.” May 10, 2015, by PLBrayfield, Video, 2:40. https://youtu.be/pXBBDdUU13E

Indian Bottom Association of Old Regular Baptists. “A Poor Wayfaring Stranger.” May 21, 2015. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Video, 7:59. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWKScFA2Tcs&list=PLuMpVmsDyHxgbhLO-BbLWjxctbQNuElF

Indian Bottom Association of Old Regular Baptists. “Precious Memories.” May 21, 2015, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Video, 5:35. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qlf4_Of0pQ&list=PLuMpVmsDyHxgbhLO-BbLWjxctbQNuElF

Krim, Arthur. “Appalachian Songcatcher: Olive Dame Campbell and the Scotch-Irish Ballad.” Journal of Cultural Geography 24 (2007): 91-112.

Lightfoot, William. “The Three Doc(k)s: White Blues in Appalachia.” Black Music Research Journal 23 (2003): 167-93.

Marini, Stephen A. Sacred Song in America: Religion, Music, and Public Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003.

Miller, Kiri. Traveling Home: Sacred Harp Singing and American Pluralism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Morgan-Ellis, Esther M., ed. Resonances: Engaging Music in Its Cultural Context. Dahlonega: University of North Georgia Press, January 27, 2021. https://ung.edu/university-press/books/resonances-engaging-music.php

Old Regular Baptist Church. “Amazing Grace.” February 6, 2017, Orchard Enterprises, Video, 6:30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUQCPCTKZWo&list=PLuMpVmsDyHxgbhLO-BbLWjxctbQNuElF_

Ritchie, Jean. “Barbara Allen.” May 23, 2015, by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Video, 0:16, https://youtu.be/Ihit0mpmz7o

Romalis, Shelly. Pistol Packin’ Mama: Aunt Molly Jackson and the Politics of Folksong. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999.

Steel, David Warren, with Richard H. Hulan. The Makers of the Sacred Harp. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010.

Tallmadge, William H. “Baptist Monophonic and Heterophonic Hymnody in Southern Appalachia.” Anuario Interamericano de Investigacion Musical 11 (1975): 106-36.

Titon, Jeff Todd. “‘The Real Thing’: Tourism, Authenticity, and Pilgrimage among the Old Regular Baptists at the 1997 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.” The World of Music 41 (1999): 115-39. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41699294

Watson, Doc and Gaither Carlton, “And Am I Born To Die?” June 14, 2012, by Alzo61, Video, 4:12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9we5tGOQs5s

Wiregrass Sacred Harp Singers. “Bound for Canaan.” April 3, 2020, by Orchard Enterprises, Video, 0:15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzPeNQuyg4A

Yurchenco, Henrietta. “Trouble in the Mines: A History in Song and Story by Women of Appalachia.” American Music 9 (1991): 209-24.

End Notes

  1. Krim, “Appalachian Songcatcher,” 101.
  2. Blethen, “The Transmission of Scottish Culture to the Southern BackCountry,” 62.
  3. For an in-depth exploration of “Pretty Polly,” see Morgan-Ellis, Resonances, 144-52.
  4. Doyle and Kelley, “Moses Platt and the Regeneration of ‘Barbara Allen,’” 153.
  5. Fumerton, The Broadside Ballad in Early Modern England, 225.
  6. Campbell and Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 90-99.
  7. Gladden, “Barbara Allen.” https://youtu.be/8F9nTKfwSDQ
  8. Cohen, “Texas Gladden.”
  9. Ritchie, “Barbara Allen.” https://youtu.be/Ihit0mpmz7o
  10. Goldstein and Ritchie, “Child Ballads in America, Volume 1.”
  11. Tallmadge, “Baptist Monophonic and Heterophonic Hymnody in Southern Appalachia,” 106.
  12. Titon, “The Real Thing,” 117.
  13. Crookshank, “We’re Marching to Zion,” 104.
  14. Indian Bottom Association of Old Regular Baptists, “A Poor Wayfaring Stranger.” https://youtu.be/wWKScFA2Tcs?list=PLuMpVmsDyHxgbhLO-BbLWjxctbQNuElF_
  15. Steel, The Makers of the Sacred Harp, 234.
  16. Indian Bottom Association of Old Regular Baptists, “Precious Memories.” https://youtu.be/2Qlf4_Of0pQ?list=PLuMpVmsDyHxgbhLO-BbLWjxctbQNuElF_
  17. For an in-depth exploration of “Amazing Grace,” see: Morgan-Ellis, Resonances, 422-29.
  18. Old Regular Baptist Church, “Amazing Grace.” https://youtu.be/ZUQCPCTKZWo?list=PLuMpVmsDyHxgbhLO-BbLWjxctbQNuElF_
  19. Antioch Old Regular Baptist Church, “Amazing Grace.” https://youtu.be/a0hnDURAbkU
  20. Tallmadge, “Baptist Monophonic and Heterophonic Hymnody in Southern Appalachia,” 112.
  21. Cobb, The Sacred Harp, 58.
  22. Marini, Sacred Song in America, 79.
  23. Goff, Close Harmony, 21. Goff, like many scholars, dates The Easy Instructor to 1798, the year in which it was copyrighted; however, the first edition did not appear until 1802 (Bealle, Public Worship, Private Faith, 269).
  24. Cobb, The Sacred Harp, 60.
  25. These irregularities include parallel fifths and octaves, missing thirds, voice crossing, irregular phrase lengths, and “awkward” text settings in which unimportant syllables are emphasized.
  26. Cobb, The Sacred Harp, 84-85.
  27. Miller, Traveling Home, 9.
  28. Caudle, Sacred Harp Singings, 40-42.
  29. Miller, Traveling Home, 49.
  30. Cobb, The Sacred Harp, 8-9.
  31. Ibid, 40.
  32. Ibid, 38-39.
  33. Alabama Sacred Harp singers, “Windham.” https://youtu.be/rAV7pPHXzrg
  34. Wiregrass Sacred Harp Singers, “Bound for Canaan.” https://youtu.be/rzPeNQuyg4A
  35. Steel, The Makers of the Sacred Harp, 70.
  36. Jewett, “Amazing Grace.” https://youtu.be/7idKgO4P6is
  37. Harrod's Creek Singing, “Evening Shade.” https://youtu.be/pXBBDdUU13E
  38. Fasola, “Easter Anthem.” https://youtu.be/rWck2DTNAnA
  39. Steel, The Makers of the Sacred Harp, 209.
  40. Romalis, Pistol Packin’ Mama, 30.
  41. Yurchenco, “Trouble in the Mines,” 214.
  42. Romalis, Pistol Packin’ Mama, 190-92.
  43. Yurchenco, “Trouble in the Mines,” 217.
  44. Gunning, “Dreadful Memories.” https://youtu.be/9W1IDykF24c
  45. For an in-depth exploration of “Which Side Are You On?,” see Morgan-Ellis, Resonances, 369-72.
  46. Watson and Carlton, “And Am I Born To Die?”
  47. Lightfoot, “The Three Doc(k)s,” 185-87.
  48. Fasola, “Idumea.”https://youtu.be/-Ug2Ui01sw