The trials of Hal Eisen

Hal -- in a tie!

I want to shout out to Hal, who was kind enough to come to the Kalamazoo annual Sacred Harp singing -- our 10th anniversary, and it was nice to have ten states and provinces represented. It was too bad that 'mechanical problems' forced Hal to spend Friday night in Salt Lake City rather than Kalamazoo, which meant he missed the Michiana singing in Goshen on Saturday. 

I am glad to say that we led "Few Happy Matches" (96) together. 

Singing Sacred Harp? Thank a Quaker!

Paul L. from Minneapolis and I were interviewed at the Friends General Conference Gathering about Sacred Harp singing by Matthew Streib (scroll down to the July 5th podcast to hear it). Matthew is taking a few months to bicycle around the United States for his American Pilgrimage project, in which he visits unusual and uniquely American religious communities and experiences. Matthew used my favorite parts from our interview, but I will say that we must have inadvertently led him a little astray... He credits the revival of Sacred Harp singing to Quakers. While there are many social movements that evidence God's grace in the world for which Quakers could rightly claim leadership despite very small numbers (e. g., abolition of slavery and women's suffrage), I really don't think we can count the Sacred Harp revival as one of them. Still, it's a fun little interview that includes a clip of us singing 40 Lenox.

Wailin' Jennys at the Freight and Salvage

This is only very tangentially related to Sacred Harp singing, as I once heard The Wailin' Jennys sing White on Prairie Home Companion. Though there is no guarantee they will sing any Sacred Harp tunes at all on July 20, anyone want to hear the late show at the Freight? Doors open at 7:30, show at 8.