Category: ·Recordings & Media
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There’s an exciting new radio special that celebrates the rich tradition of American shape-note singing—an hour-long journey into the sounds and stories of Sacred Harp and its related tunebooks. Shapes of America, produced by Louisville Public Media and the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, traces this distinctive style of communal, a cappella singing from its early…
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For those of us who are engaged with the Sacred Harp tradition, the hollow square is where the magic happens—voices raised in four-part harmony, loud and unamplified. But the endurance of these 19th-century shape-note tunes often means they travel far beyond the singing school, finding new life in unexpected places. One compelling recent interpretations comes…
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Step inside the world of The Sacred Harp—a 19th-century tunebook kept alive in communal gatherings of unaccompanied, full-voiced singing. Singing the Shapes invites viewers into this radically participatory tradition, where anyone who shows up can lead, and the boundary between singer and audience disappears. Filmed across the South, Midwest, and beyond, the documentary captures the…
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Jeremiah Ledbetter has made a three and a half hour long mix of selected recordings of the 100 least led songs in The Sacred Harp that have been carried forward to the 2025 edition. This was determined by taking the overall rankings from 2015-2024 minutes and excluding ones that were either removed in the new…
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A short (1:59) film introducing Sacred Harp singing, produced by Two Egg TV, was recently uploaded to YouTube. The class sings verses one and three of 36b “Ninety-Fifth Psalm” from the “Cooper Book” edition of The Sacred Harp. Dothan is the historical home of the 1902 revision by W.M.Cooper, and the singing took place at…
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Ireland’s Fire Draw Near podcast’s latest episode, Episode LXIII: Shape Note Singing in the United States, offers a richly textured exploration of Sacred Harp and related traditions, grounded in two recent interviews with practitioners Howe Pearson and Sasha Hsuczyk. It traces the evolution of shape-note singing—its roots in 18th- and 19th-century America, its migration from…
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Below are YouTube streams for forthcoming United Sacred Harp events. As I will be at the events, if these links change, I may not be able to make adjustments. You can find current live stream links here: https://www.youtube.com/@sacredharpmuseum8890/streams Symposiums Friday 12th All-day symposium featuring presentations about the making of The Sacred Harp, 2025 Edition Singing…
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COMING SOON! “Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp,” directed by Matt & Erica Hinton, originally aired on PBS in 2008. Using the latest technology, the makers have remastered the film for a new release, featuring the following improvements: Completely remastered, Upconverted from SD to HD, Deinterlaced, Partially re-edited, New archival materials, Never…
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“On the eve of the 150th anniversary of his death, we’ll take a look at one of Spartanburg’s famous 19th century musicians and discuss how his work as a tune book compiler and singing school teacher continues to influence community singing across the American South.” Spartanburg County Public Libraries presented a lecture on William ‘Singing…
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Pilgrim Productions’ Voices Across America, originally curated by June Lydic, is being restored by Kyle Johnston on Bandcamp. It offers free access to unique shape-note recordings and preserves their documentary value.