Can you feel the power? Do you know the sacred soul? Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century, as hymns and sacred songs were created in a call and response way, influenced by ancestral African music.
Most early churches relied on hand clapping and foot stomping as rhythmic accompaniment, and most of the singing was done a cappella. Fast forward to today, and gospel music plays an integral part in American music and religion, particularly in African-American churches. While the entire southern U.S. serves as a hotbed of gospel music, North Carolina has a particular pedigree of gospel singers and musicians.
On Saturday April 22, we’re happy to welcome a trio of these magnificent artists to the Salvation South stage at the Word of South Festival, Cascades Park, for a free afternoon of uplifting, foot-stomping, hand-clapping gospel music.
Bishop Albert Harrison learned gospel from his parents, who learned it from theirs, and he’s been traveling and singing gospel music solo since the 1980s. When he was in the hospital in 2006, he took stock of his life and decided to start a group — The Gospel Tones. Harrison hails from the experimental planned black community of Soul City in Warren County, North Carolina, while The Gospel Tones make Ahoskie, North Carolina their home base.
Talking about gospel musicians in Eastern North Carolina, he says, “We all came up on farms. Our mothers and fathers and grandfathers always used to sing. It’s something we love to do.” Harrison says that he sings in the “old jubilee style.” And he sings it anywhere he can. “Wherever the Lord sends me, I go,” he says, “that’s the way I feel about it.”
Faith and Harmony is a gospel family group — two sets of three sisters who are first cousins. They grew up singing together in Greenville, North Carolina. All six members are descendants of Dorothy Vines Daniels of the legendary Glorifying Vines Sisters, and great nieces of sculptor/guitarmaker/author/musician Freeman Vines.
Member Christy Moody recalls singing in the church choir when she was scarcely bigger than a toddler. “I was so short,” she says, “they would take and put me on the chair so people could see me.” When Faith & Harmony officially formed their group in 2012, they solidified their commitment to carrying on the Daniels family’s musical legacy. “You know how they pass the baton in a relay race?” asks member Keamber Daniels. “Now it’s our turn to carry it as far as we can. Until hopefully we’ll be able to leave a legacy for our kids. And the future generations to come.”
Dedicated Men of Zion was at Word of South last year, and the group was so great that they’ve been invited back. Also descendants of the Vines family, and each trained in the church and the home, the group’s four vocalists – Anthony Daniels, Antoine Daniels, Dexter Weaver, and Marcus Sugg – share the bond of that upbringing and another more literal bond of kinship (they’re all family now through blood or marriage).
Theirs is a community dense with talent and impact on the origins of gospel, funk, R&B, soul, and jazz; a place where the sounds of Saturday night and Sunday morning couldn’t help but jump their lanes. In the word of Anthony Daniels, “You want to live, get to where the root is. Get close to the root.” And for those lucky enough to see them here last year, they do!
Given the relationship between these groups by blood and friendship, we’re expecting a big jam session to close out Saturday afternoon.
Curtis Richardson is a Tallahassee City Commissioner.
About Word of South
What: Ben Folds, singer-songwriter and author, will appear with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra to kick off the 2023 Word of South Festival at the Capital City Amphitheater April 21
When: 7 p.m. April 21; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. April 22; 12:30-5:30 p.m. April 23
Where: Nationally-renowned artists and musicians perform across eight stages within Cascades Park in downtown Tallahassee
Cost: Ben Folds event is ticketed ($27-$50), the remainder of events will be free
Details: For more information and to view the full 2023 artist line u
