The crowded room echoes with lilting voices raised in a simple, timeless song. There are no instruments, no audience. Just a chorus of four-part harmonies sung from a book that's as thick as a Bible.

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 ...

The Sacred Harp, a book of religious tunes first printed in 1844 is getting an upgrade. And shape note singers who use it are very excited. People who perform a traditional style of American music ...

The Raleigh Shape Note Singers meet every fourth Sunday from 2–4 p.m. at the Friends Meeting House, 625 Tower St. The Durham Shape Note Singers meet every second Sunday from 2–4 p.m. at the First ...

Shape note singing is one of the oldest musical traditions in this country. It’s a practice that began in colonial America, and after centuries of ups and downs in ...

Shape-note singing is what democracy actually sounds like. Well, maybe anarchism, says Karen Stingle, who has sung with the Eugene Sacred Harp Singers since it started in Eugene in the early 1990s.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Dec. 24—As haunting harmonies drifted through the rafters of the third-floor attic chapel, echoes of the past rose and fell with ...

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 ...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - If these singers were in a sanctuary or on the church grounds, you’d think you were at an old-time revival. But these voices, distinct in tune but united in harmony, are ...

A unique form of shape-note singing that’s been a tradition in the Blue Ridge Mountains for more than 100 years will be performed and taught in Henderson County again this year during an annual event ...

When I was a child of 5 or 6, I loved my little record player, but other than children’s storytelling albums, I owned only two albums, both gospel."Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash from The Holy Land.