Rounder Select
1998
Alan Lomax Collection: Southern Journey: Honor The Lamb, Vol. 11
About This Album
That a perceived expert such as Alan Lomax would call this group a "folk choir" while other equally established experts would wind up questioning the inclusion of the choir's material in a so-called folk catalog is yet more fodder for the hungry cattle ready to gnaw on such issues. Taken one by one, the volumes in Lomax's Southern Journey collection on Rounder present a remarkable series of contrasts, something that is thankfully natural to the folk music experience no matter how one chooses to draw the lines of definition. Shock might be a more accurate description than simply contrast when the listener arrives at Southern Journey, Vol. 11: Honor the Lamb after experiencing the previous two volumes in the series.Southern Journey, Vol. 9: Harp of 1,000 Strings and Southern Journey, Vol. 10: And Glory Shone Around are collections of shape note singing, a traditional approach to choral music that is so unique it has evoked comparisons to avant-garde music as well as civil disturbances. The 11th volume in this collection-collapsing series of Lomax productions is also devoted to religious choral singing, in this case the singing of the Belleville A Cappella Choir. This time the listener will be abruptly forced to change focus, reminded of nothing else but gospel music, albeit some of the most beautiful in existence.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,6,7,8,9,11 and 13)

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