Big Singing Day Digital Get-Together (Southern Harmony)

Online
Sunday, May 23, 2021

The Southern Harmony singers of western Kentucky were saddened to suspend our beloved Big Singing for a second consecutive year. Shortly before the date anticipated for the 2020 session, Mark Cain had suggested to the membership of the Society for the Preservation of Southern Harmony Singing that we meet via Zoom to honor the day with singing and socializing. At that date, the paucity of known Southern Harmony recordings made convening over Facebook the preferable option. Due to hard work by Nate Zweig, Ron Pen, Joel Deckard, and the staff of the Kentucky Oral History Commission, enough recordings were assembled over the intervening year to render feasible a meeting via Zoom.

The get-together was convened at 1:30 p.m. with an address and prayer by Gene Gilliland, followed by the singing of 103, Holy Manna, by the class generally.
Selections were from The Southern Harmony, 1854 facsimile, 1987 UofK reprint. Due to the use of historical recordings, individuals were not able to direct the songs of their choice. Rather, people suggested numbers of songs that should be heard and sung along to; their names appear below in conjunction with the song they requested.

123, Disciple - Gene Gilliland
8t, New Britain - Del Nichols
11, Jerusalem - Amy Hollinger and Trent Hollinger
189, Easter Anthem - Linda Lou Franklin and Del Nichols
19t, Hicks' Farewell - Tim Gregg
276b, China - Ginny Landgraf
16, Star in the East - Jim Thobaben and Marcie Thobaben
89t, Dove of Peace - Joel Deckard
14, Minister's Farewell - Mimi Wright
89b, Happy Land - Mark Cain and Amy Hollinger and Trent Hollinger
46, Evening Shade - Tim Reynolds
256, The Lone Pilgrim - David Carlton

RECESS

133, Indian Convert - Linda Jane Story Hortter and Del Nichols
51, The Promised Land - Leonard Raybon and Amy Hollinger and Trent Hollinger
3t, Primrose - Prisca Rice
72t, Georgia - Lisa Bennett and David Smead and Prisca Rice
83, Thorny Desert - Matt Meacham
332, Greenland - Lesa Lovett and Kerry Lovett
111, Missionary Hymn - Carla Smith
296, Newburgh - Mark Cain
294, Come Ye Disconsolate - Randy Webber
331t, Come, Ye Disconsolate - Prisca Rice
331b, Tender Care - Ginny Landgraf
71, Green Fields - Mark Cain
107, Hallelujah - Amy Hollinger and Trent Hollinger
25b, Indian's Farewell - Carla Smith
38, Resignation - David Carlton
299, Coronation - John Meacham
322, Samanthra - Tim Reynolds
31t, Idumea, by request of Gary E. Clark (absent) 80, Pisgah - Erin Fulton (in honor of David Killingsworth, Don Waggener and Pat Waggener)

Gene Gilliland offered the closing prayer. The class then sang 334, The Christian's Farewell, listened to the closing prayer recorded at the 1994 Big Singing, and were subsequently dismissed.

Though no memorial was conducted, we wish Thomas Killingsworth of Michie, Tennessee, father of David Killingsworth, to be remembered in these minutes. Our hearts are bound together with those of our circle struggling with illness or injury, including Ella Gilliland of Benton, Kentucky; Jim Thobaben of Wilmore, Kentucky; and Pat Waggener of Lexington, Kentucky.

Thanks are due to all those who located, loaned, and digitized recordings; to Michael Sanders of Garden City, Kansas, for lending his high-speed internet to the cause of this meeting; and to the many kind Sacred Harp singers who joined with our small and peculiar band. It is our very dear wish to meet again at the Marshall County Courthouse in the coming year, where we hope to greet you all as “a tune from that old Southern Harmony again rings out.”

Honorary chairman—Gene Gilliland; Secretary—Erin Fulton