The 39th Kentucky State Sacred Harp Singing (with Southern Harmony)

Mt. Zion Methodist Church
Harrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky
Saturday, May 15, 2021

Due to COVID, this year's singing was held at Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Mercer County rather than the usual venue of Pisgah Presbyterian Church in Versailles. The singing also took place in a compressed format, with no afternoon session. The Sacred Harp, 1991 edition and The Southern Harmony, 1854 facsimile, 1987 UofK reprint were used throughout the day.

Ron Pen called the singing to order at 10:05 a.m. by leading 73b (SH), Arlington, following which Zach Davis offered the morning prayer.

535 (SH), Shawmut - Rafi Finkel
313b (SH), Cobb - Mary Brinkman
82t (SH), Bound For Canaan - Donna Kwon
59 (SH), Holy Manna - Tim Gregg
49t (SH), Old Hundred - David Boyd
159 (SH), Wondrous Love - Zach Davis
294 (SH), Rocky Road - Joy R. Dunn and Erin Fulton
327 (SoH), Our Journey Home - Erin Fulton
31t (SH), Ninety-Third Psalm - Robbie Coulston
47b (SH), Idumea - Diane Arnson-Svarlien and Zach Davis

RECESS

117 (SH), Babylon is Fallen - Rafi Finkel
455 (SH), Soar Away - Ron Pen
45t (SH), New Britain - Donna Kwon
147b (SH), Laban - Mary Brinkman
299 (SH), New Jerusalem - Tim Gregg
322 (SoH), Samanthra - Zach Davis
515 (SH), Federal Street - Joy R. Dunn
566 (SH), Hebron - Erin Fulton
300 (SH), Calvary - Pearl Marshall
276 (SH), Bridgewater - Lance Brunner and Ron Pen
159b (SoH), New Haven - Rafi Finkel
354b (SH), Happy Land - Donna Kwon
147t (SH), Boylston - Mary Brinkman

Rafi Finkel organized the memorial lesson, speaking in memory of the beloved Kentucky shape-note singer Bob Meek and leading 496 (SH), The Rock That is Higher Than I.

Individual memorial lessons were then led by those close to the deceased.

Ron Pen memorialized Lee “Boy” Sexton of Kentucky, beginning by commenting that, as he was seated in Mount Zion Methodist Church, singing the old songs from the Sacred Harp and Southern Harmony conjured up many people. One of those is Lee Sexton who died on February 10, just a few weeks shy of what would have been his 93rd birthday. Lee Boy, from Line Fork, Kentucky, worked as a coal miner until black lung forced him to retire. Growing up in a musical family, Lee began playing banjo as soon as he was old enough to hold it and bought his first banjo at age eight. In addition to tending the homeplace and working in the mines, Lee initiated a part-time music career in 1941, playing with Estill Blair and the Jolly Mountain Boys at dances and for radio stations. Later in life, Lee performed throughout the region at festivals and workshops like the Hindman Settlement School's Appalachian Family Folk Gathering, Warren Wilson College's Swannanoa Gathering, Appalshop's Seedtime on the Cumberland, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the “Appalachia in the Bluegrass” series at the University of Kentucky's Niles Center for American Music, and was always a regular at the Carcassonne square dances. Lee Boy went with Ron to many Sacred Harp singings through the years, though he didn't sing shapes himself. He always liked to tease Ron about his singing style, exhaling loudly and exclaiming that “the mixture was a little rough, so he needed to pull out the choke.” Ron Pen led 163b (SH), China, for Lee Boy.

Erin Fulton remembered Harry Eskew of Georgia, Curtis Owen of Texas, Peter Golden of Maine, and Margaret Spurlock of Alabama. Erin commented particularly about Harry Eskew. Harry was a music professor at NOBTS in New Orleans and established the Sacred Harp singing at the seminary there. Most of his research was on Baptist hymnology, the tunebooks of William Walker, and early Shenandoah Valley composers. Erin met Dr. Eskew when she ran into him in a stairwell at a Society for Christian Scholarship in Music conference and they immediately sparked up a conversation. Once he realized that she was a hymnologist, he wanted to know all about her research and even called her while she was driving home from the conference. He kept checking in on her and her work—regularly enough that she was surprised when she hadn't heard from him in some time. Erin inquired about him early last fall and was told by his wife that his memory was failing and that he had gone into end-of-life care. Erin shared that the Big Singing is as close to her heart as anything could be and that Southern Harmony singers (and anyone else who sings from or studies the Walker tunebooks) owe a large debt to Dr. Eskew. Erin Fulton led 309 (SoH), Eden of Love, for Harry.

Zach Davis led 569b (SH), Sacred Throne, for Keith MacAdam, a Lexingtonian and long-time singer with the Appalachian Association of Sacred Harp Singers.

Rafi Finkel led 479 (SH), Chester, for the sick and shut-ins:
Jim Thobaben of Kentucky, Pat Waggener of Kentucky, and Jesse Vear of Maine. Zach Davis then gave a blessing to end the singing and the class sang 267 (SH), Parting Friends (First), to close.
A few people moved outside for a picnic lunch of their own and to socialize for a while.

Chairman and Treasurer—Charles H. Coulston; Secretary—Mary Brinkman.