#4307: Southern Songs

Hear a new folk opera by composer and pianist Rachel Grimes based on generations of Kentucky women (1775-present), along with music by Rhiannon Giddens, and the late William Duckworth.

The Way Forth, a new folk opera from Rachel Grimes, was inspired by her own personal family history - documents, photos, and letters spanning several generations, highlighting perspectives of Kentucky women from 1775 to today. Folk tunes, names, places, and rivers are woven together with piano, harp, strings, choir, lead vocals and narrators in a complex musical fabric that depicts everyday life through the years, with reflections on who or what might have been included and who might have been dehumanized.   

There’s also music by Rhiannon Giddens which invokes the dehumanizing situation of an advertisement from a newspaper where a slave might be sold either with or without her own children. The song is called "At the Purchaser's Option," from her 2017 record, Freedom Highway.

Then, listen to some traditional shape note singing, where "shape notes" (square, round, triangular, and diamond-shaped note heads) enable non-music reading congregations to sing the tunes or hymns. Hear an example of this shape note hymn singing, along with reworkings of shape note song by the late composer William Duckworth, in an effort to translate these tunes from a church to a concert setting. Then, also hear Deacon Tommy Tookes & Congregation recorded in an example of lined-out singing, where the leader (perhaps the preacher) sings each line of the tune out as it is to be sung -  a form of call and response. 

Program #4307: Southern Songs (First aired 12/10/2019)

ARTIST: Rachel Grimes
WORK: Got Ahold of Me, instrumental [1:00]
RECORDING: The Way Forth
SOURCE: Temporary Residence
INFO: rachelgrimes.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Rachel Grimes
WORK: Got Ahold of Me [4:15]
RECORDING: The Way Forth
SOURCE: Temporary Residence
INFO: rachelgrimes.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Rachel Grimes
WORK: Patsy [2:11]
RECORDING: The Way Forth
SOURCE: Temporary Residence
INFO: rachelgrimes.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Rachel Grimes
WORK: There Is No Other [3:33]
RECORDING: The Way Forth
SOURCE: Temporary Residence
INFO: rachelgrimes.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Word of Mouth Chorus
WORK: Windham [2:05]
RECORDING: Rivers of Delight: American Folk Hymns From the Sacred Harp Tradition
SOURCE: Nonesuch 71360
INFO: nonesuch.com

ARTIST: Various Artists: Deacon Tommy Tookes & Congregation
WORK: The Lord Is Risen [2:36]
RECORDING: Art of Field Recording: Vol. 1
SOURCE: Dust To Digital #08
INFO: dust-digital.com

ARTIST: The Gregg Smith Singers, chorus; assisted by The Rooke Chapel Choir of Bucknell University
WORK: William Duckworth: Windham [1:48]
RECORDING: Southern Harmony
SOURCE: Lovely Music - #2033
INFO: http://www.lovely.com

ARTIST: Rachel Grimes
WORK: Dolly [1:44]
RECORDING: The Way Forth
SOURCE: Temporary Residence
INFO: rachelgrimes.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Rachel Grimes
WORK: Bill of Sale [1:53]
RECORDING: The Way Forth
SOURCE: Temporary Residence
INFO: rachelgrimes.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Rhiannon Giddens
WORK: At the Purchaser's Option [4:13]
RECORDING: Freedom Highway
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records
INFO: nonesuch.com

ARTIST: Rachel Grimes
WORK: End of Dominion [12:07]
RECORDING: The Way Forth
SOURCE: Temporary Residence
INFO: rachelgrimes.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: The Gregg Smith Singers, chorus; assisted by The Rooke Chapel Choir of Bucknell University
WORK: William Duckworth: Leander [2:49]
RECORDING: Southern Harmony
SOURCE: Lovely Music - #2033
INFO: http://www.lovely.com

ARTIST: Rachel Grimes
WORK: Sara [2:45]
RECORDING: The Way Forth
SOURCE: Temporary Residence
INFO: rachelgrimes.bandcamp.com