Pros: stunning musical virtuosity; incredible range of talent and style; socially committed lyrics
Cons: Like your sacred music comfortably familiar? Some songs may be off-putting.
The Bottom Line: A capella group's presentation of sacred music creates a blend of lyrics, movement and narrative that relates history, promotes justice, encourages activism, and praises love.
Not to be missed
gracenwilk's Full Review: Sacred Ground by Sweet Honey In The Rock
I published this review yesterday and I am already revising it. I realized that I had really written two reviews, one of a Sweet Honey concert and one of the disc. So, aside from including commentary on one additional song, the review you are about to read is intact, just a bit shorter- and so I dare hope, a bit more cogent- than the first version. Enjoy.
Group Members: Aisha Kahlil, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Carol Maillard, Isaye Barnwell, Bernice Johnson Reagan, Shirley Childress Saxon
Sensuality and the Sacred
The closest I can come to describing Sweet Honey in the Rock would be to quote the words of one of its members. Dr. Isaye Barnwell (You heard right. Sweet Honey claims two respected academicians among its distinguished list of master musicians) said, "You can do history in one of two ways. You can talk about it or you can live it. We prefer to live history through our music."
And so, from African tribal songs to eighteenth century slave chants to underground railroad songs on through civil war hymns, up to civil rights and women's rights music, this group makes history a present reality in ways that no writing or talking ever could.
Let me hasten to say that listening to this music would definitely not fit into the same category as, say, attending a Civil War Re-enactment to watch Bubba and the gang play soldier, or going to a Renaissance Fair on the outskirts of Dallas to hear native Texans trying to twist drawls into some semblance of sixteenth century English accents. As a matter of fact, the term "living history" doesn’t come close to the experience these women provide.
At times I’ve been transported by their music to days long past when attending church with my closest friend in college, swaying to Pentecostal rhythms, watching his mother dance in the spirit and lifting my voice in uncertain response to the call of that sacred, painful, soaring music. At other times I felt as though I had been pulled kicking and screaming through a keyhole into a completely unfamiliar dimension of thought and expression.
Sweet Honey does not pander to musical consumerism. They confront, challenge, invite and eventually commit the most sacred of seductions in their engagement of the audiences who come to hear them. As the group’s promotional material states, ”The Sweet Honey experience is like no other. Five African American women join their powerful voices, along with hand percussion instruments, to create a blend of lyrics, movement and narrative that variously relate history, point the finger at justice, encourage activism, and sing the praises of love. The music speaks out against oppression and exploitation of every kind. The quintet, whose words are simultaneously interpreted in uniquely expressive American Sign Language, demands a just and human world for all.
Opening Wider Windows on the Sacred
The CD Insert for this offering has lyrics and liner notes printed on one side with an enlarged black and white version of the title graphic on the other. The borders of the page surrounding the photo are devoted to more sacred images and musical instruments as well as the notes that group member have made on their understanding of the word.
Sacred Offerings Sacred Ground manages to break ground even as it honors tradition. Old songs are interpreted and arranged in ways that create dialogue between historical epochs. Newly written songs carry forward a musical conversation between the old and the new. Reagan serves as arranger on all of the traditional tunes as well as offering two new compositions. Barnwell contributes three varied compositions, while Casel, Maillard and Kahlil offer one song each. Their styles and individual interests are distinct even while they maintain vibrant vocal collaboration. The net effect is a richly sustained musical and spiritual conversation among its members.
Familiar Territory
If you weren’t dropped onto the planet just yesterday through some interdimensional time portal, then many of the songs will sound very familiar to you. Some may be old acquaintances. No More Auction Block, Jordan River, Can’t Hide Sinner, Balm In Gilead and Jesus Is All represent traditional African-American spiritual music. Reagan leads out on most of these songs in inimitable fashion, with Barnwell providing a stronger and richer base line than most males I have heard. Every member shows up fully present and accounted for on each of these tunes. They provide such depth and color to the music that I occasionally found myself weeping for sheer joy at the beauty and nostalgia they evoked.
Jesus Is All came as a bit of a surprise for me because of the fact that it is an unmistakably Stamps Baxter tune. I had always associated that kind of music with my white bread, Scotch-Irish-German upbringing, and groups like the Happy Goodmans. Sweet Honey delivers the song straight up with traditional harmonies and toe tapping rhythm.
Reagan’s two offerings can be placed firmly on the traditional side of the music on this disc. She steps into the poetic and musical tradition on these songs in such thorough and competent fashion that I dare to say it were impossible to praise her artistry too lavishly. I Remember, I Believe reverberates with profound imagery that evokes the triple spiritual pillars of faith, doubt and determination. The vocal harmonies simultaneously restrain and express pain and questioning while Reagan drives toward the title stanza. ”I don’t know why the angels woke me up this morning soon / I don’t know why the blood still runs through my veins / I don’t know how I rate to run another day / I am here still running, I believe.”
Sing Oh Barren One is a musical tour de force that is frankly overwhelming in its breadth and depth. Composed by Reagan as an installation sermon for a female minister friend who had recently gone through a difficult personal ordeal, this sermon in song puts to shame just about every spoken sermon I have ever heard.
”We Are”, written by Barnwell, represents tradition of another kind. It is a good old fashioned round. Sweet Honey invites us to soar in this breezy melody. My 13 year-old daughter has learned to dread this piece because she knows it is going to inspire me to try my hand at dancing and will do my best to draw her into my foolishness.
Whoa, Aren’t We Gettin’ Out There A Little?
Songs like “Mystic Ocean,”“Would You Harbor Me?” and “Inner Voices” represented surprises for me in one way or another. I suspect that they would hold very little strangeness for those who have broader musical exposure than do I. These songs introduce jazz, blues, motown and experimental modes into the repertoire. Initially put off by “Inner Voices,” I found myself too far from the stereo one day to immediately advance to the next song. As a result, I got past the introduction and it quickly became a favorite among the many favorites I have on this disc. Written and performed by Casel, this “song” is actually two distinct tunes. Casel gracefully negotiates doo wop lead vocal as her sister singers lay down silky smooth harmonies. She then leads the group into Latin cumbia then back in seamless fashion for the finale, ending where she started. The result is an extended but thoroughly winsome conversational work dealing with the subject of prayer.
Stay On the Battlefield may be the best example the dialogical creativity that Sweet Honey carries off so consistently and so well. The foundation for this piece is a two-line traditional church song that simply repeats, I’m gonna stay on the battlefield then tells us how, I’m gonna treat everybody right,. What makes this arrangement unique is the reading of a poem by Sonia Sanchez, titled I Have Come Into the City. Thoroughly modern in its evocation of contemporary struggles for civil rights, subsistence and environmental justice, the poem both questions and echoes the dogged determination of the hymn singers to both “stay on the battlefield” and to avoid the depradations of race hatred.
i have come into the city carrying my life in my eyes,
amid rumors of death
calling out to everyone who would listen
it is time, to move us into another century
time for freedom and racial and sexual justice
time for women and children and men, time for
hands unbound . . . .
come, i say come you sitting in domestic bacteria
come, i say come, you standing still in double breasted mornings
come, i say come, and return to the fight
this fight for the earth
this fight for our children
this fight for our life
we need your hurricane voices
we need your sacred hands . . .
After three months, I am still soaking in the music and messages on this disc. Since I am the kind of person who tends to live with a disc until I have become literally tired of the music, the previous statement represents the highest kind of praise I can give.
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