Follow

• 

  Ebenezer Baptist Church, November 2010

  Eric Crawford

  A service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Saint Helena Island in November 2010. The recording captures "Keep on Praying," "Lay My Burden Down," "Already There," "Hallelujah," a psalm in call and response, "Heaven Belongs to You," "I'm So Glad," prayer and thanksgiving, two unidentified gospel spirituals (congregation is faint over organ), testimonies from the congregation, "Oh Chariot," another testimony from an unidentified female, and an indecipherable gospel spiritual.

• 

  Adam Street Baptist Church Service

  Joseph Murray and Rosa Murray

  Adam Street Baptist Church service on Sunday, July 11, 2010. The recording captures "Keep on Praying," "In This Place," "Yes He Is," Doxology, and an excerpt from a different congregation. After a break in the recording: the sermon, a woman testifying, an indecipherable spiritual, testifying in Gullah, and another unidentified spiritual (possibly "Sign My Name"). The clapping percussion is one of the more captured across both the Johns Island and Saint Helena Island recorded spirituals.

• 

  Joseph and Rosa Murray, July 2010

  Joseph Murray and Rosa Murray

  An interview with Rosa and Joseph Murray, an elder song leader and farmer in Beaufort, South Carolina. Murray married Rosa Murray, a native of Saint Helena Island, but he was born on the mainland near Beaufort, South Carolina. The interview begins mid-conversation talking about fertilizer, but quickly changes to talking about how he remembers "Ride on Jesus" being sung by his wife (Rosa), and how she sings songs that he had not heard before. He sings a few bars of "It's Alright," "Jesus is the Light of the World," and "Everything Moving." He talks about how songs are a form of communication, sharing songs with one another in the community, then expounds by testimonials on the Lord's sheep. His mother was a woman who could sing and would catch the spirit during a shouting song. Rosa Murray enters the interview around 15 minutes in, to talk about how individuals were taught songs and how individuals were baptized at the river. She sings a few "Ride on Jesus," "Mary Had a Baby," and "Blood Done Sign My Name." Joseph Murray sings the communion hymn, and then talks about the songs that he's forgotten for funerals and baptisms. Rosa and Joseph both sing "Nobody Knows," "Remember Me," "I Wonder," "Serve One of God," "Hey Neva." The interview terminates at the start of "Hey Neva." After a break in the recording, the tape finishes with "Hey Neva." Rosa sings "Where You There?" and she remembers a woman in the choir she called her mother, whose funeral happened the previous Wednesday. Rosa discusses how she came back to Ebenezer after she moved back to the island from Florida, and how she was recruited back to the prays house from Nina (who recommended the Murrays to Crawford).

• 

  Ebenezer Baptist Church Service, July 2010

  James Garfield Smalls, Minnie Gracie Gadson, and Kenneth Doe

  A service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Saint Helena Island on July 11, 2010 by Eric Crawford as part of his field research on Gullah spirituals. Gracie Gadson can be heard in close proximity. The recording includes "Just Keep on Praying," "Light of the World," "Without the Lord" (led by Gracie Gadson), "Feel the Spirit" (led by James Garfield Smalls), doxology, "Light of the World" (with piano accompaniment), (this can be a split to another service) a traditional gospel song, pastor's welcome, and Pastor Kenneth Doe from Bethesda Christian Fellowship was a guest speaker.

• 

  Brick Baptist Church, August 9, 2009

  Eric Crawford

  Brick Baptist Church on August 9, Sunday morning service. The recording begins with "Be Alright," "Let Me Ride," "Leaning on the Lord's Side." The tape seems to scrub to another congregation before starting to Ebenezer Baptist Church service on Sunday, August 9, with Gadson again leading "Come on Everybody (Praise the Lord)," a sermon, "Get Right with God," "Amazing Grace."

• 

  Communion Sunday Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church

  Eric Crawford

  A continuation of the recording at Sunday Communion Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, a sermon, 'Who's in Charge Now," "Rise Up Now," "Amen," "Hallelujah," "I Love Jesus who Altered Me," an indecipherable song, and an invocation, "Until Then."

• 

  Ebenezer Baptist Church, Thursday Night Prayer Service, 2009

  Eric Crawford

  Thursday night prayer service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Thursday, August 6, 2009. Gadson is leading "Get Right with God," a prayer and reading from an indecipherable passage in scripture, "Spirit You Welcome," "Come on Everybody" (led by Gadson), "What To Do."

• 

  Nazareth Gospel Choir Anniversary Celebration

  Eric Crawford

  The Nazareth Baptist Church Gospel Choir anniversary on Sunday August 9, 2009. The songs recorded are "Pray to Our God" and "Everytime (I Love You, Lord)."

• 

  Unknown Congregation, "I Wonder if I'll Ever Reach Home"

  Eric Crawford

  An unknown congregation singing "I Wonder if I'll Ever Reach Home."

• 

  Bethesda Christian Fellowship, August 2, 2009

  Kenneth Doe

  After Eric Crawford announces Bethesda Christian Fellowship Church Sunday Service on August 2, 2009, the recording begins with the instrumentalized gospel song, "So Good," Pastor Kenneth Doe's sermon, "Lift Up Your Hands," the spiritual "The Blood Done Sign Me Name," "Keep Your Loving Arms around Me."

• 

  Minnie Gracie Gadson, August 5, 2009

  Minnie Gracie Gadson

  The tape then cuts to Minnie Gracie Gadson singing "The Blood Done Sign My Name."

• 

  Penn Center Community Sings, August 2009

  Minnie Gracie Gadson

  Actual recording does not begin until 24:49. A testimony. Gracie Gadson can be heard raising a song, "Without the Lord," followed by Gracie Gadson's testimony on the old ways of congregating together in prays houses and neighbors' houses. She numbers the prays houses growing up, and moving between them during monthly meetings, which leads into her leading for "Way Down in Egypt Land" and "Adam in de Garden." Further individuals reminisce about some of their adventure stories growing up. The pastor then asks for someone to lead a song, where Gracie Gadson leads "Leaning on the Lord's Side." After a break in the recording, the service continues with a series of testimonies at the Penn Center Community Sings, the tape scrubbing in and out. The theme of the testimonies was about growing up on the island, and how each individual's life changed as they left the island.

• 

  Prays Recording, August 18, 2009

  James Garfield Smalls

  A prays recording, led by Deacon James Garfield Smalls. The location is undetermined, but would likely be Mary Jenkins or Croft Prays House, which Smalls led. Deacon Smalls both leads the order of the service, and raises many of the songs. The harmonies and counter melodies are among the most complex and clear of all of the recordings. A female voice is heard leading the hymn, with complex harmonies following. Smalls then instructs Crawford how to read a hymn, so then the congregation can read it. They sing "I couldn't hear nobody pray," "Oh wither shall I go," Smalls reflects on the passage of Elijah and Alisha, "Don't break the bread, child, til I get there." Crawford explains his research on spirituals and his purpose for recording.

• 

  Service at Oak True Holiness Church and Frissell Hall

  Eric Crawford

  A service at Oaks True Holiness on Saint Helena Island, South Carolina. The recording begins in the midst of a praise song accompanied by the organ. A drum and clapping can be heard with vocals behind. Several gospel songs are recorded. The tape cuts after the third song to Eric Crawford introducing a service at Frissell Hall at the Penn Center campus of a hymn service. It sounds as if the congregation is lining two hymns. James Garfield Smalls can be heard in the congregation leading the spiritual "The Old Sheep Done Know the Road." The white noise of the tape makes the speaking of the congregation less clear.