The creative voices of settlers to the U.S. could not be silenced despite the hardship that many new residents of this country faced, whether they arrived seeking religious and political freedom, or were brought here unwillingly.
In the Appalachians, the Scotch-Irish-Welsh settlers developed the musical styles known as "mountain music" and "bluegrass."
In the Southeastern U.S., particularly along the Sea Islands of coastal Georgia and South Carolina, the Gullah (in South Carolina) and Geechee (in Georgia), descendants of African slaves, also developed a musical style. Known as the "ring shout," the music retains the rhythms of Africa, hints of which may still be found in the music of the Caribbean and parts of South America, particularly Brazil.
In fact, if you listen closely, you can sense the influence this southern coastal music has had on a wide range of music genres - most obviously black gospel, but also rhythm and blues and subsequently, modern-day pop and rock.
On Wednesday night, I accompanied a friend to the Second African Baptist Church, founded in 1802 in Savannah. The imposing brick building, situated on Green Square, is pastored by the Rev. C MeGill Brown.
The sanctuary was filled nearly to capacity for the 6 p.m. performance - a mixture of church members, friends of the church, tourists and cultural enthusiasts were all eagerly awaiting the appearance of the McIntosh County Shouters.
The McIntosh County Shouters are the only authentic ring shout group in Georgia. They have been performing publicly since 1980, after being "discovered" by some wandering academics who had long since considered this unique musical form dead. It was alive and well in the Bolden Community of McIntosh County Georgia. Their uniqueness has taken them to some impressive performance venues including Wolf Trap Farm in Virginia, the Kennedy Center, the U.S. Library of Congress, both in Washington, D.C., and the Georgia Sea Islands Festival.
The McIntosh County Shouters range in age from 24 to 95, although the group's patriarch, Lawrence McIver, doesn't perform as frequently as he once did. His spot has been taken over, for the most part, by Freddie Palmer.
Because the performance was in his church, the Rev. Brown began the program.
It began with him leading the audience, with his booming baritone, in a choral call to worship. The music and words to the old black spiritual were reassuring, and it was a treat to hear all those wonderful voices raised in song. A scripture lesson and prayer followed, and then it was time for the shouters to take the stage.
Soon, the 10 shouters were processing down the aisle, their lilting voices recalling the harmonies of old black gospel music and African roots. Dressed in common clothes - the men in denim overalls and workshirts and the women in simple cotton dresses, their heads wrapped in turbans - they began to sing.
They sang of the struggle of life in bondage, everyday matters, the American Civil War, happiness and love, and eventually, emancipation. But mostly, their songs carried the messages of God's promises to set his people free, and the freedom and liberation of which they dreamed. In fact, many of the songs focus on Judgment Day, because enslaved people knew, that once that day came, they would be free.
The shouters feel that telling the story of the African slaves' time in captivity is important and relevant, even today.
"You have to know where you come from, to know where you're going," said the narrator during Wednesday's performance.
The shouters' unique harmonies help convey the messages they are trying to send. All related by blood or marriage.
Wednesday's audience was engaged from the get-go. Toes were tapping and hands were clapping as the shouters moved from song to song in their 90-minute repertoire. And the more the audience participated, the more the shouters gave.
There is no instrumentation, save for a stick that is beaten against a board and the unison clapping - this is a capella music at its purest.
One thing that makes the shouters unique is they not only sing the song with their voices - they tell the stories of the songs through body language. In fact, "shouting" has nothing to do with singing. It is a style of "dancing" in which the women of the group move counter-clockwise and pantomine the songs. I hesitate to actually call it dancing because religious rules prohibit the shouters from picking up their feet or crossing one foot in front of the other lest their movements be mistaken for dancing. Instead, the women shuffle, sometimes stooped over. That doesn't mean there isn't plenty of movement however. It's nothing frenetic, but the women sway, and swing their hips, their full skirts swirling around their ankles. In fact, it shares a lot of the characteristics of a holy dance.
The songs are song in the Gullah, or Geechee, dialect, which is a hybrid of African and English.
Despite the lack of any light shows, computer generated graphics or pyrotechnic effects during the performance, the children in the audience were paying rapt attention. That only heightened when Palmer, the lead songster, took center stage and began his solo number, "I Know I Been Changed." During that number, the performance turned into a full-on worship experience, with audience members on their feet, their hands lifted in the air, clapping and shouting "amens." Those not on their feet were seated in their pews and swaying from side to side, as Palmer boomed, "Lord, I know I been changed, the angels in heaven done signed my name," with the remaining shouters accompanying him.
Enslaved people, it was said during the show, always "figured out how to make a way out of no way."
It's good that we have the McIntosh County Shouters to remind us how far we have come, and to never let us forget where we have been.
