Bessie Jones, John Davis, and the Georgia Sea Island Singers gained wide renown during the 1960s and ’70s for their powerful performances of traditional songs from the African American Gullah Geechee community on St. Simons Island, Georgia.
Most in the group were born and raised on St. Simons, and could trace their ancestry to the enslaved West and Central Africans who worked on the island’s cotton plantations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries
The official audio sampler of ‘The Complete Friends of Old Time Music Concert.’
Throughout the ’60s, the Georgia Sea Island Singers were prominent voices in the civil rights movement, bringing hundreds of years of Black musical tradition to bear on a pivotal time in American history.
This previously unheard recording captures their complete Friends of Old Time Music concert of April 1965, at which they were joined by legendary bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell, cane fife player Ed Young, and folklorist Alan Lomax, who acted as emcee.
The album showcases a variety of traditional music from the Island and beyond, including stirring work songs, emotionally charged spirituals, jubilant songs for children, and revelatory renditions of Mississippi blues.
The five selections from the album include Davis leading “Read ’em John,” a ring shout spiritual that can be traced back to emancipation; Jones leading a performance of the folkloric dance “Buzzard Lope” with the song “In That Old Field”; a fife and voice duet between Young and Emma Lee Ramsey on “Chevrolet”; Mable Hillery performing an original freedom song “Marching on the Mississippi Line” with Ramsey; and McDowell leading the powerful old spiritual “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning.”
Recorded by noted producer Peter K. Siegel at…
Read the full article here
