>> From the Library of Congress in Washington DC. >> Betsy Peterson: On behalf of the entire staff I want to welcome you to the second concert this month in our Homegrown Concert Series. Today's concert is a very special occasion, and we're proud to be able to present a tradition that not many people are able to hear. It's a tradition in own backyard from the Chesapeake Bay Country in Maryland and Delaware, and so we're delighted to bring you this tradition of praise songs. I also want to say that the Homegrown Concert Series, for those of you who have not been able to come to one of our concerts before, is an opportunity for us to feature the very best in traditional music and dance from all over the country. We work collaboratively with a couple of partners in doing this, and I want acknowledge them. We work collaboratively with the Kennedy Center at Millennium Stage to bring you these concerts, and I should add that the group here today will be performing there this evening at 6:00 pm, so please go up there and listen to that concert. I also want to thank the National Council for the Traditional Arts for their special assistance and support with this particular concert. I also just want take a moment to say that we will be recording this concert for our collection. This is an opportunity for us to add to the collections of the American Folklife Center. It will be then eventually will be put up on the web, on the webcast so future generations can listen, enjoy, and learn; but in doing this I just want to remind you that if you haven't turned off your cell phones, please do so now, unless you want to be on that webcast. And lastly, when we put on these concerts, we work with a wonderful network of dedicated and talented folklorists all over the country to make this possible. They work with us to select the artist, to give us advice and to-and to help us. And so in this particular concert, we worked with a couple of folklorists. We worked with Cliff Murphy from the Maryland State Arts Council, and I want to thank him. I think he is out there in the audience somewhere [applause]. And we worked with Jonathan David who is an independent folklorist and editor living in Philadelphia; and in this case, John is the obvious choice to present the Singing and Praying Band to you today and tell you a little bit more about them because he's the man who literally wrote the book about other tradition, which is called "Together Let's Sweetly Live," and it was published by University of Illinois Press. He's been working with the Singing and Praying Bands for many years and he has also produced a recording; so without further ado, I want to turn it over to him and let him tell you a little bit more about what you're going to hear. So please welcome him. Thanks. [ Applause ] >> Jonathan David: Thank you. Thank you. Let me put on my glasses so I can actually read this thing. It is my privilege to introduce the Singing and Praying Bands of Delaware and Maryland to the audience today as it is indeed been my privilege to work with them since fellow folklorist Polly Stewart took a really big chance and hired me to work -- to do survey research of the Delmarva peninsula in 1983. And this is the continuing fruit of the Delmarva Folklife project. The Singing and Praying Bands continue with what academics know of as Ring Shout, an African-derived performance style that was thought by most to have died out. But here they are in our midst today with members who until recently worked right across the street in the U.S. Capitol Building. These bands were first mentioned in -- by name in writing by AME Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne who mentioned that around 1850 he tried to stamp them out in his church in Baltimore. Oral history from a nearby camp meeting, or a nearby church, in Pasadena Maryland, Mt. Zion United Methodist has them thriving at the beginning of their campaign tradition in the 1850s. Other reports don't mention them by name, but mention practices similar to today's bands as long ago as 1817. The tradition began in secret outdoor meetings of enslaved Africans. Later groups of worshipers also met in private homes, and still later they found a place for themselves in Methodist prayer meetings on Sunday evenings and weekday evenings. The service would begin -- the prayer meeting service would begin with a lined out hymn, the band says a "give out hymn," and then moved to a prayer, and then they'd end with what they called a "straight hymn," or a refrain repeated over and over with two line couplets added in between each repetition of the refrain. Outsiders might know the refrains as spirituals. The band, at the end of their service, would often march around the sanctuary and then come to the floor and form a ring-form a circle and sing in a circular formation with one leader after another individually coming into the center of the ring to lead for a short time, and then going back to the exterior, and someone else would read. Prayer meeting groups from numerous individual churches met and performed at large regional camp meetings in the Delmarva area or in the Chesapeake and Delaware area. These Methodist camp meetings became showcases, then, of an African-derived style of invoking the spirit. I should say that the ring shout was in general considered one of the -- a very African focused service. At the height of the tradition, perhaps, 100 churches had their own band and there were thousands of tradition bearers. Today only small number remain of all the churches to comprise one band. The band you'll see today, my friends, is it, the entire tradition as it survives. Today you would notice several things. First, this line of chairs functions as what the bands would call a mourners' bench, a mourners' bench; that is in the front of the sanctuary you would have a bench where people seeking to be saved would kneel and have people sing or pray over them to be -- to have a conversion experience. The bands line up around this mourners' bench with a line of men behind the bench and a line of women facing the men. So what you see at the beginning will be a little odd, and that is all the sisters in the band singing with their backs to the audience, which is somewhat unusual way of performing. In days passed-this comes from the days passed when men and women sat on separate sides of a church sanctuary and then when they got up to sing the men would sing on one side; the women would sing on the other side facing the men. Second, which you'll notice, is that the band starts singing very slowly at a low pitch, and then singing escalates and it builds. There may be some off notes; the esthetic presence does not come from band members being professional musicians who could be "on" from the first note; instead the affecting presence comes through with the band esthetic of call and response, which the band members simply call help. "We help each other." Now what that means in a performance is that when a leader calls out a line, the others would not think of letting that leader just hang out there without response. So they chime it with all their energy, and then they give and take of the -- of this energy, of this helping each other, in turn leads to an escalation of the singing; the pitch gets higher, the tempo gets faster. Singing to help becomes meaningful as all the members become united in what becomes the fellowship of the Holy Spirit; and when that fellowship of the Holy Spirit is felt, often a shout breaks out and it is palpable; the audience today will be able feel it. Everyone in the group comes on one accord and partakes in this form of communion. This is the meaning of the Singing and Praying Bands service, to invoke the spirit and then to bring others within hearing, who are in the presence into the fold. Members of the audience today-I want to make sure people know this-are welcome to stand and clap, to sing, to move, and to even cry with the singing. As the bands work the spirit, some -- some of you would be unable -- will not be able to help but feel the spirit. This service is a spiritual method, as surely is yoga is in that reminds that meditation as a method. This method, however, is one that invokes fellowship among hearers and causes an irresistible sense of communion. Individuals in the audience are welcome to join in, but keep in mind that it is the religious experience, and not necessarily the musical esthetic, that is important. Thank you very much and enjoy. [ Applause ] >> Rev. Jerry Colbert: Wow, such a welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon. [all together] Good afternoon. >> I'm Reverend Jerry Colbert pastor of John Wesley United Methodist Church in Annapolis, and also the coordinator of this prayer group. And today we will actually do as we would do doing a regular church service. As Jonathan said, usually performers don't turn their back to you, but we're actually not performers; we are evangelists, amen? So today we just ask you to clap your hands and pat your feet. We come from all over, from Frankford, Delaware, the lower Dorchester County [MD], Ann Arundel [county, MD], and Baltimore City, and we come together to give a ring shout out to God. And today our first selection will be led by the Frankford AME Church and they're going to do "In That City," and some of our friends from Berlin [MD] are going to lead us into another hymn, "Jesus Fed Me When I Was Hungry," and then we're going to move to the Western Shore to Pasadena, Maryland, to Hall [United Methodist Church], and they will lead us in version of "Father I Stretch My Hands To Thee." So, we just say thank you for coming, and thank you. [ Applause ] >> Congregation sings: In that city, bright city Soon there's loved ones I shall see, And with Jesus live forever In that city beyond the sea. [these lines are repeated many times with improvisations] [applause] >> Female voice (praying): Must Jesus bear the cross alone? >> Congregation: All right. >> Female voice: And all the world go free? >> Congregation: All right, yes. >> Female voice: I know there is a cross for everyone. >> Congregation: All right. >> Female voice: I know there is a cross for me. >> Congregation: Yes. >> Female voice: The consecrated cross I'll bear, >> Congregation: [many responses] >> Female voice: Till death will set me free. >> Female voice: Then go home my crown to wear. >> Female voice: There is a crown for me. >> Congregation: Yes! >> Female voice: Praise God in the name of Jesus. >> Congregation: [many responses] >> Female voice: I come humble before you one more time. >> Congregation: [many responses] >> Female voice: And thank and praise him for bringing us to a place that we've never been before. >> Congregation: Amen! >> Female voice: [inaudible, praying as the congregation responds vocally and with applause.] My prayer is in Jesus' Name! [applause] >> The congregation sings: Jesus fed me when I was hungry Given me a drink when I was dry. Yes, he clothed me when I was naked. Bless his name, Bless his name. I get on my knees to say my prayers! Bless his name, Bless his name. [this verse is repeated many times with improvisations] [applause] >> Male voice: Father I stretch my hands to thee Congregation: Yes. All right. Male voice: No other ... I'll find it. >> Congregation sings: Father I stretch my hands to thee. No other help I know. Father I stretch my hands to thee. No other help I know. >> Male voice: If God withdraws thyself from me, oh whither shall I go? >> Congregation sings: If Thou withdraws thyself from me, Oh whither shall I go? If Thou withdraws thyself from me, Oh whither shall I go? >> Male voice: Oh what did thy only son endure before I drew my breath? >> Congregation sings: Oh what did thy only son endure before I drew my breath? Oh what did thy only son endure before I drew my breath? >> Male voice: What pain, what labor to secure my soul from endless death. >> Congregation sings: What pain, what labor to secure My soul from endless death. What pain, what labor to secure My soul from endless death. Male voice: Surely thou can not let me die, oh speak and I shall live. Congregation sings: Surely thou can not let me die, Oh speak and I shall live. Surely thou can not let me die, Oh speak and I shall live. Male voice: And here I will unwearied lie, 'till thou thy Spirit give. Congregation sings: And here I will unweary lie, 'Till thou thy Spirit give. And here I will unweary lie, 'Till thou thy Spirit give. >> Male voice: Author of faith, to thee I lift my wearied, longing eyes. >> Congregation sings: Author of faith, to thee I lift My wearied, longing eyes. Author of faith, to thee I lift My wearied, longing eyes. >> Male voice: Oh let me now receive thy gift; my soul without it dies. >> Congregation sings: Oh let me now receive thy gift; My soul without it dies. Oh let me now receive thy gift; My soul without it dies. >> Male voice: I see the trees, I smell the fruit, oh, can I pick it now? >> Congregation sings: I see the trees, I smell the fruit, Oh, can I pick it now? I see the trees, I smell the fruit, Oh, can I pick it now? >> Male voice: Rise up my soul and set me free, I'm close on Canaan's land. >> The congregation sings: Rise up my soul and set love free, I'm close on Canaan's land. Rise up my soul and set love free, I'm close on Canaan's land. [The congregation repeats these lines many times] [the congregation continues repeating the last verse as they parade around the stage] >> The congregation sings: I ain't got long to stay here, goodbye, goodbye, I ain't got long to stay here. [repeats with improvisations] [ Applause ] >>Thea Austen: The Singing and Praying Bands with the Reverend Jerry Colbert. [ Applause ] >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.