shape notes and earnest old white men with big noses

[lumin_esc]

I was raised Christian in Appalachia -- Missionary Baptist. My parents were modern, I guess, in that they actually allowed their ability to think interleave with their faith instead of just blocking logic out. They defied my dad's family by bringing my outcast gay great-uncle (and his adorable partner Larry) over for Thanksgiving dinner every

Comments

[paka]

No, that makes sense. I really don't do the Judaism thing anymore - and being burned by this damn temple I work with has only made the feeling that I don't belong here only worse - but I know that I miss getting to sing the liturgy in Hebrew sometimes. I mean, if music isn't an expression of the divine on earth - above and beyond any particular tradition - then what is?

[lumin_esc]

Wow, that was weird. We responded to the other's journal entry at the same time with about the same "I understand" sentiment.

But yeah, I'm glad you can relate. Judaism has always seemed really interesting to me... the art and music is really rich, but it seems like it burdens its free-thinkers even more heavily than most flavors of Christianity does.

[rockstarpup]

I miss the old BLACK baptist church I used to go to back home, that's where I learned to play drums

[lumin_esc]

Hahaha, our family's neighbor took my sisters and I to her church once, when we were young. They were the pentecostalist of pentecostals, and thoroughly freaked the shit out of us. Cartwheels in the aisles, screaming and crying, everything but snake handling. X)

Rowdy Southern Baptist churches look like they could be fun, but the sawdust brimstone hellfire sermons would just make me giggle too much and I'd probably have to excuse myself.

[hakeber]

My mother sings Shape Note. She's pretty pagan these days, but doesn't let that get in her way of enjoying the music and events.

http://fasola.org/

fasola

I was raised around the music, and really, there is nothing quite like it. And dude, there are shaped note groups all over the country. Many do hold the sings at churches, but not always. They also have conventions. My mom goes to the big national in Birmingham every year. This site has more info. Including some stuff written by my mom.

[lumin_esc]

Well!

Looks like I just didn't surf the net enough! Thanks for the links. I don't suppose you could suggest any groups whose recordings I could find online, could you?

[hakeber]

Let me ask her.

[loud4singing]

Hi, I'm hakeber's mom. Just go to fasola.org and the click on the RESOURCES page and you will find listings of recordings and other stuff. That's fasola.org/resources. Where do you live? There are singing groups all over the country. Just go!!! Everyone is welcome!!

insert irony

[boxofjain]

the play i'm in right now, i'm singing amazing grace. the first two verses because no one else knows them..and because they lost a cd.. and because i love those songs... damn it... they just pop into my head and i end up singing them to a cocker spaniel or shih tzu at work while i'm bathing them... anyway, i miss it. christmas lacks that part for me. the hanging of the greens, and all those freakin songs that pop artists have almost ruined for me. it makes me almost instantly homesick though. i don't associate them with rockcastle, but home. MY home. OUR home. the piano in the living room, and candles, and cranberry ice cubes. and the smell of cheap christmas tree. and coal furnace. stand up. that's a song i always remember fondly, because every time someone sang it, whether it was a poorly executed soloist, or the choir, some elder in the church would stand up, then another, and another, and so on. it only struck me later, as an adult the intensity of it all... and just as i am... minus the guilt aspect it always inspired.. hymn

can't go home again

[lumin_esc]

"This sooooooong, is in, the public domain....that's whyyyyy, we uuuuuused it, twiiiiiiice." X)

Did you mention that Rockcastle changed their music format? I'd be curious to go back just for shitzengrinz, though it looks like I could just buy a copy of the Broadman for ~$10 from the internet.

[amoux]

I realized one day that I just couldn't believe a god so kind could have these cockeyed opinions about whose desires were more okay when they were equally well-meaning.Pretty much

[amblinwiseass]

Long story short I grew up entirely without Church, something which I've mostly been relieved about, but there've also been persistent, mysterious pangs of grief which I JUST NOW REALIZED came because churches are really mostly about community

It's not just "growing up in the church" that does it; I grew up first Roman Catholic and then Southern Baptist, and I'm just as unclear on the whole concept of 'sense of belonging' as you seem to be. You've got to grow up in the church and be the kind of person that that church is willing to accept, which in my experience is a whole 'nother proposition.

[amoux]

That is a really excellent point. Thank you for... well, pointing it out to me. X)

[pen_umbra]

*raises hand* Or you end up like me!

HAY GUYS. Popping in to this thread a year late or so. :V Thanks for the add, Lumi! Was nice meeting you. Hopefully this whole "no new acquaintances at FC" thing ends now. :|