Antigodlin Stories of the Sacred Harp | John Lawrence Brasher

This book celebrates the people who sang Sacred Harp songs in the Deep South in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and brings to light their vanished worlds. Rich in lively anecdotes and period photographs, the narrative, through treasured heirloom stories, guides our gaze to Alabama abolitionists, forgotten ballads, drone singing, shoutin' happy singers, swept yards, red-eye gravy, and Baptist biscuits. And the author delights in telling his own early journeys into Sacred Harp singing.

"In this book issued in early 2023, Professor Brasher writes in the Introduction: 'Much of this book focuses on the history and people of Sacred Harp singing in one particular community in northeast Alabama where my family has lived for 175 years. It relies on the hitherto unpublished oral narratives that deserve to see print. I hope that their content may enhance understanding of the wider Sacred Harp tradition and its strong and worthy people.' The word 'antigodlin,' which the author learned from rural people in Alabama, means 'at an odd angle.' The book should be of particular interest to Sacred Harp singers in the southern U.S." --Steven L. Sabol

"Larry has made a great contribution to our knowledge of Sacred Harp singers in the 19th and 20th centuries. No one else has brought us such an up-close portrait. An amazing study, with so much detail, so much humor, so much poignance. I can't recommend it highly enough!"--Buell Cobb