WHY WE SING

"When we're singing together, we are always facing each other. We're always singing to each other and for each other. Sacred Harp singing is a way of communicating. Our people can sing their love for each other in ways that they can't talk about. There's another place that we go when we're singing, and I don't know how to get to that place, except to go there by singing. The singing that we do with each other is bigger than we are. This singing is not anything that I could invent or discover. There's things that take place at these sings, there's power exhibited that people can't contrive. There is something here that had to come from Above. We can't make this up." David Lee, July 2000.

Love for each other and their way of life flows throughout the singing of this region. Above, Tollie
Lee (leading) and his cousin, David Lee, make a connection through song.

Photo by Laura Densmore, 2000.