Georgia Shape Note Announcements

New Books

Two books have recently been published. One is a hardbound reprint of the 1911 J.L. White book, beautifully edited and reset to remove the typos. Price is $25/book plus mailing and shipping charges. The other is the Georgian Harmony, a spiral-bound printing of unpublished music by Raymond Hamrick, $12/book plus shipping. Contact John Plunkett, bildad12 -at- hotmail.com, for information on ordering either of these books.

Holly Springs Story

Mike Hinton writes about his return to Holly Springs in 2006 after 4 decades:

This last weekend I attended the Holly Springs singing at the Holly Springs Primitive Baptist church near Bremen, GA. What a wonderful old church house and place to sing! The church is a very old building which has wood floors, wood walls and a wooden ceiling. The sound of the tunes was just marvelous! The church as new comfortable pews, air conditioning and ceiling fans.

This singing has been going on here for many, many years. There was a good crowd on Saturday and a smaller crowd on Sunday. Both days were very good and made everyone present feel great to be singing in that old church. The singers sang every song with enthusiasm and with spirit.

Charlene Wallace was the chairlady for the singing and Carlene Griffin was the vice chairlady. Hugh McGraw was in charge of the arranging committee. The singing ran with the precision which comes with many years experience and it was well organized. These folks have been to literally 1000's of singings and know how to have a day of singing with little time for anything else.

There were fewer out of state singers than in previous years, as seems to be the case this year with singings in general. Perhaps due to the gas and/or airline increased costs this year. That being said, this was a good singing by any measure. Carroll Lunsford was there from CA and Henry Schuman from Michigan was there. Both plan to be at the national convention next week as well. I was the only Texas singer present. (Perhaps this was like the Texas rangers of old: one war - one ranger. One singing - one Texan! Just kidding, of course!)

There were three people present who were 90 or more years old. Gladys McGraw, Lonnie Rogers and Raymond Hamrick. Lonnie Rogers spoke following the Memorial Lesson about his concern that this kind of convention continue for many years and that the traditions continue to be observed as well. He said that it was important to remember and to honor those who have gone before so that we may sing and enjoy the singing today and tomorrow as well. I later assured Lonnie that the singings I attend all over the country really do follow the "traditional" organization and that conventions have the memorial lesson.

It was also special for me to spend some time with Lonnie Rogers as he was in what is believed to have been the last singing school that T J Denson taught in 1935. He said it was easy to sing for Uncle Tom because he would get the young singers right in front of him and help them sing. As best we can ascertain, there are 6 living singers who attended a singing school taught by T J Denson. Three live in Texas, two in GA and one in Alabama. Richard Mauldin, Amanda Denson-Brady and I (and his other grand children)love to hear stories about our grandfather since he died before we were born.

This was also a walk down memory lane for me as it had been 41 or 42 years since I attended this singing. When I was in college, I went to this singing with my aunt, Ruth Denson Edwards and our cousin, R E "Bob" Denson. They lived in Alabama and Bob drove his big old white Oldsmobile to GA. As Aunt Ruth and Bob talked and sang, Bob and the car were all over the 2 lane highway, sometimes off the road and sometimes on the road. I was scared! So, on Sunday, before we started singing, I asked Bob if I could go fill the gas tank. I did that task and kept the keys. After the singing, I got in the drivers seat and drove us all back to Ala. They sang and talked about the singing and had a great time. We stayed on the highway and got back home safely. It was good to recall that special time spent with them.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the dinner on the ground. What a long, long table full of wonderful food there was for both days. Fresh vegetables of all sorts; chicken, fried, baked and in dressing; ham and pork; and cantaloupe and tomatoes. Then there were the desserts - which were beyond belief. One dear lady made 130 fried apple pies! There were cobblers, home made chocolate pies, pound cakes, bundt cakes, coconut cakes, apple pie, peach pie, almost any kind of dessert you can imagine was there. It was a time of great enjoyment for many of us. And, isn't that the case at singings! How we do love the dinner on the ground time!

One more item then I will stop. Richard Mauldin had a copy of the newly printed Sacred Harp 1991 Revision tunebook. They are so nice! I think that everyone who sees them will be very pleased. Richard sent a note this morning that he has started mailing the books which have been on order. I think he told me Saturday that he had orders for 60 cases of books. So, if you have ordered a book or books, they should soon be on the way. Richard will have copies available at the National Convention next week in Birmingham as well.

If you want to attend an "old timey singing" in an old Southern church that will take you back in time, plan to attend the Holly Springs singing in Bremen, GA. It is the first Sunday and Saturday before in June. You will be treated wonderfully. I plan to attend this singing again and again.

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Last updated March 3, 2008. Additions, corrections, comments, or questions? Send us an email