Singing and dinner on the ground

Some interesting reads I've stumbled across (or been introduced to).

* All Day Singing, Dinner on the Ground, and an Upright Piano -- “One of the scenes in my novel, Catfish Alley, involves an all day singing and dinner on the ground. During the editing process, my New York editor asked me, 'Can’t you just say picnic?'”
* CDSS Sings—Imagining “The Last Words of Copernicus” -- "“The Last Words of Copernicus” is a lively yet simple shape-note song sung a cappella in four-part harmony."
* Gadsby's Hymns -- This site contains all the hymns from Gadsby's Selection, by author, first lines and meter.
* Southern Shape-Note Music -- "These are the syllables used by oldsters in rural regions of the South to intone the major scale, exactly as they were used in the British Isles long before Shakespeare."
* The Ground and the Fury -- "Every square foot of splintered table space was contested and every element of a good 'spread' subjected to off-stage critique."
* What’s on the Praise Menu? Examining the legacy of the gospel song -- “'What shall we sing?' has long been a dependable hot-button question in the church.”