A Brief History of A Brief History, and other music links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• A Brief History of A Brief History of the Sacred Harp -- “Yet James’s book remains an important source of information about early Sacred Harp singers, conventions, and songbooks.”
• Aldine S. Kieffer and the Musical Million -- “One of the most influential of these publications was the Musical Million and Fireside Friend, begun in 1807 by Aldine S. Kieffer and Ephraim Ruebush...”
• Bandcamp Will Again Waive Its Cut of Sales to Support Artists -- “In an effort to assist artists during these unprecedented times, last month Bandcamp decided to waive its cut of sales for an entire day.”
• Country music artist Joe Diffie dies from complications of COVID-19 -- “County music artist Joe Diffie has died from complications of coronavirus, according to a post on the artist’s Facebook page. He was 61.”
• Frank Smith, Andrew Jenkins, and Early Commercial Gospel Music -- “In 1923 two forces were working in the South to transform the face of American music: the radio and the phonograph record.”
• Gospel Waves -- “Smith’s Sacred Singers were an amateur ‘shape-note’ singing group led by J. Frank Smith, a Methodist teacher based in Braselton, GA.”
• Let Everybody Sing -- “All these years later, I have developed a theory about singing conventions. I believe they represented refuge for certain people.”
• Our Debt to George Pullen Jackson -- “In his speech, Wolfe notes Jackson’s key role in drawing attention to Sacred Harp singing by telling its story in print.”
• Shaped-Note Music -- What’s That? -- “Except for the shape of the note heads, shape-note written music has the same basic appearance as regular music notation.”
• The Curious History of Shape-Notes -- “The Reverend John Tufts spear-headed a movement to establish singing schools with the publication in 1721 of his Introduction to the Singing of Psalm Tunes.”
• The History Of A Famous Church Hymn -- “The late 19th century tune is still familiar and regularly sung in churches and by gospel groups today, but its history is not as familiar.”
• The “Sacred Harp” in the Urban North: 1970-1995 -- “In typically informal Sacred Harp fashion, the idea for this project arose during a morning break at a Sacred Harp singing at Bethel Primitive Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana...”