I’m at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. Today I’ll be attending the pretty-much all-day Sacred Harp singing at Piccolo Spoleto. SCETV Radio interviewed me for their opening show of “Spoleto Today” for the 2011 season. Here’s the podcast.
I’m in the second half of the show, which is about 52 minutes long. If you happen to get this on Saturday May 28 2011, the singing is from 10am to noon and 2-4pm at Gage Hall, 4 Archdale Street in Charleston.
cleve callison’s blog 
Thanks for replying! I heard great things about last year’s Spoleto singing, by the way.
My comment about Shawmut was a little bit actual criticism, a little bit comico-stereotypical grousing, and a little bit more, I hope, about using the very little time there was to listen to music on this piece. Actually, I think it speaks to the best of the sometimes dogmatic SH community that it makes a place for the work of one of its harshest critics.
If you’re ever up in New York, there’s a lot of chances to sing . . .
Very engaging; great that you could spend so much time talking about Sacred Harp. How was the singing on the 28th? (But did you HAVE to play SHAWMUT?)
nbmandel: I enjoyed the singing on May 28th very much. It’s always great to have a large house, even if many are beginners. There were several Northeastern singers there, and a number from Savannah who often sing with the Charleston folks. The food was excellent, and as usual, the hour of singing after lunch was the most spirited. The organizers told me the crowd was smaller than last year’s, which I missed. But still powerful.
As for Shawmut — well, I suppose some folks don’t like it, or don’t like Lowell Mason or whatever. When I first produced my documentary I didn’t know about the negative feelings some have about his trying to “dignify” the older style. But it’s a great tune and the poetry is some of Wesley’s most inspired (which is saying a lot). Our group in Winston-Salem loved to sing it, especially in performances.