Minutes of Sacred Harp Singings

The Southern Harmony singers of western Kentucky were saddened to suspend our beloved Big Singing for a second consecutive year. Shortly before the date anticipated for the 2020 session, Mark Cain had suggested to the membership of the Society for the Preservation of Southern Harmony Singing that we meet via Zoom to honor the day with singing and socializing. At that date, the paucity of known Southern Harmony recordings made convening over Facebook the preferable option. Due to hard work by Nate Zweig, Ron Pen, Joel Deckard, and the staff of the Kentucky Oral History Commission, enough recordings were assembled over the intervening year to render feasible a meeting via Zoom.

The get-together was convened at 1:30 p.m. with an address and prayer by Gene Gilliland, followed by the singing of 103 by the class generally. All selections were from the 1854 edition of The Southern Harmony or from memory.

Selections: Gene Gilliland 123; Del Nichols 8t; Amy Hollinger and Trent Hollinger 11; Linda Lou Franklin and Del Nichols 189; Tim Gregg 19t; Ginny Landgraf 276b; James Thobaben and Marcelyn Thobaben 16; Joel Deckard 89t; Mimi Wright 14; Mark Cain, Amy Hollinger, and Trent Hollinger 89b; Tim Reynolds 46; David Carlton 256.

RECESS

Selections: Linda Jane Story Hortter and Del Nichols 133; C. Leonard Raybon, Amy Hollinger, and Trent Hollinger 51; Prisca Rice 3t; Lisa Bennett, Prisca Rice, and David Smead 72t; Matt Meacham 83; Kerry Lovett and Lesa Lovett 332; Carla Smith 111; Mark Cain 296; Randy Webber “Come, Ye Disconsolate”; Prisca Rice 331t; Ginny Landgraf 331b; Mark Cain 71; Amy Hollinger and Trent Hollinger 107; Carla Smith 25b; David Carlton 38; John Meacham 299; Tim Reynolds 322; Gary E. Clark 31a (in absentia); Erin Fulton 80 (in honor of absent friends David Killingsworth, Don Waggener, and Pat Waggener). Gene Gilliland offered the closing prayer. The class then sang 334, listened to the closing prayer given at the 1994 Big Singing, and were subsequently dismissed.

Though no memorial was conducted, we wish Thomas Killingsworth of Michie, TN, father of David Killingsworth, to be remembered in these minutes. Our hearts are bound together with those of our circle struggling with illness or injury, including Ella Gilliland of Benton, KY; James Thobaben of Wilmore, KY; and Pat Waggener of Lexington, KY.

Thanks are due to those who identified, loaned, or digitized recordings; to Michael Sanders of Garden City, KS for lending his high-speed internet to the cause of this meeting; and to the many kind Sacred Harp singers who joined with our small and peculiar band. It is our very dear wish to meet again at the Marshall County courthouse in the coming year, where we hope to greet you all as “a tune from that old Southern Harmony again rings out.”

Chairman—Gene Gilliland; Secretary—Erin Fulton