Search - Brother Elmer Mackall :: A Bright Side Somewhere: Brother Elmer Mackall Sings Old Time Songs of Praise, African-American Sacred Singing in Southern Maryland, Vol. 2

Old Time Church Piano Playing and Singing by Brother Elmer Mackall, First Place Vocalist 2004, Maryland State Arts Council Recorded by folklorist Carrie Nobel Kline in 2002-03, this solo CD celebrates the lifetime musical achievement of 80-year-old Brother Elmer Mackall, a singing and piano-playing legend in rural African-American churches throughout southern Maryland. Raised up in Calvert County, Brother Mackall was deeply influenced by the singing of his mother, Rosie Mackall, who died in 1981 at the age of 102. The family sang to survive the oppression of share cropping in sweltering southern Maryland tobacco fields. The call-and-response singing with which Rosie Mackall sustained her family has its roots both in West Africa and the Caribbean Islands from which slaves were brought beginning in the Seventeenth Century. In 2004 the Maryland State Arts Council recognized Brother Mackall with a first place award for vocal performance. His singing, recorded in his living room accompanied by himself on his sister's spinet piano, is both spirited and infectious. His piano playing rocks with a blend of ragtime and barrel house riffs.