Search - Various Artists :: Awake My Soul/Help Me to Sing

"To quote Leonard Cohen, `God is alive, magic is afoot' in the soaring magnificence of Southern sacred-harp choirs, a robust, harmonically intricate blend of country joy and unearthly drone." -- David Fricke, Rolling Stone A 2XCD set made up of the soundtrack for the acclaimed Sacred Harp documentary Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp and a compilation of artists performing their arrangements of Sacred Harp songs. The soundtrack CD contains some of the finest recordings of traditional Sacred Harp singing, a beautifully haunting and powerful form of a cappella shapenote singing. Help Me to Sing, on the other hand, features such diverse artists as John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Rayna Gellert (of all-female old-time string band Uncle Earl), The Innocence Mission, Murry Hammond (Old 97's), Danielson (subjects of the awardwinning documentary Danielson: A Family Movie), Doc Watson, Richard Buckner, Elvis Perkins, Grammy-winning bluegrass artist & songwriter Jim Lauderdale, Mac Powell (singer of the multi-platinum selling and Grammy-winning band Third Day), Rick Moody (novelist of Garden State and The Ice Storm), and many more. Help Me to Sing is noteworthy in that it contains 19 tracks commissioned especially for this album, and it will certainly free Sacred Harp from any perception of being "difficult music." Indeed, the fact that stands out most strikingly on this record is the utter beauty of the melodies. Though most of these songs were written over 100 years ago, their melodies and lyrical themes are certain to resonate profoundly with our generation.