Voices of the American Spiritual

Voices – that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? For anyone who’s a radio lover, that’s what it really boils down to. Listening to the voice of another human being tell and sing stories – some with emotion, some not. Either way, you can almost feel like you’re in the same room with someone just by listening to the tenor of their voice. There’s something special that connects us – mouth to ear – and it’s more than the sound alone.

Everett McCorvey touches on that idea in his interview with Bob. One of the members of the American Spiritual Ensemble, John Wesley Wright, says that he doesn’t have to plan the songs – he just knows how they go, that “there has to be some ancestral connection.” To him, the spirituals of the American slaves transcend a physical time and place. To me, that’s part of the beauty of the human voice. So when Bob proposed talking to Dr. McCorvey, I was thrilled to know we could get all twenty-five singers in to our performance studio. If one voice in the studio can be considered intimate – then twenty-five of them singing such powerful lyrics can be considered uplifting. In the interview, Bob asks if you have to have faith to sing those songs. More than likely, McCorvey responds, adding, that as a listener, “it just does something inside of your soul.”

To learn more about Dr. Everett McCorvey, Director and founder of the American Spiritual Ensemble, and professor of voice and Director of Opera at the University of Kentucky, see this web page:

 

http://www.americanspiritualensemble.com/store.html

 

To learn more about the singers of the Ensemble, go to their web site.

 

 

You can find information about their CDs and DVDs from this web page. 

 

-Ariana