December 2009
16 posts
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“Jesus Leads Me All The Way”
From the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. The description reads:
Sung with stamping and clapping by Reverend Goodwin and the Zion Methodist Church congregation. Since most Christian churches forbade slaves from drumming, the Gullah style evolved with singers stamping and clapping rhythmic accompaniment. In this recording, singers stamp (and later clap) on the beat. Toward the end, however, they shift abruptly to a syncopated clapping pattern while their singing remains unsyncopated, a superb example of the survival of African polyrhythms in the New World. Recorded by Henrietta Yurchenco in John’s Island, South Carolina, March 29, 1970. Henrietta Yurchenco / John’s Island Collection, AFC 1996/066: 1.
