Various Artists This field recording represents the earliest documentation of Bahamian folk song. In its a cappella forms, folklorist Alan Lomax detected echoes of the ring shouts and syncopated hand-clapping of the music of plantation slavery. The African American music of the Georgia Sea Islands (e.g., Rounder's Earliest Times: Georgia Sea Island Songs for Everyday Living and Georgia Sea Islands: Biblical Songs and Spirituals, from the Southern Journey series) pointed Lomax to the Bahamas, as did the music of Bahamian migrants in depression-era Florida. Among sponge fishermen from the islands, he sought to document the melding of African and English song influences, and continuities with West African musical traditions. He produced a rare collection of sea chanteys, launching songs, ballads, Baptist "rushing" songs, spirituals, sacred hymns, anthem wake songs done in the "rhyming" style, and singing sermons. Bahamian folk singer Joseph Spence, who gained notice during the '60s folk revival (e.g., The Real Bahamas /Nonesuch Explorer, and Gospel at Newport /Vanguard), grew up in this tradition, and his music in turn influenced the Weavers, the Beach Boys and Ry Cooder among many others. This historic re-release takes the listener back to the source. - Michael Stone
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