Skylar Patterson - Come by Here

Topic: Movement - Rhythm
Most of the movements accompanying the videos of "Come by Here," which so far have been discussed, used forms of stepping. Bess Lomax Hawes described the technique used by Bessie Jones.

"she would step on her right foot, bring her left foot close to her right, and "step it down" without a weight change, repeating the pattern to the left. Though each movement was done flat-footed, as though stamping, she normally kept her footfalls quiet, except when she wanted an extra drumming effect.

"As I watched, it seemed to me that this was basically a dance movement. Though restrained, it is strong; the body swings slightly with it. The movements are on the first and third beats of the measure, at the points where the dancer would probably take his strong steps." [1]

At one time regional variations no doubt existed, but mobility since World War I led to marriages and church congregations that diminished the effects of geographical barriers. Jones was born in 1902 in a southwestern Georgia county next to that of Beatrice Johnson Reagon, [2] but lived on Saint Simon in the Georgia Sea Islands when she was interviewed by Hawes in the 1960s. In between she had lived in Florida, probably Alachua County during the Depression or World War II when it had a tung-oil processing plant. [3]

Individual styles now exist, some arising from the idiosyncratic developments of bodies and some from the adoption of coordinated choreography. The women in Evelyn Turrentine-Agee’s Detroit backup group wore stable heels that still limited their movement. Their feet were spaced in what dancers called a parallel second position. They shifted their weight from side to side, but did not move their feet. Occasionally the woman on the left in the video lifted her left foot an inch, but rarely moved her right one; toward the end she began to lift the left foot higher. [4]

The backup group for the Evereadys in Detroit came closest to following the pattern described by Jones, but the two soloists walked about, lifting their feet from the knees. [5] The Bolton Brothers from southern Mississippi also used their knees: they kept their feet close together in a dancers’ parallel first position and bent both knees together rather than stepping. [6]

Hawes described a more complex foot pattern called chugging:

"The nonreligious shout step appears in several traditional children’s plays as follows: with weight on the active foot, give a little shove backward as though hopping without the foot leaving the floor; dancers sometimes call this movement a ‘chug.’ While ‘chugging’ back on the right foot, swing the left foot forward. Step on the left foot and ‘chug’ it backward while swinging the right foot forward. This is done to a count of two: step, chug. The ultimate result, by the way, is that you stay in the same place." [7]

The backup group for Skylar Patterson used a variant of this in a video posted in late August of this year, 2017. The men had their feet slightly apart, and at least the one on the right had them slightly turned out. While Patterson was talking, the four men in Predestined flexed their knees in unison, one knee at a time. When they sang, they kicked one foot out in a arc keeping the heel on the floor, brought it back, and kicked out the other. They, or at least the most visible man on the right of the screen, wore boots that constrained the feet so they remained flat while the boot tips pointed up.

Patterson was described as a pastor, probably in the Union Baptist church in Columbiana, Mississippi, [8] just south of Birmingham. Most of the performance was directed at the audience, asking if they needed the Holy Ghost to appear and asking It to do so. Verses were sung only at the beginning and end.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Skylar Patterson
Vocal Accompaniment: four men

Instrumental Accompaniment: keyboard; two strummed instruments, probably an electric guitar and electric bass; one instrument resembling a steel guitar without the pedals

Rhythm Accompaniment: drum set

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Verses: down here praying, needs you
Theme: supplication to the Holy Ghost

Vocabulary:
Pronoun: somebody
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: down here praying

Format: recitative
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Line Meter: dactyl
Line Length: 9 syllables
Ending: none
Unique Features: none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: Patterson sang most of it on one note
Time Signature: strong Xx
Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: soloist supported by group. Patterson sang the statements in the verses and Predestined sang the refrains. When Patterson was speaking, they repeated "Oh Lord."

Singing Style:
Solo: Patterson sustained the first syllables of the Xxx dactylic feet, which aligned them with the contrasting Xx beat.

Group: chordal harmony

Notes on Performance
Occasion: no details provided

Location: stage, possibly in a high school, church hall, or gymnasium

Microphones: each had a wireless handheld mike; amplifiers or speakers were placed at the front of the stage

Clothing: the singers were wearing brown boots, black slacks, light-yellow sports jackets with black boutonnieres, white shirts, and no ties. The band members wore white shirts and light-colored tan slacks.

Notes on Movement
The men in Predestined stood still while Patterson was speaking in the beginning. As soon as the instruments began playing, they began bending their knees together. The man at the far left end sometimes bent his body forward as he moved.

Predestined members bent their arms that were not holding microphones at the elbows with their forearms extended. Their hands moved from left to right in no particular pattern.

Notes on Audience
One woman in the front row stood throughout. The rest were below the view of the camera; its microphones did not pick up any audience response.

When Patterson was introducing "Come by Here," he referred to the previous number before he started the group singing "we’re down here praying." He then said, "you remember that kind of church, don’t you?" He pointed at the standing woman and said, "You like that kinda church? I like you already." The group resumed singing, and the rest of his comments were directed to the audience in general.

Availability
YouTube: uploaded by Aj Jordan on 28 August 2017.

End Notes
1. Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes. Step it Down: Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987 edition. 20.

2. Reagon was discussed in the post for 14 October 2016.

3. Wikipedia. "Bessie Jones." She once told an interviewer she was born in Alachua, Florida, but that may have resulted from a misunderstanding. According to G. H. Blackmon, the first tung-oil processing plant was built in Alachua in 1928, and commercial interest began developing after 1930. It became a critical crop in 1938 when supplies from China were cut by war. ("Tung Oil Production in Florida." Florida State Horticultural Society. Proceedings 58:136-143:1945.)

4. Turrentine-Agee was discussed in the post for 6 August 2017. The shoes’ heels looked to be an inch thick at the floor and no more than two-inches high. The differences in how the one woman treated her left and right feet were typical for individuals who were not trained in dance classes to overcome the body’s natural inclination to favor one side.

5. The Evereadys’ live video was discussed in the post for 3 August 2017.

6. The Bolton Brothers were discussed in the post for 12 August 2017.

7. Jones. 46.

8. The obituary for Thelma Marie Lamb said her funeral service was held at Union Baptist Church in Columbiana and that Patterson presided at the burial service. (Tributes website). On Facebook, Patterson said he came from Columbiana.