Ring Shouts (Concerts)

Topic: Origins - Ring Shout
Ring shouts survived because they could be modified as individuals’ social situations and religious beliefs changed. As the rituals moved from bare cabins to churches, the architecture of the locations introduced variations.

When shouts were held outdoors or in empty rooms, it was possible for everyone present to move in a circle. When they first moved indoors, participants objected to benches that cluttered the space. [1] Eventually, churches attached pews to the floors, and shouts survived the loss of the ring.

Protestant churches that held revivals reserved an area between the front row of pews and the altar rail for the unconverted to come commit themselves to Christ. [2] The exhorters, mentioned by Fredrica Bremer in New Orleans in 1852, [3] moved into the space to direct their energies on those on the mourning bench. The Bolton Brothers said their mother was among those who gathered around would-be converts. [4]

This wide open area, which had no name in diagrams of Protestant churches, was a transitional space that was not part of the formal church represented by the altar. When gospel groups performed in church concerts they didn’t stand on the platforms used by pastors where they could be seen. Instead, they sang in the metaphorical mourning benches.

The exception was modern megachurches that had turned their altars into stages with large aprons reaching into the empty spaces. Groups like Keith Johnson [5] and the Bolton Brothers worked on the apron in front of a curtain that, if it did not actually shield the altar, acted as a symbolic barrier between formal and information religious areas.

When musicians like George Nesbitt and the Trinity Inspirational Mass Choir did sing behind the altar in Goose Creek, South Carolina, it was because they were perceived to be part of the service, not a separate concert. [6]

Artists could only reach the mourning benches the way converts did, by walking up the aisles. They didn’t have access to the side rooms used by the pastor and choir. Those processionals became so much a part of the concert that Willa Ward published a picture of her sister Clara and the Ward Singers "entering through the audience at Philadelphia Convention Hall, 1951." [7]

They no doubt mounted the stage and had access to the wings in the secular space, but the procession emphasized that they were not preachers there to convert unbelievers. The role remained the same as the musicians observed by Laura Towne on Saint Helena in 1862 who stood to the side while the others moved in the circle. [8] The backup singers and instrumentalists were there to serve the needs of the participants.

The quartet soloist did not emerge until the Soul Stirrers added a second lead singer around 1939, so the soloist had a full quartet backing him. [9] Ray Allen believed the lead singer took on the role of the priest who re-enacted the drama of contact with the Holy Spirit on behalf of the audience, who might or might not join him or her. [10]

Allen’s experience was with gospel groups in Brooklyn, New York. One of the men in a group he interviewed, instead emphasized the expectations of the audience. When they were in Sumter, South Carolina, for the wedding of one of the group’s kinfolk, Jeff Richardson told Allen:

"You see people down here, they know how to have church! [. . .] They know how to get down and clap their hands, and shout, and have a good time without any music [instruments]. Up in New York they just mess around, until it’s time to hear some music and clap their hands." [11]

For many concert goers, the lead replaced the exhorter. It was his or her role to abet their religious experience. That was why Johnson invited people to come down into the mourning bench space and made it permissible to dance.

Ring shouts originally lasted for hours, but they weren’t all climax. People danced and rested. One woman told Lydia Parrish on Saint Simons Island: "‘When it gets hot, them that’s on the outside of the church comes runnin’ in.’ I asked what she meant by ‘getting hot.’ ‘O, you feel good. You know things is warmin’ up and you gets revived’." [12]

The pacing occurred on several levels. Within songs in the prelude-denouement format, there was the movement from exhortation to exhilaration. In a performance, artists sang other types of songs. Willa Ward said, in a concert in a Los Angeles church in 1949, they

"opened with ‘Jesus Is All the World to Me,’ which I had arranged. Clara, Marion, and I blasted the line ‘When I’m sad, He makes me glad, He’s my friend.’ Then we dropped the volume. Marion and I did a spot obbligato in high register and close harmony with Cara ad-libbing."

Willa indicated they were very attuned to their audience responses.

"We could see the listeners twitch in their seats—we knew their reserve from crumbing. By the time we eased into our heavy hitters, the congregation was crying, shouting, and holy dancing in the aisles. Even the ushers lost control and joined the joyous happening." [13]

The Clara Ward Singers were stars who were responsible for an entire concert. Many gospel programs included several acts. Thus, the pacing of songs existed within individual acts that in turn were part of a series, in which each climax was followed by a lull at a level higher than the previous one. Each group then raised the emotional plateau for the next act. At any point, the atmosphere could become what Saint Simons’ Clara called hot, then cool, then reheat.

End Notes
1. Richard James Arnold’s observations on benches were quoted by Frederick Law Olmsted in the post for 25 September 2018.

2. Charles Finney and the introduction of mourning benches was discussed in the post for 12 August 2017.

3. For Bremer’s comments, see the post for 27 September 2018.
4. For the Bolton Brother’s comments, see the post for 12 August 2017.
5. Keith Johnson was discussed in the post for 23 September 2018.
6. Trinity Inspirational Mass Choir was discussed in the post for 30 September 2018.

7. Willa Ward-Royster. How I Got Over: Clara Ward and the World-Famous Ward Singers. Told to Toni Rose. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997. 90-91.

8. For more on Laura Towne, see the post for 20 September 2018.

9. Shelia G. Kidd. "Soul Stirrers." Handbook of Texas Online. 6 May 2013; last updated 5 October 2015.

10. Ray Allen. Singing in the Spirit. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991. Chapter 6.

11. Jeff Richardson. Quoted by Allen. 186. Ellipsis for text in the middle of the comment; bracketed comment in the original. Richardson played drums for Willie Johnson’s Brooklyn Skyways. He was born in Brooklyn, but "spent childhood summers with his grandmother in South Carolina and continues to visit friends and family on a regular basis." (Allen. 187.)

12. Lydia Parrish. Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands. New York: Creative Age Press, 1942. Reprint edition, Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1992. 89. Parrish did not provide Clara’s surname. "Revived" here drew on at least two meanings: given new energy and converted.

13. Ward. 75. Marion Williams often sang lead with the Ward Singers. Note the use of the word "eased."