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Sweet Honey in the Rock
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In post-Sept. 11 life, music is spoon-fed to masses of broken, confused and wandering souls. But it is mostly over-the-top, anthemic music, sloppy with histrionics and sloganeering.
It seemingly fits the country's mood.
According to Sweet Honey in the Rock founder Bernice Johnson Reagon, America is struggling to finally fit in where once we assumed we set the standard.
"Our country has found what it's like to belong to the rest of the world," Reagon says by phone from her Washington, D.C., office.
Let us return, then, to the Rock, to the A Cappella poems and greasy little hymns of Sweet Honey in the Rock.
In them you'll hear Reagon and Shirley Childress Saxton, Ysaye Barnwell, Carol Maillard, Aisha Kahlil and Nitanju Bolade Casel groan, grunt, harmonize, oooh and aaah through rehoned spirituals, reworked work songs, deceptively simple raps, harmoniously thick lullabies and original stews, at once uplifting and mournful.
For example, "Spiritual" and "In the Morning When I Rise" from 1993's 20th anniversary disc, Still On the Journey, both exemplify the thickening-as-they-go, style cooked to perfection by Sweet Honey. The shakeres are your uncles chiming in, and the clapping is your grandmother's hands.
Sweet Honey's canon of work is timeless yet relevant enough to have withstood 29 years of cultural and musical upheaval. Listen to anything at any point in Sweet Honey's 17-disc collection, and you'll be in Soweto, Cincinnati, Stonewall, Birmingham, Los Angeles or any other spot on the globe that's hosted strife, upheaval and redemption.
For Reagon music has always been like breathing. "I came into music the way I came into breathing," Reagon says. "It was there."
Her clear and even-speaking voice does not betray her emotional tenor singing voice that's churned Sweet Honey along on the world's stages.
"I was in a culture where music was an ingrained part of the culture," she says. "One thing Sweet Honey in the Rock offers is how important a support, an analyst, a blanket, music can be. Sometimes when things get too intense, escape is very necessary.
"However, if you're trying to get away, you can't really come to a Sweet Honey show. People tend to bring a lot to our shows. They're changed. When we walk onto the stage, we walk into a crowded air space. When we get to particular times, we've been told there's a song people play to get through," she says.
Everything about Sweet Honey is underscored by loyalty. Their fans are as fanatic as the surest Grateful Dead head, and their shows are equal parts tent revivals, family reunion and exorcism. Being black women, mothers, lovers and daughters does not confine its members. Rather, they define black womanhood as mothers, lovers and daughters. They are freedom fighters, activists and spokeswomen for a nation.
All this talk of black feminine strength teeters on stereotypes.
"I feed into it and out of it," Reagon says. "I'm socialized of that image. Sweet Honey in the Rock has the characteristics of rock -- strong -- and honey, which is sweet and manageable. I've been a major instigator suggesting we need to change black culture and give black women a break. We really can't deliver the people ourselves. We've done amazingly well, but we also break down and we often fail. We've hidden the stories of sisters who have failed, and told only stories of sisters who've succeeded."
Reagon is a little of both. However, 29 years and 22 members later, she remains at Sweet Honey's core. She's celebrated for her scholarship, teaching, songwriting and production. She was featured in the 1992 Emmy-nominated PBS documentary The Songs Are Free: Bernice Johnson Reagon with Bill Moyers; she is Distinguished Professor of History at American University and Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History; and in 1994 she was the conceptual producer and narrator of the Peabody Award-winning radio series Wade in the Water: African-American Sacred Music Traditions. She's the daughter of a Baptist minister, founder of the Freedom Singers and accidental founder of Sweet Honey, a group she started in 1973 while teaching vocal music at the D.C. Black Repertory Company.
"My job basically was to prepare these young people for any vocal work they might have to do," Reagon says. "The strongest singer said, 'This should be a concert.' I ignored it. It was mentioned again and I said, 'Hmmm. What kind of group would that be?' Sweet Honey in the Rock was named after I taught that first song."
The group's name stems from singer Mamie Forehand's "honey in the rock" refrain recorded in 1927 and based on Psalm 81:16 wherein David tells his people their obedience to the Lord will be rewarded with "honey out of the rock."
Random congregations through the years added "Sweet."
"I didn't have any sense that 29 years later I would be standing in one of the major works of my life. We try to convey that we're not minor gods and that we're human beings. Some of us have amazing strengths and some are fragile.
"In a country like this, we can never have one marker for success or one marker for what's done right."
SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK performs Saturday at the Aronoff Center, Downtown, and Sunday and Monday at Hall Auditorium at Miami University, Oxford.
FRIDAY 25
In BLACK HAWK DOWN director Ridley Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer take us inside the brutal and labyrinthine streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, in what will prove to be a classic feature of combat. Based on the true story of a 1993 U.S. forces infiltration mission, Black Hawk Down honors its subjects with a sense that's both relentless and direct. The film's tagline, "Leave No Man Behind," is a strong reminder that war is about surviving in the moment; ideals and slogans are the before and after. -- TT CLINKSCALES
SUNDAY 27
Conformists beware: UNDERNEATH CINCINNATI is back. Following August's successful unearthing of underground video works from several locally-based filmmakers, Underneath Cincinnati returns to the cozy confines of SSNOVA (2260 Central Pkwy.) to display another batch of unique films and videos by local artists. Adding to Underneath's credibility is the fact that it's organized by one of the guys who brought you another local fave, The Happy Catchy Flashy Named Motion Picture Festival, so disappointment is not an option. The festivities begin 6 p.m. Sunday. 513-721-1313. -- JASON GARGANO
MONDAY 28
Being born and raised in Loveland, you'd think ANNE RANDOLPH might have been prepared for the mishaps of Internet dating. She's at the Cincinnati Playhouse on Monday evening at 7 p.m. for a comic monologue about her experiences for the next ALTERACTIVE performance. Her comic characters have been optioned by HBO for series development. 513-421-3888. -- RICK PENDER
TUESDAY 29
There's a wrong way and a Wright way. And first-time novelist CAMRON WRIGHT has definitely found the right way. His debut tome, Letters for Emily, centers on a tale close to my heart: the importance of one's grandparents. When Harry Whitney is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, he pens a series of bizarre poems to his beloved granddaughter. What appears to be incoherent rambling is actually a code to the life lessons Harry wishes to impart. Click here for an interview with Wright. 513-396-8960. -- BRANDON BRADY
WEDNESDAY 30
Chicago's FRUIT BATS, perhaps best described as a folky, less experimental version of England's Beta Band, return to the Southgate House a few months after opening for the overrated Modest Mouse at the same venue. The Fruit Bats don't really rock, but their unique combination of rhythms that build to a triumphant peak of fuzzy folk guitar, harmonies, and even a few bluegrass-style licks have a way of making your toes tap. Expect a satisfying, sit-down affair that should work very well in Southgate's parlour. 859-431-2201. -- DOUG TRAPP
