When William Elliott Whitmore first emerged with his 2003 death-folk magnum opus Hymns for the Hopeless, he cast an immediate spell over the alternative-folk cognoscenti. Since then, the haunting Iowa ...

In a recent concert at First Church Congregtional in Cambridge, MA, vocal ensemble Musica Sacra sang folk hymns and canticles from two regions that, at first blush, don't seem to have a whole lot to ...

Surrounded by other singers arranged in a square, Judy Hauff rocks her feet heel to toe, rhythmically slashes the air with her arm and sings “Fa la sol la sol.” This is “shape note” music, an a ...

Noreen Schofield knows she did her job if her fellow parishioners leave Mass feeling better than they did when they arrived. The music she and her fellow Catholics provide each weekend at Mary, Mother ...

It’s no wonder many of the church’s great prayers and meditations have been set to music through the ages. Comforting, convicting and inspiring verses are made even more stirring and memorable with ...

"There Are NO Black Shakers" is a contemporary folk opera re-interpreting traditional Shaker hymns to tell the very true story of Prime Lane, a free Black man who joined the Shaker Society in Albany ...

The 12-string guitarist Sarah Louise and fiddler Sally Anne Morgan (Black Twig Pickers, Pelt) understand that folk music is a music that moves forward, as old hymns and songs passed down are just as ...