“Thom’s book is an authentic and emotional journey into shape note singing. He provides a realistic interpretation of a very personal and profound practice which reflects my own experience of this music. Thom has a writer’s eye to pounce on the strongest lyrics which are powerful and full of meaning. I loved this book.”
—Kelly Macklin, editor, Shenandoah Harmony
“An instant classic. Recalling Nick Tosches’ Country and Dennis Covington’s Salvation on Sand Mountain, Th. Metzger’s immersive and confessionally textured study of marginalized American hymnody comes as near as words can to capturing the ungovernable spirit-essence of backwoods-protestant song and ritual.”
—Chip Smith, publisher and editor, Nine-Banded Books
“Metzger weaves the long past and the present with a gem-studded, coal choked narrative that tells the reader everything they need to know about who sang, who sung, who sings Sacred Harp, and what happens when they do, and why.”
—Steven Sherrill, author of The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
“Th. Metzger’s Strong Songs of the Dead succeeds spectacularly in juxtaposing the fiercely living world of Sacred Harp singing with his parallel theme: ever-present death that resonates through lyrics, rural cemeteries, and the singers themselves.”
—Christian Goodwillie, Director and Curator of Special Collections and Archives, Hamilton College.
“Metzger writes vividly and imaginatively while making his own eclectic sense of an experience at first intensely foreign to him.”
—E. Fulton, hymnologist
“Metzger’s work and voice resound in strange harmonies, leaving you wanting more… But what we do have here is lovely: a highly intelligent book about the power of the human voice.”
—Carl Abrahamsson, author of Occulture: The Unseen Forces That Drive Culture Forward
“Th. Metzger explores the multivalent contradictions of Sacred Harp singing in a highly personal, engaging series of vignettes, at times assuming the role of informal anthropologist and others the stranger in a strange land. This book will engage both insider and casual reader unfamiliar with this deep-rooted American tradition.”
—Nick Pappas, Independent Scholar
“This intimate portrait of the Sacred Harp subculture, which Thom Metzger and wife Eileen have embraced with deep, ecstatic fervor, offers the author’s most spiritual yet grounded book to date: the literary equivalent of a Joe Coleman painting, but suffused with a Hildegard von Bingen soundtrack.”
—Derek Owens, author of The Villagers, and Memory’s Wake
“Metzger’s project is to describe a phenomenon that is widely shared but eludes communication in language.This work revels in the personal rather than indulging in the academic custom of removing the teller from the tale. The reader will come away wanting to do the thing, to engage in shape note singing in a group, and Metzger assures us that it’s just a matter of showing up and trying.”
—Sarah Perry, author of Every Cradle is a Grave
“I read Th. Metzger’s new book, Strong Songs of the Dead, which is excellent. I’ve loved Sacred Harp singing—a style of Christian hymnody still prevalent in some parts of the south—for a long time. Metzger’ book really emphasizes the diversity of people involved in the sings, its autonomy from church structures, and the truly strange lyrics in some of the hymns.”
—David Tighe, Cuneiform
“Th. Metzger, a talented writer, band musician, and longtime Sacred Harp singer living in Rochester, NY, has published in 2024 a personal memoir of his decades of experiences in Sacred Harp singing in Alabama and the Northeast, the singers he knew, and how the songs and their texts have provided meaning during his life’s journey. The 228-page book contains 51 short chapters, each one a fascinating reminiscence. The first four chapters are an absorbing description of a Yankee singer’s first experiences at Sand Mountain [AL] singings. Later chapters present Metzger’s musings about various topics. Some propose philosophical associations between Sacred Harp, Nietzsche, and Greek mythology, and between Sacred Harp and other music genres. Some chapters describe activities other than Sacred Harp or Shenandoah Harmony singing, but Metzger usually manages to relate them to Sacred Harp. Some of the chapters are humorous while many are profound. Several Southern singers are given pseudonyms. The memoir is not meant to be a general description or recent history of Sacred Harp singing or of the singing community, which is composed of a wide variety of people, many of whom would not share his personal views. In particular his views would not be shared by many Southern singers, traditional and otherwise. The title may be off-putting and inaccurate to many singers. Metzger describes the songs as “of the dead” instead of “of death” because he found some of the texts (by Isaac Watts, etc.) on 19th century tombstones. His use of the word “pagan” in the subtitle is based on his view that loud and ecstatic communal singing of songs, and in particular the singing of the shape syllables, resemble ancient pagan rites. He explains that he uses the word “pagan” as it originally meant — rustic and primitive — even though that is not the current meaning. Nevertheless, the book is an interesting and provocative read.”
—Steven L. Sabol, Sacred Harp and Related Shape-Note Music: Resources.
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