January 11, 2008

St. Ann folk group featured on CD ‘God in Music City’

Ned Andrew Solomon, Tennessee Register

The St. Ann Catholic Church Folk Group recently went into the studio to record a few songs for a new compilation CD, “God in Music City.”

The album is the brainchild of Greg Barz, a professor of ethnomusicology at Vanderbilt University. The 2 CD-set was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture at Vanderbilt.

“Greg conceived of the whole idea,” said David Krause, who sings and plays keyboard for the Folk Group. “The focus was to explore the musical experience, in praise and worship, among various groups throughout the greater Nashville area. It covers a number of denominations and different faiths.”

According to Barz, the recording effort was originally intended to provide a better understanding of how people living in Nashville perform their religious beliefs on an everyday basis.

“The project quickly grew into a larger effort, however, that documents the many voices that exist in Nashville that both support religious practices as well as question and interpret those religious expressions,” said Barz. “The compilation takes listeners on a sonic tour through many of the spiritual and religious issues that surround us in Nashville’s religious soundscape, and certainly contribute to everyday life in Music City USA.”

The St. Ann Folk Group contributes two songs to that sonic tour, and tracks by Debbie and Greg Wolf, Folk Group members who perform as a duo, are also featured on the CD set.

“I included them to document a very special paraliturgical moment that occurs at St. Ann during a break in the Eucharist, when Father Philip Breen offers the young people of the parish a special blessing,” said Barz. “During this blessing, Debbie and Greg have supplied local ‘down from the mountain’ renditions of Southern hymns and ballads. The congregation has been deeply moved by these musical moments. The track, ‘He Leadeth Me,’ is especially representative of this paraliturgical moment.”

Although the Folk Group has been a fixture at St. Ann’s for many years, it’s actually the first time the current members – Krause, Greg and Debbie Wolf, Margie Druffel, Tim Weber, Flora Murray, Peggy Buchanon and Mary Richardson – have ventured into a studio.

“We recorded at Second Presbyterian Church in Green Hills, which is acoustically a great sanctuary, and a beautiful place,” said Krause. “It was very relaxed and quite a bit of fun.”

The session was produced by Barz, who was recently nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Traditional World Music album, for his production of a recording released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, “Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Healing, and HIV/AIDS in Uganda.” “Singing for Life” documents women’s responses to the AIDS pandemic in Africa.

For Krause, working with a Grammy nominated producer was a definite side benefit of participating in the collaboration. Another perk was having the opportunity to delve deeper into the intersection between his own music and religious beliefs.

“It’s an enhancement of what church music does for me overall,” said Krause. “It broadens the whole liturgical experience, and allows me to share my faith with the congregation in an intimate and emotional way. Now to be able to do that to a broader listening audience is very cool.

“We’re not a professional group, and the recording is far from flawless. But it speaks from the heart and soul, and hopefully that comes across on the record.”

The CD is available for purchase or download at CDBaby.com.