S W E E T • T H E • S O U N D
a manifesto in progress

Sweet the Sound is a musical project dedicated to finding, making, performing, and recording American gospel, blues, country, bluegrass, "old time," shape note, and other forms of American sacred music. The hope and prayer is that this music might spiritually inspire those who hear it, and provide some new ideas about what American sacred music is and can be. Toward these ends, STS will perform and produce basic resources (in print and on CD).

One premise: for many people today (particularly in North America, but not only here), the phrase "sacred music" refers to one of three things: 1) stodgy church hymns; 2) stuffy "high art," or 3) a particularly saccharine form of pop. Be not afraid: there are other ways, and these ways are "good news of great joy for all people" - especially for people looking to express and feel their faith in ways other than these three.

So, 5 goals:

• Make great music with great people
• Recover "forgotten" songs and ways of singing, and inspire interest in them
• Provide new musical resources and ideas, "new" but that also relate to local history and traditions (through print resources and CD's)
• Provide opportunities to try out these songs, and to try out some different singing practices (through performances)
• Articulate, evoke, and inspire spirituality through music

An STS "concert" might:

• be in a church, or a club, or a bar
• be highly interactive
• involve not only singing and listening to music, but also some learning about the music and its history
• be a kind of spiritual experience itself (implicitly or explicitly)

STS CD's might:

• include "recovered" tunes
• include original tunes
• include familiar tunes, but done in unfamiliar ways