It can be disorienting at first, if you’re not used to hearing it. It’s loud, for one. And wild, and raw. It’s rarely sweet.
Raucous voices spill out of the little country church, past the creaky wooden pews, the old wood-paneled walls, the ceiling fans whirring overhead and into the Alabama heat beyond.
The music isn’t beautiful, exactly, at least not in the most traditional sense. It’s compelling, unsettling.
The dusty carpet in the aisles does little to dampen the sound as dozens of feet hit the wood floor beneath the pews, keeping time.
Liberty Baptist Church sits on a little rise in the country road atop Sand Mountain, shadowed by enormous oak trees and nestled beside a small cemetery.
The sanctuary side door is propped open to the damp Alabama breeze and the summer rain outside.
The music inside is known as Sacred Harp, a singing tradition of four-part harmony rooted in early American music and cultivated in country churches across the South.