Darien has been chosen as one of 12 Georgia towns that will host New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music, a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. New Harmonies will be at the Trailhead Center on First Street West, from July 21, 2012 through Sept. 1, 2012.
New Harm
onies takes a look back at “roots music” and how it has served as the foundation for blues, country, gospel, rhythm-and-blues, folk and rock-and-roll, and many other musical genres appreciated worldwide today.
Through a selection of photographs, recordings, instruments, lyrics and artist profiles, New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music will explore the distinct cultural identities of roots music forms. The exhibition will examine the progression of American roots music, as rich and eclectic as our country itself. Other musical genres profiled include zydeco, tejano, bluegrass and klezmer.
Why was Darien chosen for this exhibit?
The musical history of Darien and its surrounding coastal communities wraps itself around telling stories through song, from echoes of Indian drums, African rhythms and Scottish bagpipes to today’s most popular beats. Folklorists Lydia Parrish and Robert Winslow Gordon captured the rowing songs, work songs, reels, rags, shanties and shouts of African Americans in the 1920s and '30s.
While visiting the Georgia coast in the 1930s, linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner recorded many songs, among them a Mende funeral song that had survived the treacherous Middle Passage. Legendary recording artists -- including James Brown, Otis Redding and the Temptations, to name a few -- performed here as part of the "Chitlin' Circuit" from the 1940s through the '70s
We are the home of the critically acclaimed McIntosh County Shouters, Georgia Sea Island Singers, Bessie Jones and Mabel Hillery, and the many lesser known but enormously talented singers and musicians we have yet to rediscover and honor.
Did you know that Sapelo Island had a string band and a glee club that performed at the Chicago World's Fair in the 1930s?
No matter your taste -- blues, country, folk or gospel -- American roots music reveals the American story. It is the proud legacy of people reshaping themselves in a new and changing world.
An exhibit celebrating our local music history will be created to accompany New Harmonies. Arts and cultural organizations, schools, libraries, musicians, historians, museums, historical societies, preservation groups, downtown development groups and chambers of commerce will be invited to participate by offering programming and/or hosting performances and creating exhibits that tell the story of music on Georgia’s coast.
A celebration of our contributions to the colorful story of American music is long overdue. We hope you'll want to play a role in making the New Harmonies exhibit an experience our community will never forget.
Local Coordinator
Sudy Leavy
Executive Director
Keep McIntosh Beautiful
