One song is "Love is Little" which I posted earlier, a Shaker hymn. The first one, not a complete recording, is a version of the one I currently sing best, "Come to Zion", This was performed in a Shaker meeting house (no, that is NOT me, though eventually I will post me singing these. This is a woman dressed like a Shaker. She shows an example of the clapping gestures that traditionally accompanied this hymn).
The next video is called "I Will Bow and Be Simple". I like the fact that it is recorded obviously by a group of singers with not-perfect and yet beautiful voices. The slideshow of Shaker life is really interesting historically. One slide shows an African-American woman in Shaker dress. That is because the Shakers routinely bought people out of slavery and later, after slavery was outlawed, also allowed African Americans to become Shakers; there was no segregation in their communities. There is also a slide or two of women practicing a play about the Shakers; they are in one of the "advance and retreat" marches. The men and women would march on different sides, approach each other, and then dance back, while singing.
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