The New Jersey Folk Festival in New Brunswick is the oldest and largest continuously run festival of its kind.
By: Susan Van Dongen
When old-time gospel singers say they were spreading the "good news," they were speaking literally. There was a time when the professional gospel music circuit was dotted with tiny-but-dedicated churches in rural, impoverished areas without telephones or electricity, particularly in the South.
"We used to bring messages from the South to the North and vice versa," says the Rev. Marion Hannah, lead singer of the Soul Seekers of New Orleans. "If someone had a son up here, we’d take a message to his mother down South. We’d tell her, ‘We saw your son and he wants to let you know he’s doing well.’ We carried actual letters, like mailmen, since sometimes they were cut off from mail service. Gospel singers were the good-news people.
"Folks say they don’t remember things being so bad, but it used to happen," says the Rev. Hannah, 68. "People down there lived a very simple life. It was a rough situation. I didn’t know until I got out and looked back. We made it through some trying times, and singing helped."
The Rev. Hannah’s Soul Seekers are among the more than two-dozen gospel, acoustic, blues, bluegrass, folk and old-time musicians featured at the 28th Annual New Jersey Folk Festival on the Douglass Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick April 27. Headlining this year’s festivities is world-renowned singer and musicologist Peggy Seeger, noted for her traditional ballads of the British Isles.
The Soul Seekers, originally formed in 1939, will be featured on the Festival’s 2002 Heritage Spotlight stage. Re-uniting for the first time since the 1980s, the Rev. Hannah says this will be their final farewell performance. It’s a chance for listeners to hear the mellow, old-fashioned gospel sound characterized by spare instrumental backup and straightforward harmony vocals.
Founded in New Orleans by the late Ernest Irwin, the Soul Seekers migrated to New Brunswick, where the Rev. Hannah originally from Beckley, W. Va. joined them in the mid-1950s.
"A good family friend named Arthur Blake lived up here and spent $20 to get me out of the hills of West Virginia. That was in 1954 and I’ve been singing ever since," says the Rev. Hannah, who leads a congregation in Lakewood. "He knew I was a singer and had the talent to make it."
The Soul Seekers literally "paid their dues" to get noticed. The Rev. Hannah describes how they had to compensate the people at the front door to get into some early professional gigs.
"But after people heard us, they began to pay us," he says. "We started to record in 1956 and moved on to be one of the bigger groups in gospel. We were doing concerts at major venues, like the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia and the Apollo (in Harlem). We were booked at the Apollo for seven days, but they held us over for 11."
The group pioneered the jubilee style of quartet singing that blends biblical parables with modern ideas into a kind of musical sermon. The Soul Seekers produced a number of hit records in the ’50s and early ’60s, including "Something’s Got a Hold on Me." The singers began to develop a new style they called "hard gospel," which spotlighted the Rev. Hannah’s emotionally powerful lead voice. He says at one time, he and second lead singer Cornelius (Carneil) Underwood were invited to try their hand at rock ‘n’ roll and might have given the great Sam Cooke a run for his money.
"We both got the same offer Sam Cooke got," the Rev. Hannah says. "But we turned it down because we wanted to make it in gospel. Not to sound like I’m bragging, but my voice is a harder rendition of his. My voice had the same clarity, but was just a little harsher. That’s the kind of singing we were doing."
"I did make a rock ‘n’ roll record once for MGM called ‘Baby Are You Mad At Me,’" he says. "But that was the end of it. I feel I made the right choice, though. Sam Cooke is dead and gone and I’m still here singing. I haven’t made a million dollars, but I’m working at it."
In addition to gospel, the Festival features rocking blues by some of New Jersey’s best musicians, including Mike Esposito, Rick Ilowite, Steve Byrne and Frank Fotusky. Fans of bluegrass and old-time music can stop by one of the four stages to hear Jim Murphy and the Pine Barons or the Rorschach County Ramblers. Noted songwriter and folk performer Bob Norman will emcee the New Folk Showcase, featuring the winners of the Festival’s 2002 singer-songwriter competition.
There also will be 100 booths in a juried craft market, storytelling, craft demonstrations, music workshops, food vendors and children’s activities.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 people came to last year’s event, the oldest and largest continuously run festival of its kind in the state. Dr. Angus Gillespie, a professor of American Studies at Douglass, launched it in 1975. Dr. Gillespie knows the Rev. Hannah well, and often invites the singer into his classroom to talk about this distinctly African-American style of music. The Rev. Hannah especially likes to reflect on the challenges of performing in the South the gist of their touring schedule during segregation.
"I can’t even name half of the places we’ve been to in the South, and this was during the Jim Crow years," he says. "We had a terrible time getting around the country. We couldn’t get rooms in some places, so we had to sleep in our cars. I have some stories to tell."
The Soul Seekers of New Orleans featuring the Rev. Marion Hannah will play the 2002 New Jersey Folk Festival, the Eagleton Institute, Rutgers University, Douglas Campus, George Street and Ryder Lane, New Brunswick, April 27, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Free admission. For information, call (732) 932-5775. On the Web: njfolkfest.rutgers.edu