Jerry Enright leads 300 in the Sacred Harp

This took me almost two days to get done!  I ended up getting it up on YouTube in a totally different way than the previous clip.  It'll be interesting to see what it takes to get the next one up... This is from 22 August 2009 at Lookout Mountain, Jerry's 20th Lookout Mountain Convention, as he points out in introducing the song, and was recorded by Nate & Norma Green.  This was less than a year ago.

The song on page 300 of the Sacred Harp, "Calvary," was another of Jerry's favorites to lead.  In this clip he dedicates it to Barrett Ashley, a long-time Sacred Harp singer Jerry got to know well and whose leading style he strove to emulate, who died before I had met Jerry or been down to Lookout Mountain, and to Lawrence and Lula Underwood, who also sang for decades at Lookout Mountain.  I remember going with Jerry and several other singers to sing for Mr. Underwood as he lay in a hospital bed, hardly responsive to anything.  And I had no idea, no suspicion, no fear or understanding of how soon... anyway, Jerry had great love and respect for the singers who've come before.  As I've been reminded by several people since Jerry died, he said he wanted to "grow up" to be like Barrett Ashley, Kelly Beard, Lawrence Underwood and others who showed and show him and all of us Johnny-come-latelies the tradition of Sacred Harp singing, and how it's done.

One more thing about 300... at the New England Convention when it was held in Rhode Island the first time, I called 300 when it was my turn to lead and asked Jerry to come up and lead it with me.  He swept into his Barrett Ashley leading style and took off with the song, with me basically trying to stay out of his way!  He loved the song and he loved Sacred Harp singing, and I loved the joy he got out of it.