The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1874-02-10
A Band of Negro Melodis.s ftOm ,he
1nuNh In ChIan~n

l re south In Chicago.
tFrom the Tribune ofsaturaay)
| The Tennesseeans, body of ten COL
ored persons, who are giving concerts In
aid ola college for their people, which Is
to be located at Nashville; Tenn, made
their first appearance before Chicago
audience at Kingsbury Hall, last evening.
The fame o! these natural singers, and Of
their fantastic melodies had preceded
them, and was sufficient to'draw a very
large crowd to their first entertainment,
an audience, too, which, by their repeated
applause, testified to the pleasure they ex.
perienCed IN the unique concert. The
troupe consists Of the following persons,
some Of whom have been hands in South.
ern cotton fields ID the days OF slavery,
and oil of whom are untutored in the art
OF music: The sopranos are three.
Misses, Callie Picket, Lizzie Ewing, and
George Brown, altos, Laura Bowman
and Belle Sayles; tenors, James Lamar
and Frank stewart; and bassos, LEROY
Pickett and John Thomas. The distinc-
ton Of parts, though made by the troupe,
10 not very cleary defined throughout, the
songs consisting mostly Of the peculiar
camp meeting melodies, which are sung
in choruseS, and each individual member
intoning his or her voice to the harmony
adds. to It as seems most effective at the.
moment. The melodies thus given, and,
the words also, belong to the unwritten
music of arace which seems more than
any other to be Infatuated with the pas
sion OF song. They are often plaintige'
and touching, sometimes ring ont with
an irresistible drollery and iolIty, and
then again swell and dieiawsy in pathos
as tender and sad as the summer wind
signing through the magnolia trees Of
their own sunny land. The words set
10 this music, while often Jude and as
spontaneous as the harmony itself, still
most frequently express the thought with
q quaintness quite as marked: For in
stance, the chorus Nobody knows de
trouble l see" has thrilling truth under.
lying 1t, better worded than many a
stanza OF much more pretense. Amongst
otherssgiven BY the troupe last evening,
the most effective were the beautiful
hymns, "Steal away to Jesus" and
"Weepin' Mary, weep no more" OF the
choruses, "Come along Moses" "Jordan's
Rubber, I'm bound. 10 cross" "Fix your
feet for trablin' home,' and III you love
Gods children walk neat, walk neat"
were irresistibly touching and quaint. As
a specimen Of these, the following lines
will give some idea Of the tenor Of the
words, which, 1t Is needless to say, oriei-
mated in the Southern hut, or were com
posed BY some camp.meeting band, in
spired by religious enthusiasm:
Yonder comes Jesus, yonder comes Jesus,
How DO you knoWdat dat 10 JesuhI
Cause see his crown Q glitterIn'! 49,
Oar is Gabriel, dar 10 Gabriel.
AoWdo you KNOW dat datis Gabriel!
Cause know him by his trumpet, 81,
How dye know dat OATS his trumpstS
Case l 900 the dead arisin'. ~. 80. 4
Yonder dere 10 Brndder Noah.
How dye know Iits Brudder Noah;
Cauhel saw deatk sallin'. -eh.
After singing o song which EXPRESSED
the sentiment that "The Debbil hates de
Methodist because he shouts 90 loud" the
concert closed with q stirring chorus, In
which the troupe shook each other by the
hand, and danced In a sort Of religious
phrenzy. As q strange exhibition, not
without sweetness, and replete with many
suggestive thoughts Of the peculiarlties Of
the negro race, the concerts OF the "Ten-
nesseans" are well worth attending.