Raise Your Voice
Sweet Honey in the Rock send their joyful noise throughout the audience on this soundtrack to theRaise Your Voicedocumentary, part of PBS'sAmerican Mastersseries. As the all-female a cappella group traces American gospel to its African roots, they all but dare listeners to resist becoming part of the music. On the environmentally conscious, central African "Chant," the singalong encircles the hall, providing a stirring response to Sweet Honey's call. A strong social conscience informs material such as "Joan Little," an expression of solidarity with an abused prisoner, and "The Ballad of Harry T. Moore," a tribute to a slain civil rights organizer. Instrumental backing propels the funky "Ballad of the Broken Word," written byToshi Reagon, daughter of Sweet Honey founderBernice Johnson Reagon. Yet as the soaring spirituality of "In the Upper Room with Jesus" attests, vocal power is all this group requires to overwhelm a responsive crowd.--Don McLeese