Album Notes

Thinking that too much of contemporary church music is pop-influenced and sensing the need for an album that folks who love the traditional hymns and spirituals of the African-American church would want to listen to, the singer, Allen Ballard, a professor of African-American history at SUNY Albany and an accomplished writer and novelists, decided to make this album. Many years ago, Prof. Ballard used to sing folk songs, accompanying himself on the guitar. Then,over time, he moved away from the guitar as other matters intruded on his life. Then, two years ago, he decided to take up the guitar again and began to take lessons. Encouraged by the reaction of members of his church, Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Albany, New York, to his performing at services with the guitar, he decided to do a studio-based CD of the music so loved by African-Americans and made popular by such greats as Mahalia Jackson and Reverend James Cleveland. This is the music that came out of the American South and the African-American experience there from slavery to liberation under the leadership of Marlin Luther King. There are no drums here, no piano, just a singer and his guitar, performing as he would at home on a quiet Sunday evening. The album is made for those who yearn for the old songs, those that brought African-Americans "over a mighty long way." It's Professor Ballard's hope that the album will bring peace and comfort to those who need to hear a little bit of the old music. Those who hear this album might want to read Professor Ballard's book,"One More Day's Journey" that traces the journey of black people from the south to the north during the Great MIgration, his novel on black soldiers in the Civil War, "Where I'm Bound." and his latest novel, just off the press, "Carried By Six," the story of an African-American family in Philadelphia that engages in a struggle against the gangs in their project.