Sweet Honey in the Rock

THEIR FIRST APPLESEED CD NOMINATED IN DECEMBER ’07 FOR “BEST MUSICAL RECORDING FOR CHILDREN”
GRAMMY AWARD!!

Founded in 1973 by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Louise Robinson, Carol Maillard, and Mie Fredericks, the all-female a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock has become a significant presence in Black culture, folk/gospel music and political activism around the world.

The ensemble has toured much of the globe, performed at major political rallies and events, and been featured on Grammy Award-nominated/winning recordings, in documentaries and books. More than 20 members have passed through Sweet Honey’s ranks over the past 34 years; the current line-up comprises vocalists/hand percussionists Aisha Kahlil, Carol Maillard, Louise Robinson, Ysaye Maria Barnwell, Nitanju Bolade Casel and sign-language interpreter Shirley Childress Saxton.

Dr. Reagon, who retired from the group in 2004, first became aware of the political power of song while in jail in 1961 for her participation in a Civil Rights march in her Albany, Georgia, home. After her release, she became a member of the original Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Singers and a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, traveling the country spreading the songs and message of the movement (“We Shall Not Be Moved”).

Sweet Honey’s original members were drawn from a workshop at the D.C. Black Repertory Theater Company; the first song they learned was “Sweet Honey in the Rock,” based on a psalm in the Bible. “Sweet Honey speaks of a land that is so rich that when you break the rocks open, honey flows. And we thought it was something like us African-American women . . . strong like a rock, but inside [there’s] honey – sweet,” says group member Louise Robinson.   

In the spring of 1975, Sweet Honey’s performance at the University of Chicago’s Folk Festival attracted an offer to record for Flying Fish Records, and the group’s lengthy recording career began. For almost 35 years now, the group has toured widely, carrying a spiritual and activist energy conveyed by the power of their voices and imaginative, multicultural arrangements, which include some hand percussion. Among their many awards and honors, Sweet Honey received a Grammy award in 1998 for their recording of Leadbelly’s “Grey Goose” from the album Folkways: A Shared Vision. The group’s first CD for Appleseed, the family-oriented Experience…101, was nominated for a GRAMMY Award as “Best Musical Album for Children” in December 2007; winners will be announced on February 10, 2008.

In November 2007, the members of Sweet Honey visited Michele Martin’s “Tell Me More” program on National Public Radio. To hear them talk about their career, their new CD, and to watch them perform “Do What the Spirit Say” from Experience…101 and “Stranger Blues,” the track they recorded for our Give US Your Poor charity release, please click on this link