Andy Ditzler stands in the center of a hollow square, "The Sacred Harp" formation in which singers organize into four voice parts and face each other to create an opening in the middle, at Holly ...

BREMEN, Ga. (AP) — Singers at Holly Springs Primitive Baptist Church in West Georgia treat their red hymnals like extensions of themselves, never straying far from their copies of “The Sacred Harp” ...

“Amazing Grace” as it appears in Ginny Hawker’s family heirloom songbook, Lloyd’s Primitive Baptist Hymns. You can see stains in the margins, left by the tobacco-covered hands of her aunt Annie Maud ...

It’s one of the most distinctive sounds in country and bluegrass music. You can hear it in the singing of Patty Loveless, Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs. The way these Appalachian-born singers bend ...