Shape note singing is one of America's oldest musical traditions, and it is having a bit of a revival now because of an updated songbook. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) SIMON: Laura Atkinson and Justin Hicks, ...

When I was a child of 5 or 6, I loved my little record player, but other than children’s storytelling albums, I owned only two albums, both gospel."Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash from The Holy Land.

Surrounded by other singers arranged in a square, Judy Hauff rocks her feet heel to toe, rhythmically slashes the air with her arm and sings “Fa la sol la sol.” This is “shape note” music, an a ...

COLUMBIA — When the Columbia Shape-Note Singers get together, no one knows exactly what they will sing. They arrange themselves in a square according to vocal range, wait for suggestions and begin.

DULUTH — Once a month, typically on a Sunday afternoon, the Friends Meeting House is filled with voices singing together. It's not a performance because everyone present is involved in the singing.

BREMEN, Ga. — 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” and its ...