Freight Train Blues: The Sacred Soul of North Carolina Revue

The Glorifying Vines Sisters from Eastern North Carolina have been singing gospel music together in their living rooms, churches, and even bars for over 40 years. The Vines sisters’ music is steeped in the traditions of quartet gospel—a style that came into its own in the 1930s with groups like the Soul Stirrers and the Dixie Hummingbirds. Over the years they have shared the stage with many of the biggest names in the genre, including the Mighty Clouds of Joy and the Swanee Quintet. But while the Vines Sisters can wreck the house with the best of them, they also bring a distinctive sweetness and a mellow funkiness to their music.

Bishop Albert Harrison has been traveling and singing gospel music solo since the 1980s. When he was in the hospital in 2006, he took stock of his life and decided resolutely to start a group: The Gospel Tones. Harrison hails from the experimental planned black community of Soul City in Warren County, while The Gospel Tones make Ahoskie, NC their home base. Talking about gospel musicians in Eastern North Carolina he says, “We all come back from a long way back. We all come up on farms. Our mothers and fathers and grandfathers always used to sing. It’s something we love to do.” Harrison says that he sings in the “old jubilee style.” And he sings it anywhere he can. “Wherever the Lord sends me, I go,” he says, “that’s the way I feel about it.”

This concert will also feature Jerry Harrison & Faith and Dave Hargrove & Company.

Freight Train Blues 2024

The Town of Carrboro, N.C., proudly presents the Music Maker Foundation’s Freight Train Blues series of live concerts every Friday evening between May 3 and June 21, 2024 at the Carrboro Town Commons, 301 W. Main Street. The series is a collaboration among  Music Maker Foundation, the Town of Carrboro, WUNC 91.5 FM, and The Forests at Duke. Funding for this year’s series was also provided by the North Carolina Arts Council’s Spark the Arts initiative.

Bring your picnic, lawn chairs and blankets for a FREE evening of live music on the lawn. Public parking is available and free in downtown Carrboro.

Music Maker Foundation’s Freight Train Blues series honors Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten’s legacy in the world of roots music by emphasizing the cultural diversity, complexity, and vitality of her music and the music of many other artists local to her community and all over the country.