Out Today: Single No. 3 From “Sacred Soul of North Carolina”

In a little more than two weeks, our compilation album “Sacred Soul of North Carolina” will be released.  But today, we’re happy to bring you the third single from that album, a powerful song called “Shake Me” from Bishop Albert Harrison & the Gospel Tones.

Bishop 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, North Carolina, their home base.

Harrison says gospel music holds an important place in the community life of Eastern North Carolina.

“We all come back from a long way back,” he says. “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 he and the Gospel Tones sing in the “old jubilee style.” And they sing it anywhere they can.

“Wherever the Lord sends me, I go,” he says. “That’s the way I feel about it.”