{"id":4051,"date":"2018-10-27T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=4051"},"modified":"2018-10-28T16:51:16","modified_gmt":"2018-10-28T20:51:16","slug":"happy-meeting-in-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/happy-meeting-in-glory\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Meeting in Glory (Joseph Spence)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Happy Meeting in Glory\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/isak3sVZmk8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is Joseph Spence&#8217;s best-known guitar piece, and by the time I recorded my CD it had become a regular in my sets. At the time I thought I was pretty close to his sound, and I played a couple of my versions of his arrangements to Ernie Hawkins, and Ernie was kind enough to call Stefan Grossman and suggest that I would be a good person to do <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/spence.html\">an instructional video on how to play Spence&#8217;s style<\/a>. <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-3470 \" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Spence-dvd-cover.jpg?resize=205%2C291&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"205\" height=\"291\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Spence-dvd-cover.jpg?w=250&amp;ssl=1 250w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Spence-dvd-cover.jpg?resize=211%2C300&amp;ssl=1 211w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 205px) 100vw, 205px\" \/> Stefan knew of me as a writer but had never heard me play, but he trusted Ernie and signed me up. So then I had to figure out how Spence actually played&#8230; and immediately realized I had most of it wrong.<\/p>\n<p>That was frightening, but also exciting, because it forced me to engage with Spence&#8217;s recordings in a different way. Over the next few months I listened to them more closely than I&#8217;d ever listened to anything.\u00a0 In the past I had worked out reasonable versions of several of his pieces &#8212; this one, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/glory-of-love\/\">Glory of Love<\/a>,&#8221; and a much simplified &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/brownskin-girl\/\">Brownskin Girl<\/a>&#8221; &#8212; but I&#8217;d approached them one by one, as individual arrangements, rather than immersing myself in the way he thought and moved.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I realized I needed to approach his music the way I would learn a language &#8212; not by memorizing sentences, but by learning how it fitted together as a whole system. Spence played everything in the same tuning and key (key of D, with the lowest string tuned down to D), using essentially the same chord shapes and techniques &#8212;\u00a0 the instrumental equivalent of a vocabulary and grammar. Techniques from one piece appeared in other pieces, and sometimes a voicing would be more obvious in a new piece, so as I learned more of his pieces I kept discovering things I&#8217;d misunderstood in other pieces&#8230; and although I never lost my accent, I eventually reached a basic level of fluency.<\/p>\n<p>I also hunted up a couple of people who had watched Spence and played with him. Jody Stecher\u00a0 had recorded Spence and studied him closely, and was kind enough to let me come over to his place and play what I had, then correct some of my mistakes. But the real expert is Guy Droussart, who visited Spence for extended periods over many years.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4056\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/spence2.jpg?resize=300%2C223&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/spence2.jpg?resize=300%2C223&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/spence2.jpg?w=437&amp;ssl=1 437w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>I first tried to persuade Guy to do the video himself, since he was the obvious person, but he refused because he doesn\u2019t like instructional videos. Guy thinks it is important to approach Spence directly and immerse oneself in his music and his world \u2013 not only the guitar style, but the Bahamian gospel vocal tradition, and also to develop the physical strength Spence had from a life as a stonemason, and the rhythm of the fishing boats. So he said no, and also declined to help me\u2026 but when I played my versions of some Spence pieces for him, he was horrified and pointed out particularly egregious errors, then told me how I should be fingering particular passages&#8230; and I listened and asked questions until he began feeling like he was getting too involved with the video project. So we&#8217;d end our conversation and I&#8217;d spend a few months assimilating his corrections, send him a tape of my current versions, and he&#8217;d still be horrified and would correct me some <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4057 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Spence-folkways-lp.jpg?resize=228%2C226&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"228\" height=\"226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Spence-folkways-lp.jpg?w=275&amp;ssl=1 275w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Spence-folkways-lp.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 228px) 100vw, 228px\" \/>more&#8230; and it never got to a point where he was happy, but my playing certainly improved and I am infinitely grateful.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually I felt comfortable enough with Spence&#8217;s language to make the video and this was one of the songs I taught. The way I play it now is a mix of choruses Spence played on his first recordings, made by Sam Charters for Folkways Records, with some more impromptu choruses using the same basic grammar and vocabulary.<\/p>\n<p>On the Folkways LP this song was titled \u201cHappy Meeting in Glory,\u201d and I still tend to think of it that way, but its legal title is \u201cThat Great Reunion Day.\u201d It was published in 1940 and composed by a gospel <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4054 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Adger-M-Pace.jpg?resize=140%2C193&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"140\" height=\"193\" \/>songwriter named Adger M. Pace. An online biography says he was born in South Carolina in 1882 and became the first president of the National Singing Convention, a teacher at the Vaughan School of Music in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, and the bass singer for the Vaughan Radio Quartet on WOAN, one of the first radio stations in the South.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is Joseph Spence&#8217;s best-known guitar piece, and by the time I recorded my CD it had become a regular in my sets. At the time I thought I was pretty close to his sound, and I played a couple of my versions of his arrangements to Ernie Hawkins, and Ernie was kind enough to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/happy-meeting-in-glory\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Happy Meeting in Glory (Joseph Spence)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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I love Spence's singing, whether on his own or with his in-laws, the Pinder family, and if I had to take one Spence recording to the proverbial desert island it\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/spence2-300x230.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4448,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/spence-medley\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":1},"title":"Joseph Spence Medley","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"October 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Anyone who has followed this project knows how much I love Joseph Spence's guitar style. I've already posted my versions of his\u00a0 \"Coming In on a Wing and a Prayer,\" \"Happy Meeting in Glory,\" \"Brownskin Girl,\" \"Sloop John B.,\" and \"Glory of Love,\" and written about how I fell in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Spence-Folkways-CD-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":170,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/sloop-johnb\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":2},"title":"Sloop John B. (\u00e0 la Joseph Spence)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"February 20, 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"The most popular Bahamian fisherman's anthem, first printed in 1916, played in the style of the magnificent Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"john b sails","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/john-b-sails-232x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5595,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/burma-road\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":3},"title":"Burma Road (Joseph Spence\/Ronnie Butler)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"January 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I first learned this when I was immersing myself in the guitar style of Joseph Spence, preparatory to making an instructional video on his playing -- but at the time I had no idea it was more than a charming little ditty with a bunch of sections and variations. On\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Burma-road-clip.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Burma-road-clip.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Burma-road-clip.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Burma-road-clip.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4129,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/boy-was-kissing\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":4},"title":"The Boy Was Kissing the Girl (Gary Davis)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"November 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I first heard this on a unique instrumental album, The Guitar and Banjo of Reverend Gary Davis, which was also my source for \"Cincinnati Flow Rag\" and various other guitar showpieces. As explained in earlier posts, I shied away from most of Davis's material because I was not interested in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Harlem.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3289,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/brownskin-girl\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":5},"title":"Brownskin Girl (Joseph Spence)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"December 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been fascinated by the Bahamian genius Joseph Spence since I was a kid, and by 1986 I'd worked out rough and inaccurate approximations of a few of his pieces. This was one of my favorites off his Folkways album, and it came in handy when I hitchhiked down through\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Belize-300x205.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4051"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4089,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051\/revisions\/4089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}