This was the first video that I found regarding Gullah music. The reason that I chose to focus my Gullah research on music was because as you can read in my Gullah Origins information on this site the Gullah people have a very big influence on music and a culture that shares wisdom and knowledge through word of mouth especially in song. The first ting that I noticed in this video was the way that the woman introduced their act. She says “I go do it the way a, us do a dance and show, we gon do em in the dialec thing.” Some things to take not of are the use of us instead of we to introduce the group. She later says again “Us is the Georgia Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters” further using the word us instead of we. She then says they do know how to be grammatically correct but they come to the crowd today in their way with their culture. The next thing she does is tell the story and histories behind the song they are about to sing to reinforcing the song with teaching’s for all present watchers and the future generations. The other thing that I took note of is how similar it sounds to modern church music and songs. Tis led me to do further research on Gullah music.

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2018/02/kumbaya-history-of-an-old-song/

The next thing that found from this path of research was the knowledge that he earliest recording of the widely known song Kumbaya at least in America was first recorded by a Gullah person in 1926. This song has since been featured and sung by many people around the world. I felt this is one of the biggest ways to show the influence on music that I had previously accredited to the Gullah people.

I then started to search for more modern examples of Gullah music. I found that short form content such as Tic Toc’s and YouTube shorts were the best way for me to achieve this. The first thing that we notice is the way that he speaks in the Gullah dialect. He states “we gonna summon a song dem dat we da sing.” He also in the songs uses lengthier phrases such as “hope it don’t be me” instead of hope it isn’t me. Overall these songs remind me of my own experiences with church. This was yet another example of potential Gullah influence of the music that myself and the rest of the world have grown up with and experienced.

The last thing that I found was something different than the rest. This video showcases a woman singing the songs she likely heard and sang growing up or possibly now sing to her own children. The phrase “E time fa little churn da go da sleep” both sang and written on the screen during the video sands out to me most. It is out biggest use of the Gullah dialect yet. It also shows exactly what I have discussed, the Gullah people pass down their traditions and wisdoms through songs and vocal teachings. Furthermore, I immediately thought back to being three years old and my mother singing me the Barney clean up song. Songs like these have all clearly been around for a very long time.