About
Hailing from the North Carolina Piedmont, The Branchettes are known for their joyful renditions of spirituals and hymns delivered by Sister Lena Mae Perry's soul-stirring vocals, accompanied by heavenly gospel piano and vocals. They have been performing in various configurations for more than 40 years, bringing their uplifting old-time style to audiences and congregations both near and far.
Perry has been singing spirituals, gospel, and congregational songs since childhood, and still performs in a traditional style evoking her "foreparents and that old-time religion," as she puts it. Her powerful and expressive singing harkens back to early forms of African American sacred song, with accompaniment rooted in the syncopated, early 20th-century "sanctified stride" style-the first piano style ever to be widely accepted in congregational song. She describes hymns and gospel as "a medicine for the soul," just as good for the singers as for the audience. "When you sing it the old way," Perry says, "you're really meaning what you're talking about."
Initially, The Branchettes consisted of Ethel Elliot, Lena Mae Perry, and her aunt Mary Ellen Bennett, all members of the Long Branch Disciple Church's senior choir in Johnston County, North Carolina. The trio, accompanied by pianist Wilbur Tharpe, formed by chance in the 1960s when the three found themselves the only members to appear for a scheduled choir performance. Despite their small number, they discovered a powerful capacity to move congregations through song. Although Bennett passed away many years ago, the younger two women embarked on a long career that took them deep into their community and as far away as Ireland and earned them the North Carolina Heritage Award in 1995, the state's highest honor for traditional artists. Elliot passed away in 2004, but Perry and Tharpe continued on.
Tharpe is recovering from a surgery last year and cannot be with us this weekend. But we are delighted that Angela Kent is here to provide the perfect complement for Perry's singing.