They may be beautiful, but they came from ugly circumstances. Spirituals are, at heart, songs from slavery in America.
And Ashland-based Siskiyou Singers present a program of them in two concerts this weekend, "Who’ll Be a Witness: The Power of the American Spiritual."
Performances Saturday and Sunday will be narrated by Eileen Guenther, who wrote In Their Own Words: Slave Life and the Power of Spirituals. Dr. Guenther visits, along with Siskiyou Singers Music Director Mark Reppert and soloist Millicent Scarlett.