Art Deason: b. 1910, d. 2009
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From the Alabama State Council on the Arts (ASCA) website: Arthur L. Deason (1910-2009) is a revered singing school master, composer and dedicated promoter of his family's tradition of Christian Harmony singing, the oldest of the active seven-shape traditions in the South. The Christian Harmony songbook, originally published in 1866 by South Carolinian William Walker, is now published in Alabama (1958 and 1994 revisions) largely through the efforts of Art Deason and his family. In fact, Deason chaired the 1994 revision committee...
He has also worked with ASCA on the annual Capitol City Shape Note Singing (an event that he conceived and continues to organize) where singers have gathered every summer in Montgomery for twelve years now to sing from the four shape-note hymnals published in Alabama: the Christian Harmony, the Sacred Harp (Denson Revision), the Sacred Harp (Cooper Revision), and the Colored Sacred Harp.