Harrods Creek Convention—Bob Meek Memorial

About this singing

The all-day singing at Harrods Creek Baptist Church in Brownsboro, Kentucky was founded by Louisville singer Bob Meek (1949–2011), with the first session being held in April 1991. Until the COVID interregnum, it persisted as a spring singing on various dates: the Saturday after Easter (1991–1997); the Saturday before fourth Sunday in April (1998); the fourth Sunday in April and Saturday before (1999); the first Sunday in April and Saturday before (2000); and the weekend before the first Saturday in May (2001–2019). The unusual date formula used in 2001–2019 was selected to spare traveling singers the inconvenience of being in the Louisville metro around the weekend of the Kentucky Derby.

Harrods Creek began as an all-day two-book singing, using the Denson Sacred Harp and the Southern Harmony. The first two-day convention was held in 1999, with the Cooper Sacred Harp being added at the same time. At first, it was typical for different sessions to be reserved for different tunebooks and time was often set aside for a lecture introducing Bob's beloved Southern Harmony. By the time that Sunday singing was added in 1999, the Denson Sacred Harp was being regarded as the primary tunebook, with the Southern Harmony serving as alternative book on Saturday and the Cooper Sacred Harp on Sunday. From 2002 to 2019, however, Harrods Creek was a fully mixed, three-book “bag” singing.

The singing convenes at the older of the two Harrods Creek Baptist Church buildings that are situated in the unincorporated community of Brownsboro (street address 329 Hwy 329, Crestwood). The congregation at Harrods Creek organized in 1797 and erected the building in which we sing sometime between then and 1810. Since 1966, the congregation has worshiped in the modern brick church immediately adjacent, where the singers hold their dinners. There was serious worry beginning around 2019 that this small congregation would have to dissolve and that the buildings would pass into other hands. Ultimately, Louisville's Westport Road Baptist Church began to formally support the Harrods Creek congregation, following which the pastor and sexton started contacting the singers, expressing the congregation's eagerness for the convention to return.

Harrods Creek is an old singing by regional standards, even preceding the establishment of practice singing in the Louisville area. Early on, it received vital support from the Berea and Lexington practice singings; from out-of-region singers, especially those in the St. Louis and Chicago metros, West Georgia, North Alabama, and South Georgia; and from faculty and students of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Later, nearby southern Ohio and central Indiana grew to have substantial singing communities. The pre-Derby Day date of Harrods Creek singing often conflicted with two younger singings that drew those communities: the Higher Ground (now Swarens Memorial) all-day in central Indiana and the substantive monthly practice singing in Dayton, Ohio. Therefore—following the cancellation of the 2020 singing due to COVID and the resolution of a potential congregational dissolution—a new, autumn date was sought. The 2024 session served as a “soft relaunch,” held as a one-day, one-book singing on the Saturday before the second Sunday of September. In 2025, Harrods Creek returned as a convention on the first Sunday of October and Saturday before, using the Denson and Cooper Sacred Harp books. We expect that the 2026 and subsequent sessions will be held on the weekend of the second Sunday of October. Interest has been expressed by several parties in returning to the use of the Southern Harmony in 2026, possibly in a separate session.

A number of beloved traditions appended themselves to Harrods Creek singing over the years. These included a catfish fry held the Friday evening before the singing at Vine Street Baptist Church, the longtime home of practice singing in the Louisville metro; and a supper of local-style chili on Saturday evening, usually in the basement of the newer Harrods Creek Church. At times the singers have gone over to the “new” church on the Sunday of the convention to sing a song or two for the congregation during service. People began singing handouts and new compositions at the chili supper relatively early. At some point, under the influence of Joan Aldridge—who became a stalwart supporter of Harrods Creek and other singings in this area following her first visit in 2003—this morphed into a singing from the Deason-Parris Christian Harmony, and ultimately from the 2010 “combined” Christian Harmony. These informal sessions are not thought to have been minuted until 2025.

—Erin Fulton, 2025.