Opera in Appalachia: Jamie Barton will be on hand for her childhood church's 175th anniversary
Rome News-Tribune
February 2023
In early 2022, when opera singer and Rome native Jamie Barton was waiting to hear the verdict on her second Grammy nomination from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, that same decision had already been put to rest in a different setting.
During announcements one Sunday morning, her father, Jim Barton, raised his hand to deliver the news of the nomination at Mount Tabor United Methodist, the tiny church where Jamie grew up near the Pocket in Floyd County.
A murmur rippled through the congregation of no more than three dozen. Jamie‘s childhood support system sounded, rather than awed, more like they were passing judgment on a hometown talent show. Only in actuality, they were seemingly deciding whether or not their world renowned Mezzo-soprano and Shorter University grad should be awarded one of the music industry’s highest honors.
“You know, she just needs to win this time,” was the unanimous and slightly indignant assessment. Of course, not a one of these congregants had the experience to pick a Grammy winner, but they did have their girl’s back without a doubt.
Jamie threw her head back in full-on, delighted laughter when she heard this story about a year later via Zoom.
“I can picture this!” she crowed, catching enough breath to acknowledge the hard-won, needle-in-a-haystack honor that, not one, but two, Grammy noms represent. Fame and acclaim aside, though, she could picture the Mt. Tabor reaction so clearly because she knows she’s always had a community behind her in tiny, rural Everett Springs.
A homecoming
She’ll be coming back April 23 for the highpoint of Mt. Tabor’s monthlong 175th anniversary celebration, a Sunday morning worship service that will also afford locals the chance to hear her — and sing with her.
Jamie anticipates bringing with her a musical celebration not unlike the ones she enjoyed in the Appalachian foothills as a child.
“One of the things I loved about it was the sense of community — everybody sitting around — they’d all bring their instruments, they’d all just kind of jam,” she said. “By jam, I mean, they’d go through the Cokesbury Hymnal … Making music together and sharing in the vibrations of that. This is a bit of a different circumstance, but I love the idea of this being yet another slightly larger living room situation where we’re all in it together — we all get to celebrate an anniversary like this, which is just amazing. I’m so looking forward to just being a part of that community.”
When she’s not under bright Broadway lights or on some vaunted European stage, Jamie, an internationally acclaimed mezzo soprano opera singer, calls Atlanta home, and she gets back to Everett Springs when she can. When she visits her dad’s simple home, set way back in the Johns Mountain Wildlife Management Area, she travels up through miles of familiar farmland and woods past the little brick church that looms large in her memory.
“Whenever I do have the occasion to go back, it’s going back to family,” she said. “It’s going back to my original community. This is quite literally the first place I would’ve performed. It’s the first place that I was up in front of people. It’s the original group of people who were cheering me on and parenting me … Even though I’m not a member anymore, it’s a building that houses some of the people who are dearest to me.”
Her plan to sing worship hymns at the 175th celebration brings up some nostalgia for her, along with a reason to celebrate.
“My personal view of my job on this is just to be the ringleader of joy,” she said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve sung through some of the music that I’m planning on looking into. That’s also just a lot of fun. It’s nostalgic. This is the music that started my life. This is the music that I sang every Sunday. This is the music that we played on bluegrass instruments. This is going to be, I think, hopefully something that we all can walk away from with a lot of memories.”
Watch Jamie Sing Opera singer Jamie Barton’s childhood church, Mt. Tabor United Methodist, factored into her career recently when the San Francisco opera featured her in its “In Song” video series in 2021. “It was incredibly surreal to get to film that at Mt. Tabor,” she said. “I have very distinct memories of sitting on the pew with my family — The Bartons were always back pew from the time I was born — and hearing my dad harmonize, and I had no idea what it was. I knew that it fit in with the music, but I didn’t know how he was coming up with it, and so, dad started to teach me how to harmonize because I got curious about it. He taught me how to hear the music and how to guess where it was going to go … really, my dad was my first ear training teacher, and that was happening at Mt. Tabor.” Her father, Jim Barton, joined her in singing for the filming. Also accompanying her for the episode was 15-time Grammy award winner Béla Fleck who intertwined banjo artistry with Jamie’s voice. The film is available on the San Francisco Opera Youtube channel.