The healing voice of truth Zoom event presented the stories behind songs used for bringing peace during tough times. The event was on April 30 with a focus on peace, love, and music.
Calvin Earl, an American singer, musician, storyteller and documentary filmmaker was the guest speaker for this event.
“The strongest emotion we have as human beings is a need to tell our story and sharing those stories is what leads us to heal,” said Earl.
“Calvin is a U.S. Spokesman of the African American Spirituals as an advocate and activist for African American oral history and spiritual preservation,” said Wendy Coste, a longtime friend of Earl who was the host of the Zoom event.
Earl discussed songs from legends such as Jackie DeShanno and Johnny Cash, along with the impact they have made on others as well as songs written by himself.
Earl covered a variety of songs, such as the ones he wrote, called “We’re Gonna Stand Up.” The stories that lead him to write songs are what really brought emotion to his work. He calls songs spirituals.
One of the stories Earl shared was about how he was born in a sharecropper’s cabin. At the age of three he would walk around the fields where the elders would pick cotton.
Once the bags of cotton would get half way full, Earl would lay against them until he would doze off on a nice warm day where you could see clouds float by.
While Earl rested against the cotton, the elders would be singing spirituals. He felt so much love listening to those spirituals that when he was hungry he would hum the spirituals and it made his hunger go away.
“What the World Needs Now is Love,” by Jackie DeShannon is a song that according to Earl, best describes the love that he has for his ancestors, which is why he chose to do a cover of the song during the Zoom event.
As a kid, his parents had many financial struggles. This motivated him at eight years old to find a job at a garage nearby his home.
He got the job and he eventually was making more money than his brothers and his parents combined.
By the time Earl was 16 years old, he was the youngest transmission specialist in North Carolina history.
“If you have a dream, you have a drive, you can always accomplish it,” said Earl.
Earl hopes that even through hard times, we could all find healing in music. These spirituals are more than just songs, they are ways of guiding us to see the world a little differently.