***1/2 Sweet Honey in the Rock

SELECTIONS 1976-1988

(Flying Fish/ Rounder)

Nurtured in the rich loam of Mother Africa by way of that Baptist church in rural Georgia where founder Bernice Johnson Reagon's father was minister, Sweet Honey cry, moan, whisper, and fiercely roar their multi-textured songs, chants, poems, and prayers on this two-CD, 34-track retrospective filled with power and exoticism. With amazing falsetto/bass interplay, a take on Mahalia Jackson's "In the Upper Room" reveals the holy cornerstone of doo-wop. Based on Psalms 19 and 137, "Rivers of Babylon" resounds more intensely than Jimmy Cliff's reggae version. Praise songs honor black freedom fighters like Stephen Biko and Mississippi's indomitable Fannie Lou Hamer. "We who believe in freedom cannot rest!" they explode. But amid the blood and sorrow of black oppression, there's solace -- the sweet honey in the rock.

-- Bruce Sylvester