Reginald Golden Singers Illuminate History and Hope in “Stony the Road”

The Reginald Golden Singers will perform Stony the Road on Friday, April 17, 2026 at the Diana Wortham Theatre.

Stony the Road is not simply a concert — it is a living archive. Drawing its title from James Weldon Johnson’s searing line in Lift Every Voice and Sing, the production traces the long arc of Black resilience through music, testimony, and communal memory. What emerges is a work that feels both intimate and monumental, a reminder that history is not distant; it is sung, breathed, and carried forward by the people who refuse to let it be forgotten.

The Reginald Golden Singers

Each movement of the suite reflects a unique interpretation of James Weldon Johnson’s iconic text.

From the opening measures, the ensemble grounds the audience in the sonic traditions that have shaped Black survival. Spirituals like Children Go Where I Send Thee are rendered with a clarity that honors their origins as coded messages of resistance. The Reginald Golden Singers lean into the song’s layered structure — each verse a building block of communal strength — and the arrangement highlights the call‑and‑response patterns that have carried hope across fields, churches, and freedom meetings for decades.

The performance moves fluidly between eras, weaving in freedom songs, gospel standards, and contemporary compositions. Rather than presenting these genres as separate chapters, the Singers reveal them as a continuous thread: a people’s evolving language for endurance.

The show’s title theme appears throughout the performance as a recurring motif — sometimes whispered, sometimes thunderous. It becomes a refrain that binds the evening together, reminding the audience that the “stony road” is both historical and ongoing.

Between musical numbers, brief spoken-word interludes offer context. These moments — drawn from oral histories, sermons, and archival fragments — deepen the emotional stakes. They also underscore the ensemble’s commitment to truth-telling, refusing to sanitize the past or flatten its complexity.

One of the evening’s most striking choices is the inclusion of the rarely performed third verse of O Holy Night. The Reginald Golden Singers deliver the stanza with quiet intensity, letting its abolitionist message ring out:

“Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother
And in his name all oppression shall cease.”

Written in the mid-1800s, these words were a direct challenge to slavery and injustice. In the hands of the Reginald Golden Singers, the verse becomes a declaration of moral clarity. It reframes the familiar carol as a protest hymn, aligning it with the spirituals and freedom songs that surround it.

Collective Power, Contemporary Resonance

What sets Stony the Road apart is the ensemble’s ability to make historical material feel urgently present. Their harmonies are lush and technically precise, but the emotional core of the performance lies in their collective presence: elders and young singers sharing the stage, voices rising together in a way that feels like a community in motion.

The final number, a soaring reprise of Lift Every Voice and Sing, invites the audience into that community. It is not a performance to be observed; it is a call to remember, to reckon, and to continue.

With Stony the Road, the Reginald Golden Singers offer more than a concert — they offer a testament. It is a work that honors the ancestors, confronts the present, and gestures toward a future shaped by courage and collective song. In a cultural moment where historical truth is often contested or diluted, the Singers insist on clarity. They insist on memory. And they insist on joy as a form of resistance.

Their performance will leave the audience not only moved, but fortified.

Catch the Reginald Golden Singers: Stony the Road on Friday, April 17, 2026 at 7 p.m. at Diana Wortham Theatre, 18 Biltmore Ave. in Asheville, NC. Tickets are available at www.worthamarts.org/events/reginald-golden-singers.