Beer & Carols: Albany Beer and Hymns debuts Tuesday

ALBANY — Drinking beer while singing Christian hymns might sound like an odd combination, but it’s a growing trend in a number of cities and towns in the United States in recent years after the concept crossed the Atlantic about six years ago.

On Tuesday, it will reach Albany with a distinctly Christmas flavor.

“Our first show will be Beer and Carols,” Gabriel Lawrence, who’s organizing the monthly event, said last week. “Then we’ll start with Beer and Hymns.”

Albany Beer and Hymns is what the name implies. Participants meet — Hymns and Carols will start at 7 p.m. at Harvest Moon, 2347 Dawson Road — and enjoy fellowship while singing hymns over a few drinks, though the latter’s not required. Beverages don’t have to be beer (participants are urged to drink responsibly) and can be non-alcoholic.

Lawrence said a band will help lead in the singing of the carols, and lyric sheets will be provided. Participants will be encouraged to make up their own harmonies.

“There’s something beautiful, spiritual even, in harmonies being created organically by the participants as they sing from verse to verse,” he said.

The Beer and Hymns concept originated about a decade ago at the popular Greenbelt Festival at the Boughton Estate in Kettering, England, located about 80 miles from London. Greenbelt, which has been conducted every year since its founding in 1974, is an event that focuses on faith, the arts, including music, and justice.

“The Greenbelt Festival, where it got its origin, was the predecessor of the Wild Goose Festival over here in America,” Lawrence said. “I came into contact with the Beer and Hymns idea from the Wild Goose Festival held every year in the mountains of North Carolina, kind of a Woodstock for Christians — lots of art, spirituality, music. They actually closed out each night with a session of Beer and Hymns.”

The Wild Goose Festival — the wild goose is a Celtic Christian symbol for the Holy Spirit and its unpredictable nature — is conducted over a four-day period at Hot Springs, N.C. Started in 2011, it was modeled after Greenbelt and also has a mission of promoting faith, music and other arts, and justice.

Lawrence first experienced Beer and Hymns at the 2014 Wild Goose Festival. He and others who have attended the Carolina festival over the years have taken the Beer and Hymns concept home with them, establishing it in their respective cities and communities.

“There’s a Beer and Hymns in Atlanta, in Nashville, in Los Angeles,” he said, naming off a few of the cities where the event has emerged. “I started a Beer and Hymns over in Savannah about a year and a half ago. In Savannah, we have regularly about 150 people who come out and sing and drink.”

After moving to Albany recently, Lawrence said he was encouraged to start an Albany Beer and Hymns.

“I am a recent transplant here,” he said. “I have quite a few friends here and they said, ‘You’ve got to get this started over here, too. It’ll be a big hit.’ So, it’s officially starting.”

Lawrence noted some comments he’s gotten locally. The Rev. Leigh Hall, an Albany Episcopal priest, was introduced to Beer and Hymns last year at Savannah.

“I like good beer and I love singing these classic hymns,” she said. “Beer and Hymns brings the community together through the spirit in a unique way.”

The Rev. Leeann Culbreath, an Albany Episcopal deacon, said, “The opportunity to sing in community with no agenda is rare and important.

“Group singing can lift the spirit, heal, inspire and connect us more deeply with each other and with traditions we are fast losing in our culture.”

Still, the concept is being tried in a city that is predominately Baptist and Methodist, two denominations that advocate abstinence from alcoholic beverages.

“Being in a bar or a pub-type place, it does kind of challenge the notion that religion and beer and alcohol shouldn’t mix,” Lawrence said. “But we see this as a distinct and unique opportunity to share hymns, to share our faith with people who might never darken the door of an actual church.”

The underlying foundation of the event is to be welcoming to all who come and to provide an opportunity to express faith, he said.

“The whole point of Beer and Hymns is to provide a safe place for people to get together to experience a spiritual time, a spiritual moment, while also there being no atmosphere of judging or preconceived notions or anything like that,” Lawrence said. “It’s a relaxed time when every single person is welcome to participate.

“I do tell people at every show that drinking is not required, but singing loudly and proudly is. The point of Beer and Hymns is not necessarily the beer; it very definitely is the hymns, but, at the same time, it’s fun.”

The tunes that are sung cross denominational lines and, at times, genre.

“We actually say that we define the word ‘hymn’ very loosely,” Lawrence said. “The majority of our show will be hymns from anything from Catholic, Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, etc. But we also will have some folk tunes.

“For example, at Savannah Beer and Hymns last year in February for Valentine’s Day, we did a couple of love songs by the Beatles. In March, for St. Patrick’s Day, we did some Irish pub tunes as well. It’s mostly traditional hymns, but we do throw some others in there.”

And how many people does he think will turn out Tuesday night to sing carols over beer?

“We were, at first, worried,” Lawrence said. “It was a risk. It could be two or a hundred.”

As the event has circulated on the Albany Beers and Hymns Facebook page, he says he’s gotten more optimistic about the number of people likely to show up.

“We have more people interested in Albany Beer and Hymns this month than we do Savannah Beer and Hymns. And, of course, that’s a larger city,” he said. “We’re hoping that will translate into people and we will have a huge crowd.

“We hope to that many people will come who want to enjoy some good music and a drink or two.”

The Albany Beer and Hymns Facebook page is: www.facebook.com/AlbanyBeerandHymns.