Denson Brothers


This information was obtained by permission from the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.



Members:
Seaborn Denson
Instruments: Vocals, Songwriter
Date of Birth: April 9, 1854
Place of Birth: Arbacoochee, Alabama
Date of Death: April 18, 1936

Members:
T.J. Denson
Instruments: Vocals, Songwriter
Date of Birth: 1863
Place of Birth: Double Springs, Alabama
Date of Death: September 14, 1935

Thomas Jackson Denson, the youngest of the four sons of the Reverend Levi Phillip Denson, a Methodist minister, was born in 1863.

Along with his brother Seaborn McDaniel Denson, Denson is credited with changing the face of Sacred Harp Singing. They formed the Sacred Harp Publishing Co., and in 1933 purchased the rights to the "Sacred Harp" and began a revision, known as the "Original Sacred Harp (Denson Revision)" which was published in 1936.

The sphere of the Denson book comprises the heartland of fasola singing: Georgia and the north and central portions of Alabama as well as community areas in Mississippi and Tennessee.

T.J. Denson was the most popular of the singing professors and in singing schools from Georgia to Texas, he was credited with teaching more Sacred Harp singers than any other man.

The Denson brothers so thoroughly covered the Sacred Harp territories and their teaching methods were so successful that it is almost impossible to find a singer in the Denson revision area who does not in some way trace his Sacred Harp instruction and background to the two Densons.

The work of the Denson brothers and their descendants is a principal reason why the Sacred Harp has for years been strong in Winston, Walker, Cullman and Cleburne counties of Alabama. As a testimonial to the impact of the lives of the two brothers, a granite monument to their memory was placed on the courthouse square in Double Springs, Al., in 1944, the centennial of the Sacred Harp, "By the loving hands of their families, pupils of their singing schools, and legions of singers and friends."

The Denson brothers died within a year of each other, Tom in 1935 and Seaborn in 1936.


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