Fierce Was the Wild Billow
Adam Goodrich, five-string banjo
CD and downloads coming soon!
Album Release Concert
Saturday, Nov. 1 at 2:00pm.
Bethania Moravian Church, 5545 Main St., Bethania, NC.
Enjoy a unique musical adventure and album preview concert for a new recording of Moravian hymns played on banjo by Rev. Adam Goodrich (Pastor of Union Cross Moravian Church).
The concert is free and open to the public; a love offering will help with the production cost of the album.
All proceeds from the album will go to the Moravian Music Foundation.
About the Album
Rev. Adam Goodrich is a Moravian pastor, multi-instrumentalist, and folk instrument teacher. Adam’s grandfather, Robert Conrad, was a band director at Olivet Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, NC for more than 50 years. Robert was an active trombone player in the Moravian funeral band, the Bethabara concert band, and the Salem band. In addition to a variety of brass instruments, he also played the mandolin, and was quite skilled at playing by ear. He lived and breathed music, and immersed Adam in music from an early age as well. He would often hum chorale tunes, and when Adam went anywhere with him in his pickup truck, they would usually listen to classical music and recordings from the low brass together.
Robert got Adam started playing the baritone horn, and he planted some seeds that would later grow into Adam’s passion for stringed instruments.
After learning to play guitar, mandolin, and banjo, Adam eventually discovered that the open tuning of the banjo lends itself well to the Moravian chorale tunes his grandfather loved.
The banjo is often considered a folk instrument, and Moravian chorales are in a way a kind of folk music. They are tunes people know by heart, they represent important aspects of life, and they have been passed down by a small community of people over the years.
Banjo playing is generally divided into two main styles with different musical philosophies that are often at odds with one another. However, this album features some songs back to back in both the clawhammer style and in the 3-finger style. This represents the Moravian commitment to unity in diversity, and is a slight nod to the Moravian Easter tradition of playing hymns antiphonally.
This album is dedicated to the glory of God and in memory of Robert Conrad, who entered into the more immediate presence of the Lord in 2024. Two of the tracks feature Robert’s own mandolin that he gave Adam years ago.
“Fierce Was the Wild Billow” was one of the hymns Robert most enjoyed. The tune and its words especially resonated with him as one who served in the Navy.
“Fierce was the wild billow, dark was the night,
oars labored heavily, foam glimmered white;
trembled the mariners, peril was nigh;
Then said the God of God: Peace! It is I.”
I played in the Olivet Moravian Band under Robert’s leadership!
Great talented Gentleman!