Jennifer Nelson Lends Her Voice To Our Bluegrass Good Friday Service

Again this year, Old First member Jennifer Nelson brings her beautiful voice to our bluegrass-themed Good Friday service.

Although Jennifer sang in churches all her life, she was never quite keyed in to the typical Good Friday service.

“I grew up in Oklahoma,” she says. “[For Good Friday services], they just covered everything in black. We would have the service, and then we would walk out and nobody would talk about it.”

She’s been in Brooklyn about 24 years, and watched our Old First Good Friday services evolve, from a few people singing classical — whoever was around and whatever music was available. She even remembers some blues guitar at one point. One year, her family band sang a beautiful song by Gillian Welch called “By the Mark.”

Michael Daves, Jen Larson, Jennifer Nelson and guests accompany Old First’s Bluegrass Good Friday service, April 2017. Photo by Jeff Chu

“Then Michael came, and Michael’s the guy,” Jennifer says. She’s referring to our Old First member and musician Michael Daves, who has helped to turn our Good Friday services into a highly anticipated bluegrass event (read more about it here).

“Suddenly, it was a bluegrass service, and it was amazing,” Jennifer says. “All these people would come just to hear it who were not really religious or — like I was — not really keyed into a Good Friday service. It’s a fully dimensioned thing. It’s very, very meaningful. I like it as much as the Easter service. And I try to get there and be there as much as I do on Easter.”

Does bluegrass music speak to this Oklahoma native? And if so, what does it say?

“My parents were farmers in Nebraska during the Depression era,” Jennifer says. “Imagine just to be that poor and that unsure of anything in your life, but to have a stable religious core. Their religion wasn’t a taskmaster for them; it was just a support for all of those relatives of mine. And that’s why I like that bluegrass service so much. The music gives you this feeling that you can survive the worst, and that death has no sting. It’s not running away from death. It’s OK to die. It’s OK to lose. It’s OK to lose everything you have.”

The bluegrass service also inspires Jennifer to notice how delicate and unpredictable life can be — and how stability can turn on a dime. She thinks about how vulnerable we’ve all felt during the last year, in the Trump era.

From the archives: The Bilger Family Band, including Jennifer, with special guest Michael Daves, play for a service in the Old First sanctuary, circa 2010.

“Just like during the pioneers’ lives,” she says, “it feels like it can all go away. Like Berlin in the 1930s — anything can flip at any moment. We have this false sense of security. Good Friday puts me back in that state of mind. None of this is real, in a way, but there is a spiritual world around us.”

Be sure to attend our Good Friday service on Friday March 30 – more details and RSVP on Facebook.

Click here for more information on this and all of our Holy Week events.