Based in Monroe, Louisiana, this fieldwork project aims to record visionary music and ecstatic expression among sanctified parishioners of rural Louisiana and Mississippi. Sanctified means that one has received a blessing beyond "being saved" that makes one a vessel for the expression of "holiness" or the Holy Spirit. This requires being filled or baptized with the Holy Spirit. When the spirit dwells within, it may subsequently pour forth through improvised sound making (tongue speaking), holy singing, holy dancing, shaking, and shouting (preaching with ecstatic sound). Sanctified African-American Churches are performance grounds for the expression of the spirit (Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost) through shouting, singing, and ecstatic movement. Songs and rhythms are regarded as the highways, roads, staircases, ropes, and telephone lines to spirit and nowhere is the music more ecstatically vibrant than what is found in sanctified African-American churches.

Spirited musical expression in the Delta includes moaning which was an antecedent to spirituals. Moans are melodically dressed with melissmas, having a unison and heterophonic tone, and are typically expressed in a slow and sustained manner. Surge singing is where the lead voice and congregation melodically and rhythmically decorate hymns with moans and vocal embellishments. Shape-note singing is a notational system using 4-7 shapes rather than round notes. One style of shape-note singing in the Delta is called sacred harp. A shape-singing convention has been held at Union Chapel Baptist Church in Monroe, Louisiana. Gospel music is also a significant part of Delta musical history. Here the blues and jazz are mixed with sacred music bringing a revitalized ecstatic form of praise to the church.

An annual week long revival is held by St. Paul Baptist Church and Tabernacle Baptist Church in Monroe. The congregations gather for a river baptism where old traditional spirituals are sung. The Ouachita River at the foot of Pine Street is called the Old Burying Ground referring to its ritual use for baptism. Another sacred ritual in rural African-American churches of Louisiana is the Easter Rock Ceremony held on the eve of Easter Sunday. Songs like "When the Saints Go Marching In" are sung as a chant while members, dressed in white, move counterclockwise with circular rocking movements around a center table.