Joyful Noise! Gospel Singers bid farewell to their founder and maestro
For 15 years, this spiritual but religiously non-aligned choral group has been a source of joy for both members and audiences. Now its longtime leader, Benjamin Mertz, is moving on...
Saturday, May 16, was the Joyful Noise Gospel Singers’ final afternoon together with its irreplaceable leader, Benjamin Mertz. It was an end-of-an-era celebration full of music, hugs and tears. The crowd rested in the present moment, while reflecting on so many strong years and with subtle hope for the future.
Mertz moved to Sebastopol from his home state of New Jersey. His influential mother Nancy Louise joined him not long after. Without her immersive love and appreciation of music, there would likely be no Mertz as we know him. Classically trained in piano and voice, Nancy Louise became a sultry “songbird” of Sonoma County, and Mertz grew up surrounded by music.
Mertz founded this choir nearly 15 years ago. He happened upon Saint Stephen’s because it was the closest church within walking distance to where he lived in Sebastopol. For over a decade, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on Robinson Road hosted the Joyful Noise! Gospel Singers.
Though he ultimately moved to the Bay Area, Mertz regularly travelled north to lead the choir. For the last season of rehearsals, Mertz partnered with Petaluma Presbyterian in order to have a closer commute to his Bay Area home. However, the final meeting was held in its original SebTown location.
This community sing felt like a homecoming reunion, with both the auditorium and parking lot filled to overflowing. The music flowing from the church pleasantly surprised visitors to the recently renovated and reopened Playground Cafe, which is located on the church property and now under the new management of Wyld Provisions Co.
After singing together with the group for about an hour, Mertz welcomed the room with a tagline familiar to his audience. He said with a loving chuckle, “If you’re new here, and you’d like to become a member, congratulations, you just passed your audition!”
Though Mertz is leaving, Joyful Noise! Gospel Singers, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, will not dissolve. The details are still uncertain, but the tentative plan is to have benefit concerts each December at the Community Church of Sebastopol, affectionately known as the “Noah’s Ark church,” for the Patrick Amiot statue out front.
Before the COVID-19 shutdown, Joyful Noise rehearsals were held weekly. During the shutdown, they continued on Zoom as everyone worked through learning the technology of the decade. Mertz eventually became proficient in this new arena, hosting many online offerings during the pandemic.
For spiritually inclined Sebastopol residents, the Joyful Noise Gospel Choir has been a church-adjacent experience. It is interfaith, non-religiously affiliated, yet always hosted by a church. Mertz doesn’t shy away from God and has essentially served this community as a beloved shepherd.
At the farewell concert, countless longtime members wept for the loss of Mertz as their director. Other conflicted attendees wondered what an “end” actually meant for them or the choir itself.
Confusion around change is common. It’s not over until it’s over. To be fair, there have been other soft stops and seasonal pauses to choir meetings over the last six years. The board also brought in several guest leaders, such as Melanie DeMore, Kevan Peabody, David Worm, Te Martin and Sebastopol’s powerful duo, MaMuse.
This particular shift, though, has a different flavor—one similar to a retirement send-off. Mertz dedicated much of his young adult life to nurturing this community while raising two sons. He now has a love-of-his-life wife and new young daughter to raise.
The other main reason for him stepping back at this time is to go back to school to complete his Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and get a Master’s in History. He plans to continue his work toward making the world a more equitable place.
Mertz does a great deal as an educator and music minister and arguably more behind the scenes, with boots on the ground. This includes human rights work with the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity. He also worked for some time at the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute as the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. He gained skills and accessed greater platforms for spreading the good news of justice—past, present and future.
Back in 2018, Joyful Noise recorded its own live album. It was an amazing project and came to life beautifully with so many hands to help. In addition to the choir, participating musicians included Peter Schurch, Brendan Buss and Patrick Sullivan, a student under Mertz, as well as artwork by Michael McDowell.
In 2019, Mertz performed all parts for a completely solo album, “Climbing Up The Mountain,” throughout which Mertz reminds us all that “the survival of Black folk music is one of the most awesome feats of courage, resilience, and spiritual tenacity in human history.”
Mertz is now known as the artist “Benja Soul.” He performs at the Occidental Center for the Arts for Black History Month. This February, he surprised audiences with a double header and juicy new content. Both shows were sold out, and the band had surprise guests, including the locally based sensation, Stella Heath, who this month released her album, “For Billy,” as a part of her Billy Holiday Project with a big 10-piece band.
In 2021, Benja released a debut EP, “Reaching,” with Love Conquered Records. He will release a full-length album before he turns 40 in March of 2027. He’s dedicating more time to creative musical ventures fueled by the passion of historically informed political activism.
It’s always been a unique socio-cultural experience when Mertz teaches about each song’s origin. Songs from multiple African languages are translated to explain the meaning, then broken down to learn pronunciation. With understanding, the spirit sings it out.
A classic Joyful Noise closing song is a Mertz original composition, “I Dream.” Everyone in the room ends up “holding hands as they sing,” as the lyrics illustrate. From an outsider perspective, this may look like a stereotypical ‘kumbaya moment.’ However, it’s much deeper than feel-good naïveté around a campfire. Benja Mertz and his local mentor Melanie DeMore are always the first to remind us of the cultural truth. “Kumbaya” actually means “come by here” and is an authentic plea for the Lord to intervene and alleviate severe suffering and oppression.
Part of this activist work within traditional spiritual music histories is dismantling institutionally racist connotations. Mertz urges his devoted followers to “do something” and use our white privilege to do the hard work fighting the good fight.
As Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. taught in his 1957 book Stride Toward Freedom, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” From his 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he suggested, “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
Gospel music has deep roots in oral traditions—stories passed from voice to ear for generations. Mertz is not on this journey alone. He’s trained with countless mentors, including Bobby McFerrin, Sir Roland Hannah and Dr. Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock, also gleaning from wordsmiths like Maya Angelou and his mother’s favorite, Joni Mitchell.
The Joyful Noise farewell concert on May 16 was filmed for a soon-to-come documentary, cataloguing all the original Mertz compositions coming to life and years of accomplishments—memories to have and hold forevermore.
Mertz will also continue to pop up at St. Stephen’s to lead an hour of Taize meditative songs for the two solstices (in June and December) and two equinoxes (in March and September), typically at six o’clock in the evening.
On a personal note
I’ve been blessed to be singing with this group for over eight years. I found this balm shortly after losing my mother in 2017. It supported me through other losses and allowed my grief to flow freely. I sing out my sorrows. Through challenges in life, I turn to these songs of hope, strength, peace and faith in the power of prayer. We survived yesterday, we survive today, and we will survive tomorrow too.
Over the years, I was lucky enough to sing inside San Quentin Prison, for a Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration, along the Joe Rodota Trail for unhoused neighbors and various fundraiser concerts. In my first year with the group, we recorded a live album. My children also benefit from being raised up learning these healing messages of resilience. May the movement carry on!
If you’re curious about attending events like those described in this article, hop onto Bhavani’s List. Bhavani Judith Tucker served on the original Joyful Noise board of directors and still contributes her skills as an ethnic musicologist. Another fantastic resource is the Interfaith Council of Sonoma County. Contact by phone (707) 206-2650, email Info@InterfaithSonoma.org, or subscribe to Interfaith Sonoma County News at NEWS@interfaithsonoma.org. Keep in touch through the Joyful Noise! website for updates this year and beyond. If you’d like to reach Benja Mertz directly, reach out anytime via his personal website, www.benjasoul.com.