Sweet Honey in the Rock a Rich Treat Flavored by African Spirituality

Sweet Honey in the Rock is still one of the best-kept secrets in the music world despite a career that has spanned more than 25 years.

Performing at the Wiltern Theatre on Friday in a benefit concert for the Liberty Hill Foundation (a Los Angeles community activist organization formed to combat poverty, urban violence and inter-ethnic tensions), this female sextet exuded an earthy, African-based spirituality and sensibility that has nothing to do with MTV-era sex appeal or commercialization.

Which is not to suggest that Sweet Honey is grim or joyless. It’s just that the Washington, D.C.-based group seeks to uplift and motivate its fans to rattle a few corporate and political cages and to make changes in the world.

In a charming introduction, actress Alfre Woodard noted that she first became a fan when she would lip-sync in her college dorm to the group’s records and pretend she was Bernice Johnson Reagon, the group’s founder.

It’s easy to see how Sweet Honey, an a cappella ensemble with a startlingly pure and vibrant sound, could inspire such wannabe tendencies. On Friday, Reagon sang lead on the ballad “Sometime” and her voice had the kind of richness and resonance that induces goose bumps. Equally beautiful was a rendition of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” by group member Carol Maillard, while Aisha Kahlil seemed to channel the spirit of Ma Rainey on a blues-drenched “C.C. Rider.”

With a repertoire that included tunes on subjects ranging from the environment and racial apartheid to domestic abuse, Sweet Honey sang and preached in equal measure. After all these years, it’s good to know that their commitment to activism and traditional, spiritually based African American music remains rock solid.