What is "camp meeting"

Camp \Camp\ (k[a^]mp), n. [F. camp, It. campo, fr. L. campus plant, field; akin to Gr. kh^pos garden. Cf. Campaign, Champ, n.]

1. The ground or spot on which tents, huts, etc., are erected for shelter, as for an army or for lumbermen, etc.
   --Shak.

2. A collection of tents, huts, etc., for shelter, commonly arranged in an orderly manner.

   Forming a camp in the neighborhood of Boston.
   --W. Irving.

3. A single hut or shelter; as, a hunter's camp.

4. The company or body of persons encamped, as of soldiers, of surveyors, of lumbermen, etc.

   The camp broke up with the confusion of a flight.
   --Macaulay.

5. (Agric.) A mound of earth in which potatoes and other vegetables are stored for protection against frost; -- called also burrow and pie. [Prov. Eng.]

6. [Cf. OE. & AS. camp contest, battle. See champion.] An ancient game of football, played in some parts of England.
   --Halliwell.

   Camp bedstead, a light bedstead that can be folded up onto a small space for easy transportation.

   camp ceiling (Arch.), a kind ceiling often used in attics or garrets, in which the side walls are inclined inward at the top, following the slope of the rafters, to meet the plane surface of the upper ceiling.

   Camp chair, a light chair that can be folded up compactly for easy transportation; the seat and back are often made of strips or pieces of carpet.

   Camp fever, typhus fever.

   Camp follower, a civilian accompanying an army, as a sutler, servant, etc.

   Camp meeting, a religious gathering for open-air preaching, held in some retired spot, chiefly by Methodists. It usually last for several days, during which those present lodge in tents, temporary houses, or cottages.

   Camp stool, the same as camp chair, except that the stool has no back.

   Flying camp (Mil.), a camp or body of troops formed for rapid motion from one place to another.
   --Farrow.

   To pitch (a) camp, to set up the tents or huts of a camp.

   To strike camp, to take down the tents or huts of a camp.

n. religious (usually evangelistic) meeting held in a large tent or outdoors and last several days

The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in England and Scotland as an evangelical event in association with the communion season. It was held for worship, preaching and communion on the frontier during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. Revivals and camp meetings continued to be held by various denominations, and in some areas of the mid-Atlantic, led to the development of seasonal cottages for meetings.

Originally camp meetings were held in frontier areas, where people without regular preachers would travel on occasion from a large region to a particular site to camp out, listen to itinerant preachers, pray, and sing hymns. Camp meetings offered community, often singing and other music, sometimes dancing, and diversion from work. The practice was a major component of the Second Great Awakening, an evangelical movement promoted by Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and other preachers in the early 19th century. Certain denominations took the lead in different geographic areas.

Camp Meeting is the tenth studio album by American pianist and singer Bruce Hornsby, who was joined by Christian McBride ( bass) and Jack DeJohnette ( drums). Pat Metheny was credited as "de facto" executive producer.

The album received a favorable review from JazzTimes, which described Hornsby's collaborators as "the best in the business" and the set list as "spectacular". It said: "What fun this record is ... Nothing here sounds like his pop music. Not only is his playing remarkable, but so is the interaction among the three musicians. The music stretches and contracts. It races, it gallops and it rumbles ... If these guys stick with it, they’ll be the freshest piano trio out there."