Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 3.10 Folklore: Many Musics from Western NC to East TN & Beyond
Session Abstract or Summary
Many Musics will show the distinctive artistry of diverse styles (and an ethnoveterinarian context) in various regions of the mountains and beyond.
Settled in the late 1700s, Beech Mountain, NC, the first mountain settlement, became home to Rick Ward’s 17th C British Ballad “The Jobal Hunter” (Child 18). Placing Rick’s old unaccompanied singing style and even a supernatural witch in the context of other ballad variants shows the impact of these texts upon the changes in the treatment of witches. Little research has examined folk veterinary medicine in the Blue Ridge, where stock raisers have an old, rich family tradition of “animal doctoring.” Video fieldwork excerpts give an elder stockman’s perspective on “animal doctoring” and demonstrate the complex community knowledge of animal illnesses, health, and husbandry. The cultural value of livestock rearing, ethnoveterinary knowledge, and community-based animal healthcare is evident in the region’s musical traditions and provides agrarian context for them. How do East Tennessee’s musical traditions translate to broader national and global audiences? Due to shrinking local audiences and, through the internet and the heritage network, a growing awareness of new audiences, contemporary musicians are articulating local sounds that appeal to the authenticity aesthetic of their broader community of Old-Time enthusiasts. The musicians groom repertoires that privilege certain instruments and invoke the Golden Era of recorded Old-Time music. Mentored by NEA Heritage Fiddler Joe Thompson, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the first young black band in 80 years, as well as ongoing Black and Global Banjo Concerts in NC, have invigorated interest in the African and diverse roots of the banjo and influenced musicians in the mountains, across the country, and internationally.
Presentation #1 Title
Fighting Dragons (Or Witches): W NC Mountain Tradition Bearers of 17th C British Ballads
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Ballads continue to confound us. Several names heard in Western North Carolina are synonymous with ballad, song, and storytelling, and these people enlighten us: The Ward, Hicks, Presnell, Rhymer, Norton, Guy, and Harmon families have humbly shared what has been passed down to them in the oral tradition. The ballads about love, murder, and witchcraft, shared traditions alive in the seventeenth century, and, in most cases that pre-date written documentation, are alive and well in Appalachia. In this paper, I discuss ballads printed in seventeenth-century Britain, and how, as the use of ballads and broadsides evolved, so did the cultural impact, particularly in the evolution of the assumed characteristics, identification, and treatment of witches. That impact not only influenced the common folk, but also the well educated. I look at ballads and broadsides about witchcraft, and include several versions of one ballad dating back to the seventeenth century about interaction with a witch, "Jobal Hunter" (Child 18). Rick Ward, tradition-bearer of the Beech Mountain ballad-singing tradition, often performs the version I will discuss. My methodology for this paper includes looking at primary source facsimiles of broadside ballads, secondary sources about broadside subject matter and transmission from Britain to America, and a primary source interview with Rick Ward, and his mother, Jean Ward.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Donna Corriher is a Lecturer of Rhetoric and Composition at Appalachian State University. She earned her BA in English Literature at ASU, as well as MAs in English Literature and Appalachian Studies, and the Certificate in Rhetoric and Composition.
Presentation #2 Title
Folk Veterinary Knowledge and Practice in the Blue Ridge (with Video)
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
Stock-raisers of the Blue Ridge have a long, rich tradition of animal keeping highlighted by their complex knowledge of animal illness, health and husbandry, and their abilities to informally practice folk veterinary medicine.
Veterinarians and extension agents in the southern mountains are not widely available nor currently meeting the animal healthcare needs of many small farmers. However, many stock-raisers have been informally trained as “animal doctors” and have learned to practice a locally adapted ethnoveterinary medicine. Mountain livestock keeping has historically had significant impacts on community structure and social cohesion, kinship, attachment to place, and the local economy. The importance of farm animals in regional culture is evidenced in the titles of many fiddle tunes and banjo songs, and in the words of many once popular songs. However, with the ongoing industrialization of agriculture, many of the region’s familial and community traditions of livestock rearing are threatened. This threat challenges both the continued transmission of veterinary folk knowledge and future generations’ abilities to acquire empirical knowledge on the farm. Nonetheless, the Blue Ridge remains home to many stock-raisers who are able to address a variety of veterinary medical needs on their own farms and in their respective communities. This paper will highlight some important functions of folk veterinary medicine, while also demonstrating folk veterinary terminology and ethnoveterinary medicines commonly employed in the region. Ethnographic film clips will give the perspective of one stock-raiser who has a lengthy tradition of “animal doctoring” in his family.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Shawn Terrell is writing his thesis on Folk Veterinary Knowledge and Practice in the Blue Ridge for the M.A. in Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University. He is a licensed and practicing veterinarian, who is also teaching a Sustainable Development course on ethnoveterinary knowledge and practices.
Presentation #3 Title
Local & Familial Music for Public Consumption: Traditional East Tennessee Music Goes National and Global
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
In my paper, I untangle the ways in which local and regional East Tennessee’s local musical traditions translate to broader national and global audiences.
I am interested in tracing the ways in which Old-Time music-making practices in the region become more local while simultaneously appealing to a broader, growing community of Old-Time music enthusiasts. Focusing on the experiences of contemporary Old-Time musicians from East Tennessee’s and Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau, I examine the ways that shifting audiences lead musicians to re-imagine the sounds and narratives of regional and familial traditions. This process, a result of shrinking local audiences and a growing awareness through the internet and the heritage network among new audiences, leads musicians to articulate new understandings of regional sounds. These experiences speak to the changes that happen as regional experts discover new listeners and find their way onto new stages. They groom repertoires to reflect their new audiences’ notions of authenticity. They privilege certain instruments to invoke the Golden Era of recorded Old-Time music. Musicians embrace certain techniques and sounds that reference older, regional recordings familiar to their new audiences.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Joseph Decosimo is pursuing a PhD in American Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. A native of Southeast Tennessee, he has explored the music of the Appalachian region since seventh grade. This exploration led to a MA in Folklore at UNC, public folklore work, programming traditional music, a position teaching in ETSU’s Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music program, and international work and blue ribbons as an Old-Time fiddler and teacher.
Presentation #4 Title
Carolina Chocolate Drops and Cultural Exchange Concerts Invigorate Musical Crossroads and Sustainability (& Video)
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
Carolina Chocolate Drops and Cultural Exchange Concerts Invigorate Musical Crossroads and Sustainability Locally and Internationally.
In the late 19th century, instrument makers obscured the African roots of the banjo in order to sell to women and college orchestras, but black (and rural) influences are regaining recognition. At the 2005 Appalachian State University Black Banjo Gathering, young musicians met each other and African American traditional fiddler Joe Thompson. The young musicians were the first young black band in 80 years and their style revitalized and redirected a nearly lost African American style. Despite a stroke that Drs said would never let Joe Thompson play again, video clips show how the friendship and apprenticeship of the new band contributed to Joe’s receiving a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship in 2007. The band’s success as the Carolina Chocolate Drops, as well as ongoing Black and Global Banjo Concerts in North Carolina, have invigorated interest in the African and diverse roots of the banjo and influenced musicians in the mountains, across the country, and even in Europe.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Cece Conway is Professor of English (Appalachian Studies & Folklore) at Appalachian State University. She is author of African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia, co-maker of the film Sprout Wings & Fly: A Portrait of Fiddler Thomas Jefferson Jarrell (with Les Blank), Project Director of Black & Global Banjo Roots Concerts (supported by NEA 2010-2014), and Alan Lomax Fellow at the Library of Congress, 2015.
Fighting Dragons (Or Witches): W NC Mountain Tradition Bearers of 17th C British Ballads
Ballads continue to confound us. Several names heard in Western North Carolina are synonymous with ballad, song, and storytelling, and these people enlighten us: The Ward, Hicks, Presnell, Rhymer, Norton, Guy, and Harmon families have humbly shared what has been passed down to them in the oral tradition. The ballads about love, murder, and witchcraft, shared traditions alive in the seventeenth century, and, in most cases that pre-date written documentation, are alive and well in Appalachia. In this paper, I discuss ballads printed in seventeenth-century Britain, and how, as the use of ballads and broadsides evolved, so did the cultural impact, particularly in the evolution of the assumed characteristics, identification, and treatment of witches. That impact not only influenced the common folk, but also the well educated. I look at ballads and broadsides about witchcraft, and include several versions of one ballad dating back to the seventeenth century about interaction with a witch, "Jobal Hunter" (Child 18). Rick Ward, tradition-bearer of the Beech Mountain ballad-singing tradition, often performs the version I will discuss. My methodology for this paper includes looking at primary source facsimiles of broadside ballads, secondary sources about broadside subject matter and transmission from Britain to America, and a primary source interview with Rick Ward, and his mother, Jean Ward.
