Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Cultural Exchange Sustainability: Black Fiddle Roots, Ballad Roots, White Fiddle & Seed Mentors & Trampoline Experimentation with Dawn, Illustrations & Community Sustainability Theater (with Video & Live Music)
Session Abstract or Summary
Cultural Exchange Sustainability explores Black Mountain Fiddle Roots, Ballad roots, White Fiddle & Seed Mentoring, & Trampoline Experimentation with Dawn, Comic Illustrations, & Community Sustainability in Fiction and Theater. Diverse methods of scholarship illuminate the traditional music, arts, and foodways of various communities: 1) the synthesis of historical information, including the stories of little known African American fiddlers, 2) tracing the mentoring of a little remembered ballad singer through her community, 3) acknowledging the significance and carrying on the style and content of living and meaningful ballads and fiddle tunes, and 4) innovation in the novel Trampoline and Community Sustainability in Theater. Long standing traditional music, other arts and occupational traditions allow communities to cross diverse ethnic, class, and gender boundaries move easily than many modes, and these benefits of cultural exchange underscore that history is a part of our identity and often offers a path toward sustainable innovation and community.
Presentation #1 Title
African Roots of the Fiddle and Cultural Exchange in Our Appalachian Mountains
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Accustomed to the one-string fiddle in West Africa (Dje Dje), by 1690 in Accomac, Virginia, a black "fiddler was playing for the dances of whites." During the 1700s, blacks became the primary dance fiddlers in the South. In New Orleans, by 1819, blacks had also become the first dance callers and began to replace dancing masters (Jamison 2016, 172; 44-45). Also from NO, the grandfather of renowned TN mountain fiddler John Lusk had passed down a handsome violin and explained that during the 1840s, he had been trained, in the "center for black fiddle music in New Orleans," to be proficient in white dance repertoire, as well as the "sukey jumps" or "kitchen dances" of blacks (Wolfe). Like NEA Heritage Fiddler Joe Thompson, the grandfather and Lusk were two of many black fiddlers who had double repertoires that reflected white as well as black taste. In the 18th C, Scots and Irish musicians brought additional songs and the recently standardized fiddle into the mountains amidst Germans, African, and Cherokee. Black fiddlers also moved into the mountains and contributed to cultural exchange. Enslaved Monk Estill played fiddle for Daniel Boone and others to dance in Boonesborough and won his freedom by 1784. Samuel Mess Johnson escaped from a Maryland plantation on a white horse, and in a log tavern on the first navigable path into the Northwest Territory, by 1798, the future King of France declared "Black Mess" played "the strains of the sweet music from the violin."
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Professor Cece Conway (Appalachian State U) is author of African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia, co-maker of the film Sprout Wings & Fly: A Portrait of Fiddler Tommy Jarrell, co-maker of Smithsonian Folkways Black Banjo Songsters CD #1, and Director of Black & Global Banjo & Fiddle Roots Concerts (supported by NEA).
Presentation #2 Title
Echoes of Nancy Ponder Cody (1859-1940)
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
There is a well-documented line of ballad singers from the Sodom community of Madison County, NC, including Dillard Chandler, Dellie Norton, Cas Wallin, and Sheila Kay Adams. I will explore some lesser-known singers from a less documented community of Maddison. Drawing from fieldwork with Hazel Rhymer and John Analo Phillips, singers from the area, I will shed light on ballad singer Nancy Ponder Cody (1859-1940) who lived in the Wolf Laurel community. In 2005, I befriended and spent time learning songs from Nancy Cody's granddaughter, Hazel Rhymer, who affectionately remembered her grandmother as her primary singing influence. In addition, Madison County ballad singer and farmer John Analo Phillips recollects an extraordinary tale from his Grandfather about Miss Cody's healing powers. Though Cody's singing, like that of many, has not been documented, her songs have resonated through her descendants. This presentation will help reveal details about ballad singing in a particular Appalachian community--as well as the power of traditional music to keep the past alive in the present. I will also perform some of Cody's ballads as learned from Hazel Rhymer.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
For the past fifteen years, Susan Pepper has explored and shared song traditions that draw the listener into a scene where music is a part of daily life. She passionately sings unaccompanied songs and plays clawhammer and fretless mountain banjo, dulcimer and guitar. She holds a MA in Appalachian Studies from ASU. As a singer-songwriter and ballad singer, she has produced several CDs (including one with songs she recorded from Hazel Rhymer), and she has a solo album, Hollerin' Girl.
Presentation #3 Title
"Where I Used to Hear Them Shout and Sing": Mitchell County's Music Traditions
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
When Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles famously toured the Upland South in search of Ballads, they visited every county surrounding Mitchell County, North Carolina (Unicoi, Tennessee, Yancey, North Carolina, McDowell, North Carolina, and Avery, North Carolina, but they did not venture into the remote, but railroad accessible, Madison. Many of the folklorists and ballad collectors that later followed in Sharp's footsteps likewise overlooked the music rich Mitchell County and sought out tradition bearers in neighboring counties, despite the fact that Mitchell was home to prominent recording and radio performers like Steve Ledford and Clarence Greene. In this presentation, I will briefly provide a historical overview for the region and its unevenly documented music, and I will perform a tune by Red Wilson, along with a few regional pieces he learned first-hand from Wayne Ledford, Ray Dellinger, and Bruce Greene.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
William Ritter is a graduate of Appalachian State University's MA program in Appalachian Studies. He playes fiddle, banjo, guitar and "string-ed things," and is an avid seed saver. He lives in Winston Salem and has worked as a folklorist for the NC Arts Council and National Folk Festival.
Presentation #4 Title
Trampoline Experimentation with Dawn, Illustrations, and Sustainable Community Theatre
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
Robert Gipe's debut novel Trampoline (2015) explores pertinent contemporary Appalachian issues such as drug use and mountain top removal, and the complexity of the novel's main character, Dawn, challenges the flat stereotyped representations of Appalachian people. Dawn struggles with her simultaneous attraction to and revulsion from the land she grew upon. Her story provides a window to explore the relationship between place and identity. Gipe's unique style, punctuated by his own comic-style illustrations, pushes the classical boundaries of literature. Gipe has also been pursuing his literary efforts outside the world of publication. In his hometown, he has been writing plays for the community theatre to address issues affecting the community. His first play about opioid abuse launched a huge interest within the town in creating plays relevant to their lives. In the most recent play, he passed the torch to the town's youth, and their play delved into issues of identity, including the first trans character in their community theatre history. This paper will discuss the impact of Gipe's work in print and on the stage in challenging definitions and blurring boundaries. Gipe asks us to question distinctions like public and private, male and felmale, high and low art, and what it means to be Appalachian.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Julia Lindsay is a graduate student in the English MA program at Appalachian State University. She has worked as a Research Assistant, in the Appalachian Collection, and now works as an Academic Coach through Student Support Services to help first generation and low-income students acclimate to the college environment. She is a fan of Southern and Appalachian literature, favoring contemporary works--including her 2017 presentation at SAMLA.
Conference Subthemes
Diversity and Inclusion, Education
African Roots of the Fiddle and Cultural Exchange in Our Appalachian Mountains
Accustomed to the one-string fiddle in West Africa (Dje Dje), by 1690 in Accomac, Virginia, a black "fiddler was playing for the dances of whites." During the 1700s, blacks became the primary dance fiddlers in the South. In New Orleans, by 1819, blacks had also become the first dance callers and began to replace dancing masters (Jamison 2016, 172; 44-45). Also from NO, the grandfather of renowned TN mountain fiddler John Lusk had passed down a handsome violin and explained that during the 1840s, he had been trained, in the "center for black fiddle music in New Orleans," to be proficient in white dance repertoire, as well as the "sukey jumps" or "kitchen dances" of blacks (Wolfe). Like NEA Heritage Fiddler Joe Thompson, the grandfather and Lusk were two of many black fiddlers who had double repertoires that reflected white as well as black taste. In the 18th C, Scots and Irish musicians brought additional songs and the recently standardized fiddle into the mountains amidst Germans, African, and Cherokee. Black fiddlers also moved into the mountains and contributed to cultural exchange. Enslaved Monk Estill played fiddle for Daniel Boone and others to dance in Boonesborough and won his freedom by 1784. Samuel Mess Johnson escaped from a Maryland plantation on a white horse, and in a log tavern on the first navigable path into the Northwest Territory, by 1798, the future King of France declared "Black Mess" played "the strains of the sweet music from the violin."
