Songs about the Appalachian Highlands

[tulloch]

I know this song from Hedy West. Internet says Hazel Dickens wrote it:

Oh the green rolling hills of West Virginia,
Are the nearest thing to heaven that I know;
Though the times are sad and drear, I cannot linger here -
They'll keep me and never let me go.

Hedy led me to the banjo. The banjo led me to the pipes. Indirectly.

[OC Richard]

I would not want to grow up anywhere other that the Kanawha Valley.

Wow, where? I'm from Chesapeake.

[OC Richard]

my favourite Appalachian Fiddler, Bruce Molsky.

He's from New York, no?

[Orionson]

He's from New York, no?

Yes, Bruce was born in NYC. In my view, this does not diminish the fact that his deep scholarship & truly gifted musicianship in Appalachian Music is widely regarded to be the very apex of purity and authenticity.

[OC Richard]

Well well New Yorkers are fine and all, but here's an actual West Virginia fiddler for you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkmaxuI6VVc

None of the polish, but all of the authenticity.

[tripleblessed]

The accident of birth has not kept Bruce from being a great fiddle player across genres. Check out the Transatlantic
Sessions, several of which pair Bruce with Aly Bain and others for some wonderful music.

On the subject of authenticity, here's some: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4NG2F-DzIo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psnm9wOb8aE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODg9gW-ZTJI
Richard, the first is a related video on the page you linked, and is a memorial for your fiddler. The others are a West
Virginia singer/songwriter named Hazel Dickens, the eighth of eleven children in a mining family. I've long been in awe
of the power she brings to the stage.

[Orionson]

Well well New Yorkers are fine and all, but here's an actual West Virginia fiddler for you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkmaxuI6VVc

None of the polish, but all of the authenticity.

Thanks for this. I love it. Mr. McCumbers music grew in his bones less than 100 miles from where my Grandfather, Ole Hen spent his life. Their lives even overlapped by 7 years. Fantasy, and wishful thinking draws me to think that their paths may have crossed at some point when Lester was a boy.

May they each rest in peace.

http://www.newsandsentinel.com/page/....html?nav=5062

[tripleblessed]

OC Richard, I went straight to the shower from the above post to prepare for a bluegrass jam I help coordinate, and was
replaying the post in my head. Please know the authenticity comment was not AT ALL meant to sound snide, the sound of the folk who've lived the music is one of the great joys in my life. Many have used that word in connection with my attempts, but that rumor was started by a guy from New York City, so......

So folk know who Bruce Molsky is, here he is IN West Virginia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nvRDy1uu0c

Excellent player; different sound.

[Orionson]

OC & Tripleblessed, I am enjoying this thread immensely. What on Earth did we do before Google?

The answer, of course was listen intently to the stories of the folk of old (see my tag line at the bottom of all my posts ~ my mantra since I was a boy) and soak up as much as we could. Now, sadly, fewer and fewer of them are still around to tell us themselves. Youtube goes someway to addressing the inevitable downside of the passing of time. Making it easier for us to search for them from the comfort of our homes thousands of miles, and generations away.

Here is another.... I especially like his tune "Two O'Clock" about 4 minutes in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzXmdSmiSSE


What breaks my heart is that none of Ole Hen's legitimate children picked up his music ~ learning his old tunes directly from him. They are all lost. Only my Uncle, John Virgil (Pete) who passed two years ago aged 94 and had lived all his life in Marietta, only a mile from where he was born, could tell the stories he heard directly from his father. My Dad passed here on our farm in Scotland in 2002, aged 82.

Here is a picture of my Dad, Charles (Charlie) Amos (centre), and Uncle Pete (right) at the Washington County Children's home circa 1938.



and Dad at Braefarm in 2001.


Sadly we have no photos of Hen. The family was literally dirt poor and the children all went into the county children's home in the 1920's. Fiddle music and small time bootlegging didn't pay much in Marietta in those days.

The thing is though, the music of Appalachia has always beat strong in my heart, and my daughter's too. It has always been like the strongest pulse that defines us in the most primal of ways. Perhaps, you Gentlemen will understand this?

Tripleblessed, are there any Youtube clips of you playing? I gather that you are a musician yourself, and perhaps a student of Bruce Molsky?

OC, are the Pipes your only instrument? Or, does the music of the Hills spring from your fingers as well?

[tripleblessed]

Orionson, I wouldn't claim to be a musician. I've had a guitar for 40 years, still struggling. Too many brain injuries.
However, I grew up in a small farm town in the South with farm kid parents, and every night we watched the radio.
I remember listening to the music as far back as the late 40s, covering everything north of Paul Whiteman, the Mills
Brothers, Bessie Smith, Jimmie Rodgers, Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, Bob Wills, Glenn Miller, Bill Monroe, Django and Stephan (live from the Hot Club), on into rockabilly, doowop, rock, folk, British invasion, opera, Peruvian and Russian folk,
classical,.... I love it all. A lot of time spent in a choir loft taught me to love singing (different than doing it well).
Bluegrass pickers, while amazingly proficient, are exceedingly forgiving if you're having fun. They'll even put up with me.
Hearing the best live on radio and/or in person has produced echos of their approach in my attempts.

Every week these guys would be live on the air from not far from home:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVkCJN30pOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT5kU-Ff0s0