I got to feeling an old timey urge to go hunting on Monday, so I grabbed a shotgun and went to Sandy Mush. Some people are going to get all bent out of shape at me being a Nature lover, tree hugger and environmentalist and actually HUNTING (GASP!), but I will beg you to remember that Aldo Leopold was a waterfowler, and had this to say: “That he is already overfed in no way dampens his avidity for gathering his meat from God.” Not that I gathered any meat - I am really an indifferent hunter, especially since my "accident", but if I went out only to hunt, I would certainly be poor specimen. I was also birding (Red Shouldered Hawk, Turkey Vulture, among others), botanizing, and sightseeing. Plus, I did some Geocaching, a game where people place a cache, or "hide", posts it on the Internet at Geocaching.com and people use their GPS receiver to find it. Sometimes it is not all that easy...
Sandy Mush is an area of old fields, woodlots, and farmland that the state of North Carolina bought up and began managing as game habitat, particularly dove. Most of it is very pretty (except the Bear Creek section, which is ugly), and has some of the most stunning views I can think of in Buncombe County. The elevation is just enough, at anywhere from 2200 to 3000 feet, that when you are on some of the ridges there, you have a near 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains. Monday they were covered in a light coat of snow or a heavy coat of rime (hoarfrost). They gave one of the most heartstopping views I have ever seen of the mountains. I urge everyone to go out there and check it out, even if they don't hunt. As it is only a 3 day a week area for hunting (Monday, Wednesday, Saturday), and is pretty much managed as "multiple use", it is ideal for a day hike. I plan to be out there in the spring and summer, to look for wildflowers. Hope to see you there
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Old Time music
I have been trying to look up some song lyrics today, and it set me to thinking about Southern Appalachian music in general. The song I was looking for is "Whoa Mule", a song my banjo teacher, 3rd cousin, and world famous Mountain Fiddler Byard Ray taught me about 25 years ago. It was the first song he taught me on the banjo, though he didn't teach me the lyrics. He was a very good banjo teacher, and while learning from him, we discovered we were related by blood (his grandmother and my great-grandmother were sisters), so a friendship emerged that lasted until his death in the late 1980's.
Most people, when thinking about Appalachian music, think about Bluegrass, such as Flatt and Scruggs, Bill Monroe and so on, but that sort of music was pretty much contrived from minstrel and show music, speeded up 'way faster than Mountain music, and played in such a way as to appeal to a post World War II crowd, and bacame for a while a part of the Country Music scene, what with Flatt and Scruggs on TV on Saturday nights in the 1960's. It has now become a phenomenon at Blue Grass conventions throughout the South. Byard would never entertain the idea that it was anything like Traditional Appalachian music, saying it was sort of like Mountain music, but played "too darned loud and too darned fast". Darned was not the word he used (nor do I use it when describing Bluegrass).
So, you ask, what, then, is Mountain music? It is music from the Mountains of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and North Georgia. Some people include other areas - Ozarks might be part of it, I don't know - but I pretty much see this area of the Southern Appalachians as the home of Mountain Music. Many will agree with me. Many will disagree.
When European people first started settling this area, they brought their music with them, a combination of English ballads, jigs, reels, and dance tunes, plus Scottish and Irish tunes of the same types. French and German pioneers added something in the stew, and a unique music was developed over centuries of isolation. This was a difficult area to get to from the first European settlements of the 1700's until the post WW II era of road building. When the area was opened up, the people were still rather insular (we still occasionally are), and held onto their traditions, though Thomas Wolfe would write eloquently about the destruction of a culture and a folkway by first the logging companies, the coal mines, and lastly the textile mills, all wresting people from their lands, and sending many into the cities where they didn't belong.
What does the music sound like? Not like Bluegrass, though there are similarities. Instead of the banjo taking the lead as in Bluegrass, the banjo and fiddle play in a sort of duet, playing off each other in a lively way. If a guitar is in there, it will be background, as will also be the mandolin and bass fiddle if they are there. The fiddle will be played in a bouncy fashion, the banjo will be played "clawhammer", or in a thumb and index finger picking style (sorry, no "three finger roll") that blends right in with the fiddle, and the guitar plays rythm, occasionally taking the lead in parts of the song. The banjo is not usually a "resonator" type, but an "open back" type, making more of a "thump" sound than the loud "clang" of the Bluegrass banjo.
If you are beginning to think that I am not too fond of Bluegrass, you are correct; I am not, though I am not alone. Many Old Time musicians feel the same as I, and will get all grumpy when accused of playing "Bluegrass". No, ours is a traditional music. Bluegrass is a "made up" music. Sorry. There it is.
Good Old Time musicians are Byard Ray (of course), Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham (fiddle and banjo), Wade Ward and Kyle Creed (fiddle and banjo), Doc Boggs (an odd three finger style banjo), Pete Steele (banjo), and several others. Look these up for some of the great music you would have heard about 100 years ago here in the Mountains.
The style I play is from Western North Carolina. It has no name, but is a type of "frailing", where the finger picks up on the string, followed by the rest of the hand strumming down, in a percussive, rythmic way. I also play a thumb and index style. Both were taught me by Byard, and are similar to banjo styles from Western North Carolina (Madison County) and Eastern Tennessee. Many other styles are found all over the south. They are:
Good night. Happy New Year
Most people, when thinking about Appalachian music, think about Bluegrass, such as Flatt and Scruggs, Bill Monroe and so on, but that sort of music was pretty much contrived from minstrel and show music, speeded up 'way faster than Mountain music, and played in such a way as to appeal to a post World War II crowd, and bacame for a while a part of the Country Music scene, what with Flatt and Scruggs on TV on Saturday nights in the 1960's. It has now become a phenomenon at Blue Grass conventions throughout the South. Byard would never entertain the idea that it was anything like Traditional Appalachian music, saying it was sort of like Mountain music, but played "too darned loud and too darned fast". Darned was not the word he used (nor do I use it when describing Bluegrass).
So, you ask, what, then, is Mountain music? It is music from the Mountains of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and North Georgia. Some people include other areas - Ozarks might be part of it, I don't know - but I pretty much see this area of the Southern Appalachians as the home of Mountain Music. Many will agree with me. Many will disagree.
When European people first started settling this area, they brought their music with them, a combination of English ballads, jigs, reels, and dance tunes, plus Scottish and Irish tunes of the same types. French and German pioneers added something in the stew, and a unique music was developed over centuries of isolation. This was a difficult area to get to from the first European settlements of the 1700's until the post WW II era of road building. When the area was opened up, the people were still rather insular (we still occasionally are), and held onto their traditions, though Thomas Wolfe would write eloquently about the destruction of a culture and a folkway by first the logging companies, the coal mines, and lastly the textile mills, all wresting people from their lands, and sending many into the cities where they didn't belong.
What does the music sound like? Not like Bluegrass, though there are similarities. Instead of the banjo taking the lead as in Bluegrass, the banjo and fiddle play in a sort of duet, playing off each other in a lively way. If a guitar is in there, it will be background, as will also be the mandolin and bass fiddle if they are there. The fiddle will be played in a bouncy fashion, the banjo will be played "clawhammer", or in a thumb and index finger picking style (sorry, no "three finger roll") that blends right in with the fiddle, and the guitar plays rythm, occasionally taking the lead in parts of the song. The banjo is not usually a "resonator" type, but an "open back" type, making more of a "thump" sound than the loud "clang" of the Bluegrass banjo.
If you are beginning to think that I am not too fond of Bluegrass, you are correct; I am not, though I am not alone. Many Old Time musicians feel the same as I, and will get all grumpy when accused of playing "Bluegrass". No, ours is a traditional music. Bluegrass is a "made up" music. Sorry. There it is.
Good Old Time musicians are Byard Ray (of course), Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham (fiddle and banjo), Wade Ward and Kyle Creed (fiddle and banjo), Doc Boggs (an odd three finger style banjo), Pete Steele (banjo), and several others. Look these up for some of the great music you would have heard about 100 years ago here in the Mountains.
The style I play is from Western North Carolina. It has no name, but is a type of "frailing", where the finger picks up on the string, followed by the rest of the hand strumming down, in a percussive, rythmic way. I also play a thumb and index style. Both were taught me by Byard, and are similar to banjo styles from Western North Carolina (Madison County) and Eastern Tennessee. Many other styles are found all over the south. They are:
- Clawhammer, which uses the back of the index or middle fingernail to pluck the melody string, followed by the rest of the fingers hitting all the strings in a strum, then the thumb hitting the "little string" as a sort of high pitched drone. Played by Tommy Jarrell and others and called "Galax" style, after Galax Virginia, this is likely the most popular style and is learned by many modern old time players all over the US.
- "Two finger", a thumb and index style. In Western NC it was usually an index finger lead. I play this and another taught to me by Byard.
- "Two finger", also a thumb and index style with a thumb lead, found in eastern Kentucky.
- Rapping, a style using the backs of the fingernails to "rap" the banjo. Similar to Clawhammer, but often only one finger used on the strings. Also called framming, knocking and flying hand.
- The style I mostly use is called by some "basic strum", but is a good deal more complicated than that. It replaces the down beat of the fingernail with an up pluck with the index finger. Very similar to Clawhammer, but often strings that were not plucked are hammered to create a syncopation that is difficult to reproduce otherwise. Played by Byard Ray and said to be from his uncle Dedrick Harris from just over the line in Tennessee, it is a style I have heard nowhere else. Shortly before he died he told me "Alex, you're the only other person in this world that plays the banjo thisaway, and when I'm gone, you'll be the only one. I just ask you to teach it to somebody before you go". I have been so far unable to keep this promise, since everybody who wants to play the banjo wants to "play that Bluegrass!". Maybe someday...
- So called "three finger" styles, actually thumb with index and middle finger, played by Doc Boggs of southern Virginia, and Charlie Poole of north central North Carolina, these styles are probably more properly called a Piedmont style, as these styles are what Bluegrass banjo grew out of, and most of the practitioners of these styles were from the Piedmont of North and South Carolina, like Junie Scruggs (Earl Scruggs's brother and mentor), Snuffy Jenkins, George Pegram and others from that area. Some seem to think these styles are more closely allied to minstrel styles of the post-civil war south, and some examples can be heard on recordings of Uncle Dave Macon, who was indeed a minstrel and medicine show man.
Good night. Happy New Year
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