Hillbilly Savants

Podcast Appalachia

2011-03-13T01:12:00.002-05:00

Podcast Appalachia is back! In this episode, I look at the life and times of James Still, widely regarded as one of the Appalachian region's greatest writers and poets! Listen here or read a transcript here.

Podcast Appalachia 12: "Appalachian Christmas"

2009-12-19T16:30:00.000-05:00

It's a special Christmas edition of Podcast Appalachia, featuring Christmas memories and stories from the Appalachian region! You can listen here.

Podcast Appalachia: "Moonshine"

2009-12-02T15:52:00.002-05:00

The latest episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available. In this episode, we examine the colorful history and culture of moonshine, the most famous 'spirit' of Appalachia. You can listen here or read a transcript here.

Remember the Snail Darter!

2009-12-02T15:50:00.001-05:00

Longtime East Tennessee residents probably remember the controversial Tellico Dam, built by the TVA during the 1970s as a means of bringing economic development to Loudon County and the Tennessee Valley. This was the first--and only--TVA dam built for this reason; those previously constructed were for flood control.

The Tellico Dam is probably best remembered today, and least outside the Tennessee Valley, as being nearly torpedoed by the infamous snail darter, a small fish whose habitat was said to be threatened by construction. The snail darter would delay construction for several years, and became a symbol of dogmatic environmentalists standing in the way of progress.

Small fish weren't the only obstacles to construction, however. Native Americans argued that the land flooded held religious significance, and environmental groups questioned the ethics of radically changing the Little Tennessee River, especially for the sole purpose of possible economic development. They too fought the good fight, but only succeeded in delaying the inevitable. The Native Americans fought the White man and lost, a recurrent theme of American history.

Then there were the property owners themselves, whose land was slated to be flooded. Since politicians rarely ever care much about the little guys who get in the way of their master plans, these people were kindly informed they would have to leave, and generously offered money for their troubles. This was done under the guise of eminent domain, and surely would have made supporters of the Kelo vs. New London decision proud.

Some of the property owners sold willingly; others held out to the bitter end. The most famous holdout was Nellie McCall, an elderly woman who had lived in the area her whole life, and who became a powerful symbol for the holdouts. She refused to sell out and refused to budge, but was eventually evicted by federal marshals.

Though the critics lost that battle, they may have eventually won the war: prior to the controversy, few questioned the construction of new dams, seeing them as progress, a sign of technological advancement and an enlightened society. Those who stood up to the TVA helped change this perception (it's hard to win a PR battle while forcibly removing poor, elderly women from their homes), and no TVA dams have been built in the three decades since.

WBIR notes that it was been 30 years since the Tellico Dam opened its gates on the Little Tennessee River, and features some remarks from a man who initially opposed its construction and lost some property as a result, but has since come around to accept the dam as an advantage for the region. Perhaps he's right, but I'm not so sure.

Cross-posted at Appalachian Abroad

Podcast Appalachia is Back!

2009-11-03T00:03:00.000-05:00

After a sixteen month hiatus, Podcast Appalachia is back! In this episode, I examine the history of the "lost" State of Franklin. You can listen here or read a transcript here.

NPR on MTM

2009-04-01T08:42:00.008-04:00

All Things Considered ran another story yesterday afternoon on Mountaintop Removal Mining and the administration's recent moves against it, including this bit: "There is no practice in this country as environmentally destructive as large-scale surface mining."

Read and listen here. Kudos to NPR for its long-time attention to this issue.

A few helpful links:
Wikipedia
ilovemountains.org
Mountain Justice
Appalachian Voices
stopmountaintopremoval.org
Some great (horrific) photos

EPA puts the skids on Mountaintop Removal

2009-03-25T10:45:00.004-04:00

In news that is sure to be met with glee for most readers of this blog, the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday announced it was reviewing the permit process for Mountaintop Removal Mining Projects in the Appalachian Region.

Citing its authority under the Clean Water Act, The EPA sent two letters to the Army Corp of Engineers expressing water quality concerns specifically regarding two MTM projects, one in Kentucky, and one in West Virginia.

In short, it's going to get a whole lot harder to start up a new Mountaintop Removal Mining Operation under this administration.

Read more here and here, and the EPA's official release here. Local angle here.

Now & Then winter issue celebrates ‘Fabric of Appalachia’

2009-02-19T21:00:00.002-05:00

Now & Then winter issue celebrates ‘Fabric of Appalachia’

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

JOHNSON CITY – The fall/winter issue of Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine, themed “Fabric of Appalachia,” looks at fabric in both literal and metaphorical contexts.

Published by the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services at East Tennessee State University, the magazine celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The publication regularly brings together some of the best contemporary Appalachian writers and poets, and the now-available “Fabric” issue is no exception.

In a literal sense, fabric is explored from a variety of viewpoints. Famed North Carolina quilter, author and businesswoman Georgia Bonesteel contributes an article entitled “Appalachian Quilting.” She is best known for her nationally broadcast PBS series “Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel.”

Nancy Jane Earnest gives an account of the L.C. King Manufacturing Co. of Bristol in “Still Sewing the Fabric of Appalachia,” and author Michael Joslin goes to the source in “A New Face in the Fields: Alpacas in Appalachia,” visiting Apple Hill Farm in Watauga County, N.C.

In “From Quilts to Chenille Bedspreads to Carpets,” Lydia Knight explores the rise of the fabric industry in Dalton, Ga. Now & Then Editor Fred Sauceman tells of the Southern Garment Corp. in Greeneville during and after World War II, then adds a recipe for spaghetti sauce with meat to the mix.

Other contributors approach fabric metaphorically. Elizabeth Hunter, a freelance writer living in the Bandana Community in Mitchell County, N.C., contributes a community-building piece entitled “The Great Bandana Porch Sit.” And Matthew Schacht focuses on non-profits that work with prisoners and their families in “Freeing Families: Non-Profits in Northeast Tennessee Help Families Fight Cycle of Recidivism.”

Marat Moore introduces readers to “Chest-messaging in the Coalfields: A Look Back at the T-Shirts of the Pittston Strike,” author and poet Jeff Mann contributes “Here and Queer,” while Grace Marshall writes about Wise County, Va., native – and cousin to George C. Scott – Gary Slemp in “Appalachia’s Renaissance Man,” and M. Thomas Inge describes a detective’s journey in “Searching for Sut: Solving the Mystery of George Washington Harris’s Gravesite.”

The “Fabric of Appalachia” issue is interwoven with short stories by Rosanne Griffeth, Jeff Kerr and Randy Sanders; first-person narratives from Judy Lee Green and Dan Jones; book and music reviews; and poems from five regional poets.

The magazine is available in Johnson City at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, The Shamrock on W. Walnut Street, and ETSU’s University Bookstore and Reece Museum. It is also sold at the Historic Jonesborough Visitors Center; the ETSU and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum and Visitor Center at the Gray Fossil Site; Wallace News and Bays Mountain Park, Kingsport; Jacklyn’s Hallmark, Elizabethton; William King Regional Arts Center and Zazzy’s, Abingdon, Va.; and Downtown Books and News, Asheville, N.C.

To subscribe online, visit www.etsustore.com, or order by phone by calling (423) 439-7994. For more information, call 439-7865.

Appalachian Witches haunt Alabama audiences

2009-01-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

If you're in the Huntsville, AL area you'll want to get yourself on over to Burritt on the Mountain this weekend. A brand new play titled "Appalachian Witches," by Christine Burke Ashwell wraps up its premiere run this weekend. It's the story of three women bound to the Appalachian Mountains, its traditions and music, superstitions and ghosts, history and faith. One family's bloodline speaks in the joyful voices of the mountains with a capella songs, stories and legends presented in a light-hearted storyteller style.

Tanja Miller, left, and Criss Ashwell appear behind Karen Lynn in "Appalachian Witches."

Ms. Ashwell has served as Alabama's state chairperson for community theatre under the Alabama Conference of Theatre, and as Alabama State Representative to the American Association of Community Theatre from 2001-2007.

Dave Tabler caught up with her this week to get a peek at what's in store for audiences:

DAVE TABLER: Why did you write this play?

CHRISTINE BURKE ASHWELL: I suppose I see a lot of culture getting lost in development throughout the Appalachians, or just the progression of time. I certainly think that we have lost a lot of connection with the land, natural remedies and healing arts. I think the stories told throughout the mountains are allegorical as well as historical and funny and sad and so very valuable to the history of a resilient and vastly diverse population who resided in the hills of Appalachia.

So I'm creating a few more stories, reminiscent of theirs and incorporating history and culture to appeal to a modern audience. Moreover, I think my grandfather said it best, "Being poor does not mean living poorly." In fact, as hard as some families had it, there was often more riches to be found in the people themselves than money could ever buy.

DT: What was one of your biggest challenges in pulling this play together?

CBA: The one thing that I hesitated with is the dialect. Even being from the area I have a difficulty understanding some folks in the mountains. We have strived for the voices to be the natural sounds of the mountains in a dialect and accent that are not stereotypical or affected, but can be generally understood by most theatre audiences.

DT: What are some of the influences you drew on for this piece?

CBA: Hmm, a lot of absorption of reading everything from the backs of herbal tea boxes to Lee Smith's books to Pilgrim at Tinker Creek to –my favorite--the Foxfire books. Or listening to the tour guides recite their scripts--yes, there are those of us who listen! In addition, I LOVE picking up those little self published booklets that you'll find in the gift shops of MANY places around the hills or rest stops.

Many times, I don't buy them, I just browse them right there in the store. Somehow, something sticks in the back of my brain until I start on something, talking about history or superstitions. I don't have a photographic memory or anything as grand as that, but those little books have proven quite entertaining, and rather informative of how life was for that family in that community.

One place that I will credit, too is the Hillbilly Savants blog. They had a great article on an earthquake and I did incorporate that into the show with a story of a meeting with the devil and some old demon exorcism goodies from the Bible.

I am ambiguous about time in the play: there are still quakes and such these days (one last year right here in Alabama) on the fault line that made these mountains.

DT: Where in Appalachia is the play set?

CBA: I wrote the play to be ambiguous in the locale. The mountains are so wide and diverse, one hill to the next is different, much less Georgia mountains to Tennessee to Virginia to Pennsylvania. I took a little from each place and created a few of my own "legends". The show is presented in a storyteller style so it's pretty audience friendly with very simple staging and production. I was also a little ambiguous on the language. At times, I cannot understand a word from the folks in the hills--whether from Virginia or Georgia.... Or my own family! But we've tried to remain true to mountain sounds, still remaining understandable by general audiences without being caricatures or stereotypes.

DT: Does the play take a religious moral stance?

CBA: You can't tell the stories of the mountains without including a big dose of God and His affect on the lives of the people of the mountains. Many healers quoted the Bible for their powers to stop blood or draw out fire. Faith and church was a source of comfort, support and hope in difficult times and a joyous gathering place when times were good. Going to meeting was source of news and certainly gave the spread-out lonesome hills a sense of community. I never wrote the show intending to have such a strong dose of religion or any sort of message or morality play. God is simply an everyday presence, and religion a way of life, for these characters. These are joyful souls.

DT: The show's music is entirely a cappella. Why that choice?

CBA: Singing the songs a capella lend the production towards what I consider an honest and true voice that should be uncaring of whether there is perfect pitch or not. The voices are REAL voices that sing hymns next to you in church or sing when working around the house. The religious songs are reminiscent of songs you've heard in church.

Camp meetings were a constant gathering place in the hills and songs traveled as much as the preachers. The first song is a mountain story song, passing the news of a local event. The next is a lullaby, sung to comfort a boy and pray for healing. The song that ends the first act is a toe-tapping hymn to encourage faith and hope.

The second act contains another spiritual calling sinners to God before it's too late. Then there's a mountain story-song of Ma Mary and the tragedy that befell her and her children. The play ends with the chorus of a traditional hymn that reminds Kate of her grandmother.

"Appalachian Witches" runs January 30 and 31 at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $15 per person and groups of 12 and more are $12 each. Tickets are available at 536-2882 or www.burrittonthemountain.com. At the Old Country Church at Burritt.

Appy-Love

2008-12-21T20:30:00.006-05:00

I'd like to direct your attention to another great blog focused on our fair region. Appy-Love is a relatively new project, and is coming along quite nicely. The author has some good stuff that's worth your attention. If nothing else right now, you've got to check out her first post from back in November:

Appy Love might become a source of ideas to get you out of your house and into Appalachia. I'd like to spend some time visiting, researching, and writing about the hills, hollers and holes-in-the-wall that have been surrounding me all this time, but that I've occasionally eschewed in favor of big cities (Atlanta and London) or big box retailers (Target and Old Navy). As they say, with age comes wisdom. Or at least the determination not to be a complete jackass. Since I live in Johnson City, posts will start here and radiate as far outward as gas prices will allow. Here goes nothing.

Keep reading.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park turns 75

2008-10-26T21:33:00.002-04:00

Clay Owen

The 75th anniversary of the opening of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is soon approaching. The most-visited park in the entire National Park system, the GSMNP is celebrating in the coming year with a series of events featuring Dolly Parton as the park's official Ambassador.

Scott Barker has an excellent piece in today's Knoxville News Sentinel surveying many aspects of the Park.

The Museum of Appalachia's Tennessee Fall Homecoming

2008-10-12T21:32:00.021-04:00

The Museum of Appalachia's Tennessee Fall Homecoming is one of the finest and most-important events each year in all of Appalachia. We spent a couple of days at the museum in Clinton, TN this weekend.

David Baker of Sevierville, TN mans his family's apple press and sells mountain taffy.

Okra dries in the October sun.

Ronda Vincent and the Rage entertains thousands at the Museum's main stage. This year's homecoming featured five stages of continuously-running music.

Above are two pieces featured in the museum's massive Display Barn. The museum's collection is absolutely huge, as well as incredibly varied. Items range from the former property of some of the most prominent figures in Appalachia's history, to simple items upon which the people of the region relied on that were crucial to their survival.

The WDVX camper, the station's original studio.

Museum founder John Rice Irwin chats with old-time fiddler Charlie Acuff (cousin to the late Roy Acuff, King of Country music).

Many of the museum's most-impressive items are on display in the Appalachian Hall of Fame. John Rice Irwin's personal touch is evident throughout the grounds of the museum, but especially in this building. Most of the placards are personally inscribed by Mr. Irwin, and his first-person accounting of the acquisition of many of the items are as rich as the artifacts themselves.

More photos from the weekend are here.

Images from Middle Tennessee

2008-10-08T09:28:00.003-04:00

So the western part of middle Tennessee would be considered only barely on the fringes of Appalachia by any definition, however I thought I'd share these photos of home that I took last time I made it down. Anyway, isn't Appalachia more a state of mind than an actual geographic boundary? Okay, maybe it is an actual geographic boundary, but that's beside the point.

The rest of my photographs can be found on my PicasaWeb site.

Pucker up, it's persimmon time in Tennessee!

2008-09-17T10:25:00.002-04:00

While driving to church yesterday morning, I spotted my first sign that fall was here. Lying in the middle of the road was an old familiar sight. Dozens of little orange berries, some smashed, some round and waiting to be run over. When I was a kid growing up here in East, TN, persimmons brought both pleasure and aggravation to my life.

According to Wikipedia, the American Persimmon tree grows mainly in the Southeastern United States. Its ranges from New England to Florida, and west to Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The tree grows wild but has been cultivated for its fruit and wood since prehistoric times by Native Americans.

I know that persimmon trees can be found in nearly every yard here in Knox County. In my own yard, I have only male persimmon trees, which do not bear any fruit. My parents, however, have female persimmon trees in their yard. My, the memories those things hold for me. From my earliest recollections, folks have been tricking younger kids into sampling green persimmons. I can remember my cousin Danny saying; “Oh, Tug, these persimmons are delicious, you’ve got to try one!” Then he held one up to his mouth and pretended to take a bite and acted like it was the best thing he had ever tasted in his life. Of course I, not wanting to look stupid in front of my hero cousin, took a big bite. If you have never bitten into a green persimmon before, you don’t know what you are missing. Or rather I should say you don’t want to know what you are missing! It takes no more than one bite into one to turn your mouth completely inside out. It has the similar effect of biting into a lemon, only worse! The first thing you want to do after trying one is to stick your tongue out and start slapping it. That is hard to do because your lips are now drawn into a frozen pucker, making this nearly impossible.

I can’t even tell you the number of folks that I played the above trick on. I know I did it to my younger sister, brother, and cousin Brad. Of course I also tricked my younger brother into sampling worms (which I wrote about in THIS post), bugs, and dandelions, but I’ll save those stories for another day. Ah the pleasures of being an older brother…

Persimmons brought a mixture of joy and misery into my life. Once the fruit gets ripe; it falls off of the tree. Naturally, this leads to the ground below being covered with plump, juicy, and sticky orange balls. I don’t know if you have ever slipped down into a slimy pile of persimmons, but let me tell you that is one nasty mess! Also much like “manure wars” we had persimmon wars. The green ones hurt, but the ripe orange ones would explode on your body and make a gross mess on your clothes, or in the worst case…your hair. I can still see my sisters and me running barefooted through the yard, slipping in persimmons, slinging them at each other, falling down and getting leaves and dirt matted into our clothes. My granny Spencer also had numerous persimmon trees in her yard and every time we went to her house we would get into them. Usually we would have a war with Becky, Paula, and Jeff Lawson, all whom lived next door to granny. The only thing separating us was a white wooden fence and a driveway. We would sling those persimmons with all of our might at each other, like it was a life or death situation. Oh what fun!

Some people eat persimmons and make things like pies and pudding out of them. I’ve eaten a few ripe ones and they are pretty good but the consistency of the fruit kind of turns me off. They are mushy and slimy, two textures that really don’t agree with my palate.

I came across this website: PersimmonPudding.com, which has lots of good information and stories about persimmons. Check it out when you have time.

The above is a cross post from my Tug's Life blog.

Religious signs in West Virginia

2008-08-30T23:13:00.001-04:00

Some religious signs from a recent highly bumpercropulous swing through southeastern West Virginia.

There was a great, raucous Holiness service going on in this church, and the doors were open, so I parked and listened. Some folks came out of the church and invited in. I wish I could have joined them, but I had a dog in the car with me and couldn't leave him.

On the same church:

Near that church:

Also in McDowell County:

Close-ups of the Jesus windows. The Roman soldier drawing blows me away--what a peculiar choice.

Fayette County:

Close-up:

In Kincaid, a combination post office-praise center.

Hard to read, but the little blue sign says "Christians helping others."

Hico:

From the Field Guide to What's Good.

Review: CMT's Outsiders Inn

2008-08-28T09:39:00.003-04:00

Exactly what part of "Country Music Television" did you not understand?

Everyone here in Cocke County, TN has their knickers in a twist about Outsiders Inn, CMT's new reality(which they define loosely as staged and scripted scenes with ad libs and non-actors) spin-off of Gone Country. There has been outrage over how the series portrayed our local people, or rather how it didn't. All of the locals appearing in the series were actors drawn from the pool of talent that populates Pigeon Forge's stage shows--Central Casting for Southern-Stereotypes-R-Us. Which is fine for Pigeon Forge and Dollywood, but misleading when presenting the program as a "reality" show. It's not. It's just bad, bad retroscripting. The trick with retroscripting is that you actually need actors--good ones--to pull it off. Outsider's Inn is sadly lacking in that department and many others.

Everyone in town was excited this June while it was in principal photography out at Christopher Place. But if you've watched the programming on CMT, it shouldn't have been a surprise that the channel that brings us My Big Redneck Wedding, makes its bread and butter from exploiting Southern stereotypes and mocking its fan base should do anything different with Cocke County.

My sister tells this story about how embarrassed she would be when her dates came to pick her up at our grandparent's house. Mutt and Papa loved Hee-Haw. They were also quite deaf so they kept the volume turned up on the TV really loud. Outsiders Inn is going for that Hee Haw vibe. The problem is that it doesn't have the astounding brilliance of the Grand Ole Opry talent behind it. There really isn't any talent to speak of. Hemorrhoids just aren't that funny--particularly on Carnie Wilson.

In short, the show is insulting not just to Cocke Countians, but to Appalachian people, Tennesseans and to Southerners in general. It's also insulting because of the amateurish production values. It's the sort of show that is useless for anyone's resume--the sort of show you grab the money then deny like hell you worked on it. It's a truckstop prostitute of a TV program and no one is going to want to admit they had anything to do with it. But if you insist on viewing the Credit Roll of Shame--it can be found on IMDb.

To make matters worse, Cocke County Mayor, Iliff McMahan Jr., willingly cast in the role of hick mayor, was reported by the National Enquirer to have brought quarts of moonshine as gifts to the cast members. I would have to consume way too much untaxed liquor to blab to the Enquirer. No one, thus far, has admitted to being the Enquirer's source.

Cocke County needs to dust themselves off from this bad experience. It's okay to be outraged but realize the insult was far broader than just Cocke County. CMT needs to stick with the music--or at least revamp its sixty years out-of-date image of what country music entertainment and its fans look like. Last I checked, overalls and checked shirts were not involved.

Back when I was working in the film industry, we had this thing we'd say when a set-up was going overlong or we were losing light.

Let's shoot this puppy before it turns into a dog.

Outsiders Inn was barking in pre-production--why didn't anyone hear it?

More Reviews and Articles:

KnoxNews Review

Johnson: 'Outsiders Inn' out of bounds in Appalachia

Enquirer's mayor and moonshine article attracts attention

From The Smokey Mountain Breakdown

Summertime Reward

2008-08-05T18:22:00.004-04:00

Swimming under the Cascades of Giles County, Virginia provides instant relief from the two mile hike in the summer heat.

Blue Ridge Outdoors

2008-07-18T12:30:00.003-04:00

Photo by Hazel Crabtree, Saltville, VA 1928

It was astonishing and exciting to hear about the new publication from Blue Ridge Outdoors about some deep issues in our present Appalachian backyards. The two main articles this month brings about more awareness to the environmental and social strains applied to the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia. Thank you so much Blue Ridge Outdoors for taking this chance to at least cover what is going on.

Read the articles from the website here or pick up a copy for yourself.

Keeper of the Mountains
by Chris Weller

Faces of Coal
by Jedd Ferris

Photo by Hazel Crabtree, 1929

The June beetle - capturing a living music box

2008-06-13T10:47:00.000-04:00

"From some long-forgotten source, I heard that June beetles made a sweet sound while flying around. I loved music, and the method to acquire this living music box was to fasten a long thread to one of the bug's hind legs.

"Now, June beetles are about half an inch across and three quarters of an inch long. The ones in the South are dark green on the back side and have an armor-like covering over their undersides. They feed on fennel and are harmless.

"One day, I chased down a June beetle and brought it in. It was hard to hold. That bug clawed me with its sharp toes and rooted with its sharp nose. But I held on for dear life and persuaded Mother to tie a thread on its hind leg. She wasn't too anxious to oblige me, but finally the job was accomplished and I took my musical bug outside to test it out.

"The ground around the house was level, so I chose a spot where I could turn my bug loose. It gladly took off, and I ran after it, holding on tight to the thread. The bug made a pleasing sound that was music to my ears. The sound that June beetle made—along with the Jew's harp and harmonica—was the one source of music my young ears had ever heard.

"Soon the bug grew tired and sat down. I realized the thread might hamper its movements, so I waited while it rested. Still anxious to hear more music, I urged it to fly. As quick as lightening, the bug took off with me pounding along behind it. I was thoroughly enjoying the performance until the thread slipped off. With mixed emotions, I watched my music box disappear in the distance.

"I felt bad over my loss and set about repairing it. I found another June beetle, but somehow I didn't like this one quite as well as the first one. Just the same, I hurried into the house to have Mother tie a thread on its leg. This time Mother openly expressed her dislike for such activities. Nevertheless, with strong urging on my part, she tied the thread once again. I took the new June beetle outside and let it fly as I had the old one, but the knot in the thread was too loose and slipped off. This bug also flew away, heading due north. It didn’t slacken its speed for even a moment."

From a Parks family history compiled by Lillian "Lilly Ann" Parks Adams (1880-?), at Capitola, CA, 1949-50, when she was 70 years old. She was born in Wayne County, WV, which borders Kentucky and Ohio. The story is to the best of her knowledge as a four-year-old child, and from family retellings.

source: http://ftp.wi.net/~census/lesson43.html

Original blogged at Appalachian History

Review: Railroad Earth's "Amen Corner"

2008-06-08T19:14:00.004-04:00

Railroad Earth
Amen Corner

I first heard Railroad Earth a few years back, soon after the release of the band’s quasi-demo, The Black Bear Sessions. Having no clue what to expect, I popped the disc in my car’s CD player. It scarcely left that spot for an entire summer.

Subsequent releases and relentless touring since then has earned Railroad Earth critical acclaim, endless comparisons to the Grateful Dead, as well as a dedicated following that is likely divided into two basic categories: Bluegrass fans that don’t mind the occasional trip out onto the experimental limb, and jam band fans that also dig a little bluegrass.

When at last I got hold of the band’s forthcoming release, Amen Corner (June 10, SCI Fidelity Records), I was naturally eager to hear the latest work of one of progressive bluegrass’s finest ensembles, and the first track didn’t disappoint. With its piddling, quiet intro that only masks the loud, upbeat tune that it is, “Been Down This Road” displays the remarkable inventiveness that has gotten Railroad Earth this far.

What follows is largely a hit-and-miss effort. Some songs simply fall flat in spite of the band’s always-masterful instrument work. In one case, songwriter Todd Scheaffer employs the standard blues-style AABA lyric structure, something that is so done over that only the best uses of it are effective anymore. Unfortunately, Railroad Earth’s take on it falls somewhat short of that.

Some tracks do achieve Railroad Earth’s delightful blend of sheer creativity and just plain fun melodies, but the album as a whole isn’t much of a showcase of it. The inclusion of horns can’t save “Hard Livin’” and “Waggin’ the Dog” seems low on willpower. Still, the sweet “Little Bit of Me” is as good as Railroad Earth gets.

The stand-out musician on Amen Corner is percussionist Carey Harmon. Where many bluegrass-rooted bands that feature drums rely heavily on tip-tapping, snare, Harmon isn’t afraid to draw more on rock influences and utilize bass-heavy, thumping beats. Of course, the entire band is owed much of the credit for arranging the songs in a way that lets Harmon shine.

Another aspect of Railroad Earth that cannot be ignored (and hasn’t been, as I noted above) is its similarity to the Grateful Dead. While the differences are obvious enough (string band versus rock and roll band), both act’s approaches to music are very similar. What’s more pronounced is Scheaffer’s vocal similarity to Jerry Garcia. Certain phrases are downright eerie as Scheaffer seems to be channeling the late virtuoso in both style and tone, leaving one remembering what is actually the better comparison, Jerry Garcia Band.

Amen Corner has enough material to keep Railroad Earth’s fans twirling for hours on end during their jam-heavy live concerts. If you’re not yet familiar with Railroad Earth, it’s advisable to seek them out, but you may be more impressed if you start with their earlier work.

The Earl Brothers Impress Again

2008-06-05T16:21:00.016-04:00

The Earl Brothers

Moonshine

When the Earl Brothers released their first album in 2004, the superbly-titled Whiskey, Women and Death, it was a shot of antique-sounding bluegrass in decidedly dark tones, as the recording’s name might suggest. Included on that debut disc were perhaps two of the finest original drinking songs ever recorded in the genre (“Been Sittin’ Here Drinkin” and “Bender”), as well as one of the finest and freshest takes on “Cluck Ol Hen” you’re likely to find anywhere.

Then in 2006 the band’s follow-up, Troubles To Blame, landed to a flurry of critical acclaim. The Earl Brothers had arrived and they played uncompromisingly traditional mountain music with attention-grabbing gothic undertones.

After just two offerings, a new disc from the Earl Brothers amounts to an event for a heap of bluegrass fans all over the country. In 2008, the band kept to its schedule of releasing a disc every two years with Moonshine. In it the California quartet is effectively sticking to its guns with twelve new tracks of original music.

At first listen, The Earl Brothers are easy to place. It’s gritty, gloomy, hillbilly music. This is a refreshingly simple bluegrass band that comes at the listener with no pretensions, just an honest take on life played with honest-to-God mountain music. In keeping with that theme, chief songwriter Robert Earl Davis seems uninterested in complex symbolism and extended metaphor. His formula is a simple one: See a thing, sing the thing, the thing’s the song. Consider these lines from Moonshine’s ninth track, “By the Side of the Road,” taken from the liner notes.

Billy was found by the side of the road
He wasn’t looking to good
Legs all bent from a bad accident
No one to call him there own

"By the Side of the Road" is a stand-out selection, as is the album's title track, "Moonshine" with its excellent first verse, which probably should have led off the album. Nevertheless Moonshine is thick with painful, gloomy and glorious twang that comes from another time - certainly the past, but maybe the future.

All of which amounts to pretty standard fare for an Earl Brothers album. Of course, standard fare from the Earl Brothers being as good as it is, this disc is a keeper for anyone that likes their bluegrass straight-up, with a twist of the wicked.

Podcast Appalachia: "Appalachian Abolitionism"

2008-05-31T03:21:00.000-04:00

The latest episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available! It's a little known fact that Appalachians, both in the North and the South, played a major role in the early movement to abolish slavery. In this episode I look at this history and examine the role Appalachians played in expanding human liberty. You can listen here or view a transcript here.

God shines on Appalachia

2008-05-27T19:22:00.008-04:00

A few pictures from a Memorial Day trek into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The rest of the set will be up at the Our Appalachia photo group at Flickr.

University of Appalachia School of Pharmacy Awards Degrees

2008-05-23T10:09:00.004-04:00

Robin M. Absher, Raven Virginia
becomes the first graduate from

the Unversity of Appalachia

College of Pharmacy

On May 18, 2008 the University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy awarded its first degree to Robin M. Absher of Raven, Virginia. Ms. Absher received her doctorate of pharmacy degree from Frank M. Kilgore, Chairman of the University's Board of Trustees, and Dr. Eleanor Sue Cantrell, President of the University and Dean of the College of Pharmacy. Ms. Absher joined 66 of her classmates who were also awarded degrees during the momentous ceremony. Every member of the inaugural class had received at least one offer of employment at the time of graduation, and Mr. Kilgore estimates that over 80% of the graduating class will accept positions working in medically underserved communuties in Central Appalachia. Most graduating class members have already accepted employment offers, or will further their training in residency programs.

According to Mr. Kilgore, who was instrumental in the founding of the University of Appalachia, the graduation ceremony was the fulfillment of a dream and was a "watershed event that will be of be of huge importance to generations to come as the history of our school is written". Mr. Kilgore also expressed thanks to others who had worked toward the dream's fulfillment: associate deans Dr. Susan Mayhew, Dr. Chuck Bresse, and Whitney Caudill; and Dean of Institutional Development Terry Kilgore. These individuals deserved special thanks, according to Chaiman (Frank) Kilgore, due to their "sustained and skillful efforts toward program development, accreditation, recruitment, teaching, event organizing and fundraising" for the new school.

The University of Appalachia School of Pharmacy is located in Oakwood, Virginia. If you would like to learn more, visit the School's website here.

Photo by Eric McCarty, courtesy of the University of Appalachia

Busted not for selling babies, but for the abortion clinic

2008-05-23T08:47:00.000-04:00

From 1951 to 1965 Dr. Thomas Jugarthy Hicks began to quietly offer babies for adoption from his Hicks Community Clinic in McCaysville, GA. Quietly, because the clinic he’d been running since the mid-1940s was not a licensed adoption agency. Hicks cared for the mundane health issues of local farmers and townspeople in the front of the clinic, while performing abortions, which were illegal during that period, in the back rooms.

Law or no law, he advertised his abortion services on phone booths, bus stations and bridges. Women came by bus, car and train to pay $100 to "fix their problem." A small airstrip was built in nearby Ducktown so the prominent could fly their daughters in from Atlanta and Chattanooga for an abortion.

His black market baby-selling ring, which may have ‘moved’ as many as 200 babies with no questions asked, relied on young, poor women from North Georgia and Eastern Tennessee. They’d come to him for an abortion, and he persuaded some to carry the babies to full term. The women would reside in the clinic for a few months, or the good doctor would provide a room for them at his farm, or in the New York Hotel in adjoing Copperhill, TN, or in his apartments in the telephone company building.

Hicks knew he could count on word of mouth to bring in the baby buyers. The Fannin County Courthouse records list 49 babies, for example, who went to Summit County in Ohio. All the fathers who bought them worked in the Akron tire companies, except for a Cuyahoga Falls doctor who bought two babies. All the sales were arranged by a West Akron Goodrich employee who bought four babies for herself. All of them paid up to $1,000 for a baby no one could trace back to its mother.

Hicks made sure the birth certificates listed the people adopting as birth parents. The doctor kept no known records of the birth mothers, who discreetly vanished.

Thomas Hicks was no stranger to shady dealings. After getting his medical degree from Emory University in Atlanta in 1917, he moved to Copperhill, TN, but lost his medical license and served time in federal prison for selling narcotic pain killers to a veteran working undercover for the FBI.

While incarcerated, he studied a lung disease that kept copper miners from living past the age of 40.

Once out, he was hired by the Tennessee Copper Co. to treat miners. The only problem was, he filed more claims than there were miners with the disease.

After he was fired from that job, he opened up the Hicks Community Clinic in McCaysville.

Once a baby was available, Hicks wasted neither time nor words with his prospective buyers. "You have 24 hours to come or I call the next person on the list," he's reported to have said to more than one client.

Hicks warned his baby buyers not to be picky. If you told Hicks you only wanted a boy or you wanted a girl, you could forget about getting a baby.

It may never be known how many illegal adoptions were conducted by Dr. Hicks, who was stripped of his medical license in 1964, but never jailed. He was, after all, a member of the Copperhill Kiwanis and the Adams Bible Class of the First Baptist Church (to which he donated a Wurlitzer organ). He was known to give free medicine to the very poorest in town. He made house calls to those who couldn't otherwise get to his clinic.

Dr. Thomas Hicks' abortion clinic was an open secret tolerated by a town that appreciated the bulk of his medical contributions. "He didn't perform any services that anyone didn't request,'' noted local resident Marlene Matham Hardiman, who once rented an apartment from Hicks.

The court papers disbarring him made no mention of the black-market babies. The abortion charges against him were dropped, and he continued practicing for a time thereafter.

Thomas Hicks died of leukemia in 1972 at age 83. His lawyer, nurses, wife and son are dead. His only living relative, a daughter, lives in seclusion in North Carolina.

sources:www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20124848,00.html
freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~msroots/BMA/HICKS4.htm
query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950CE1DE103EF930A1575BC0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
immigrantships.net/adoption/hicksbabies.html
chronicle.augusta.com/stories/012098/met_LG0411-9.001.shtml

Originally blogged at Appalachian History

Redistilled

2008-05-20T18:14:00.004-04:00

In the current edition of Knoxville Voice, Lisa Slade takes a look at the current state of moonshine in Appalachia. There's a lot of pretty well-known history, especially for those familiar with the region, but the assessments of moonshine's current cultural role is worth a quick read.

Meanwhile, I want to bring your attention to a home brew of a different sort. WUTK, the University of Tennessee's student-run radio station, is offering up a very special collection of music. As a means of generating some much-needed funds, WUTK has produced Redistilled: 25 Years of Knoxville Rock. Basically, it's a great collection of current Knoxville music luminaries covering tunes from local bands of yesteryear. Knoxville has always had a thriving yet under-appreciated music scene, and this disc celebrates it as much anything you can find in one place.

If you want a copy, order it from either CDBaby.com, or get it at The Disc Exchange. For a closer look at WUTK, check out Mike Gibson's article "College Radio Blues" at Metro Pulse.

Cherokee, NC

2008-05-19T22:48:00.001-04:00

Shooting on the Appalachian Trail

2008-05-07T21:10:00.006-04:00

Wapiti Shelter, Giles County, Virginia

Luckily for two men in Southwestern Virginia, history did not repeat itself.

The Giles County Sheriff's Office conducted an investigation today into a double shooting that occurred Tuesday night. Both men survived the shooting despite wounds to the face and chest of one, and the back and neck of the second. The shooting occurred along the Appalachian Trail between Giles and Bland counties around the Dismal Creek area. Virginia State Police arrested Randall Lee Smith after he flipped a truck belonging to one of the victims not far from the shooting site.

In 1982, Smith pleaded guilty to the 1981 murders of two hikers on the Appalachian Trail. He shot Robert Mountford Jr. three times, stabbed Laura Susan Ramsay more than a dozen times as they slept in Wapiti Shelter and left their bodies in shallow, leaf-covered graves. He was given two consecutive 15-year sentences. A plea agreement halted the case just before it went to trial in Giles County. Smith was released from prison in 1996 and returned to Giles County to live with his mother, who later died in 2000. In late March, Smith was reported missing by a neighbor after he disappeared.

Smith's earlier case was the subject of a novel by Jess Carr, Murder on the Appalachian Trail.

Investigators say Appalachian Trail Killer tries to strike again

Map of Area

Podcast Appalachia: "King Coal"

2008-05-01T23:32:00.001-04:00

The latest episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available! In this episode I look at coal. No rock has been more influential or more controversial in Appalachian society than coal; while helping fuel unprecedented economic growth in America and employment for generations of mountain people, it is also very dangerous to mine and has done much damage to the environment. In this episode I present a history of coal mining, as well as discuss the advantages and disadvantages associated with it. You may listen here or view a transcript here.

Mountaintop Removal Bill Dies

2008-04-30T18:53:00.000-04:00

This is a real shame. Jeff Woods puts it in perspective:

With a coal company essentially promising to mine by blowing off the tops of Tennessee mountains, lawmakers inexplicably refused to act and all but guaranteed great swaths of ecologically important woodlands will be laid to waste.
The National Coal Corp. threatened to shut down in Tennessee if mountaintop mining were banned. So to save 234 jobs, the sum total of the company’s workforce, lawmakers decided to sacrifice the natural beauty that underpins a gazillion-dollar tourism industry.

There is some hope for next year, but tragedy looms if the legislature doesn't act soon:

Environmentalists say they’ll present their bill again next year, and the governor has indicated he might help this time. There’s a sense of urgency. Mountaintop mining is about to become more familiar to Tennessee. National Coal sold its operations in Kentucky this year to focus on mining in this state. The Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal-fired power plants are about to be fitted with newer pollution scrubbers, making this state’s high-sulfur, dirty-burning coal more marketable, according to Barger.

Via ACK (cross posted at Appalachian Scribe)

Coming Back Home

2008-04-30T12:32:00.002-04:00

Podcast Appalachia: "Appalachian Music"

2008-04-23T00:55:00.000-04:00

The latest episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available! In this episode I discuss the musical heritage of Appalachia, who influenced this heritage, and how numerous genres of music (including rock, country, blues, and others) owe a dept to Appalachian musicians. You may listen here or view a transcript here.

Sassafras tea - THE spring tonic

2008-04-18T08:48:00.001-04:00

My mother was a great sassafras drinker. And every spring we had to have sassafras along with our poke salad (that was a wild green). The mountain people particularly gathered a lot of wild greens to supplement their diet, because most people back in those days lived mostly on cornbread and peas. My mother used to enjoy going into the mountains and picking the wild greens. They have a thing called (and I like it today—they cultivate it, by the way, in Tennessee and Virginia) highland creeces. Oldtimers called them creecy-greens.

Eula McGill
born Resaca, GA 1911
February 3, 1976 interview
Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Interview G-0040-1.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/G-0040-1/G-0040-1.html

To some Appalachian farmers, it was simply an aggressive weed tree cluttering old fields. Others believed its wood could prevent chicken lice, and so used it to build chicken houses and chicken roosts. But sassafras’ most famous attribute has always been the healing properties of the springtime tea –a spring tonic- made from its roots.

The Cherokee people utilized sassafras tea to purify blood and for a variety of ailments, including skin diseases, rheumatism, and ague (the tree is sometimes called an ‘Ague Tree’). "The country people of Carolina crop these vines (Bigonia Crucigera) to pieces," said William Bartram in Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians food traditions, "together with china brier and sassafras roots, and boil them in their beer in the spring, for diet drink, in order to attenuate and purify the blood and juices." The Cherokee would also make a poultice to cleanse wounds and sores, while they’d steep the root bark to treatment diarrhea or for 'over-fatness.'

They emphasized that the tea should never be taken for more than a week at a time. They didn’t know about safrole, though they knew its long term effects. The bark of sassafras roots contains volatile oils, 80% of which is safrole. Commercially produced sassafras was pulled from the American market in the early 1960s after experiments showed that safrole caused liver cancer in rats and mice.

Early white mountain settlers, perhaps influenced by the vine/brier/sassafras concoction described above, made a beer by boiling young sassafras shoots in water, adding molasses and allowing the mash to ferment.

The varied leaf shapes are the Mitten Tree’s trademark—in fact, its Latin name was once Sassafras Varifolium. Today Sassafras Albidum ranges widely over the eastern United States (only two other species of sassafras exist elsewhere in the world: one in central mainland China, one in Taiwan).

‘White sassafras' grows along roadways in thick clusters, usually from three to six feet tall. It has roughly the same characteristics as ‘red sassafras,’ however the bark does not turn pink to red when the root is damaged.

The red variety is the species that is most prized. Generally found on hills and ridges, it sometimes grows in mountainous areas to a height of thirty or more feet. The American Forestry Association's National Register of Big Trees lists a 77-foot champion in Owensboro, KY.

According to H.L. Mencken's The American Language (1936), the word sassafras traces back to 1577 and is of Spanish origin, probably deriving from the Spanish term for saxifrage.

Native Americans in Virginia pointed out 'wynauk' to British settlers, and in 1603, a company was formed in Bristol, England to send two vessels to the New World, principally with the intention of bringing back cargoes of sassafras bark. Thus, sassafras was one of the first, if not the first, forest products to be exported from what is now the mid-Atlantic states.

sources: Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians food traditions, by William Bartram, 1789, From "Transaction of the American Ethnological Society," Vol. 3 Pt. 1. Extracts
everettarea.org/tales/v01/v01c30.htm
foodreference.com/html/artsassafras.html
inpaws.org/Marion%20Jackson%20Trees/Sassafras_albidum.pdf
The singular sassafras, by Henry Clepper, from "American Forests," American Forestry Assn 1989
http://ohiodnr.gov/Portals/18/publications/pdf/wild%20edible%20plants.pdf

Originally blogged at Appalachian History

Sgt York Country

2008-04-18T00:39:00.003-04:00

Last month I visited Sgt. Alvin C. York Historic Park in Pall Mall, TN. I took many photos (as usual), the best of which I now share with you, in addition to a brief bio of a true Appalachian hero.

Sgt Alvin C. York was the most famous American World War I soldier. He famously killed 28 German soldiers and captured 132 others in the Argonne Forest in France. A recipient of the Medal of Honor and the French Croix de Guerre, he was the subject of a classic 1941 movie Sergeant York in which he was portrayed by Gary Cooper.

Ironically, York very nearly refused to serve in the war. Early in his life, he had been a bit of a hellion, enjoying hard drinking and hard living. This lifestyle was not without its dangers. One night his friend was killed in a bar fight, an event that so shook young Alvin York that he gave up drinking and joined his mother's church, becoming a devout Christian.

York's new church believed strongly in pacifism. York shared this belief that killing was a sin, which made it very difficult for him to join the war effort when he received a notice to register for the draft. York simply wrote "don't want to fight" on his registration card. He struggled mightily over what to do next, spending much time in prayer before finally deciding he must enter service.

In spite of his decision, York remained a committed pacifist upon entry into the Army, which led to numerous theological discussions and debates among his fellow soldiers. These discussions would eventually convince him that war could be justified in some cases.

On October 8, 1918, York performed an amazing and heroic feat that would make him a legend. Seventeen men, including York, infiltrated German lines to take out machine guns. Unfortunately, the Americans were hit with machine gun fire, killing six Americans and wounding three others, including York's superior, leaving York in charge of the seven remaining soldiers.

As his men remained under cover, York advanced toward the machine guns. German Lieutenant Paul Jürgen Vollmer fired repeatedly at York even as he dodged machine gun fire but failed to injure him. When Vollmer ran out of bullets, he surrendered to York. York and his men were able to capture 132 German prisoners. These deeds earned him the Medal of Honor and Croix de Guerre, among others.

Upon his return home, York remained humble and did not wish to be viewed as a hero. He decline numerous opportunities to sell his story, opting instead to marry his sweetheart and return to his home in Pall Mall. It was not until 1941 that he would authorize a film.

York's experiences in Europe led him to conclude that education was needed in his community, and he went to work establishing schools. He started a Bible school in Pall Mall, as well as Alvin C. York Institute in 1926. The Institute would struggle during the early years, and York sometimes paid teacher's salaries from his own pocket. The school was taken over by the state in 1937 and remains Jamestown's primary high school.

Sgt York was a powerful symbol of the region from which he came: a simple, kind hearted man capable to great heroism and who believed strongly in the power of education. We are all well served to remember his example.

Historic marker in Jamestown, TN

Wolf River Post Office and store. The store is still owned by the York family.

Alvin York's house.

Wolf River.

Alvin C. York's grist mill.

Wolf River.

Grist mill from the down river.

Another shot of the Wolf River.

York's former Bible school

Alvin C. York Institute, Jamestown, TN.

Wolf Creek United Methodist Church, established 1840 (York is buried here).

York's grave.

York and wife's graves.

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

Hillbilly Savants on Flickr

2008-04-16T19:42:00.005-04:00

One of the best parts of this site is the frequent photoblogging. We've got some fine photographers around here, and they all bring us some fantastic images of the region. Lately I've become a fan of the photography site, Flickr (better late then never), so I thought I would create a place on the web where we could view photographs of Appalachia - from both our contributors and our readers - in one place. Thus I've created a Flickr Group called Our Appalachia.

If you're not already a Flickr member, then go set up an account (the basic membership is free). From there, as you upload photos, you can click the overhead "Send To Group" button and post them to the Our Appalachia. For HS contributors, if you do some photoblogging add your contributions to the group, and maybe the rest of your set that you didn't quite deem blog-worthy.

I look forward to everyone's contributions.

(Big shout-out to Katie Granju at Knoxville Talks for giving me the idea.)

Podcast Appalachia: "Appalachian Literature"

2008-04-15T17:25:00.000-04:00

The latest episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available! In this episode, I examine the contributions Appalachian writers have made to American literature. You may listen here or view a transcript here.

A conversation with Larry Keel

2008-04-09T21:43:00.003-04:00

A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of sitting across the table from one of the most talented musicians of this day and age, Larry Keel. Keel rolled into town with his band, Natural Bridge, for a late night concert in Johnson City. I'm lucky enough to have friends in high places that know I'm a guitar flat picking junkie and that I would jump at the chance to meet the bearded legend. Natural Bridge will be performing at this year's Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion and an interview was set up to introduce Keel to the festival's web-site readers. I was invited to tag along.
Those familiar with Larry Keel know that he has a unique singing style (click here for a sample). Well, he has a unique speaking voice too. Imagine it being like George Carlin's vocal chords transplanted into Bill Monroe. He was very gracious with his time, perhaps just enjoying the fact that he wasn't sitting in his tour van. He seemed to enjoy reminiscing about his start in the music business, what he's doing now and what he's planning for the future. He also gave me a pointer or two about working on my guitar skills. Part of the interview has finally made it to the R&R website, here.
As a side note, during the show he praised East Tennessee State University and their music program for offering Bluegrass studies. He wondered out loud when the day would come that scholars outside of the region would study Bluegrass music like Classical and Jazz is studied today. He also joked to the ETSU students in attendance that if they wanted to play like him, they needed to drink heavily and drop out of college.

A legend visits our neck of the woods...

2008-04-09T19:00:00.006-04:00

Levon Helm at the Tennessee Theatre, April 8, 2008.

More photos here.

Podcast Appalachia: "Mountain Religion"

2008-04-09T03:00:00.000-04:00

The latest episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available! In this episode I discuss the role of religion in shaping Appalachian culture and examine some of the most prominent churches in Appalachia. You can listen here or view a transcript here.

Country Church

2008-04-08T02:50:00.002-04:00

Dyllis Baptist Church, Roane County, TN (cross posted at Appalachian Scribe)

It's that time again...

2008-04-05T08:51:00.002-04:00

It only happens twice a year, and WDVX needs you. Twice annually East Tennessee's Own WDVX ("...probably the best radio station in the world." -Oxford American) appeals to its listeners for financial support - and that support is absolutely vital.

If you've not listened to WDVX before, go ahead and stream it live now. If you can't listen right away, know this: WDVX is one of the most important keepers of Appalachian culture that our region has, truly an irreplaceable asset. For that we should be thankful, but more than being thankful we can simply enjoy WDVX. It's just that good.

I won't go into all that's good about WDVX here, as I've been through that on HS before. If you listen to the station, you know how important it is to keep this great music going. If you haven't, please acquaint yourself with what is nothing short of a cultural treasure, and consider a pledge of support. In fact, I'll be manning the phones and making appeals for support this evening from 4-7 pm.

Free Popcorn

2008-04-03T16:43:00.002-04:00

Famed Cocke County, TN moonshiner Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton has cut a deal with authorities:

Sutton, a Cocke County resident infamous across the country for both his skills and his arrest record as a moonshiner, agreed Thursday to a plea deal in Greeneville's District Court.

Sutton entered guilty pleas to one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, and to one count of knowingly distilling spirits. The first charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The second carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Also as part of his plea agreement, Sutton agreed to allow his moonshining photos and videos to be used to "deter others" from committing crimes as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods.

Sentencing for Sutton will take place on August 4. He'll remain free on bond until that date.

I find it hard to understand why authorities are wasting their time on this.

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

Podcast Appalachia: "The Scots-Irish"

2008-04-03T00:36:00.002-04:00

The latest episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available! In this episode, I look at the Scots-Irish and their contributions to Appalachia and America. Are you or any of your relatives from the Appalachian region? Then you are probably of Scots-Irish descent. You can listen to this episode here or view a transcript here.

Photos From Wise County, Virginia

2008-03-31T11:25:00.010-04:00

Last week I was all over Virginia - Gate City, Wise, Norton, Big Stone Gap, Coeburn, St. Paul, Hansonville, Abingdon, Emory, Meadowview, Marion, Wytheville, Pulaski, Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Radford, Christiansburg, Salem, Roanoke, Floyd, and Pearisburg. I was doing all sorts of things to get ready for my wife to start her PhD at Virginia Tech and for me to start teaching in Wise this fall, not to mention visit Emory & Henry to celebrate its 172nd year since establishment (go blue and gold), get in some camping, and of course fulfill my ongoing love of downtown architectures. Well, I took my camera to get pictures for Sarah (who has never been to Wise) but, right on par with my standard memory, I forgot the charger, limiting my total photo count. That said, I got a couple of decent (note decent is not equal to awesome) shots in Norton, Big Stone Gap, Wise, and Coeburn before the camera's battery went to be with its maker, so I thought I'd share. Enjoy.

Appalachia in the Press

2008-03-27T17:14:00.004-04:00

There have been a couple of good articles come out of Knoxville this week. First, the Knoxville News-Sentinel continues to add to its "Songs of Appalachia" series with a profile of the Five Star Jubilee Singers, a traditional gospel band out of Harriman, Tenn. that has been working for more than fifty years. The series has an impresive video component that you won't want to miss.

Also, in this week's Metro Pulse cover story, Mike Gibson takes a look at the Museum of Appalachia through its founder, John Rice Irwin. Turns out, the Museum of Appalachia, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute, is facing serious financial difficulty that is compromising any future growth prospects it may have. MOA is a treasure for anyone interested in the history and culture of Southern Appalachia. It would be nothing short of tragic for the museum not to thrive in the 21st century.

The Scottsboro Boys

2008-03-26T08:35:00.002-04:00

On March 25, 1931, local authorities in Paint Rock, AL arrested nine black youths on a freight train after receiving word about a fight between blacks and whites on the train. They discovered two white women, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, dressed in men's overalls on the same train and subsequently charged the nine young men with rape.

The doctor who examined the girls found proof that they had been having sexual intercourse but no reason to conclude that they had been roughly handled, except for a small bruise on one of them which might well have been caused by riding on gravel. This was not Victoria Price’s version of the story: "There were six to me and three to her....It took three of them to hold me," she recalled under oath. "One was holding my legs and the other had a knife to my throat while the other one ravished me."

Four of the "Scottsboro Boys," Roy and Andy Wright, Eugene Williams, and Heywood Patterson, had grown up in Chattanooga, Tennessee; the Wrights were the sons of Ada Wright, a widow and a domestic servant in Chattanooga. Ozie Powell, Clarence Norris, Olen Montgomery, Charlie Weems, and Willie Roberson came from different towns in Georgia and encountered the others for the first time on the train. Olen Montgomery was completely blind in one eye and could barely see out of the other; Willie Roberson suffered from untreated syphilis and could hardly walk.

Presiding judge Alfred E. Hawkins assigned all seven members of the Scottsboro bar to defend the young men, but all of them found excuses not to involve themselves except for seventy-year-old Milo C. Moody.

In Chattanooga, sixty miles away, members of the local Interdenominational Colored Ministers' Alliance raised funds to retain Stephen R. Roddy, a white lawyer from Chattanooga. "I was scared before, but it wasn't nothing to how I felt now," said defendant Norris as the trials got under way. "I knew if a white woman accused a black man of rape, he was as good as dead."

On April 9, 1931, after four separate trials conducted over a four-day period before four different all-white juries in the mountain town of Scottsboro, eight of the defendants were found guilty as charged.

Judge Hawkins promptly sentenced them to death. The case of the ninth defendant-thirteen-year-old Roy Wright-ended in a mistrial after a majority of the jury refused to accept the prosecution's recommendation that he be spared the death penalty because of his extreme youth.

"I was sitting in a chair and one of those girls was testifying," Wright was quoted as saying in a March 10, 1933 New York Times article. "One of the deputy sheriffs leaned over to me and asked if I was going to turn state's evidence, and I said no, because I didn't know anything about this case.

"Then the trial stopped awhile and the deputy sheriff beckoned to me to come out into another room-- the room back of the place where the judge was sitting-- and I went. They whipped me and it seemed like they were going to kill me. All the time they kept saying, "Now will you tell?" and finally it seemed to me like I couldn't stand it no more and I said yes."

Soon after the guilty verdicts, the NAACP and the International Labor Defense came to the defense of the "Scottsboro Boys," contending the trials were unconstitutional. Three more rounds of trials ensued. Ultimately, charges against four of the defendants were dropped, but by that time they had spent over 6 years in prison on death row without trial.

Alabama’s Governor Graves had planned to pardon all of the defendants before he left office in 1938. However, during the customary pre-pardon interview, Graves was angered by the men’s hostility towards him and refusal to admit their guilt, so he did not issue pardons.

sources: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/White/anthology/scottsboro.html
www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/106.2/ah000387.html
www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm

Originally blogged at Appalachian History

The Hotshot Freight Train

2008-03-24T17:49:00.005-04:00

The Hotshot Freight Train
(Image from their MySpace page)

So here I sat, in my favorite chair, recovering from airports, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and psyching up for Wise, Abingdon, Emory, Blacksburg, and Radford, when in walks Zac (he doesn't really believe in knocking). A witty conversation naturally ensues, I make fun of him, he returns the favor, we discuss sports uniforms, paintings, and our trivia team (all true, I'm afraid), and then he turns to roll out. Then, right before he walks out the door, he says wait, I want you to check out this band - they're awesome, they're from Knoxville, and they have this kick@$% song called "Appalachia." Well, you know me, I'm a sucker for that sorta' lead-in. So I type (clickity-clack) and pull up their MySpace page - which, coincidently, is right here . . . and, yeah, they pretty much rock. If you like rock and roll of a bluegrass - gospel infusion that really screams of its intellectual underpinnings and cultural complexity of the modern Appalachian music-scape, well, you'll probably be an instant convert to the madness that is The Hotshot Freight Train - that's right, that's their name - you're already predisposed to like'm, ain't you?

Now, I couldn't find a true homepage that was active, but I did find a couple of other links for you - specifically the Knoxville News Sentinel's page on 'm (which includes a downloadable mp3) and this description:

While the music is distinct and perhaps a personal best for the individuals in the lineup, which has been a constant for well over a year, it often draws comparisons to national acts such as And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and Afghan Whigs, but much of this can be attributed to the throaty vocals of Tipton combined with the dark, but not-yet-overdone, feel of his musical backdrop.

Also, dig on this article by Steve Wildsmith (good name, by the way) in The Daily Times.

Oh, and their next show is in Knoxville this evening, at 8PM, if you're interested, at the Longbranch Saloon on the Strip (Cumberland Avenue), near campus. Should be a doozy.

Support local music. (I'm planning on ordering the CD, stat, myself. Dammit.)

Podcast Appalachia: "Daniel Boone"

2008-03-24T02:06:00.001-04:00

The latest episode of Podcast Appalachia is available for download! In this episode I provide a biography of frontiersman Daniel Boone, an early explorer of Appalachia and one of the most famous people in American history. You can find Podcast Appalachia on iTunes, or you can listen to this episode directly here. A transcript is also available here.

CCL Breaks Out (almost)

2008-03-22T21:49:00.014-04:00

Chatham County Line

IV

The first track on Chatham County Line's latest record, IV, seems to serve as a kind of statement song. "Chip of a Star" begins with a lazy banjo roll and slowly proceeds though an anything-but-traditional-bluegrass arrangement, topped off with (gasp!) pedal steal guitar and dreamy ode-to-lover lyrics. It's a good start, and you start to think that this difficult-to-label North Carolina quartet has taken a definitive step away from traditional bluegrass.

Then with the second track, CCL reels itself back in a bit. One of the strongest tunes on the album, "The Carolina," with its refrain "She's in Richmond with my heart," smacks more of the Old School. From there the album bobs and weaves, dodging label and pigeonhole with a wide breadth of style and arrangement that betrays the band's first incarnation as a rock and roll outfit. On the whole, with its emotion and introspection, this is one of the more pop-inclined bluegrass records you're likely to find this side of the Pickin' On... series.

The intended centerpiece of the album seems to be the civil rights era ballad, "Birmingham Jail." As a live number, this tune packs a punch and seizes any audience. It doesn't quite live up to that promise as a recorded take, but the effort is a noble one. The real highlight is the moderately-paced instrumental "Paige," a mandolin-heavy number that sashays easy with a classical feel.

IV never fully takes off and joins the ranks of the band's nontraditional counterparts on the western side of the continent. That's not to say that the album isn't good, because it's actually quite excellent. But the whole of the album proves that the opening track is more of a head fake, and that IV's statement is more of a confounding non-statement. Truth is, you've never heard it quite like this before.

Our National Psychology and Stereotype

2008-03-22T21:01:00.007-04:00

In the current issue of Oxford American, author David Payne presents a fantastic essay that tries to account for the standing of Southern literature in the whole of American letters. Payne begins with this quote from George B. Tindall:
Even today the Northern visitor hankers to see eroded hills and rednecks…to sniff the effluvium of backwoods-and-sandhill subhumanity and to see at least one barn burn at midnight. So he looks at me with crafty misgivings, as if to say, “Well, you do talk rather glibly about Kierkegaard and Sartre…but after all, you’re only fooling, aren’t you? Don’t you, sometimes, go out secretly by owl-light to drink swampwater and feed on sowbelly and collard greens?”
To account for the diminished standing of Southern lit in the context of American writing, Payne goes on to examine Northern notions of the South and Southerners, and a few passages speak directly to HS's recent ruminations on stereotyping. Payne speaks not to Appalachia per se, but to the South as a whole. Still, it is relevant:

The Southern Redneck Stereotype arises from the condescension of an urban and industrial/mercantile people toward a rural, agricultural one; of an uprooted, migratory people toward a static, place-bound one; of a modernizing, tradition-breaking people toward a fiercely tradition-keeping one. And it’s no coincidence that many of the qualities attributed to the Southern Redneck—primitivism, violence, excess emotionalism, even musicality—are similar if not identical to those projected onto African Americans.

The whole thing is well worth reading.

Rainy Smoky Mountains

2008-03-19T00:31:00.003-04:00

US 441 in the Smokies

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

The Yankees Are Coming!

2008-03-18T08:57:00.004-04:00

Today marks a first in the history of collegiate sport in Southwest Virginia. The New York Yankees will leave the comfort of their tropical Spring Training base camp and fly to the hills of the New River Valley to take on the Virginia Tech Baseball team in an exhibition game at 3pm. We here in Blacksburg have seen our share of overly hyped football and basketball games through the years but this is the first time that the attraction of a baseball game will force people to be turned away at the (temporary) gates if they don’t have a ticket. Those tickets were hard find unless you were a student or employee of Virginia Tech. Even then, you had to win a lottery drawing to claim one of the 4,000 seats.

Update: Here are a few articles reviewing the Yankees' trip to Appalachia...

Yankees give fans a major thrill in Blacksburg

Stars and Pinstripes

Yankees leave their mark

Podcast Appalachia

2008-03-18T00:31:00.006-04:00

The second episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available. In this episode, I discuss the first explorers and settlers to enter the Appalachian region. You can listen here or view a transcript here. It's also available on iTunes.

Moonshine Bust

2008-03-15T02:50:00.002-04:00

Legendary moonshiner Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton has been arrested. Sutton has been making 'shine for over three decades, and was featured in the History Channel special Hillbilly: The Real Story. Leave him be, I say.

Podcast Appalachia: "Where is Appalachia?"

2008-03-10T01:05:00.002-04:00

The first real episode of Podcast Appalachia is now available for download. You can find it on iTunes or download it directly here. In this episode, I attempt to define the geographic boundaries of Appalachia and examine how these boundaries have changed over the years. Please, take a listen and let me know what you think! You can also find a transcript (and the rss feed for subscribing via iPods and mp3 players) here.

Podcast Appalachia

2008-03-07T02:14:00.000-05:00

I have decided to start a new podcast devoted to the history, culture, and issues facing the Appalachian region which I have dubbed "Podcast Appalachia." I recorded a "pilot episode" that lays out my vision. You may listen to it here or view a transcript here.

If you have any comments, questions, criticisms, or suggestions, please feel free to e-mail me. My address is johnnyb325@aol.com.

The Art of Gary Bowling

2008-03-03T12:19:00.004-05:00

"History of West Virginia" By Gary Bowling
(Image from Tamarack)

Growing up in Bluefield, there was always one local artist who I was delighted to come across - I remember him speaking at my elementary school to a rapt audience and staring for hours at a t-shirt featuring one of his works on it. His name is Gary Bowling, and I found myself thinking about him the other day.

The reason I found myself thinking of Mr. Bowling lay is a little complicated. I was sitting in my favorite chair, a pile of art history books on my lap, looking for inspiration for my own work. Well, eventually I come to my two volumes on the work on the late, great Keith Haring. I flip through the images, always with my mouth a little agape, and the phone rings - it is a buddy of mine from Bluefield, asking what I'm doing. I tell him I'm looking at a collection of Keith Haring paintings - he doesn't know who that is, so I start trying to describe his work.

"Um, it is like pop art versions of hieroglyphics or cave art - you know, very symbolist and imagistic, bold lines, like cartoony religious icons."

"I'll take your word."

He didn't get it, and I paused, thought, and then (essentially yelling in the phone), "DUDE, you remember Garyglyphics, right? Like that, sorta'." My buddy understood what I was talking about then, by cracky.

Okay, Gary Bowling does not = Keith Haring. His work is very different, very unique, but it has that same drama of figure and icon - his work both makes fun of and delights in the hyper-stylized. I can't tell you the hours I spent as a kid emulating him, and though it has been years since I've seen his work in person I still can see elements of his influence in my own work, unconsciously trickling out of my pen and ink. Ah, but you aren't interested in all that. So on to the links and with them, the images. Enjoy - I know you will.

First - YouTube. That is correct - there are two Bowling-related links - first, one of his Garyglyphic lectures (this one on the rise of the monotheistic religions, entitled "So It Was Written" - absolutely true, as you can tell from the part about Protestants and BBQ), and second a collection of images from Mr. Bowling's home during a Christmas party - you'll see a lot of his work therein, and you really get a sense of the fun he has with his art.

Also, as for samples of work, check out the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts website - he designed their 2000 poster, as well as his page on the get sm'ART (I think that is the right way to write it) page - there are only a few works, but they're worth a look, especially (in my opinion) the "Paper Doll" series. Oh yeah - and if you're interested in one of his tees (I'm thinking of getting one myself, actually), check him out at the Tamarack site ($15 ain't bad for a nice shirt, these days).

And Gary, if you post some more art online, let us know - I'd love to post some more links. Support local art.

Gatlinburg from Above

2008-02-28T01:35:00.001-05:00

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

What's in a stereotype?

2008-02-27T14:04:00.014-05:00

Deliverance (1972).

I originally posted the link to the Pittsburgh Gazette article without comment, mostly because after I read it, I didn’t have much to say. I knew that it was a news story that belonged on Hillbilly Savants, but I also knew full well in what direction the response to it would go, and I had nothing to add to that discussion at the time.

So, after a due period of digestion, I thought I might offer a few thoughts that many of you may find surprising. You see, distinctly missing from my emotional reaction to this story is something that many of you have already expressed: Outrage.

No, I’m not outraged. In fact, it would be a stretch to say that I am in the least bit angry. More than anything I am concerned. I am concerned that inaccurate Appalachian stereotypes are simply allowed, or even encouraged, to flourish in modern media. As I’ve noted on this site before, it has been said that harmful stereotypes of the Appalachian region are the last form of accepted cultural bigotry in America. There is no way to measure the validity of that statement, but I suspect it’s far from false.

Key to this discussion is accuracy. No one would mind an Appalachian stereotype that read: Mountainous region with a shared cultural tradition, spawned from the isolation of independent mountain life, among a population that spans the entirety of American socio-economic, educational, and political spectra. That won’t make anyone angry because it’s about as honest an attempt at making a too-general statement that you can make. The problem is when images are taken from a small fraction of a people and are expanded to encompass the whole. As a society though, this is redundant. This discussion is the classic American rhetorical social struggle of the media age - and it’s time we get past it.

You see, as inaccurate as stereotypes are, they aren’t entirely void of truth. Stereotypes aren’t wholly fictional concepts inspired by the muses. Stereotypes started somewhere. Somewhere, somebody observed these characters and behaviors and reported them as typical for the region, and that’s where the lie began. Still, the simple truth is that the people we interact with everyday (and, of course, our own selves) all inhabit characteristics that an outsider would associate with the hillbilly. That cannot be ignored. Let us not forget, we named our blog after it!

Further, none of us can deny that we use these very stereotypes in order to stimulate our own amusement. Do we not enjoy listening to and singing songs about moonshine ("White Lightning," "The Ballad of Thunder Road"), or age-old mountain murder ballads ("Knoxville Girl," "The Banks of the Ohio")? Do we not make and consume art that includes images of bearded men in overalls, and jugs labeled with the tell-tale "XXX?" Do we not use these images to stimulate tourism in the region in places like Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg (The WaRsh House, Hillbilly Golf)? So, we - the outraged - engage in the perpetuating of these ideas, and of course in doing so we've done nothing wrong. But if we are going to recognize these images as symbols of our shared culture, then surely we can help to overcome when these myths transcend symbolism and become misguided belief.

While stereotypes are indeed unfair, if they present some degree of truth, we must recognize it. What we, as Appalachians, must do is come to grips with how these images are both accurate and inaccurate, gauge what problems this presents, and respond by educating ourselves and others with the truth about our region. I’d say that Hillbilly Savants is a fine start.

What these casting agents did was to flaunt their own bigotry, and they should be made aware of their stupidity. It takes an appalling degree of gullibility and ignorance in this day and age to actually let your notions of a region be dictated by a mythological stereotype. Still it happens everyday, and the fact that this type of bigotry is condoned in today’s media is the crux of the problem. It is our duty as Appalachians, as Hillbilly Savants, to lead the charge against this ignorance.

What the #@$%

2008-02-27T10:36:00.001-05:00

The link from John’s post below is the reason we started the HS site. This type of idiotic mentality and regional profiling is sickening and absurd but how many people outside of Appalachia see us like deformed, inbred rogues who sit on our arses all day and shoot at squirrels. I would love for all of us to show up for “casting day” and give them a real lesson in Appalachia…..talk about a clannish situation. There is a bigger system at work here where we have to deal with information, the real kind of information that can show the outside public who we are. I call on all of you to start communicating more. We at HS need to keep this going and to discuss what is important from dying languages to social awareness, from poverty to politics. We care and we are not the type to give in so let’s fill this bucket up with everything we can. Let’s start “hollering.”

As my dad once said, “it is time to start preaching.”

Damn, I am pissed.

"..some of these 'holler' people..."

2008-02-26T16:32:00.003-05:00

I offer the following without comment, from The Pittsburgh Gazette:

A movie about to be filmed in Pittsburgh is casting Gothic characters -- including an albino-like girl and deformed people -- to depict West Virginia mountain people.
"'Regular-looking" children need not apply.
That's the gist of an open casting call for paid extras for "Shelter," a horror film starring Julianne Moore that will begin shooting in Pittsburgh in March.
The casting call scheduled for Sunday invites "men and women of all races, 18 or older," to try out as extras, according to the announcement from Downtown-based Donna Belajac Casting. But the extras wanted for the West Virginia scenes evoke images of "Deliverance" and "The Hills Have Eyes."

"It's the way it was described in the script," Belajac said Monday. "Some of these 'holler' people -- because they are insular and clannish, and they don't leave their area -- there is literally inbreeding, and the people there often have a different kind of look. That's what we're trying to get."

Click here to read the rest.

Photos from Chimney Rock, NC

2008-02-26T00:07:00.004-05:00

Photos taken December 28, 2007.

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

Do you believe in the American Dream?

2008-02-23T09:59:00.003-05:00

Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie provides a look at the trials and triumphs of life in the Appalachian foot hills. Through the experience of Dallas and Wayne, two amateur Bigfoot researchers in southern Ohio, we see how the power of a dream can bring two men together in friendship and provide hope and meaning that transcend the harsh realities in a dying steel town. -- from the official website

On the surface the film is a documentary about two Bigfoot researchers, Dallas and Wayne, and their struggles to get their material reviewed. In reality the film is about the indestructible Appalachian spirit.

I know folks may be a bit leery of this sort of documentary and the possible exploitation that we have witnessed with the Jesco White films, but I can assure you that the producers are on our side. The cinematographer is my cousin Shane Davis. Shane and the director, Jay Delaney are natives of Lucasville and the executive producer, Jeff Montavon is from Otway on the other end of Ohio SR 348. You would be hard pressed to find a more Appalachian area of Ohio and I would dare say there is no more Appalachian area period. I am sure the subjects are in good hands. As Jay told me, “My mom raised me right.” I hope that this will compare favorably to David Sutherland's Country Boys.

The film is to premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin in March. This festival is a big deal with such past premieres as V for Vendetta and this year's premiere of Harold and Kumar 2: Escape from Guantanamo Bay. The film has been given nice placement at midnight showing on the first Friday, Monday and last Saturday of the festival. As you know Austin don't start hopping till the sun goes down.

Certainly there will be the folks who laugh at Dallas and Wayne, but my faith in human beings tells me that more viewers will come away believing in these two men even if they don't believe them. Delaney says, “that the way we look at other often says more about us than it does about those others.” There may be folks on one side of the socio-political divide who raise questions about personal responsibility and such, but those of us who live by Micah 6:8 know that we may all be created equal but we are all not born into the same favorable circumstance. And even the favorable circumstance of 1950s Scioto County Ohio can turn to rust in a lifetime. Luckily for some who find themselves in less than perfect situations the ability to dream in order to find a purpose in life is not easily crushed.

100,000

2008-02-20T11:53:00.003-05:00

Wow. In less than two years we have reached a heck of a milestone - today we broke 100, 000 unique visits. Awesome.

To the staff of Hillbilly Savants - I am dang proud of you all.

To our loyal readers - we appreciate you all. Please keep visiting and please keep telling your friends.

Ain't it nice to be at the beginning of the Appalachian Renaissance?

Oh, and if you're interested, the 100,000th visitor visited from a Google search, looking for information on the Town House Grill in Chilhowie, Virginia. Delicious.

The Art of Daniel L. Maw: "incidental theatre and implements of banality"

2008-02-19T00:03:00.013-05:00

incidental theatre & Implements of Banality
(Image originally by Daniel L. Maw - Taken from the Knoxville Art Blog)

Tonight my friend Zac and I were wandering through the Old City of Knoxville, shooting the bull and making pseudo-intellectual observations and hanging posters. As we walked in the door of one of the Old City's fantastic establishments (support local businesses), Old City Java, we were pleasantly surprised to find some tremendous artwork hanging up throughout the business - it was a small show, but one that really deserves some attention. So, after buying a small piece for about $5 (that's right - sure, it was a "souvenier" print, but the reproduction quality is high and it supports a Knoxville artist, which is worth it in and of itself) I was like, yeah, this guy gets on the blog. His name? Daniel L. Maw.

(Image by Daniel L. Maw)

Okay, let me drop the knowledge, tell you what I do and don't know. First, after a couple of Google searches, I found out that he is originally from Iowa and is working on his MFA in printmaking here at the University of Tennessee. His work is incredibly - beautiful, provoking, and damn does it drink deeply of the artistic genius of early 20th Century comics artists . . . if you like Segar's work (think Popeye), Krazy Kat, and early Disney comics (Mickey Mouse when his eyes were still ovals with or without pie slices), well, you'll love his work. He has an eye for detail without letting it overwhelm his images, not to mention an impressive knack for visual story-telling. Well, enough of my absurdity. Let me throw you a couple of links and quotes, let you make some judgments of your own.

“I take advantage of the pictorial vernacular of our culture to create work that by its nature communicates clearly. The ideas or events communicated, however, are unexpected, quirky, and ultimately amusing. I consider an assortment of artists and images in this pursuit, including comic artists ranging from George Herriman to Chris Ware, modern cartoons such as those produced mid-20th Century, graphic imagery seen in advertisements, and games and toys. My pieces require an authentic interaction by the viewer, either to untangle the visual cues in order to complete the story or to follow the directions in order to construct the object and solve the game.”

(Image by Daniel L. Maw)

Statement by Maw on the UTK Printmaking MFA site

"In my pieces, I seek to take advantage of the pictorial vernacular of our culture in order to create work that by its nature communicates clearly. The ideas or events communicated, however, are unexpected, quirky, and ultimately amusing. I consider an assortment of artists and images in pursuit of this end, including comic artists ranging from George Herriman to Chris Ware, modern cartoons such as those produced mid-20th Century by United Productions of America, graphic imagery seen in advertisements, and games and toys—especially those that are printed on paper and intended to be cut out, folded, pasted, or otherwise manipulated in order to complete. Both my 2D and 3D pieces require an authentic interaction by the viewer, either to untangle the visual cues in order to complete the story or to follow the directions in order to construct the object and solve the game."

Statement by Maw on the University of Iowa's The Daily Palette

(Image, Art by Daniel L. Maw)

Also, you can see quite a bit of Maw's art on his MySpace page (check out the blog, trust me, there is stuff worth seeing there), not to mention his photobucket page. Oh, and if you're anywhere near East Tennessee, you need some coffee. Or tea. Or maybe a delicious soda. So hit Old City Java and catch the show, by some work. Bam. Oh, and Daniel, if you read this and you're planning to do any larger editions anytime soon, well, let me know your prices - you've got a permanent fan.

A racy book, full of the thrill of mountain adventure

2008-02-16T15:29:00.000-05:00

In winter one must draw the little hickory split chair close to the hearth, for most of the heat from the great glowing fire goes up the chimney. The house may have a small window-sash immovably built in. Often there is none. The woman cooks breakfast before sun-up, and supper after dark, by the smoky light of a tiny kerosene lamp with no chimney. It is difficult to carry lamp chimneys long distances in saddle-bags.

There are many homes where even the moderate luxury of kerosene is not found. A sliver of pine knot gives an even more smoky light, and occasionally a “ladle” is used. It is preferably made by a blacksmith, an iron saucer with a handle to hang it by. Narrow strips of cotton cloth, twisted or plaited together, are laid in the ladle in grease. The end of the rag is hung over the edge and ignited. Its illumination is not measured in candle power.

The Land of Saddle-bags
by James Watt Raine

The Land of Saddle-bags is one of the three most important books from the early twentieth century that, according to Dwight Billings (a contributor to the 1997 reprint), have "had a profound and lasting impact on how we think about Appalachia and, indeed, on the fact that we commonly believe that such a place and people can be readily identified". Originally published in 1924, it was advertised as a "racy book, full of the thrill of mountain adventure and the delicious humor of vigorously human people."

James Watt Raine provides eyewitness accounts of mountain speech and folksinging, education, religion, community, politics, and farming. In a conscious effort to dispel the negative stereotype of the drunken, slothful, gun-toting hillbilly prone to violence, Raine presents positive examples from his own experiences among the region's native inhabitants.

In 1906 Raine became an English instructor at Berea College in Kentucky, where one of the courses he taught was on English and Scottish ballads. He eventually submitted several course proposals - all apparently denied by the college - that would have allowed him to grant credit upon a student’s successfully collecting a certain number of ballads from the student's home territory. However, Raine persisted in his ballad collecting activities.

Raine - an actor, playwright, and author – ultimately headed Berea’s English and drama departments. He was much in demand as lecturer for cultural entertainment programs on through to his retirement in 1939. He died on February 12, 1949, age 88, in Berea, Kentucky.

source: www.berea.edu/hutchinslibrary/specialcollections/saa06.asp
The Land of Saddle-bags, by James Watt Raine, 1997, University Press of Kentucky

Orginally blogged at Appalachian History

Lesser Demons of a Minor Artist

2008-02-16T14:52:00.008-05:00

Los Santos de los Estados Unidos, 2007

Hey everyone, forgive my impertinence, but . . . I want to drop you some knowledge about an upcoming show of mine entitled “Lesser Demons of a Minor Artist" which is opening at Andi's Gallery & Tattoo. Specifically, it is a collection of my paintings and drawings (my work is an agglomeration of expressionism and pop art with heavy influence from the symbolist movements and classical East Asian design) which will be for sale at extremely reasonable prices. If you want to check out some of my work ahead of time, just click over to my homepage . . . most of these pieces plus several others will be up for sale at reasonable prices at the show.

Ghost in Fez with Pipe, 2007

There'll be live music provided by the fantastic Ron Dunbar of Wilkesboro, NC (you can hear a few of his pieces at his homepage and/or at MySpace).

UPDATE 2: I forgot to list the date and time of this little shindig. Because it is just, like, really important (John Kerns, thank-you for the wisdom). The date is February 23rd (that's this upcoming Saturday) and the time is 7PM to Midnight. Awesome

Oh, and if you miss the show opening, please feel free to visit Andi's Gallery later - the show will be up through the end of March at least.

See ya' there, kids.

UPDATE: Okay, I'm an idiot - I didn't tell you the location of the gallery. Doy. Consider:

Andi's Gallery & Tattoo
7043 Maynardsville Pike
Northside Square Plaza
Suite 13
Knoxville, TN

Gracias mon amigos . . . e.-

Profile: Bethany, West Virginia

2008-02-12T17:27:00.001-05:00

So, I've been busy lately - it has paid off, mind you - I was just offered a professorship at the University of Virginia at Wise's Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, which is pretty awesome, and I have a solo art show coming up in Knoxville (more on that later), but the crux of my lax reporting has really lain with my inability to be imaginative - I have, honestly, had trouble settling on subjects to write on. I know, I know - no excuse. But then I thought, dang it Eric, just keep it simple - choose a theme and just keep to it.

Alright then, I thought, what should I write on? Magic? Puppies? Booze? Then it came to me . . . I could write about a different town once a week, set up a bank of links, dig up events, festivals, art, the whole nine yards. Dig? Well then, where to start, where to start - I decided to pick a town randomly for my first one - the tiny (read as less than a 1,000 citizens) town of Bethany, located in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia.

Why Bethany, you're asking? I mean, I've never been to Bethany, it being on the opposite end of West Virginny from where I grew up, and honestly I don't come into this knowing much at all about the place. Well, the fact that little Bethany is home to the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of West Virginia and jeepers if that's a draw I simply couldn't turn down.

So, you're wondering what I learned? Um, not tons (at least that isn't more about the college than the municipality). None the less, let me drop you some jonx:

First, the soundtrack - you're going to want to listen to some tunes while becoming a Bethany expert. I mean, unless you're anti-music. In which case you shouldn't listen to Vigilant, a garage band straight outta' Bethany. Pop rock with just enough angst and paprika to give it a twang. Like a young OkGO with faint undertones of reggae and bluegrass (whether they're intentional or not, hell, I dunno). Song you'll probably play twice? "Legalism."

Bethany College, Circa 1904
(Image from Wikipedia)

Bethany College: Any mention of Bethany, from what I can tell, is more than likely to start with ol' BC. It received its charter back in 1840, though it evolved from an even earlier seminary, and it is a beautiful little campus - and its near 900 students nearly double the size of the town. You want the virtual tour? Yeah, of course you do - so click here already. There is quite a bit of content there, so you're going to want to take your time and stuff.

Oh, and hell yeah, GO BISONS!

Horses - you like'm? Bethany has'm. Check out the Peace Point Equestrian Center.

The Disciples of Christ of West Virginia have a particularly long relationship with Bethany - they're kinda' why it is on the map - consider this.

You want ghosts, don't you? Yes you do, you jerks - quit making fun of me! You need them - you're addicted to post - 10PM Discovery and SciFi "paranormal investigations" shows. Rumor is that Bethany has its share - consider: 1 and 2

Finally, you want images. I know, I know - if you just wanted to "read" you wouldn't be on the "internet." Well, I got some great stuff for you - dig on . . . .

A Tour of Bethany, West Virginia: The Home of the Campbell Legacy

The Digital Library of Appalachia

A Photo Survey of Bethany

. . . and dare I forget . . .

Penny Postcards From West Virginia (see "Brook County")

Alright, alright. Not too bad, not bad at all. A definite decent first try. Two things though, both a product of this much-touted "interactivity" for which this "internet" is known. First, if you know something we need to know about Bethany, including relevant websites, post'm here - I'll try to get them amended to the post. Second, there are a helluva' lot of towns in Appalachia, not to mention a helluva' lot of subregions - I'm gonna' need some recommendations. Drop me some knowledge and you might get a prize - like, your name written on the INTERNET!!!! Woot! Regardless, do it too it, and plan on seeing another post in this series next week - and stuff.

Knoxville: The Body Farm

2008-02-11T23:15:00.000-05:00

One of the Borders of UT's Body Farm
(Image from Jefferson Bass)

So I'm scrolling through the magic of the internet this morning and, what to my wondering eyes should appear? This article on the University of Tennessee - Knoxville's "Body Farm" forensic field lab and school (by the way, Damn Interesting is a great blog - worth a real look-see). That got me to thinking, golly, I should blog on that, you know, my usual link-list and so forth. I did a search to start the process, though, and whoa. . . tons of responses, like, tens of thousands. Well, I went through the top couple hundred of options and found these doozies - hope you enjoy (oh, and hats off to everyone, the volunteers who donate their bodies to science and the scientists themselves, who make this research facility - and all the good products thereof - possible).

University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Center

The Homepage of the Writing Team of Jefferson & Bass
(Photo & Movie Tours of the Body Farm)

CNN, October 31, 2000: "Pastoral Putrefaction Down on the Body Farm"

On three acres surrounded by razor-wire and a wooden fences near the University of Tennessee Medical Center, about 40 bodies rot away at any given time. They're stuffed into car trunks, left lying in the sun or shade, buried in shallow graves, covered with brush or submerged in ponds.

NPR, May 22, 2004: "Visiting Tennessee's 'Body Farm'"

WLTX (CBS), April 26, 2006: "The Body Farm"

And thanks to Dr. Bass, CSI teams also have access to a ground penetrating radar system. It can see bodies buried below concrete.

We can look through the concrete and tell which stage of decay the body is in," Bass says. "That's interesting and sophisticated type of research. "

It was that kind of research that was used at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania field where Flight 93 crashed on September 11th.

"When you think of 9-11, that was an archaeological nightmare," says Dr. Murray Marks, an anthropologist. "Remains were not on the surface. There was a tremendous amount of debris and they were decomposing."

The Sevier County News: "Grave Talk From the Body Farm Guys: SCN Interviews Dr. Bill Bass, Jon Jefferson"

Salon.com, April 17, 2003: "Dead man decomposing: An excerpt from Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach."

The cadaver in the sweat pants is the newest arrival. He will be our poster man for the first stage of human decay, the "fresh" stage. The hallmark of fresh-stage decay is a process called autolysis, or self-digestion. Human cells use enzymes to cleave molecules, breaking compounds down into things they can use. While a person is alive, their cells keep these enzymes in check, preventing them from breaking down the cell's own walls. After death, the enzymes operate unchecked and begin eating through the cell structure, allowing the liquid inside to leak out.

Dr. Helen (blog), January 31, 2007: "Podcast on Forensic Science"

Utne Reader, May/June, 1999: "The Body Farm"

Once a year, Bass holds a memorial service for the people who donated their bodies to the Farm. This year I'm invited to attend. A cardboard box containing the remains of a randomly selected skeleton is laid on a large conference table in an anthropology department classroom. A simple white linen cloth covers the box. The gathering is small, just a few students and professors. Also present are James McSween and his son. McSween donated his wife's body to the Farm, something they discussed before she died. He has come here to find connection and comfort with the decision he made.
After the service is over, Bass huddles with the McSweens in a corner. His tone is that of a pastor after a Sunday service--calm, reassuring. He gestures toward the door, and father and son make their way down narrow halls and stairways to the skeleton-storage room in the basement. I follow at a respectful distance. There, several long tables and desks compete for space with rows of floor-to-ceiling shelving. On the shelves are some 2,000 cardboard boxes just like the one from the memorial service.
The three men work their way around a table and stop before a wall of boxes. Bass searches the labels. "Here she is," he says, and pulls down one of the boxes. He carefully removes the lid, reaches inside, and lifts out the skull. A small number is written on its base. The number matches the label on the box. Bass' tone is gentle, instructive, as if he were a gardener noting the details of a flower.

The Age, January 17, 2004: "Dead people do tell tales"

As Bass says in his new book: "We are organisms. We're conceived, we're born, we live, we die and we decay. But as we decay, we feed the world of the living: the plants, the bugs, the bacteria." When you kneel next to a rib-cage that has settled into the soil, and you can clearly see that bones are not people, and when your guide is a man who has walked so often in the valley of death, it is easy to feel comforted by that idea.

The Times, October 24, 2004: "A life in the day: Bill Bass"

The Outside Perspective

2008-02-05T11:37:00.000-05:00

As a southerner from Appalachia who has traveled across the United States, I have become accustomed to the odd looks I receive when I open my mouth and expose my easily identifiable accent. In looks or dress I can blend in as easily in Washington or Philadelphia (my current abode...) as I can in Knoxville, TN or Boone, NC. I can be asked for directions in New York City or the Smoky Mountains, and probably be able to tell you where to go. But the moment I speak to someone to give those directions, I am immediately identified as either an outsider or a 'local', depending on the region.

My accent began to soften when I began my studies at the Univ. of Tennessee, and even more so when I relocated to Philadelphia to start work on an MA at Villanova. But every time I say something to someone in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, they give me a look that is a combination of humor, fascination, and confusion. When they inevitably ask why I'm here, and I tell them I'm a graduate student in Political Science, eyebrows get raised. No one that speaks like that could be that educated, could they? I have yet to be offended by anyone, most are simply curious. The questions of how I ended up here, where I am from, where did I do my undergrad at, etc., all give me an opportunity to talk about home, which I will gladly do.

When I tell people that the city of Knoxville (and the state of Tennessee, for that matter) can be quite cosmopolitan, they look at me with a bit of disbelief. I explain that it is home to a talented symphony orchestra, an opera, a major ballet troupe, art museums and galleries, fine cuisine from around the world, dozens of historical buildings and locations, a center of commerce, business, and banking, not to mention a major university that is not much younger than most of the Ivy League schools, and older than a few. I tell of how the people of Appalachia are not necessarily uneducated xenophobes who are stuck in the 19th century, but rather a people that have helped shape the culture, politics, and history of the United States. So many of the people I talk to do not understand that the people of Appalachia maintained the frontier spirit of individuality and ingenuity while they developed and evolved their own unique cultural identity. I explain the origins of bluegrass music in traditional Scottish and English fiddle music, combined later with African influences. I tell of the rich oral story telling tradition that has been passed down for generations, and of how people hold a deep interest in maintaining their history, genealogy, and culture.

Hopefully, through my interactions with individuals who might have only known about Appalachia via popular culture, I have done my small part to help achieve one of the goals of what this blog was designed to do: show people that Appalachia is more than just a collection of humorously stereotypical mountain folk a la the Beverly Hillbillies.

Frogsong

2008-02-04T20:48:00.001-05:00

Every year, I make note of the day the frogs awaken. It means something to me and no doubt, it means something to those who keep track of such things as how wide the wooly bugger caterpillar stripes are; how many salamanders are found far from water; how low the hornets are building their nests in the trees.

I have kept track of this for a few years. In 2007, they woke on January 16th. In 2006, they started to sing on February 15th. I’m hoping, because they split the difference this year, we will get rain and grass. Of course, it may mean the weather warmed up enough that they decided to stir from the mud. They buried themselves in the quiet squishy depths of the pond only a few months ago.

They say amphibians are the sentinels of the environment. Indeed, if you want to know where we are headed, ask the frogs. They will tell you, if you will listen to their song. But you have to listen very carefully.

This evening, the hundreds of frogs I saw this morning singing in the bullfrog pond, will draw the hungry possums, raccoons and foxes to the feast. They will thin out the population to more manageable levels. February is mating season for foxes and the music of frogsong will soon give way to the yips and growls down the mountain. Nighttime will no longer be silent.

It’s the first sign of spring on my mountain. Frogsong.

~Smokey Mountain Breakdown

Sheriff Hutcheson gunned down on Hwy 33 Bridge

2008-01-26T08:30:00.000-05:00

The fine looking gentleman in the picture is none other than, Sheriff Lewis Bratch (L.B.) Hutcheson. The photo was sent to me by his granddaughter Linda Compton.

Just in case you aren't aware of exactly who Sheriff Hutcheson is, let me fill you in.

L.B. Hutcheson was born on June 14, 1884. At the age of 19 he married 15-year old, Della Lyons. They settled into their home just spitting distance from Norris Dam, in Maynardville, TN. At the age of 46, L.B. was elected sheriff of Union Co, where he served honorably, and was much loved among his peers and by the community.

Sheriff Hutcheson spent the first 4-years of his law enforcement career, keeping the citizens of Union Co. safe. It wasn't until his 5th year as Sheriff, that he would face the most difficult and deadly case of his career.

During the Spring of 1935, big trouble was brewing just a couple of counties over. Sitting locked up in the Cocke County jail were 3 no good for nothing's; Gus McCoig, John Campbell, and Clarence Bunch. The jail couldn't hold these three menaces to society, and they soon escaped. Campbell soon parted ways with McCoig and Bunch.

Hell bent on destruction, the motley duo of McCoig and Bunch, set their sights on cutting a pathway of crime through East, TN. Robbing stores, looting homes, stealing cars, and shooting at anyone or anything in their path. They would add other degenerates to their crime team, which would later be known as "The Bunch Gang."

Clarence Bunch ended up being gunned down in a battle with Knox County law enforcement officers on the front porch of notorious Claiborne Co. bootlegger, C.T. Epperson. McCoig was apprehended and sentenced to 15 years in the State Pen. Once again, prison bars couldn't hold McCoig, and he escaped with fellow inmates, George Moss, and Pete Dean. Moss was quickly arrested outside of Tazewell, TN, after he was spotted on the side of the road. Dean and McCoig picked up another partner in crime, Frank Hopson. On December 6, 1935, the three of them made their way to the Citizen's Bank in Tazewell, TN, where they held up the bank and got away with $2000.00 in cash. They made their getaway down Highway 33 toward Knoxville.

This is where Sheriff L.B. Hutcheson comes in. A cashier, at the recently robbed bank, called up the Sheriff's office in Maynardville, to alert them of the robbery. Sheriff Hutcheson and Deputy Austin Matthews, quickly jumped into the Sheriff's cruiser and roared off up Hwy 33 toward the oncoming getaway car. "About seven miles from Maynardville, and a short distance beyond the bridge over the Clinch River, the officers parked beside the highway. A car with three male passengers passed them at top speed. Matthews swung the car around and began a chase. The speeding sedan stopped at the south end of the bridge and turned sideways, blocking the highway. Dean remained in the car while McCoig and Hopson got out and stood on the roadway beside the car. McCoig was holding a forty-five caliber automatic concealed partly by his trousers. Matthews stopped his car a short distance away and he and the sheriff got out. In a soft tone Hutcheson began to speak to the boys but never finished the sentence. McCoig raised his weapon and opened fire. The first shot went wild, hitting the windshield, but the second struck Sheriff Hutcheson squarely between the eyes. McCoig then trained his weapon on Deputy Matthews, who was now out of ammunition, and ordered him to surrender. At that time a Greyhound bus pulled in behind Hutcheson's car and stopped. McCoig went to the bus with his forty-five flashing and told the driver and passengers that he had just killed the Union County sheriff. After boasting, he left the bus and paused a few moments to look at the body of the fallen sheriff before returning to the getaway car and heading toward Maynardville." -Source: Union Co. Historical Society

The gang managed to escape and a massive manhunt ensued. Frank Hopson was found and arrested within 24 hours. It wasn't until February of 1936 that police were able to apprehend the other two men. Pete Dean was picked up in Gainesboro, TN after robbing a bank in Whitley, TN. By that time Gus McCoig had settled in at a tourist camp in Crossville, TN, where he was arrested without incident...while singing and strumming a guitar.

After a 6-day trial, the 3 gang members were found guilty of the murder of Sheriff Hutcheson, and were sentenced to die by electrocution. After an appeal to the Supreme Court, the sentences of Dean and Hopson were reduced to life in prison. Gus McCoig's death sentence remained, and according to the state of Tennessee dept. of corrections records, he was put to death on April 3rd, 1937.

L.B. Hutcheson died on December 6, 1935. He was only 51-years old.

L.B. Hutcheson's wife, Della, took over the job of Sheriff of Union Co., and became the 3rd woman to be sheriff in the state of Tennessee. She passed away on June 3, 1960, at the age of 71.

Cross posted on Knoxville Trivia Blog.

More interesting links of related information:

Photo of L.B. Hutcheson and wife Della Hutcheson's grave in Loyston Cemetery.

Union County Historical Society - Probably the best write up, however, there are some wrong dates listed and a few misspelled names.

Metro Pulse article about Clarence Bunch

Joe Paynes Geneology page info about the Bunch Gang

A thread on Roots Web about the death of Sheriff Hutcheson

Fairmont, WV

2008-01-24T01:36:00.000-05:00

I took the following photos in Fairmont, WV during my visit in November.

Marion County Courthouse

Downtown Fairmont

The Monongahela River

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

Albert J Ewing, photographer

2008-01-20T12:22:00.000-05:00

Albert J. Ewing was a traveling photographer who worked on a floating studio aboard the Water Queen showboat that cruised the Ohio River. Way's Packet Directory, 1848 - 1994 indicates that the Water Queen operated from 1880-1915. Ewing, who lived in the town of Lowell, Washington County, OH, photographed thousands of residents of southern Ohio and West Virginia, documenting living conditions and family life in Appalachia at the turn of the century. These two photographs were taken between 1890 and 1910. The Ohio Historical Society owns about 170 of his photographs.

related post: A National Treasure, Almost Lost Forever

Originally blogged at Appalachian History

Biltmore

2008-01-17T02:04:00.000-05:00

Biltmore House, Asheville, NC

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

Down on the Crooked Road

2008-01-15T18:55:00.000-05:00

XM Satellite's channel 14 is the lone station on their digital dial dedicated to bluegrass music. The playlist varies from the timeless songs of stars from days gone by to big name bands that headline today's festivals. I was cruising along down the road the other day when lyrics of a song on this station grabbed my attention:

"Headin' out of Ferrum on this winding two lane road, Mountain music hummin' from my dashboard radio..."

I looked at the radio display to see who would be singing about Ferrum, a small community at the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge in Virginia. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that band was the Dixie Bee-Liners, a group based in Abingdon, Virginia.

The song, Down on the Crooked Road, is a lyrical ride from end to end of Virginia's Heritage Music Trail. It is also the first single released on the Dixie Bee-Liners' sophomore album that is due out in Spring '08. Take a listen to the song on the group's myspace page and enjoy their other work while you're there.

The Letcher County Giant

2008-01-15T14:08:00.000-05:00

Martin Van Buren Bates, sometimes referred to as “Baby Bates,” the “Letcher County Giant,” or the “Kentucky Giant,” was a legitimate Appalachian folk hero. During his lifetime, he was known throughout America and Europe for his impressive stature and his various exploits. He was literally a “giant among men.”

Martin Van Buren Bates was born in Letcher County, Kentucky, on November 9, 1845, the son of John Wallis and Sara Waltrop Bates. At birth, Martin was a normal sized infant, the son of normal sized parents, and the brother of normal sized siblings. So it was quite a surprise when he grew up to become famous as the “Kentucky Giant” and one of the more interesting characters to emerge from Appalachia.

Bates began his amazing growth by age nine, at which time he reportedly weighed 300 pounds and was six feet tall. His mother forbade him to do any work, fearing his growth had made his body too fragile. Nevertheless, his amazing growth continued.

By the time he reached adulthood, Martin was unquestionably a giant. Some sources claim he was 7 feet 11 inches tall, although the Guinness Book of World Records places him at 7 feet 9 inches and 470 pounds. Either way, Bates was undeniably an imposing figure in nineteenth century America (and today, for that matter).
The Giant’s adult life began normally enough. He decided to become a teacher, an occupation he held until the outbreak of the Civil War. His presence must have intimidated many potential class clowns. One of his former students would later recall:

I never did care about obeying a teacher, but that “Big Boy Bates” was a fellow none of us boys ever sassed. We didn’t dare.

In spite of the fear he must have instilled in students, Bates was popular among his students, probably due to his well known kindness.

Bates’ life as a teacher, like so many others, was interrupted by the Civil War. He decided to enlist in the Confederate Army as a private. The Giant proved to be a fierce fighter and was soon promoted to Captain. During battles, he would emerge from bushes and startle Union troops, who immediately fled, fearing they were fighting an army of giants. Bates gained a measure of notoriety among them, as stories circulated among Yankees of a “Confederate giant” who was “as big as five men and fought like fifty.” He also became famous across the South for his bravery and fighting prowess.

Bates was eventually wounded in a battle neat Cumberland Gap and captured, although he did not remain in captivity for very long. How he escaped captivity is something of a mystery, as some sources claim he escaped and others contend that he was freed as part of a prisoner exchange.

When the war ended, Bates returned home to Letcher County and began reestablishing old friendships. Unfortunately, it was not the same county he had previously called home. Like most border states, Kentucky was fiercely divided by the Civil War. In Letcher County, feuds were beginning to ignite among former Unionists and Confederates. He also found that his home had been burned. Bates wanted no part of this. "I've seen enough bloodshed; I didn't want any more,” he said as he sold his property and quickly left Letcher County.

Bates ended up in Cincinnati. Realizing that his stature could be used for financial gain, he joined a circus and quickly became the star of the show. The circus traveled across North America, and while performing in Nova Scotia, Bates happened to meet a young woman named Anna Hannah Swan. Incredibly, she was even taller, standing at 8 feet 1 inch. The promoter (some say P.T. Barnum himself) saw a major marketing opportunity and promptly hired Miss Swan. Bates and Swan were then marketed as a pair of giants.

As fate would have it, Martin and Anna would fall in love. While touring Europe, the two were married in London in 1871. The marriage was such an event that it was reported that half of all London residents wanted to attend. Queen Victoria herself was present at the wedding, and gave the new couple a watch specifically sized to the new couple’s proportions. As they had in America, the couple were now celebrities across Europe.

After their marriage, the legend of the giant couple only grew. Mr. and Mrs. Bates were performers in the circus for many years and were highly regarded both for their physical size and their personal kindness. As the Arthur Dixon, writing in the Mountain Eagle would later recall of their travels in Europe with the circus

All the acts drew applause, but the overgrown man and woman with such warm smiles were the darlings of the people. Their magnetic personalities transcended all barriers of race, custom and language and endeared them to the spectators everywhere.

After returning from Europe, the Bates couple established a home in Seville, Ohio. They attempted to start a family, but tragedy struck when their eighteen-pound child was stillborn in 1874. To deal with their grief, the Bates once again toured Europe. They returned to Seville by the late 1870s and again attempted to have a child, but again tragedy struck: their twenty-three pound (at birth) son died after living only eleven hours.

Life was not all tragedy for the Bates family; in 1881 the couple was part of a Barnum & Bailey parade on Broadway in New York. But the loss of her second child greatly hurt Anna, and she never recovered. She died in 1888 and was buried in the Mound Hill Cemetery in Seville. Eventually, Martin remarried in 1897, this time to a normal sized woman. The couple lived a quiet life in Seville until Martin Van Buren Bates died in 1919, and was laid to rest next to Anna.

(Note: “Baby” Bates is of particular interest to me, as I am a descendent of his sister, Martha. He is thus my 5th great-uncle).

See also my blog at Appalachian Scribe

Sources: The Mountain Eagle (Letcher County, KY) March 5, 1970; Martin Van Buren Bates chronology (Letcher Heritage News, Vol. 8, No. 1, March 1997); Wikipedia

French Broad

2008-01-14T21:53:00.000-05:00

The French Broad River, in Hot Springs, NC.

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

Dungannon Resident Speaks Out About Proposed Dominion Virginia Power Plant

2008-01-13T11:16:00.000-05:00

note:
Reprinted below is a letter sent by Frank Hoyt Taylor of The River Farm in Dungannon to The Coalfield Progress. If you'd like to learn more about this issue, and what you can do, visit the Wise Energy for Virginia website at http://www.cleanenergyva.org/. Also visit the sites of the coalition partners on that site to educate yourself as to all facts before you make a conclusion about the merits of this proposal. Regulatory approvals by state agencies are still imminent. If you care about this, I encourage you to act now.

The Virginia legislature passed a bill saying that a coal fired power plant in Southwest Virginia would be for the public good. It would not be for the public good. The health of thousands of children would be impaired especially those who live or attend school within 60 miles of St. Paul. There is a mountain of evidence; if you have a computer just search for 'coal fired power pollution children', or ask anyone who lives near the Carbo power plant. They have suffered for years and lives have been shortened, needlessly. The power company will say "but we're not going to pollute that much at our new plant".

They might as well say they're not going to drop a 10 pound rock on our heads just a 7 or maybe 8 pound rock. No amount of mercury or other toxic pollutants will be good for our children. It will make them sick, some severely sick for a long time. The effects of the combination of these pollutants is not known. The pollution will of course affect older people, especially the elderly. But we have a choice and our children do not.

The power company, whose business is to make money and influence legislation, will say 'but the government gives us permission to do all that'. Yes they do but it doesn't make it right. Dominion Power wants to build the plant here in far Southwest Virginia because citizens in the rest of the state will not allow it in their communities. There is no more degrading insult to our people. Haven't we sacrificed enough to provide power to our country?

The thousands of men who have lost their lives in the mines, the tens of thousands who have black lung and the great amount of the land itself stripped away. Isn't that enough? And now they want us to give up the clean air that we and our children breathe? Shame. The hopeless, cynical voice would say that Southwest Virginia and its inhabitants have been so ravaged over the years that this enterprise of Dominion Power would make little difference and would provide some jobs (even more jobs would likely be lost when employers and their families would not want to move here). But I believe the voice of our children is more hopeful and their vision greater.

A toxic cloud spreading to North Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee, burning our forests with acid rain and destroying our streams is, I'm sure, not part of their vision. It's possible to say yes to the coal industry just no to Dominion Power. Even though my work takes me far away I have lived here all my life and I love the mountains and the people. They have influenced and informed all the work I have done so far. I know I don't have to urge anyone to protect their children but I do urge you to let your voices be heard.

Loud and clear.

Frank Taylor
Dungannon,Va.

ilovemountains.org

2008-01-13T11:05:00.000-05:00

What's not to love about mountains? Not only are they breathtaking to look at, their geography makes our region unique and they provide habitat for wildlife, recreational opportunities, and countless resources that are important to our economy.

The folks over at ilovemountains.org definitely love themselves some mountains. So much so that they are doing everything they can to protect mountains that are at risk of being levelled in coal producing areas. Nothing against coal production-coal is one of those important resources we need-but there is a problem with certain methods of how it is extracted.

You guessed where I am going with this, right? Yep, Mountain Top Removal. Well, the ilovemountains.org website has a handy-dandy tool designed to encourage electricity conservation by showing on a zip-code basis where YOUR electricity originates.

They have linked research of MTR sites, coal burning power plants, and your power meter to show directly how our electricity consumption is linked to resource extraction in the mountains.

Go ahead, we'll wait while you check it out: http://www.ilovemountains.org/myconnection/

"Clean coal" is a buzz word on the lips of many people these days. You hear it in Congress, read about it in newspapers, and you've probably even seen commercials about it on television. Those of us from coal producing areas know coal isn't and can never be truly "clean". Ever. Somewhere, a price is paid whether it is at the mine, the prep plant, or the power plant. Contrary to what the fancy commercials want us to believe, coal is inherently a dirty product from start to finish. And it's important that the public gets the real story.

Coal is and will remain a vital part of our economy until a suitable alternative is found. Because of that, it will continue to have impacts, both positive and negative, on the communities where it is produced. Consumers can lessen the impact of coal by turning off a light, turning off the television (or computer when not reading Hillbilly Savants!), or adjusting the thermostat a few degrees to save energy.

Here are some websites with similar information on energy consumption:

U.S. Department of Energy, Lawrence Berkley Lab Home Energy Saver - Designed to help consumers identify the best ways to save energy (and money) in their homes.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Personal Emissions Calculator - Short survey to estimate your personal greenhouse gas emissions.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Power Profiler - shows on a zip-code basis the energy mix (coal, nuclear, hydro, etc..) of your utility company

And to part, here's a video produced by ilovemountains.org on MTR and energy consumption in America featuring Woody Harrelson and Willie Nelson:

Steep Canyon Rangers

2008-01-11T14:54:00.000-05:00

I've been a fan of the Steep Canyon Rangers ever since I saw them as part of a package bluegrass show at the Tennessee Theatre a few years back. They were one of the first bands of the night and their tight set and beautiful harmonies set an embarrasingly high standard for the more famous veteran pickers that followed.

In the past few years, the Steep Canyon Rangers have emerged as leaders in acoustic music's newest generation. They've become regulars players on the festival circuit while all three of their albums have garnered critical acclaim. They're on tour now, so get thee to a Steep Canyon show when they roll into your town.

For the East Tennesseeans out there, tonight would make a perfect night to catch the Steep Canyon Rangers, as they are playing the historic Laurel Theater in the Fort Sanders neighborhood. Put a jug of your second-best wine in a paper bag (yes, that's allowed), head on down to the Laurel and just sit back and enjoy the Steep Canyon Rangers. That right there's a mighty fine way to spend a Friday evening.

See you there.

Update: And a fine show it was:

Heirloom Vegetables

2008-01-08T22:21:00.000-05:00

It is a little early in the year to begin salivating over fresh vegetables from the garden, specifically heirloom vegetables, but several things have brought my mind and taste buds to the topic.

Heirloom vegetables are so named because they are passed down generation by generation by families who value the specific variety of vegetable for its unique taste and physical characteristics. Seeds are prized and kept back year after year and passed down through generations. Some heirlooms can be traced back three, maybe four generations in the same family and often in the same hollow.

My sister, who recently received her master's degree from East Tennessee State University, worked in the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services on their Now and Then Magazine. Over the holidays, she was telling me about a story they did on a gentleman by the name of Bill Best in Berea, Kentucky who is president of the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center. Mr. Best is a man on a mission to to bring to the forefront the importance of quality heirloom fruits and vegetables, and to make mountain agriculture more economically sustainable.

Coincidentally, I also was given a book for Christmas by my in-laws titled Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a Year of Food Life, written by Washington County, Virginia resident Barbara Kingsolver along with her husband, Emory and Henry Professor Steven Hopp and daughter Camille Kingsolver. Her book is along the same vein as SMAC, the rediscovery of sustainable agriculture, good eating, and the bucolic way of life. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm enjoying some of the tales from her family's farming adventure.

Both have given me the itch to get out in the garden and start digging. The only problem is that my ground has been frozen until this week's respite from winter here in Virginia.

To placate my urge, I've decided to order some heirloom seeds that I can have on hand to stick in the ground when the time comes. I can almost taste the tomatoes now!

And since I have to wait until spring to plant seeds, I figure I can at least sow some virtual seeds for now:

Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center

Now and Then Magazine

Kentucky Living article on Bill Best

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a Year of Food Life

Appalachian Seeds

Seed Savers Exchange

NC State Organic Research Publication on Heirlooms

And another resource which I cannot find a link to:
Appalachian Heirloom Seed Conservancy
Box 519
Richmond, KY 40476
KentuckySeeds@hotmail.com

Red Eyes and Virginia's "Wild Men"

2008-01-04T22:02:00.000-05:00

I was in high school, too young to drive, so I was forced to ride the bus when it was so uncool to be seen on the cheese wagon. Even though I could walk up a hill near my house and see Radford High School, I went to Pulaski County High some 20 miles away. With the speed of school buses and all of the stops that had to be made, there was plenty of time for card games, story telling, a chew of tobacco and fights to develop. It’s where you were able to relive childhood memories with the neighborhood school yard kids that tend to get lost in consolidated secondary county schools. It’s also where I learned about the Red Eyed Wolf.

I forget the kid’s name, so I’ll call him Shane for the sake of the story. Shane was one of the last kids to get off the bus, as was I, so we ended up talking from time to time. He wasn’t the kind of person that I would typically hang out with. He was a rebel…with a long mullet and shaved hair well above his ears. He was smoking cigarettes when he was 12 years old. He talked back to teachers. He didn’t give a damn about anything. I’m pretty sure Shane worshiped the devil.

Shane lived in a trailer park that was across the highway from my family’s farm. The farm is mostly wide open rolling pastures with the exception of a forested area. It also lies in corner of the intersection for two major roads, both on the school bus route. Shane had a friend, we’ll call him Chris, that lived in another trailer park that was off of the second road. Shane and Chris would use the farm as their shortcut to get to each other’s house instead of hiking the extra mile or two along the roads. They would have to pass through the forested area of the farm on their journey. It’s a very old growth forest with patches of dense underbrush from logging about 10 years previously. It’s kind of a creepy area with steep hills, cris-crossing cow trails, thorns the size of tiger teeth and big knotty old oaks. It also backs up to a well-to-do subdivision.

Now that you have a little geographical background, on to the Red Eyed Wolf. This is the story that Shane told to me, as I remember it, one winter day on the school bus. I’m pretty sure that it was a Monday:

Shane was yelling at me to come sit in the seat across from him as soon as I got on the bus. He was an intense dude anyway but this day he was a little over caffeinated. “Mason, man, I saw some weird “stuff” on your farm this weekend.”
“What were you doing on the farm?”

“Walking man, back from Chris’ house Saturday night. I had just come out of the woods and was sitting by the pond and I saw this big-ass thing running across the hillside. It was fast, faster than any cow that I’ve seen. It was dark so I couldn’t get a good look at what it was but the moon was bright so I could see an outline. I was bigger than a dog, smaller than a cow but fast as hell! I threw a rock in the pond about at about the same time that I saw it running and when the water spashed, it stopped and looked at me. I knew it was looking at me because it had red glowing eyes. It was dark and it’s eyes were glowing!”

Now, Shane and Chris were reputed to partake in some illegal smoking activities early on in the high school years so I thought that Shane’s story may have been conjured up by an altered state of mind. At the same time, Shane didn’t get worked up over much and he was freaked out over what he saw. So, the story was born, to me anyway.

Months later, I was hosting a campout in our old horse barn one Friday night. Usually these were impromptu camping trips when one of my friends could get his brother-in-law to buy us a bottle of Jack Daniels. A pint of bourbon split amongst 10 teenagers probably didn’t get us drunk but we sure acted like it did. Like previous campouts, we decided that the smart thing to do would be to climb up on the roof of the barn. We made our way up to the ridge and sat up there for an hour or two telling lies about our girlfriends and the such. I decided to recite the Red Eyed Wolf story for all of the guys and get them a little freaked out. I had no less than just told them about something running across the hillside when something sizeable darted out of the woods and ran across the field at a speed that seemed fluid, like the wind was pushing it or a rope was pulling it. As soon as it was there, it was gone. There was no noises or red eyes but it was some type of animal. We decided to stay on the roof a while longer and see if it came back but it never did. We were about 50 yards away and it had the size of a mature calf, but we had no cattle or horses on the farm at this time.

My younger brother was in middle school at this time so he started making friends with kids that went to other elementary schools in the county. He became really good friends with a kid named Scott. For a while it seemed like Scott was a member of the family because he was always at my house. Scott’s visits didn’t come without a warning from his grandmother, who happened to grow up near the family farm. She warned Scott not to go back in the woods because a red eyed creature lived there. She remembered hearing about it in her childhood. When he told me and my brother this story, chills went up our neck. He swears that he had never told Scott anything about the wolf previously so it seems there could have been something to the stoner’s story.

Jump ahead to the following Halloween, or better yet, the day after. That is when I learned that Shane and Chris had a sighting, sort of. Again, they were trespassing but on a mission at the same time. They were going to sneak up on the well-to-do subdivision at the back of the forest and egg the house of a cheerleader that went to our school (peer outcasts hate cheerleaders thus their house must be decorated with eggs). During their stealthy approach, they heard a howl that they can’t associate with any animal. It seems far away so they keep on with their mission. A minute later, they hear the howl again but this time it seems like the distance between them and the source of the scream has been cut in half. They are a little freaked out so they decide to speed up their pace. Moments later when they get in site of the house, they hear the scream, a booming bass that transitioned into a high pitch howl, directly behind them. They swear it was within 10 feet of where they were standing. At the same time of the howl and from the same direction, they heard something massive crack, like an entire tree snapping off at the trunk. The story is that they ran toward the house without turning around to see what made the noise. Apparently, Shane was still able to hit it with an egg as they high-tailed it back to Chris’ house.

Fifteen years have passed since this incident without another episode to speak of. I have spent a lot of time in this section of woods over those years and have never seen any signs of something non-cattle or deer-like. The Red Eyed Wolf has become a joke to my family but had not been brought up in a long time until this week. My brother sent me this link to a story similar to Shane’s on the VBRO website. Could this be the relative to what haunts my forest? While at this site, click the link at the bottom of the page to look at the county map (or click this). There are some good and some not so good sighting reports in Western Virginia. At any rate, this site deserves exploring.

Breakin' up Christmas

2007-12-30T06:36:00.000-05:00

Breakin’ Up Christmas is both the name for 12 days of partying, dancing, and music making ending up on January 6th, Old Christmas day, and also a song sung during that period. The tradition harks from the area that roughly includes Surry County NC, nearby Grayson and Carroll counties in VA, and the independent city of Galax located between the two.

Hooray Jake, hooray John
Breakin’ up Christmas all night long
Santa Claus come, done and gone
Breaking up Christmas right straight along
Don’t you remember a long time ago
The old folks danced the doesey-doe

The tune itself is not of great antiquity. It may have been composed by Preston 'Pet' McKinney, a fiddler and Civil War veteran from Lambsburg, VA. Mt. Airy, NC fiddler Tommy Jarrell, a 1982 NEA National Heritage Fellowship recipient strongly associated with this song, cited McKinney as one of his early influences.

Whether McKinney was the actual author of Breakin’ Up Christmas or not, there's a reason the song can be distinctly pinpointed to the tri-county area. During rainy periods, that region's roads, made mostly of red clay with no gravel, historically became so muddy that wagon wheels would sink in up to their axles. This made travel during inclement parts of the year either difficult or impossible.

New tunes only slowly made their way into the area, often by visitors or because a community member made a trip outside of his locality. Even so, as a tune bounced back and forth over the mountains between North Carolina and Virginia, local musicians might give it a different name, speed it up, add a new twist, and come up with a 'souped-up' version.

"Through this country here, they'd go from house to house almost - have a dance at one house, then go off to the next one the following night and all such as that. The week before Christmas and the week after, that's when the big time was. About a two-week period, usually winding up about New Year. I wasn't into any of this, but used to laugh about it. They'd play a tune called Breakin' Up Christmas, that was the last dance they'd have on Christmas, they'd have Wallace Spanger play Breakin' Up Christmas. There's an old feller by the name of Bozwell, he'd cry every time."

Lawrence Bolt, fiddler
b. 1894
Galax, VA

http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc
http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/jarrell.htm
http://www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/fellow.php?id=1982_03

Originally blogged at Appalachian History

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T19:50:00.001-05:00

I hope every Hillbilly Savant is having a joyous and merry holiday season!

Christmas Day 2007: The Maynard Johnson Farm near Horse Creek in Greene County, TN.

Busey's Lotion from Martinsburg WV

2007-12-21T19:37:00.000-05:00

Busey's Lotion brochure, circa 1900. My husband found this in western Virginia some years ago, and was charmed by the elegant ad copy.
Originally posted at The Beatinest Things

The Legend of Ruling Days

2007-12-20T17:19:00.000-05:00

You know you are deeply imbedded in a culture when you take for granted things that other people have never heard of.

That’s what I’ve had to learn along the way. And, there’s no better example of it than Ruling Days. You can call it Hillbilly Witchcraft. You can call it White Magic. Or, you may think it’s simply a load of malarkey. But, Ruling Days have been around as long I can remember.

The core idea behind Ruling Days is that certain days are predictors for weather for the upcoming year. More specifically, those days coincide with what others would call Kingdomtide or The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Here’s how it works.

According to the legend of Ruling Days, the weather on December 25th will be the predominant weather for the upcoming January. The weather on December 26th will indicate what kind of weather you will have in February. December 27th will forecast the weather for March. And, on it goes, until you get to the forecaster of the next December, which falls on Epiphany, aka January 6.

Trust me. The old folks in my neck of the woods swear by it. And, I, myself, have found it to be uncannily accurate.

I’m not an anthropologist, so I wouldn’t dare attempt to conjure a theory on how Ruling Days developed. I do know Southern Appalachia was settled by folks whom the European feudal system more or less rejected. And, so, some of the original settlers may have still had a bit of orthodoxy in them and they simply adapted it to their purposes.

I don’t know.

But, Ruling Days is a part of our culture. It’s a part that no amount of intellectualism or sophistication can take away. It’s in us, and that’s what makes it real.

by Timothy W. Hooker, author of the Sushi Tuesday blog. Tim teaches English at Cleveland State Community College [TN], is a "Point of View" moderator for WDEF-TV 12, and is the author of several works, including: "Rocket Man: A Rhapsody of Short Stories," "Duncan Hambeth: Furniture King of the South," and "Looking For A City."

Originally blogged at Appalachian History

Ruling+Days Christmas+in+Appalachia appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

The Ridge

2007-12-16T14:17:00.000-05:00

Looking up from the crazy stretch of the 15th to my road, there is a caravan trailer that the mountain reclaimed. It grew trees around it, embracing it, and lovingly decorated it with vines. There are many old bones of human habitation here. Some are old cars, sentinel chimneys and steps to nowhere. They stand, waiting for people long since dead, long since gone. And in the spring, their few living legacies, the flowers and alliums, will poke their heads above ground and weep for dead gardeners.

I woke to blowing snow that could not stay this morning. The weather, like the people, is transient here. It comes and goes, and while it is here, it pounds the earth. And when it is gone, it melts into the streams and springs and is never seen again.

It is folly to think that we make a lasting impact here. We are but snowflakes blowing on the mountain. The mountain doesn’t care that we leave our footprints here. She will lovingly cover them and take them into herself. Just as she does our bones, our lonely bones left in holes on the hillsides.

3Peat at 3,333 Feet

2007-12-15T16:23:00.000-05:00

Photo by Marie Freeman, who has lots more.

Cross posted at Appalachian Scribe

Appalachian Blog Tapas (You Bring the Wine)

2007-12-14T00:15:00.000-05:00

Silver Bridge of Point Pleasant, West Virginia circa 1928
(Image from Wikipedia)

Pour yourself a glass of your favorite beer, or wine, or whiskey, or perhaps even Dr. Enuf, plop your laptop into your lap, and help yourself to an assortment of delicious Tapas - some are sour, some are sweet, others more toothsome, yet others salty, and a few are downright bitter - but together they make for something vibrant.

"The Jobs Issue in West Virginia"
The West Virginia Blog

"Give a Gun for Christmas"
tug's life

"Notes on the Cullowhee Copper District"
ruminations from the distant hills

"Cheerwine, RC, a Pick-Up, and North Carolina"
The Field Guide to What's Good

"John Johns Mural"
The CartoonSteve Blog

"More From 'Bridge Day' 2007"
The C Spot

"Weird Woods"
Buzzardbilly: Appalachian Being

"another of those terrible times"
Buffy Holt

"Lectionary Haikus: Zacchaeus"
Among the Hills

"Say Goodbye to the Cataloochee Side of the Park"
AllSmokies

"Cold"
Appalachian Writers

"Welcome to Roach"
The IMAGESMITH

"Religious Freedom in West Virginia"
Huntington West Virginia Blog

"bad ride"
fortsanders.net

"State-Wide Organization Formed to Protect Landowners' Rights"
West Virginia Highlands Voice

"One More Winter, Warm"
Fragments From Floyd

"A Taint of Death"
The Goat Rope

"From Back in the Holler"
Its a Blog Eat Blog World

"Thank the Lard!"
The Herbwife's Kitchen

"Sandwich Party of One"
Hillbilly, Please

"Parkersburg HDJ Review - Mr. Diggity"
West Virginia Hot Dog Blog

"Nitro city officials are trying to figure out what happened to $40,000 in missing checks"
West Virginia State Gov't Watcher

"I Smell Corn Dogs - LSU Must Be Playing the Vols"
VOLuntarilyConservative

"As the Eyes Have It"
Nameless Creek

"Sometimes . . ."
Open Mike

"The Longest Autumn"
Plummer's Hollow, Pennsylvania

"Winter Time Tree"
Chanchanchepon

"Keep Dreamin' of a White Christmas"
DeMarCaTionVille

"Northern District of West Virginia to Realign its Divisions"
Brian Peterson's West Virginia Legal Weblog

"Ashevegas Street Musicians"
Ashevegas

"re: welcome to the show"
s.m.A.R.T.

"a gorgeous December day"
Southern Highlands Cam

"Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike"
Juanuchi's Way

"Green Thumb Sunday"
A Laughing Gypsy

"Sacred Insanity"
Meanderthal

"Christmas with Washington Irving"
Destination Unknown

"Weeds of Brooklyn #5"
Dope on the Slope

"Buildingscape: Let Them Eat Cake"
DowntownWV

"Tory Amos"
Entropy

"Feelin' Asheville"
1000 Black Lines

"Cookie Time!"
Carpe You Some Diem!

"Rodent Writing?"
Pocahontas County Fare

"Mast General Store - Since 1883"
North Carolina Mountain Dreams

"DWP"
On Location With Rick Lee

"Suspended School Official Sold Hot Dogs During His Time Off"
One Stack Mind

"It had to be here"
Tennessee Jed

"Blogger difficulties, fiber store, free yarn"
Thistle Cove Farm

"Small Business"
serialphoto.com

"cascade falls pembroke, virginia"
oya baka mama

"The Tailgate"
Bastard Sons of Pinfall Marks

"Loving Thoughts Collage"
Beyond the Ninth Wave

"Roaming the Ashevillosphere"
BlogAsheville

"The Maysville Jockey Club"
Maysville, Macon County, Kentucky

"Roanoke's checkbook."
Just Another Day in Roanoke

"Defending the Poor in W.Va."
Lincoln Walks at Midnight

"Major South Waterfront Development Announced"
KnoxViews

"Pedestal Rock"
Life Through 4 Eyes

"The Emily Brass Band Shines On"
Loose Leaf Notes

"My Other Home"
Tennessee Text Wrestling

"fall day?"
This is Not My Blog.

"The Word is Out - Can You Help?"
Front Porch Blog

"Evening Mists"
Appalachian Treks

"Bear Hunting is Gung Ho, Part II"
Appalachian Patria

"West Virginia Stereotypes: Don't Believe the Hype"
aBetterWestVirginia.com

"One Hundred Years Ago Today: Monongah Mine Disaster"
Appalachian Greens

"Fire Up the Christmas Pudding!"
Appalachian History

"Whoa Mule - Folk Song Lyrics"
Appalachian Music Blogger - Henry Queen

"First Snow 2007"
Blue Country Magic

"Licking Wounds and Liking Barn Quilts"
Blue Ridge Blog

"Mountain Witness Tour Mosaic"
Pictures and Words

"How Big is MTR Mining"
Charlestonian Blog

"Iron Mitten Featuring Tom Adams"
The Bluegrass Blog

"'There isn't enough super glue in the world' or ' Sunshine, stat'"
American Twentysomething 3.0

"Outhouses of my youth . . ."
Al's Rantings

"Through a Glass Darkly"
the Contrary Goddess

"On Creating 'It's a Wonderful Life' for the Stage"
Cup of Joe Powell

"It Was Self-Defense"
Les Jones

"Knoxville man arrested for flirting on the street"
Knoxville Trivia Blog

"Kentucky Earns High Marks . . . For Breakfast"
Kentucky School News

And to finish?

See What's hAPPening! for the latest on our boys over at Appy State and their semester-long drive for there 703rd National Championship in a row and Herald-Dispatch.com's Hot Topics (1, 2, 3, & 4) for a series of entries on the tragedy of Point Pleasant's Silver Bridge - one is light, one is heavy, and together they'll leave you satisfied.

The Handmade Holiday Trunk Show (Part 2)

2007-12-07T22:54:00.000-05:00

The Show
(This and all images photographed by
Justin Smith; actual art by a plethora of artists)

Okay Ladies and Gents - for those of you who haven't been to the Handmade Holiday Trunk Show (I know I have already dropped you that knowledge, but golly, I've got some good stuff for you, so let's get in the trust tree), you missed a great formal Opening for it tonight - - - the opening was a genuine delight. Great local beer; jazz, bluegrass, and punk music (not live, I can't lie, but you know, the kind of mix that gets a man to dancin'); a 5th story view of the Knoxville Christmas Parade; and, of course, tons of local and regional artists and craftsmen. That said, the party will continue - in fact, not only will it continue in the sense of the art being up for several more days, but furthermore on the Saturday the 15th there will be a Closing, essentially another chance for good-times, good beer, and general awesome. Oh, and the low-down?

Show Dates (Thursday - Sunday):
As of now: Dec. 8th – 9th, Dec. 13th – 16th

Hours:
Thursday & Friday: 4 - 8
Saturday: 12 - 6
Sunday: 1 – 5

Location:
424 Gay Street on the the Fifth Floor of the Woodruff Building
(home of the Downtown Grill & Brewery, home of delicious foods and brews)

I thought I'd share some details with you about it since, um, now I have a lot more. Consider:

We didn't get quite everybody (apologies) but I hope this sample will do to convince you of the big dance. And dare I forget - - - -

Delicious Beverages a la Downtown Grill & Brewery's
Woodruff Brewing Company

Alright, all said, this show is great, the folks running it are great, and the beer is, um, delicious. I insist you visit it immediately. Danggit. Oh, also, some links from the resident artists - you know, so you can get a sense of the talent here (and of course so you can patronize them later) - dig on these links. Trust me - they are worth the mouse click. Ahem:

Amy Campbell {Illustration & Design}
Knoxville, Tennessee

Dot Iris Headware
Knoxville, Tennessee

Pseudopots Ceramics Studio
Knoxville, Tennessee

Michele Richards, Artist
Knoxville, Tennessee

Eric Drummond Smith (ahem)
Knoxville, Tennessee

Judy Stuecker, Fiber Artist
Asheville, North Carolina

Yee-Haw Industries: Letterpress & Design Company
Knoxville, Tennessee

That's the long and short of it - - - I hope it gives you a case of the happies, and I hope to see you on the 15th, if not before.