FTX-903 - FIRE IN THE MOUNTAIN

Following the Appalachian Trail

Following in the footsteps of Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles, Peter and Beryl Kennedy, in August 1976, met four of the families who contributed songs to the extensive Southern Appalachian Folksong collection made 60 years before. These families were unique in that they still had members living who could recall their First World War visitors, and they were able to send messages back to Maud with Peter. So, only a few weeks before her death on Oct 1st 1976, Maud enjoyed listening to the mountain people with their personal messages to her and remembering the difficulties and the pleasures of those early days of collecting.

1. Florence PUCKETT (formerly Fitzgerald)age 85 rec Afton, Nelso Co., Va. Formerly living at Scott's, Royal Orchard, Afton and visited by Sharp & Karpeles in 23rd April 1918 - 2'25"

2. Song (rec 1955): JOHNNY COME PICKIN' ON THE BANJO (Other songs rec 1955 are on Folktrax 908)- 0'33"

3. Mrs Jesse SHEILOR (Age 76 - daughter of Joe Blackett)rec Meadows of Dan, Patrick Co., Va Mrs (76) remembering the visit of the collectors - 2'49"

4. Song: THE OLD WOMAN (2v of "The Two Sisters" ballad - her father's version is K in the book: Folk-Songs of the Southern Appalachians) - 0'55"

5. Talk about boy learning song from a circus clown with mention of other visitors wanting her to sing, SALLY FROM LONDON ("The Brown Girl" - her father's version is H in the book) - 1'54"

6. BIG BEN GAL - Song-tune played by Mrs Sheilor on the same piano on which Maud had played back Sharp's notation of songs noted from the family - 0'47"

7. Further talk by Mrs Sheilor as she turns the pages of her family scrapbook and her children learning the songs on wet days - 1'01"

8. MISSISSIPPI SAWYER - fiddle tune played by Mrs Sheilor on piano - 0'46"

9. She asks Jesse to get his fiddle - 1'01"

10. CALLAHAN played by Jesse (fiddle) accompanied on piano (talk before)- 0'46"

11. Jesse tells how he learnt the tune from his father at a log-rolling - 1'17"

12. FIRE IN THE MOUNTAIN, RUN, BOYS, RUN - played by Jessie (fid) accompanied by his wife on piano (talk before) - 0'49"

13. Further talk by Mrs Sheilor about her aunts, Virginia and Stella Reynolds, who sang to Cecil Sharp and her memories of Peter's aunt, Maud Karpeles, arriving at their door and her father and herself working as a mail-carrier delivering on horseback - 2'23"

14. HOW OLD ARE YOU, MY PRETTY LITTLE MISS? - played on piano (talk before) - 0'57"

15. Mrs Sheilor sings a verse of the song sung by her aunt and then she sends a message to Peter's aunt, then further talk about their parent's musical abilities, her father teaching hymn-singing, the local singing summer schools, she explains the use of shape-notes and how she and her husband seldom play or sing but how she has taught music to her grand-daughter, Susan - 3'47"

16. Mrs Julie BOONE (78) Micaville, Burnsville, Yancy Co., N.C. - talk about sixty years ago and the ballad Barbary Allen and songs: Geordie (her version is F in the book) Jacob's Ladder, - 2'46"

17. Further talk about songs incl Mocking Bird (Her version is A in book) and talk about Yancy County being the best place in the world, thechurch, singing hymns, local Craft Health Centre - 3'32"

18. Talk about Cocky Robin (Her version C in the book noted September 1919) and verses and story of Barbary Allen and the site of where it happened locally - 3'46"

19. Talk about the visit of the collectors and her sister, Clara, remembering Barbara Allen and she sends her message to aunt Maud and remembers sitting on the porch in the autumn and her sons coming back from the war - 3'46"

20. Bill and Ella SHELTON (both aged 75 - Ella is daughter of Rosie Hensley who sang version A of "Locks and Bolts" and other songs and her aunt, Mrs Sutherland who died 1957, singers noted August 1916) rec Carmen, Madison Co., N.C. talk about the visiting collectors and how she gave up singing in 1965 but still remembers the songs Barbara Allen, Lady Margaret, Lord Thomas, Wife of Usher's Well and has copies of the two volumes and she also sends a message to Maud - 6'36"

21. Message from Bill and further talk with him about the 1916 visit and how one was walking and the other riding, travelling by day, how times have changed, about his father, Frank, and how Maud had danced for his father - 2'46"

22. FIRE IN THE MOUNTAIN - the family band, "The Sugarloaf Sheltons" fid, banjo & gtr - 1'24"

Thanks to Carol and Bill, Dr Lichtenwanger of the Music Division of The Library of Congress at Washington, who had the idea of making this trip. They bought a jeep and took Beryl and Peter on a five day tour of the mountains. This was their thank-you for hospitality they received in England and for Peter's assistance with Bill's research on the American National Anthem, published in the Library of Congress Journal, the music of which was by John Stafford Smith, the prolific Gloucester composer, as an anthem for an exclusively male drinking club in London, the Anacreonic Society.

The itinerary for the whistle-stop tour (Bill allowed only 20 minutes with each person visited) was prepared from names and locations given in the book, FOLKSONGS OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS, the original edition of which was edited by Olive Dame Campbell & Cecil Sharp published by G.P.Putnam's Sons, New York 1917.

Recorded & edited by Peter Kennedy and first published on Folktrax cassettes 1976.