Category Archives: between books

Note-able Journeys

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Jack gets there on time for a change!

My good friend Randy Shell runs a used bookstore here in Wytheville called Oracle Books. About six months ago he began a section of records – LPs and CDs (even some 78s). It’s amazing some of the things I’ve found there.

The latest is one of a series called ‘Ballads from British Tradition’ in Virginia and this particular one focuses on this south west corner of the state. Included, of course, are Texas Gladden and The Stanley Brothers, but what really startled me was the field recordings of obscure (to me) singers and musicians. The recordings were made in towns around here including Norton, Wise, Galax and the wonderfully named Meadows of Dan.

Although ‘British Ballads’ is technically correct most of them originated in Scotland. The great Francis James Child of Harvard University published his definitive ‘English and Scottish Popular Ballads’ in the late 19th century and most of them were Scottish. Then a few years later Cecil Sharp traveled through Appalachia and produced his ‘English Ballads of the Southern Appalachians’. They were also mostly Scottish, although I suspect he meant English language rather than originating in England.

Our old friend Tom Burton who is Emeritus Professor of folklore at East Tennessee State University carried out research some years ago resulting in a paper called ‘The Lion’s Share’. In it he constructed a kind of ‘top twenty’ of British ballads found in Appalachia based on how many variants had been collected. The majority were originally from Scotland and the top five were all from there. He had to discount Barbara Allan as there were so many versions it completely skewed his calculations!

Another friend – the great English singer Brian Peters, has pointed out to me that although the majority of the Appalachian ballads may have originated in Scotland, many got there via England and there are quite a few distinctly English ballads that came over as well. Another piece of research by Tom Burton bears this out. He was able to trace the route by which the Scottish ‘Gypsy Laddies’ ended up in Appalachia as ‘Black Jack Davy’ and it wasn’t (as he’d assumed) via Ulster in Ireland, but actually by way of south west England.

In the end it’s just fascinating that these ballads continued to be used as either moral signposts or just as pure entertainment by the folks who came over and settled here.

Friends Indeed

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Jack’s Wednesday post is very late, but here’s the reason – –

We had lots of difficulty finding reliable trades people when we first moved here, but – –

As is often the case, after a while we have eventually used our new network of friends to connect with a couple.

A few of months ago we noticed that our kitchen sinks were slow to empty and then we saw water appearing in the ground outside. I got a long ‘snake’ and that helped but the problem came back. Wendy asked a friend if she knew any plumbers and – lo- a couple of days ago Thomas arrived with a couple of helpers and within an hour had worked out the probable culprit! Our sink had been connected to an ancient steel pipe that had corroded and that’s where the leak was coming from. But that doesn’t explain the blockage, so more investigation required.

We decided that in the event of a power outage we should have a back-up source of heat and got a small wood stove. But finding someone to fit it including the necessary chimney piping was proving difficult, until we discovered the very competent Nate who lives nearby. He first mended the fence in our back yard and then took on the wood stove job, sourcing all the needed stuff and came yesterday to measure up.

Before that we had invited our friend Leroy to come for an overnight with his guitar to play some music with me. The fact that he’s a competent electrician and we need a double outlet fitted beside our freezers is a pure coincidence!

I know from experience and from both sides that finding reliable trades folk can be very frustrating. I was Head of Construction Trades at a Scottish college for many years and ran a painting business before that. My Dad, who started the company, always said that the flow of work was “aye a hunger or a burst”. Nobody wanted painters in the winter and everybody wanted them in the spring.

My impression, though, when I was working in that college was that plumbers were very conscious that much of their work was dealing with emergencies and they took that seriously. When our friend contacted Thomas on our behalf he arrived within two days and made sure things were under control. That must mean he pushed other work back by a day, so someone had to wait.

The secret is simply good communication and Thomas was on his phone frequently during his time in our yard, as well as explaining constantly to us what he was doing and why. So his other clients knew about our emergency and we were re-assured!