History Burgoo

Behind the scenes at the opening of "The Makings of a Master: Kentucky Folk Art Apprenticeships"

        I’ve had some interesting assignments in the two and a half years I’ve been a volunteer at the Kentucky Historical Society. One of the most enjoyable was spending an evening with Bobby Osborne and the Rocky Top X-Press.

        Since I’m a bluegrass music fan it wasn’t a hard decision when the call came for volunteers to help with the September 15th opening of ”The Makings of a Master: Kentucky Folk Art Apprenticeships” exhibition and the concert to mark the Bill Monroe centennial.

     Bob Gates, director of the Kentucky Folklife Program, surprised me with the assignment of looking after the musicians -- showing them where the food and soft drinks were and making sure they could get in and out of the locked doors to their tour bus.

     What a nice group of guys!

     When I informed Bobby Osborne about the cold sweet tea in the “green room” (the education rooms off the main lobby), he told me how he had gone off tea while fighting as a Marine in Korea. He said he had gotten too many cups of lukewarm tea when what he really wanted was something cold. 

     Bobby passed on the food and tea, but other members of the band dug into the fried chicken box suppers.

     While waiting with the band members until time to go onstage, I spotted a small electronic device clipped to the neck of Joe Miller’s guitar. Miller explained that the digital readout allowed him to tune his guitar, even when the rest of the band was playing. Bobby Osborne Jr. also had one on his five-string bass.

     It was a great concert! One of the highlights was the appearance with Osborne and the X-Press by Cory May, a young musician from Kentucky.

     I had a chance to talk to Cory early in the evening. It’s easy to tell he’s very passionate about his music. His talent and long hours of practice were evident when he played both guitar and mandolin and sang with Osborne and his band.

     "The Makings of a Master: Kentucky Folk Art Apprenticeships" will be open at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History through December 10 and will then tour the state through 2014.

     The next concert in the Folklife series will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, and feature the Reel World String Band, Carla Gover and Jeri Katherine Howell. The exhibition and concert are free with admission to the Kentucky Historical Society.

     I’m looking forward to it!

-Jim Gill, KHS volunteer since 2009. Jim also blogs at Searchin' for Kinfolk.

All photos by the Kentucky Folklife Program.

Kentucky Afar

  
The last time I did a blog, we talked about how the Kentucky Folklife Program’s mission was to help conserve Kentucky’s traditional cultures.  We spoke of how conservation in this sense means to encourage the continuity of traditions through research, public presentations, and community scholar trainings.  Grants like our Apprenticeship awards and the efforts of interested people throughout the state who spend time and money help spread the word about their local folklife.  We talked at length about the extraordinary efforts of Dr.  Middleton to conserve the Mammoth Cave basketmaking traditions in the region of Hart County.

Sometimes the traditions of Kentucky find homes outside of the Commonwealth and these too need to be conserved.  The influence of migrants from Kentucky can be seen throughout the nation but especially in the industrial cities a little ways north of us.  Dayton, Ohio and the neighborhoods of south Chicago are known for their bluegrass music offerings.  A few years ago while traveling along Highway 23 in Michigan I passed  a suburb of Detroit that the locals called “Little Kentucky” because of the large population of former Kentucky Residents who followed  others in their family to take auto industry jobs in the region.  These transplanted Kentuckians often form new communities where they share similar worldviews, aesthetics for art forms like music, crafts, and food, traditions, and culture.  It is important for us to document and share the stories of these communities.  With travel budgets being what they are, the prospect of my staff traveling to these communities is remote, but it seems that there are always other ways to skin a cat.

Early this summer a friend of the Kentucky Historical Society, Pat Adkins from Owen County stopped by to talk about a little town in Wisconsin where a relative of hers lived.  It seems that Crandon, Wisconsin made a concerted effort in the early 1900s to recruit residents of Eastern Kentucky to come up and work in the lumber industry of northern Wisconsin.  Thousands of Kentuckians made the trip, worked very hard and stayed.  Pat said that you can hardly walk the streets of Crandon without bumping in to somebody with ties to Kentucky.  She says the accent is a little different, but after a few words you can still tell they are from Kentucky.  Pat said that she would be visiting her relatives this summer around the time of Crandon’s annual “Kentuck Day” festival, a celebration of the town’s Kentucky roots. 

Well it didn’t take long for me to convince her to do some documenting for us.  I gave her a quick overview of how folklorists conduct ethnographic observations. I described how we immerse in a culture events by objectively watching the activities, describing the context of the action and conducting interviews with participants.  A former instructor described it as pretending you were from another planet and your job is to describe to the people (beings) back home the new and wondrous events you were witnessing.  It is sometimes hard to do if you are a insider to the event because you have to pull yourself back and look at things from an outsiders perspective.  Pat was going to be an outsider and her natural curiosity about folklife prepared her well for the task.  At least this is what I told her and she bought it and vowed to take her camera, note pad and enthusiasm to her trip to Crandon.

Well, mission accomplished.  She dropped by last week with an armful of pictures, books, pamphlets, posters (picture above) and notes on her experiences.  She told me about the friendly Kentucky expatriates who welcomed her to the town, accompanied her to the local historical society and  guided her to  the many events surrounding Kentuck Days.   She showed me reprints of the original recruiting books used in the early 1900s to lure Kentuckians to the area.  We looked through recent history books about the county that talked about the cultural contributions of these settlers to the region.  Finally she described some of the events of the annual festival and how it still connects to the community.  I asked her to write up her observations for us to include in our growing files about this Crandon and other similar communities and I will follow up by recording her observation for the collection.  Maybe we can present them in a future blog. The Folklife Program depends on the help of people like Pat Akins who help to conserve the cultural traditions of the Commomwealth.

If you know about any of these Kentucky Afar communities, I would be very interested in talking with you.  Please respond to this blog or give us a call at 502-564-1792.

-Bob Gates

We Have a Winner!

The Kentucky Folklife Program is excited to share some news from master fiddler Roger Cooper and his apprentice Scott Miller - an update on our August 6, 2010 post. 

 
Just a couple of days after this picture was taken at the World Equestrian Games Kentucky Experience Pavilion Stage (left to right – Michael Garvin, Scott Miller, Roger Cooper, Chris Haas), Scott called me to share this --

L. Scott Miller won the 2010 Grand Master Fiddler Traditional Championship on October 2, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee, which is held in conjunction with the IBMA Bluegrass Fan Fest.  The Grand Master Fiddler Traditional Championship is designed to recognize fiddlers who play a fiddling style outside the recognized U.S. “contest” or “Texas” styles, or Canadian “contest” styles. The award is called the Robert C. Byrd Memorial Award in honor of the late fiddling Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia.

Scott completed a one-year Kentucky Arts Council Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship with eastern Kentucky fiddle master Roger Cooper in 2010.

Scott says, “I appreciate the opportunity I was given to apprentice through KAC with Roger Cooper. The apprenticeship allowed me to learn the regional fiddle style of the area where I grew up and is enabling me to perform and teach it to a future generation of musicians. Winning this contest helps demonstrate the strength of the Apprenticeship program. I played four tunes I learned from Roger during the two competitive rounds of the contest. I was pleased to hear so many positive comments about how well people liked those tunes.”

Upon receipt of his award, Scott dedicated the honor to Roger Cooper and those fiddlers from whom he learned: Buddy Thomas, Morris Allen, Bob Prater and the great Ohio fiddler Jimmy Wheeler. He also recognized other influential fiddlers from the area: Ed Haley, J.W. Day, Jess Large, Arnold Sharp, and Emma Dickenson. Scott says, “I’m proud to be from an area with such a great fiddle heritage.”

Scott also won the Uncle Dave Macon Days Traditional Fiddle Championship this past July, 2010.

Congratulations, Scott!  Thanks to you and Roger for being excellent representatives of Kentucky’s artistic heritage on the national scene.

The Kentucky Arts Council Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship has been honoring and supporting traditional artists for nearly 20 years.  The next application deadline is February 1, 2011.  If you or someone you know would like more information on this program, contact Mark Brown.

-Mark Brown, Kentucky Folklife Program

Playing it up at the History Center!

Last night, KHS visitors and staff experienced a real treat at our Bill Monroe Centennial Kick-Off Concert!  It was an absolutely splendid performance by former Blue Grass Boys Jim Smoak and Danny Jones, and master bluegrass musicians Hoot Hester, Steve Cooley and Larry Raley!  The way that they played together, you would have thought they’ve been in a band together for years.

 Now, as awesome as last night’s performance was, I would be seriously remiss to go on and on about it and not to talk about our Voices of Kentucky Concert that happened August 26th.  So now that I’ve teased you with the bluegrass concert, I let you know how the Voices of Kentucky Concert went.  You’ll just have to wait until next week to hear the samples from last night’s concert.

We had the spectacular female trio of the Johnson Sisters, along with Don Rigsby and the fabulous Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers.  We’ve worked with them before at our Made to Be Played concerts, and thought that it would be wonderful to get them all together on stage again.  Here they are performing at Made to Be Played:

Each group sang individually until the very end, when they all performed together in what was a very harmonious rendition of “Swing Low.”  Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not all that familiar with gospel harmony, but I do know a bit about a cappella performances, and they really blew me away.  So, to share the experience, clip the player below to hear Don Rigsby and co, The Johnson Sisters and the Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers perform “Swing Low:”

VoicesofKentucky_web_clip

The concert was a great success, and as last night’s were as well, we hope to have many more to come.  Keep tabs on the Kentucky Historical Society’s frequent special events and Thursday night programming for more exciting opportunities to listen, learn and experience Kentucky’s incredible culture and history.

-Alisha Martin

On the Road (... Again?)

  

It’s a beautiful Friday morning as Mark and I drive a white, motorpool cargo van down the Bluegrass Parkway. (Bob is driving and talking, Mark is typing.) We are heading to Munfordville to pick up dozens of white oak baskets made by members of the Mammoth Cave Basket Makers Guild, and deliver them to the Living Arts & Science Center in Lexington for an upcoming exhibition.

This is one of our many travel dates of late. Within the last month or so, we have

• moved the Made to be Played exhibit from the Center for Traditional Music at Morehead, to Hyden Citizen Bank (where visitors of the Osborne Brothers Bluegrass Festival viewed it, and where Bob got to stay in the Mary Breckinridge House), to Greenbo Lake State Resort Park (the first state park to host the exhibit)
• taken a trip to Horse Cave to meet with Community Scholar Mary Margaret Villines of the Kentucky Repertory Theatre to prepare for the aforementioned basket exhibit
• traveled to the Kentucky Horse Park to scope out the construction of the Kentucky Experience Pavilion, where the lots of great artists will perform during the World Equestrian Games.

Traveling frequently across the state, we meet people in their communities, and experience their culture. Often, we hear music along the way, whether it’s played at a local festival, or on local radio (such as WRFL’s Friday morning surf music show). Why so much travel? This work supports an aspect of the Folklife Program’s mission – conservation of folk culture.

Conservation (not to be confused with preservation) is about encouraging traditional art forms to grow, by educating the public, building pride in local heritage, and promoting traditions within a community and beyond. With so many Kentucky traditions to help conserve, this mission is ongoing. At the state level, we support such efforts through grants, archives, and public programs.

While KFP's work supports conservation, the real driving force is usually someone in the community who takes initiative and coordinates efforts over time. Luckily, there are allies all over who work toward the same goal. Here are a couple of examples that come to mind while sitting in this noisy van:

• Dr. Lee Harris of First Baptist Church in Frankfort, who organized a group to take some interview training and, with help from a KSU intern, document stories of senior church members, archive recordings, and present these stories at a church anniversary celebration
• Dr. Loyal Jones, Bob’s mentor who started the Appalachian Center at Berea College, and who we just learned is this year’s Governor’s Arts Award winner in Folk Heritage
• Dr. James Middleton, who has done much to conserve the Mammoth Cave basket tradition by sponsoring the Hart County Fair Basket Competition, and generated interest in the tradition and inspired new creativity among basket makers. The walls of his Family Medical Center showcase a vast collection of locally made baskets and quilts (the Center welcomes visitors, even when you are feeling well.)

These three individuals are cultural conservation leaders. (It is a coincidence that all three are doctors.) We have almost reached our destination so, in closing, readers, do you know any cultural conservationists? If so, pay tribute and describe them in a comment below!

Kentucky Folk Arts Master Profile - Roger Cooper, Lewis County Fiddler

All traditions have two characteristics in common:  continuity and change.  Kentucky fiddle traditions are a great example.  Listen to a fiddler from northeastern Kentucky, and you’ll quickly notice differences in technique, style, and even names of the tunes than you encounter in other parts of Appalachia or western Kentucky.  The Ohio River has played a major part in shaping the cultural landscape, which includes the fiddling, of Lewis County.  Generations of travelers and settlers have contributed to what we know as a distinct tradition, which will continue changing in the future.  One distinguished artist who embodies the unique fiddle traditions of the area is Roger Cooper.   

Early in life, Roger made it his mission to learn from all the traditional fiddlers in Lewis County.  At age twelve he played guitar behind fiddler Joe Stamper on Vanceburg radio WKKS.  Roger spent years mastering the tunes as he heard them and playing them at contests, dances, and concerts.  He has released albums such as Essence of Old Kentucky on Rounder Records.  (Read a review of Essence of Old Kentucky.)

Roger is committed to sharing his knowledge with other players.  He teaches advanced fiddle at the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School, and has completed Kentucky Arts Council Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeships with three excellent Kentucky fiddlers.  Each of these apprentices has taken strides toward mastering the style that Roger represents, while contributing his own individual talents to the tradition-  

- Gary Cornett is a respected luthier who is featured in the Made to be Played: Traditional Art of Kentucky Luthiers traveling exhibition.  

- Michael Garvin is an active, young musician who maintains the Website Kentucky Memories.   

- Scott Miller is an experienced performer who is working with the Jesse Stuart Foundation to archive and share these fiddle tunes online. 

The future of northeastern Kentucky fiddling is in capable hands, and it is exciting to see how new technologies affect the tradition.  Hear some of Roger’s recorded tunes on the Digital Library of Appalachia (click the title, then “Access this item”).

Better yet, catch Roger Cooper live, accompanied by apprentices Michael Garvin and Scott Miller, at the World Equestrian Games Kentucky Experience Pavilion on September 30, 2010.

- Mark Brown, Kentucky Folklife Program

Lutherie -- it isn't just for lutes!

As my Folklife Program colleagues are out of the office moving our exhibit Made to Be Played: The Traditional Art of Kentucky Luthiers to Hyden, KY, I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about lutherie and our exhibit. 

 

Lutherie, as I discovered shortly after working here, is the craft of making or repairing stringed instruments.  And for all you intrigued by etymology, luthier comes from the French luth, meaning lute.  (Yes, I’m a word nerd and proud of it!)

 

 

As I said earlier, I was a total newbie when it came to stringed instruments; I may have sung in my high school choir, but I can’t read music and got as far as playing half of Jingle Bells on the acoustic guitar my parents bought me, much to their chagrin.  So, I was able to claim ignorance for a little while, but not for very long.

 

Of course, when I don’t know something my first instinct is to hit the books…okay, I’ll be honest, the internet.  First thing to pop up was a Wikipedia article (no surprises there) and the Guild of American Luthiers.  Now I was really embarrassed when I found out they had a convention in my old neck of the woods, Tacoma, WA in 2008.  Professional embarrassment not withstanding, I quickly learned a lot about lutherie in general and was surprised by the amount of luthiers Kentucky has to offer. 

 

Our Made to be Played Exhibit obviously highlights the fine craftsmanship and ingenuity that Kentucky lutheirs have brought to their trade, and through the exhibit and the research conducted for it, I’ve had the change to see some instruments that are works of art and makers who are artists.  The traveling exhibit is now making its way to Hyden as I type, and features such artists as the late, great Homer Ledford, Warren May, Donna Lamb and several others.  Last summer, the Kentucky Historical Society and Kentucky Arts Council hosted a larger version of the exhibit that even included performances.  Check out the video below for a taste.

 

 

So, if you’re going to be in Hyden this month, think about stopping by the Citizens Bank to enjoy the traditional art of Kentucky’s fine luthiers until August 20th.

-Alisha Martin