Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia by Fiona Ritchie, Doug Orr (review)

In Wayfaring Strangers, Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr join forces to expand the account of Scottish people and music that migrated to the United States via the Ulster region of Ireland. Ritchie, a Scotland native, is host of NPR’s Celtic music program The Thistle & Shamrock. Orr is president emeritus of Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina, where he also founded the Swannanoa Gathering, a premier educational program of folk music and dance workshops held each summer.

The book’s objective is a more complete story of Scots-Irish migration that grasps “the full scope of this exodus and the effects on its living soundtrack” (5). While a sizeable amount of literature—by both scholars and enthusiasts—exists concerning the Scots-Irish diaspora and its impact on America, the only recent author to place music as a focal point within this discourse is Michael Scoggins (2013). In Wayfaring Strangers, Ritchie and Orr divide their migration story into three discrete sections. “Beginnings” explores the vestiges of medieval troubadour and minstrel music as part of the distinct musical landscape that existed in Scotland just before immigration to Ulster got underway in the seventeenth century. “Voyage” covers the experience of these immigrants, first to Ulster and then to America, and the ways in which their musicking alleviated hardship and separation, strengthened community, and memorialized place. Finally, “Singing a New Song” chronicles the contributions that the Scots-Irish made to American vernacular music as they settled in and around southern Appalachia and absorbed the traditional music of other groups in these areas.

Aspects of presentation and structure also distinguish Wayfaring Strangers. Over thirty sidebars appear throughout, usually one to two pages, on everything from Robert Burns to Dolly Parton. In addition, there are fifty-five interview transcription excerpts sprinkled among the text. The interviewees, whom the authors call their “Voices of Tradition,” include Pete Seeger, Brian McNeill, Doc Watson, and many other decorated performers of Celtic or American traditional music. Some of these artists are also featured on a twenty-track CD included with the book. The book’s size (roughly 9 × 11 inches) resembles an art or photography book, and, indeed, it contains many rich and abundant images of maps, photographs, artwork, and illustrations. The back matter is supplemented with a glossary, contextual timeline, discography, profiles of the “Voices of Tradition,” a list of resource centers, and CD notes.

In the prologue, Ritchie and Orr state that they “do not seek to offer a new angle on the historic backstory” of this topic (5). Rather, they aim to broaden the saga of Scots-Irish migration beyond the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries while telling it from a musical perspective. Thus, Wayfaring Strangers relies primarily on secondary sources to accomplish its goal, weaving them together into a new narrative fabric. Certain scholars may take issue with the book’s widespread use of the term “Appalachian music” as a label for the Scots-Irish musical legacy in America. In 2004, noted country music historian Bill C. Malone criticized the term’s ambiguity, declaring that “there is no such thing as ‘Appalachian music’” and arguing for a more polyvalent perspective that acknowledges a wide variety of instrumental and vocal styles performed by Appalachian musicians.^* Ritchie and Orr do include healthy discussions on the contributions of African Americans and others to music in Appalachia, although some may still disagree with the book’s firm stance that the music of the Scots-Irish emigrants “undoubtedly formed the bedrock of Appalachian music” (213).

Many of the sidebars and interview excerpts are compelling, offering direct input from legendary performers that carried American and Celtic traditional music through the twentieth century. They do disrupt the prose at times, and certain sidebars repeat information that already appears in the text. Another drawback is the lack of a table of contents containing the section subheadings; readers must scan the...