In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina: A Guide to Music Sites, Artists, and Traditions of the Mountains and Foothills by Fred C. Fussell with Steve Kruger
  • Jinny Turman
Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina: A Guide to Music Sites, Artists, and Traditions of the Mountains and Foothills. By Fred C. Fussell with Steve Kruger. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013. Pp. xiii, 281.)

Roots music enthusiasts take note: if rumors of old-timey sounds have lured you into the North Carolina mountains, yet you remain at a loss for where to find them, consult the newest edition of the Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina. This guidebook provides a fresh look at one of America's most celebrated regions for traditional music. Full of maps, performer profiles, and colorful images by photographer Cedric N. Chatterly, it educates readers even as it promotes economic development through tourism.

Folklorists Fred C. Fussell and Steve Kruger, with an additional contribution from North Carolina Arts Council Director Wayne Martin, offer up [End Page 127] a sampling of the various types of traditional music one can expect to find in the mountains as well as brief vignettes profiling the evolution of specific musicians, instruments, musical styles, and media. Readers will encounter the region's more famous names and events, such as Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, and the Union Grove Fiddler's Convention. But importantly, they will also be introduced to lesser-known, although no less significant, figures such as legendary Cherokee fiddler Manco Sneed and the Krüger Brothers, Germanic immigrants from Switzerland who learned to speak English by playing American folk songs. The inclusion of diverse ages, ethnicities, races, and religious backgrounds challenges conventional assumptions that Appalachian music descended primarily from the Scotch-Irish, although that influence is examined as well.

The chapters are organized geographically, each including brief introductions to the place and in-depth profiles of local performers, events, and traditions. Region One includes the northern foothill counties and Yadkin River Valley. This area became known for its legendary string band music, Mount Airy Fiddler's Convention, and one of the region's longest running radio programs devoted to traditional music, WPAQ's Merry-Go-Round. Region Two, home to Doc Watson, includes the state's northwestern counties. This area witnessed the birth of ballads dedicated to miscreants Tom Dooley and Otto Wood, a bandit locally celebrated as a generous "Robin Hood character . . . who robbed only the rich" (86). Another colorful figure immortalized in song, Frankie Silver, who murdered her husband in 1831 with an axe, came from what is now Mitchell County, part of Region Three that includes the Black Mountains. This chapter features Bobby McMillon, who has spent his life preserving and performing folk songs like "The Ballad of Frankie Silver." Region Four, composed of Madison, Buncombe, Henderson, and Transylvania Counties, boasts a century-old shape note music gathering and a multigenerational ballad tradition. Region Five includes Cleveland County, the home place of Earl Scruggs, and neighboring Polk, Rutherford, and Burke Counties. Highlights include both musical and food-oriented festivals and a feature on famed blues woman Etta Baker. The book concludes with Region Six in the far southwestern tip of the state. This sub-region is home to the John C. Campbell Folk School and Fading Voices Festival, an annual Cherokee gathering meant to "teach the young people in the Snowbird community about their Native American heritage" (217).

The book includes several multimedia elements to add to the traveler's experience, including a CD with twenty-five songs by regional artists and information about an accompanying website, BlueRidgeMusicNC.com. The only issue with the website is that some of the links take visitors to an older [End Page 128] site for the multistate Blue Ridge Music Trails, which includes Virginia, and its subregions are organized differently than the book's. This might be somewhat confusing to visitors. Otherwise, the book combined with the website is a useful guide sure to enhance the traveler's experience as well as benefit North Carolina communities seeking to attract tourist dollars and increase visibility of their local musical and dance performances. [End Page 129]

Jinny Turman...

pdf

Share