Folk Visions and Voices: Traditional Music and Song in North Georgia

Foreword

Foreword HAT WILL HAPPEN to this fine collection of old songs remembered in the northern counties of the State of Georgia U.S.A.? Will it gather dust on library shelves? No. Folk Visions and Voices reads like a good historical novel. One gets immersed in the "collecting," in the people and their families, and in their lives. It's an invitation to learn more about north Georgia through music and song. Some folklorists have dug up dead bones from one graveyard to bury them in another. But if the good people of Georgia take this book off the shelf from time to time—and I'm sure they will—they'll have many a wonderful evening leafing through it. They will learn how their forefathers and foremothers lived and thought. If they are fortunate enough to know someone who can read music notation they'll learn some beautiful melodies, rhythms, and instrumental accompaniments. Who knows? Some of these old songs and stories may become popular favorites again in your home, as they once were popular favorites with others. Popular favorites? Yes. Not in the sense of a "top forty" record which is heard for a few days and then (mercifully) never heard of again, but in the life of each person or each family or group that likes to make their own entertainment. These are real popular favorites, often known only to those who sing and play them. Then, as people travel and families move apart, they carry their good memories with them across the land or the ocean. Years later, these songs or stories inspire someone else. And maybe in a future century some talented and dedicated folklorists like the Rosenbaums will collect them all over again—perhaps on microtape for the solar system's central library. A future century? Who knows if we will be able to put the nuckar genie back in the bottle? Who knows if we can teach technocrats that before novel chemistry poisons us all we must discipline the inventors and the manufacturers, as well as the users, of dangerous inventions ? This book can help in the struggle. "Think globally, act locally." Some of the songs may be dangerous, too. Who is to decide?You. The reader, the singer, the storyteller, the fiddler or banjo picker. If we do our job right, there will be people in future centuries. They will carry on traditions of homemade music. When we are pushing up the daisies, our children's children's children, playing among those daisies, will be singing some of these songs. PETE SEEGER Beacon, New York December 1982 Foreword vii W This page intentionally left blank ...