Musical Heritage of the Swannanoa Valley

Introduction

Black Mountain is rapidly expanding it's reputation as a destination of choice for great live music. The area has a long history of great live music dating back to the early settlers who brought their fiddles, banjos, and ballads with them to the Swannanoa valley. In the early times, music was played in informal settings around hearths and fireplaces or on the porches of early homes and cabins. Music was also a lively part of barn raisings, corn shuckings, and fairs and festivals of various sorts.

In the first half of the 20th century, public music performances became even more common at places like Roseland Gardens, The Old Farmers Ball, Peek's Place, Roy's Inn, and the Lake Tomahawk community center. Local musicians like fiddler Marcus Martin were revered by other fiddlers but also by folklorists who recorded Mr Martins tunes on old 78 rpm records on behalf of the Library of Congress. Marcus Martin and Bill McElreath were featured performers on Bascom Lamar Lunsford's Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville for over 3 decades. Black Mountain residents Wiley and Zeke Morris were making commercial recordings as early as the 1930's and Bluegrass scholars mention the Morris Brothers as influencing the course of traditional mountain music in the seminal days of Bluegrass.

While traditional music flourished in the Swannanoa Valley, Black Mountain College provided the ideal environment for noted experimental and classical composers like John Cage and Stefan Wolpe. It was at Black Mountain College (on the current site of the Lake Eden Arts Festival) that Cage presented his Theater Piece No. 1, in a 1952 performance that music historians point to as the first "Happening", a multi-disciplinary art event encompassing music, dance, the spoken word, visual art and other means of expression. "Happenings" and "performance art" would later be a central element in the beat movement in New York City, San Francisco, and beyond.

Music and dancing have always gone hand-in-hand. While John Cage and Merce Cunningham were pushing the boundaries of musical and dance expression at Black Mountain College, traditional dance continued to be popular among residents of the Swannanoa Valley. Public dances were held at the Lake Tomahawk community center, The Old Farmers Ball, and also on the streets of town. Street dances were common on Sutton Avenue for many years in the 1950's and 60's.

Small music gatherings took place in settings like Ray Greene's garage on McCoy Cove Road. Green Acres, as it was referred to by locals, invited pickers and listeners to Mr. Greene's garage each and every Monday night for traditional mountain music, bluegrass, and gospel for over 20 years. Greene Acres and it's participants were the subject of a Masters Thesis by Tim Duffy some 20 years ago.

In the 1980's Black Mountain became well known for live music venues including McDibbs, the (original) Grey Eagle, the Town Pump Tavern. Well-known singer-songwriters such as David Wilcox and David LaMotte made their home in the area and began their careers in clubs like McDibbs and The Town Pump Tavern. Nationally known country songwriter Billy Edd Wheeler also calls the Swannanoa Valley home after a successful career writing hits for Nashville superstars like Kenny Rogers and Johnny Cash. Grammy Award-winning, Pop singer, Roberta Flack, was born in the Brookside section of Black Mountain but moved away at a young age.

New festivals such as the Black Mountain Folk Festival and the Lake Eden Arts festival were birthed during the 1980's and helped bring music lovers from across the nation to the Swannanoa Valley. The Swannanoa Gathering is known the world over for it's summer folk music camps and students and teachers from across the globe travel to learn, share, and enjoy music on the attractive campus of Warren Wilson College.

The musical heritage of Black Mountain and the Swannanoa Valley custs a broad swath. From the Morris Brothers work on the cusp of the emerging bluegrass genre to the creation of "performance art" by John Cage at Black Mountain College, to the world of music presented each year at the Lake Eden Arts Festival, the music of Black Mountain and the Swannanoa Valley is drawing national and global attention.

The tradition of great live music is alive and well in the Swannanoa Valley and expanding each and every year.

New venues such as White Horse Black Mountain, Pisgah Brewing, The Watershed, Ja Vin and the Beacon Pub are drawing music lovers to the area every night of the week. In addition music festivals and events such as the Lake Eden Arts Festival, the Great American Roots Revival, Park Rhythms, and Groovin on Grovemont continue to provide great outdoor music listening opportunities.

Folks from all parts of Western North Carolina and beyond are coming to experience the rich variety of music we have to offer.

Photo Gallery

IMAGES FROM

OUR MUSICAL PAST

Mountain Music Collection at Warren Wilson College

The Mountain Music Collection at Warren Wilson College started as a project of the Appalachian Music Program by director David Holt in 1975. Holt began recording concerts and jam sessions with musicians of western North Carolina for whom traditional mountain music has been a life-long heritage. Under Holt’s leadership, he invited some of these musicians to Warren Wilson College for master classes, concerts and interviews. As some of the musicians were in their later years, the recordings made through the Appalachian Music Program are extremely rare; many of the musicians had never recorded albums, though they were considered to be virtuosi of their instrument.

When Holt left the college in 1981, the 110 reel-to-reel and cassette tape recordings made by Holt and others, as well as donations of recordings from other aficionados of mountain music, found their way to the archives. A small crew of students arranged, described, and copied them.


In 2002-03 WWC student Andrew Pauley wrote a grant to underwrite the digitization of about 60% of the collection for the Digital Library of Appalachia.


The Digital Library of Appalachia provides on-line access to clips of thousands of items related to Appalachia. The Warren Wilson Mountain Music Collection contributions to the Digital Library of Appalachia include over 3000 clips of music related items related to our local heritage. Included are recordings from folk music concerts at Kitteredge Theatre and Sage Cafe on the college campus, recordings from the Asheville Junction coffeehouse, and McDibbs music venue in Black Mountain. Also included are interviews with local musicians.

Performers in the collection include:

Dellie Norton, Walt Davis, J.C. McCool, Alan Jabbour, Janette Carter, Utah Phillips, Marcus Martin, Fox Watson, Wayne Erbsen, Andy Cohen, David Holt, Pender Rector, Luke Smathers, Bill McElreath, Norman Blake, Peter Gott, Tommy Hunter, Wade Mainer, Arvil Freeman, Ernest Hodges, Jean Ritchie, Walter Phelps, Ethel Phelps, Byard Ray, Sparky Rucker, Ralph Blizzard and many many others.

Roll of Honor

Swannanoa Valley
Musical Heritage
Roll of Honor

The Roll of Honor lists persons who have played a significant role in the musical history of Black Mountain and the Swannanoa Valley.

(this section is under construction and additional details will be added in the weeks to come)

Alice Burnette

Opera Singer from Black Mountain; lived and performed frequently in New York City including a performance at Carnegie Hall

Artus Moser

Folklorist, Educator, Musician. Lived in the Buckeye Covc section of Swannanoa; made 78 rpm recordings of local and regional musicians for the Library of Congress;

Bert Brown

Musician, Composer; Performed in numerous bands in the area; Musical Director and Composer for the Way Back When Theatre Productions.

Bill Harkness

Founder of The Town Pump Tavern

Bill McElreath

Guitarist, banjo-player, and buckdancer; featured performer at Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville NC for many years

Billy Edd Wheeler

Songwriter, Performer, Writer; Award-winning songwriter whose songs were recorded by the likes of Johnny Cash.......; wrote musicals for outdoor theatre;

Carlton William 'Two' Konrad

Songwriter/Musician and friend and supporter of music and musicians in the Swannanoa Valley

from his obituary:

Black Mountain - Carlton William "Two" Konrad, left the material world on Friday, Feb. 1, 2008, at the age of 56. He belongs to freedom now and lives with the angels, for he is an angel.
We are forever changed for knowing Konrad. The example he set with unusual consistency was one of great dignity, chivalry, love and artistry. A gentle man with a charitable soul, infinite wisdom and tolerance toward all; a true renaissance man, a talented writer and gifted performer, a soulful observer and lover of life. Noble and modest, he never lost his appreciation for life ' s beauties and mysteries and he faced life ' s sadness with courage and insight. He was a student and a professor. Like a character from a great piece of literature; he was what we dream of being. And he was beautiful, incredibly beautiful.
Konrad attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and traveled to Europe as a young man. He spent several years in Martha ' s Vineyard before returning to Black Mountain.

Cecil Sharp

Renowned English folksong collector who visited Black Mountain in 1916 and collected songs form several local ballad singers.

David Holt

David Lamotte

David Peele

David Wilcox

Edsel Martin

Fox Watson

George Beverly Shea

Glenn Bannerman


Horrace Rutherford

J.C. McCool

Jeeter Riddle

Jeff Robbins

Jennifer Pickering

Jerry Read Smith

Jim McGill

Joan Moser

Joe Dixon

Joe Holbert

John Cage

Juliette Graves and Crosby Adams

Lou Harrison

Marcus Martin

Mellinger E Henry

Miss Jessie Pressley

Miss Mary Riddle

Mrs. Elsie Burnette

Phil Jamison

Coordinator of Warren Wilson's Appalachian Music Program, Phil is nationally known as a dance caller, musician, and flatfoot dancer. He also plays old-time fiddle, banjo, and guitar. For thirty years he has been calling dances, performing, and teaching at music festivals and dance events throughout the US and overseas, including twelve years as a member of the Green Grass Cloggers. His flatfoot dancing was featured in the film, Songcatcher, for which he also served as Traditional Dance consultant. Since 1987 he has been a columnist for The Old-Time Herald contributing many articles on traditional dance.From 1982 until 2004, he played guitar with Tennessee fiddler, Ralph Blizard and the New South Ramblers, with performances throughout the US including Merlefest, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and the Library of Congress . In addition to music, Phil teaches mathematics at Warren Wilson, Phil serves as Assistant Director and Coordinator of the Old-Time Music and Dance Week at the Swannanoa Gathering, the college's summer program in traditional music

Jamison began documenting the flatfoot, buckdance, and Charleston dance styles in 1992 with a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council Folklife Program.

http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/j/Jamison,Phil.html

Ray Greene

Robert Kirby

Roberta Flack

Stefan Wolpe

Tim Duffy

Tom Fellenbaum

Walt Davis

Wayne Erbsen

Wayne Erbsen has been involved in traditional Appalachian music for forty years. A master on fiddle, banjo, guitar and mandolin, he has authored twenty books and produced 18 solo recordings. In additional to his work with Appalachian music, Wayne is an authority on music and folklore of Pioneers, Cowboys, the Civil War, Railroads and gospel music. His Civil War music will appear on the soundtrack of the new full-length movie, Gods and Generals. Wayne has taught at Warren Wilson for nineteen years. He particularly enjoys getting young people started playing Appalachian music on banjo, fiddle, guitar and mandolin.

View his website at http://www.nativeground.com/

Wiley Morris

Zeke Morris

The Swannanoa String Band

The Swannanoa String Band

1895

Stringbands were common the the mountains of Western North Carolina and played for dances, fairs, and other events. The fiddle was likely the first European instrument to enter the valley as settlers from England, Ireland, Scotland, and even Germany made their homes in Blue Ridge mountains. Soon, the african-derived banjo joined the fiddles and for decades these two instruments formed the core of rural "bands" playing for frolics, barn raising, dances, or simple enjoyment of the musicians. Guitars, mandolins, and even basses or cellos were added later to round out the sound.

The image was purchased at a local antique shop several years ago. The orginal photo is approximately 4 by 7 inches and on the back is written in pencil: The Swannanoa String Band 1895.

As of yet none of the musicians in this photograph have been identified, so if you recognize anyone please contact dontalley@gmail.com

Roberta Flack

Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter Roberta Flack was born in the Brookside community of Black Mountain NC. Notable in the areas of jazz, soul, R&B and folk, Flack is best known for singles such as "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You" (two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway), and "Feel Like Makin' Love". "

Roberta Flack and U2 are the only artists to win the Record of the Year Grammy in back-to-back years with Roberta taking home the award in 1973 for "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and in 1974 for "Killing Me Softly with His Song".

Although born in Black Mountain, Roberta Flack was raised in Arlington Virginia, but members of the Flack family are reported to still live in the Black Mountain area.

The success of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" essentially launched Flack's career as a popular singer, and the single became one of her signature songs. In a related bit of trivia, this song was written in 1957 by Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger, who was later to become his wife. After Ewan’s death, Peggy Seeger relocated from England to Montreat where she lived for several months before moving to Asheville NC.

Watch Roberta Flack's version of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"

Watch Roberta Flack sing "Killing Me Softly With His Song"

Read more about Roberta Flack at

http://www.robertaflack.com/rfbio.html and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberta_Flack