The Journal Begins!

“Nevertheless tradition dies hard. Memory may weaken, but the love of the songs remains and with a little encouragement it springs up anew. To many a singer it was a great delight to be able to re-learn from these volumes a song that he had sung to Cecil Sharp over thirty years ago and had since forgotten. Thus, a song, originating in England and carried to America, lives there by oral tradition for some hundreds of years; it is written down and taken back to England by Cecil Sharp; then some thirty years later the song is carried back in printed form to the country of its adoption and takes on a new lease of life. Such are the devious ways of tradition.” Maud Karpeles, introduction to EFSftSA

Writing the Grant

To some, she is esteemed NEA Award winner Sheila Kay Adams, ballad singer for the stars. To others, she is SK, Eskey, Seely, or a mountain variation that sounds like Sheeuhluh but doesn’t translate well into written speech. To many she is a performer, a teacher, a cousin, a sister, a friend. To some she may even be an enemy. When I was born she was simply the light of my world. Then she was Mommy during my toddler times, Mama during my childhood years, and then the more hip Mom when I got to middle school age. My brothers still call her Mama (they still call me Sissy). When I reached the wise old age of 16 or so, I decided to call her Mother to underscore the fact that she was the jailer and I, the prisoner, in a cage forged by my own teenage angst. I still call her Mother because I think it’s funny. She has never expressed what she would like to be called other than giving me such a smack across the face when I bucked up to her that one time and threatened to call her a name that rhymes with Witch. Never tried THAT again.

I have been hearing ballads and other traditional mountain music since I was in the womb. I sang on stage for the first time when I was three years old. It was at the Sodom, Laurel Folk Festival in 1974 and, although now at almost 50 I can barely remember ANYTHING, I have a very clear memory of that tiny moment in time. I was running back and forth across the stage area where mother was performing. I remember her blah, blah, blah until she reached down, picked me up under the arms and lifted me up to the microphone, my legs dangling in the summer heat. “Sing, gal,” she said, and I belted out Mary Had a Little Lamb. I remember the bright lights and the featureless audience as they roared their applause. Mother set me down again and off I ran to more of her blah, blah blah. The memory ends there but it was just the beginning of my ballad singing journey.

Ballads…well, mother singing ballads…has given me many opportunities and amazing experiences that would not been available to me otherwise. I’ve always loved the attention that being Sheila Kay Adams’ daughter has afforded me. I got to go backstage at Merle Fest and meet famous people, I got to travel all over the United States to festivals and performances and I learned just enough ballads to be able to sing on stage when necessary. I’ve been clogging all my life, love me a good fiddle tune and have developed many lifelong relationships with many different sorts of folks. My ballad singing cousin/sister/partner in crime Donna Ray Norton and I started our relationship based in ballad singing but now my life would be so empty without her and her family. But this project brings something a little different to the table and I am so excited to begin what I have come to think of as Phase II of my ballad singing life. Also, this project sort of hems mother up long enough that I can actually spend some quality time with her! Sometimes that feels a little like herding cats.

I was thrilled when mother approached me regarding this grant. My cousin Donna Ray, who is way more active on the ballad singing circuit, and I had started doing some projects together over the past couple of years, so I was already feeling inspired to learn some more songs and maybe try to take it ‘on the road’ as it were. Mother and I were both energized by the prospect of working together for the next year and felt like we had a pretty good idea brewing.

I am embarrassed to say that I did not already own copy of the English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians by Cecil Sharp (henceforth to be referred to as EFS).  Having grown up in this rich tradition, performing all of my life, and gotten a MA in Appalachian Studies…I had never so much as read the introduction.  Mother was a little shocked, but she tried not to let the disgust show too much.  “Well, I guess you’re just going to have to buy you a copy, being as I ain’t giving mine up.” I did not understand the smug look on her face until two weeks later when I received my copy.  There, stated clear as a bell at the bottom…’With a New Introduction by Sheila K. Adams.’  For the love of God.  I made the decision then and there that if we managed, by hook or by crook, to get this grant I was going to willfully and with great determination pick up that ballad singing torch and finally do it right. 

We both spent weeks on our individual parts, reading them out loud to each other over the phone, emailing text back and forth, and being inspired by the thoughts and writings of the other. I read and reread the introduction to EFS several times, annotating, starring and underlining my favorite passages. At one point, I felt like Cecil Sharp was talking directly to me and I started to believe that he had written the book just for me, generations later, just needing to be reminded of the tune and words to ballads he collected from my family right here in my very own community over one hundred years ago. I wrote and rewrote, begging my sister to edit and re-edit. Fun stuff. But I was a little sad when it was all over because I had so enjoyed the process. We sent the application off in early March and crossed our fingers.