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Lecture / Performances About the Ballad Programs: TOPICS: Over the past few years, I have developed three different lecture/performances that reflect my interests and areas of ballad study. Any of the lecture/performances described below are already researched and prepared and can be given on short notice. If the topics below do not suit your purposes, then provided a little lead time (and some funding for the necessary research) I can also work with your organization to create a “custom” lecture/performance suited to your specific needs. WHAT'S INCLUDED: Of course, the lecture/performance is the main component of my work with any organization. But I am in the process of developing handouts, a selected bibliography, a selected discography, and other resources that organizations can use free of charge either before or after my presentation to encourage study in the area of the Appalachian ballad tradition. As they are developed, I will be happy to provide copies of them by mail or email (such as they are at the moment) when you book a program. POTENTIAL AUDIENCES: Organizations should keep in mind that the themes of many ballads are adult in nature; some of the ballads I sing have sexual overtones and are often graphically violent. The presentations that I currently offer may not be suitable for young children. Not wishing to leave the youngsters out, however, I am developing a program especially for them which I hope to have ready by the summer or fall of 2007. Please check the web site for updates on this, or call to express your interest and I will speed up the process. LENGTH OF PROGRAM: These programs are designed to be about 45 minutes in length, with a 15-minute question-and-answer period following each. If my schedule allows it, I generally stay after the official program ends and talk to interested audience members. Of course, I can design a longer or shorter program to suit your needs. BOOKING A LECTURE/PERFORMANCE: Please contact me for an estimate. Costs for these presentations vary, depending upon travel expenses and other variables.
I. Women's Voices, Women's Woes: Appalachian Ballads as Female Space There have been a large number of ballad singers in the Appalachian tradition, most of whom have been women. As I demonstrate during this lecture, ballads reflected the concerns of frontier women and their British Isles ancestors in a significant and liberating way, sometimes straightforwardly and sometimes through symbolism. For years, ballads have been described as “simple” and “primitive;” I show how they actually offer a complex and empowering challenge to what was a patriarchal social structure, both in the British Isles and on the Appalachian frontier. In a presentation that's part performance and part lecture, I explore the ways in which Appalachian ballads allowed frontier women to chip away at male hegemony. I sing several ballads, including “Fine Sally,” “Pretty Polly,” “Young Hunting,” and “The Cuckoo,” pausing after each to comment on the ways in which each song works to foreground such women's issues as abandonment, unwed motherhood, rape, and other gender-specific problems faced by women in the cultures which historically made use of these songs to transfer mores from one generation to the next. Though there are many ballads in which women are victims, there are others in which women show their potential for individual agency and action. Appalachian music—and the imaginative space of the ballad tradition in particular—allowed women a non-confrontational way to make their deepest concerns public—and even to empower themselves against the patriarchal cultures in which they lived. II. The Beasts and The Ballads: Connecting Appalachian Ballads to Medieval British CultureOver the years, Appalachian mountaineers have been represented as a mythically pure “Anglo-Saxon” race. This lecture/performance briefly presents the reasons why I see our region's connection to Anglo-Saxon cultures as anything except pure and direct. I mention the numerous other influences on our regional tradition, but focus on what I see as the genuine connections between Appalachia and the British Isles . I focus in particular on animal imagery and symbolism. Such ballads as “The Two Sisters” offer an opportunity to examine the British Isles/Celtic version of a song and contrast it with the Appalachian version. I sing both variants of the ballad, and discuss the elements (in this case, a swan) that have dropped out of the ballads or changed meanings since arriving in our region. This presentation marks the origins and the evolution of Appalachian ballads since their inception in the British Isles hundreds of years ago. Using animal imagery, I demonstrate how the Appalachian tradition has become an entity all its own: connected to its medieval antecedents, but hardly the “purely Anglo-Saxon” tradition it is often labeled. III. Birds and Ballads: Connecting Medieval British Culture and the Appalachian Ballad Tradition This lecture/performance can be given as the second of a series (following “The Beasts and the Ballads”) or on its own. During this presentation, I reinforce and deepen the points made about the similarities and differences in the British Isles and Appalachian traditions. Using ballads such as “Lady Isabel and the Elfin Knight” and “Young Hunting,” I explore the symbolism of birds in particular. Using some examples from medieval poems such as “The Owl and the Nightingale” and Geoffrey Chaucer's “Parliament of Fowls,” I show how the Appalachian tradition uses similar bird symbolism, but changes and adapts the meanings to reflect a new cultural context. Time permitting, I also include twentieth-century examples such as A.P. Carter's “The Storms are on the Ocean,” showing how the Appalachian tradition itself evolved and changed with the advent of technology. IV. Folk Songs for the Young and Young at Heart Currently under development. This presentation will be suitable for audiences of all ages. V. Murder in the Mountains: An Exploration of the Native Appalachian Murder Ballad Currently under development. A study of Appalachian ballads based on actual murders. This program might include ballads such as “The Lawson Family Tragedy,” “The Ballad of Frankie Silver,” “Tom Dooley/Dula,” and “Little Omie Wise.” VI. The Carter Family and the Appalachian Ballad Tradition Currently under development. A.P. Carter made extensive use of the Appalachian ballad tradition as he wrote and reclaimed songs for the Carter Family's performances and recordings. This presentation will include both recorded and live performances of Carter Family songs that exemplify the importance of the ballad tradition in the Carter Family's repertoire. A.P. Carter is often accused of “stealing” and copyrighting songs that did not “belong” to him; in this presentation I explain why his practice, which in light of current-day copyright laws and restrictions seems dubious, was actually legitimate in terms of his cultural milieu . This presentation makes heavy use of one of my previous publications: “ Something Old and Something New: The Carter Family's Bristol Sessions Recordings .” The Bristol Sessions: Writings on the Big Bang of Country Music. Wolfe, Charles K. and Ted Olson, eds. Jefferson , NC . McFarland and Company, Inc., 2004.
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