Glad I helped your day along, Sis.

I love many kinds of music, including traditional folk tunes.

Did you see that movie Songcatcher? It was fiction, but based on people at the turn of the last century, doing what your grandmother was doing collecting songs in the Appalachians. They even hauled a big old phonograph up the hills, making some actual recordings. Iris Dement, a favorite of mine, played one of the local singers.

Those songs are so precious, and it's great that so many have worked to preserve them.

Thanks for sharing your memories.

Yes, Petal, thank you for reminding me of that great little movie!
My family invited me over to their house one Fall evening for Pizza & a Movie Night, and Songcatcher just stole our hearts. She was so determined to find and SAVE those old tunes. It was an incredible little movie.
(my Grandmother's little recorder used wax cylinders, which were sent off somewhere and transferred to some kind of pliable green vinyl, which could be played on a little phonograph she had)

You know what other movie comes to mind along those lines?---not the content, but the DETERMINATION of the true-life character?---It's a little movie called
'Temple Grandin'.
She was autistic to a point, I believe and was able to tune into the livestock being held in stock yards, as they waited for the end. She was able to read them as no one else had and by the time the movie ended, it was because of her, many stockyards put a much kinder Last Walk in place for the animals. I think Claire Danes won an Oscar for her performance as Temple, with Temple, who was there, just over the top with joy over it!
As a weepy 'barely-eat-meat' animal lover, I can recommend it----I even stood in the doorway, waiting to bolt at the first sign of animal suffering, but was able to watch the whole thing.
Her undying determination is what finally got her where she is today. A real hero in my book.

My grandmother Lannie Ross Thompson came from Rich Valley. Steve in Baltimore County.

Kathy, what a beautiful post! Thank you for sharing your memories.

Have you ever read the Sharyn McCrumb "Ballad" series? I found them fascinating. She took Appalachian ballads and created a fictional series around them.

The Ballad novels are a series of award-winning Southern/Appalachian novels set in the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains. These books weave together the legends, natural wonders and contemporary issues of Appalachia. Each story is built around a theme, intended to express an overall idea, and each one centers on an event or era in North Carolina history.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sharyn McCrumb

mwheel, thank you for enjoying our sharing!

Lisa h, I had no idea Sharyn McCrumb was such a prolific writer! I thank you for the link and a chance to read about her. I'll share it with my granddaughters, for sure!

I love her Ballad series, but her other books have not really caught my attention too much.

I hope you enjoy them!

Lisa

Also in Songcatcher was the one and only Hazel Dickens, who along with Alice Gerard recorded some brilliant albums of their mountain music. I spent most of my college years with bluegrass musicians in Madison Wisc., and learned to love the stuff so much that we started a coffeehouse, The Wild Hog in the Woods, which, since 1975, has been providing a place for bluegrass and blues and folk, and it's still going.
Oddly enough, you might be surprised at the amount of bluegrass we get here. Lots of amateur musicians all over the country, and every May, there's a festival called Jacob's Ladder Folk Festival, which takes place right on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. This year we get the Abrams Brothers, again, for headliners, and boy oh boy can they pick and grin! All kinds of Irish, Celtic, world and folk music happens on three stages, and the highlight is the square dance. Five hundred Anglos and Israelis and a pick up band create the wildest thing you've ever seen.....look at all the happy creatures dancin' on the lawn!

kathy thank you for that inspiring post. Have you thought of submitting it to a magazine? I think it should be shared ,, Thanks again

Minnie, thank you for your sweet words.
I used to send stuff in to our paper pretty often, some years back. Don't do it any more--too busy---but you've made me remember how nice it felt.
You are so supportive of others here!