Folk Ballads in Western North Carolina
By Karl Galloway
North Carolina is home to a diverse set of musicians, artists, and culture-makers. One such tradition is ballad singing, largely practiced in Madison County and the surrounding area. There, the landscape is characterized by steep hills that rise above pockets, often homesteaded. These “hollers” were settled in part by the English, who brought with them a style of song which, isolated in the mountains, maintained a certain fealty to its original style. Since its arrival, it has been fortified by parallel African-American, Cherokee, and Celtic styles, but the words of many of the songs remain true to verses that are generations old.
Cecil Sharp, an English song-catcher (folk music documentarian) arrived in Southern Appalachia around 1916 and found practitioners of these ballads, largely in the Sodom-Laurel area of NC. The songs are high and keening, usually long and unaccompanied. Also known as “Love Songs,” they sometimes have a happy ending but are equally likely to tend towards violent and less cheery subjects. Cecil Sharp, by many accounts, gave this dying folk practice the publicity it needed to persist through many changes and the increased connectivity of rural Western North Carolina.
The short film, The End of An Old Song, portrays Dillard Chandler, a man who sings intensely and whose traditional art is juxtaposed with a changing world. The jukebox and the ballad exist side by side in this black and white piece, which takes place in and around Asheville, NC. Those familiar with the city may recognize corners and storefronts, with taverns and shoe stores in place of future boutiques and breweries.
Following it is Madison County Project, which introduces more recent practitioners. Released in 2005, it casts color on the same hills that Dillard Chandler walked and shows modern-day balladeers like Sheila Kay Adams, Donna Ray Norton, Denise Norton O’Sullivan, and DeeDee Norton Buckner.
These films are just as concerned with history, legacy, and family ties as they are with the music, and both feature the haunting sound that characterizes old English ballads, and that can still be heard today.
Films published at Folkstreams. Credits follow:
The End of an Old Song
- Filmed and produced by John Cohen
- Cinematographer: John Cohen
- Sound: John Cohen
- Editor: Helen Levitt with Tony Mandell
- Other Credits: Special thanks to Peter Gott
- Original Format: Film: 16mm
- ©1969, John Cohen
- 30 mins, Black & White
Madison County Project
- Film by: Rob Roberts, Martha King
- Produced by: Martha King, Rob Roberts
- Cinematographer: Martha King, Rob Roberts, Judd Williamson
- Sound: Martha King, Rob Roberts
- Editor: Martha King, Rob Roberts
- Other Credits: Additional Editing: Grace Camblos and Emolyn Liden
- Original Format: DV Mini
- ©2005, Martha King & Rob Roberts
- 24 mins, Color
