Appalachian music explored during Elizabeth concert
Roots of rock ‘n’roll and bluegrass will be heard when Jennifer Rose sings and plays Appalachian mountain music on her dulcimer at the Grand Theatre in Elizabeth at 7:30 p.m. June 15.
The Monongahela and Elizabeth Township historical societies will sponsor this performance to reveal the diversity in Appalachian culture and influences of European and African music on American folk music.
“The concert provides an historical look at Appalachian music which traces back to the ballads of the English and Scottish immigrants who traveled or lived in Southwestern Pennsylvania before drifting south down the long valleys of the Appalachian mountains from 1775 through 1850,” said Debbie Popp Gilbert, vice president of the Elizabeth Township Historical Society (ETHS). “Many immigrants came as indentured servants. When their terms of service were over they found local land too expensive and went south in the mountains where land was cheaper.”
Growing up in Kentucky, Rose learned to sing and create music early in her childhood among a family of singers and dancers. She earned a degree in vocal music from Berea College, and unites her musical training with her regional heritage to give listeners rich Appalachian singing.
Dr. Miles Richards, ETHS president who taught college history in South Carolina, has located talent and organized many historical musical programs. Richards, who asked Rose to sing the ballad “Gypsy Rover,” agrees that “Rose’s clear soprano voice, guitar, and mountain dulcimer playing enchants audiences.”
Rose also leads workshops and works in schools with the Kentucky Arts Council’s Artist in Education programs. She is director of the Mountain Folk Festival in Berea, Ky.
“I love to teach beginners because of that moment where maybe they’re going to realize there’s a musician in there somewhere. If I’m not helping to create more people like me, helping them find a love for an art form, then I risk my art form dying with me. And, I don’t want that to happen,” she said.
“I will listen to “Hot Cross Buns” over and over in hopes that I’m helping to raise up a generation of people who love folk music and the dulcimer,” said Rose whose two daughters Lydia, 16, and Isabel, 14, will join her on stage.
Just about every Appalachian state claims the origin of the dulcimer. But, Rose said “Somewhere in Appalachia, 200 to 250 years ago, somebody created the first dulcimer. It’s a baby in the string instrument world. It’s still trying to grow up.
“We’re still seeing changes happen in how the dulcimer is put together,” she said. “If you think about the guitar, it’s originally from Spain, and the harp has been around for thousands of years and the banjo from Africa, who knows how long?”
Appalachian music is derived from European and African influences, including English ballads, Irish and Scottish music especially fiddle music, hymns and African-American blues.
Appalachian music was first recorded in the 1920s, according to Appalachian music historian Ted Olson, who teaches at Eastern Tennessee State University.
Olson said Appalachian musicians were a key influence on the development of old-time music, country music and bluegrass, and were an important part of the American folk music revival of the 1960s.
Instruments typically used to perform Appalachian music include the banjo, American fiddle, fretted dulcimer and guitar.
Several Appalachian musicians who obtained renown during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s that he lists include Jean Ritchie, Lily May Ledford and Doc Watson.
Olson said, “Country and bluegrass artists such as Loretta Lynn, Roy Acuff, Dolly Parton, Earl Scruggs and Chet Atkins were heavily influenced by traditional Appalachian music.”
Artists such as Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia and Bruce Springsteen have performed Appalachian songs or rewritten versions of Appalachian songs, he added.
Renewed interest in Appalachian music was evident by the mid-1990s he said when a new generation was introduced to the region’s musical heritage through reissued “classic” recordings of traditional Appalachian music on compact disc.
Soundtrack recordings of Appalachian music from the movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” in 2000 attracted a broad-based national audience, selling several million copies.
Martha Muniz of the Monongahela Historical Society, remembering last year’s sold-out night with Mark Twain, co-sponsored with Elizabeth Township Historical Society, said seating again is limited for the Jennifer Rose concert.
Tickets at $15 are available by calling 724-258-3824 or 412-751-5389 or visiting www.monongahelahistoricalsociety.com.