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From Augusta: Wheeling Educator Bridges Generations with Bluegrass Music

Each summer, Augusta Heritage Center of Davis & Elkins College hosts five weeks of traditional music and arts workshops. Each week has a different theme and this week is all about Bluegrass music. Over 140 people have come from across the country to study with bluegrass masters.

A Bluegrass History

When Bob Turbanic first took a job as a teacher at Wheeling Park High School in 1993, he never imagined that his interest in Bluegrass would take him and his students to countless festivals—including one in Japan—and to Augusta every summer.

Turbanic first became interested in Bluegrass because of the Wheeling Jamboree. The Wheeling Jamboree is a live radio program that has aired on Saturday nights since 1933 and is one of the oldest radio shows in the country. Turbanic remembers listening to the Wheeling Jamboree as a kid and was greatly impacted by what he heard.

“We didn’t know what it was, but there was something in my ear that I love the sound of a banjo,” he remembers.

When Turbanic realized how little his students knew about Bluegrass – a genre that Wheeling played a huge role in shaping – he decided to do something about it. So he formed the Bluegrass Band as an after school activity for students.

Coming to Augusta

In 1998 Turbanic brought his first group of students to Bluegrass Week at Augusta. It was an eye-opening experience for him and his students.

“We literally brought a group of students here and brought back transformed students,” said Turbanic.

Turbanic does whatever he can to make the trip to Augusta accessible for all of his students. Besides camping out to make the trip more affordable, his students take advantage of Augusta’s Scholarship program.

“The scholarship program that young people have available to them here at Augusta has certainly helped many of our students.” He adds that, “it’s incredibly rewarding and humbling as a teacher to know that we have such a great resource here in West Virginia.”

Turbanic feels strongly that by design Augusta provides a safe, meaningful, and quality learning experience for his students.

“For us to have a facility like Augusta, with its heritage, and the broad depth of musical talent that comes in year after year to teach these students—it’s amazing.”

Forging Community

Two students from Wheeling Park work on a song with other Augusta participants.

Turbanic’s students report that one of the most enjoyable components of the program at Augusta is the community that invites all ages and skill levels to jam together.

First-time Augusta participant, AJ Templeton, who plays bass in the Wheeling Park High School Bluegrass Band, loves how she can jam with others.

“I could just walk up to people playing and they would just help me out if I don’t know the song they’re playing at the moment and I could get right into it automatically.”

In jamming, students discover community, which is what Turbanic finds most valuable at Augusta. Within this community, music transcends generational gaps and he says it creates a special space where young and old share knowledge and build respect and understanding.

“These kids want to listen to what these older generations have to say because they have the knowledge that these young people want.”

Turbanic said the older generations are enamored with the youth’s desire to learn from them.

“It’s just the most powerful thing you can envision.”

From Augusta: A Brother and Sister Find Healing and Friendship in the Blues

It’s Blues & Swing Week at the Augusta Heritage Center of Davis & Elkins College in Elkins. The campus is a soundscape resonating with big jams of upbeat swing music interspersed with soulful Delta Blues. This week a brother and a sister have come to Augusta to further their talent and share a story.

“When I was five years old, entering kindergarten, I had orthopedic issues with my fingers, my fingers where very weak, so what the doctor did is recommend that I start playing guitar,” said seventeen-year-old Cole Layman from Williamsburg, Virginia. After performing the exercises prescribed by his doctor for two years Cole decided that the guitar was his instrument.

As Cole began to play guitar more his younger sister, Logan, wanted to spend more time with him so she decided to learn to play guitar, too. But she discovered guitar wasn’t her instrument.

“I hated using a pick,” Logan said, “so when I found out that the bass guitar doesn’t need to use a pick I started playing it and fell in love with it.”

Together they play as the duo, In Layman Terms, and are sometimes joined by their mother on drums. However, this week isn’t as much about performing. Cole and Logan are at the Augusta Heritage Center to learn both in the classroom and in jams. They each take four classes a day and jam into the evenings.

Cole finds his first class in swing guitar a rewarding challenge. “I’m learning some new chords that I don’t really use, at all, so it’s a little difficult, but I like difficult classes that challenge me,” he says. He’s also taking classes in finger picking and slide guitar. Logan really enjoys the jamming. She says, “I love the jams, watching all the other people come out of their comfort zone or inspire people to conquer their fears of going out in front of the audience and playing.”

LISTEN: A Canadian Cajun Accordion Player on a Mission in Augusta

This week at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, it's Early Country Music Week, but it's also Cajun Week. Louisiana Cajun music is rising up out of…

This week at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, it’s Early Country Music Week, but it’s also Cajun Week. Louisiana Cajun music is rising up out of Randolph County, with a splash of some French Quebec sounds, too. It’s a rich, multi-ethnic scene and one Canadian Cajun-accordion player is on a mission.

“I’m not only in love with Cajun music but with my grandmother,” said André Baillargeon from Montreal, Quebec. It’s his first year at the Augusta Heritage Center of Davis & Elkins College. He’s on a mission this week to learn a song for his deceased grandmother.

“She was so special,” Baillargeon said with a thick French-Canadian accent. “When she died at 106 years old, I said in my prayer to my grandmother, ‘Help me to learn the accordion because I don’t know nothing about the accordion and I want to play it.’ I said, ‘If you help me learn the accordion,’ in my prayer, ‘I’m gonna compose a song for you.’”

Baillargeon was introduced to the accordion in Louisiana and fell in love with its sound and with the music of his grandparents: Cajun music.

“I think my grandmother helped me but I have to do the job, too!” Baillargeon said with a laugh. “So that’s why I’m here in Elkins.”

Baillargeon is both learning to play the Cajun accordion and writing a song for his grandmother this week at Augusta. The song Baillargeon is working on is called “Germaine” – named after his grandmother. It’s a version of a traditional Cajun song called “Madeleine.”

Andre is one of about 140 at Augusta this week. Some students are studying Early Country Music; others have come to learn Cajun and Creole music from the masters like Sheryl Cormier, sometimes called “The Queen of the Cajun Accordion”, and the four-time Grammy nominee, Cajun fiddler David Greely. Students take classes all day and then jam and dance late into the night.

Here's the History of the Augusta Heritage Center

Augusta begins this weekend. This very popular series of summer workshops about music and crafts has been explored by a student working on her master's…

Augusta begins this weekend. This very popular series of summer workshops about music and crafts has been explored by a student working on her master’s thesis. Brittany Hicks graduated from Appalachian State University in May of 2014. Her thesis was titled “Exploring Nostalgia for the Future: A History of the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia.” Just as the busy five week series kicks off, she sat down with us to find out what she learned.

Click here to read the Master’s Thesis on the history of the Augusta Heritage Center.

Pricketts Fort Forges New Connections By Teaching Old Skills

The blacksmith is one of the most enduring figures from the early days of American history. The art form calls to mind strength, ingenuity and craftsmanship…fire, iron and sweat. But in the age of technology and 3-D printers, what’s to become of this time-tested trade? One West Virginia state park is taking steps to forge new interest in traditional arts.

On this cool-for-mid-August day at Pricketts Fort State Park, coals in this blacksmith shop are burning hot and bright, fanned by bursts of air from a gi-normous bellows suspended from the ceiling. Most days this is where you would encounter a park employee demonstrating the art of blacksmithing.

But today, a group of students is getting the chance to try the craft as part of a three-day hands-on workshop.

Jim Mays works on applying the techniques he has learned in the Pricketts Fort Blacksmithing Workshop.

“I’m Jim Mays, living in Farmington right now but originally from East Side of Fairmont. This is on my bucket list of what I wanted to do, so a good chance to get it done.”

Mays is a retired steelworker who did construction and ran heavy equipment in the coal mines. He has a small forge at home and is taking the class in hopes of learning a new skill. He watches closely as the instructor demonstrates techniques.

“There are several things I want to try to make,” says Mays. “He’s a good teacher. He’s got some – gotta lot of patience.”

The patient instructor is Greg Bray, Executive Director of Pricketts Fort. Bray first learned the craft at the Augusta Heritage Center at Davis & Elkins College. He’s now earned his living as a blacksmith for more than twenty years, but he can remember that initial learning curve.

“This is the beginning class. They all struggle just a little bit and it gets frustrating for ‘em. It was frustrating for me when I started,” says Bray. “And I tell that story every time I start a class – a new class – and I tell how frustrated I was and how I almost didn’t pursue it and that kind of helps them out a little bit.”

Greg Bray shows Chuck Huff of Fayetteville, Georgia a technique during the Pricketts Fort Blacksmithing Workshop.

“My name is Chuck Huff. I’m from Fayetteville, Georgia. It is challenging, I mean, it’s a little harder than I thought, but you learn a lot. It’s very interesting – but difficult.”

Use your tongs. Take your time. Don't get in a big hurry, because if you start hurrying and rush around, these things are going to flop around – move around – and you're not going to get anything accomplished. – Greg Bray to students in the Pricketts Fort Blacksmithing Workshop

“My name is Ed Harris. I’m from Rivesville West Virginia and I’m taking the class – several reasons. A new hobby. To make something. My wife is into crafts and she likes the 17^th and 18^th century decorations and so I said well I’ll see if can make ‘em.”

His favorite part of the class so far?

“The challenge of learning something new with my hands and seeing the art – the art form.”

Generating enthusiasm for the art form and for the past is one of the goals of the workshop. But Bray says there is another reason – and that is to make sure this type of opportunity is available in the future.

“If you don’t pass this on – if you don’t find people that care about it and want to try it and want to do it, then it’s going to be lost,” says Bray. “And we’re seeing that in our staffing today because there’s not a lot of new people coming up – we’re all getting older out here at the fort and we’re not seeing new people coming up.”

Jim Hays and Ed Harris team up to practice what they’ve learned at the Pricketts Fort Blacksmithing Workshop.

Bray is encouraged by the response to the workshops. He offers them two or three times a year. One gentleman who has taken the blacksmithing workshop twice stopped by today to visit the fort. Bob Minney recruited his army buddy, Chuck Huff, to come up for the class. Minney regrets not learning these skills from his grandfather and father, but says he’s very glad that Pricketts Fort is taking up the slack and teaching all sorts of traditional arts and trades skills to the current generation.

“I recommend – learn to do things with your hands – get back to not just buying and throwing away – but repair and make things,” says Minney. “And it’s satisfying – it’s good for the soul. That’s all!”

“The whole thing’s a process and – if I keep you on the same thing over and over again you’re going to get aggravated,” Bray tells the students. “So I try to mix it up – but it’s a process so – give it a shot.”