The Appalachian String Band Music Festival, held each year in southern West Virginia, has been canceled this year because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.
The West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History made the announcement today.
“We must all do our part to lessen the effect of the current worldwide health crisis, and at this time this decision is one we feel is in everyone’s best interest,” according to the department’s press release.
The five-day mountaintop gathering of musicians was slated for late July into early August at Camp Washington-Carver in Clifftop, Fayette County. On an average year, at least 3,000 people attend the event, which draws people from across the U.S. and the world.
The event features string instrument musicians who come out to celebrate the traditional old-time music that has been played for almost 300 years in the Appalachian Mountains. The music is influenced by songs from the British Isles, Europe and North Africa.
Girls Rock Whitesburg in Whitesburg, Kentucky is a music camp for female, gender-fluid, non-binary, and trans youth. Over the course of a week campers learn an electric instrument, form a band and write songs. At the end, they perform in front of a live audience. While the camp focuses on electric music instruction, participants also learn how music is tied to social justice.
Last summer, in a special report as part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Project, Nicole Musgrave followed two campers who reinvented a traditional protest song to respond to events in their community. In 2018, Musgrave volunteered at the camp during its inaugural year.
Voicing Opinions Through Music
It was the second day of camp, and one of the newly-formed bands was experimenting with playing the song “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads. The drummer of the band was 18-year-old Sheyanna Gladson of Cumberland, Kentucky.
“I wanted to play music for a really long time … because I go to a lot of shows but I never played. Even though I obviously wanted to,” Gladson explained.
Her bandmate was 17-year-old Adeline Allison of Harlan, Kentucky. “I’ve always been drawn to music, but I’ve only played music with men. Which is fine. But I’ve never really met any other women who play music before,” Allison said.
Credit Nicole Musgrave / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Adeline Allison (left) and Larah Helayne during band practice. They were two of several campers who returned for the second annual Girls Rock Whitesburg.
Girls Rock Whitesburg launched in the summer of 2018, part of an international network that supports camps like this all over the world. This was Gladson and Allison’s second year at camp. They both said last summer was empowering.
“I was able to find some confidence musically and personally,” Allison explained.
“We don’t realize how much of a necessity that is to have confidence in ourselves. That’s not conceited, that’s not bad to love yourself, you know?” Gladson said.
Gladson, Allison and their third bandmate Larah Helayne were all camp interns in 2019, so they decided to call their band The Interns. Together, they wrote the camp’s theme song, which features lyrics that declare, “I take up space and use my voice. I’m not afraid to make loud noise.”
“It’s just such an important part for all these young girls to remember. Because so many girls feel like they don’t have room to talk. Or even if they do, no one’s going to value their opinion. But that’s not true at all,” Gladson said.
Credit Nicole Musgrave / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
A motivational poster decorates the Boone Building in downtown Whitesburg, Kentucky where most of the Girls Rock activity takes place.
Voicing opinions, especially on social issues, is a big part of what Girls Rock Whitesburg is about. In addition to music instruction, campers participated in workshops on topics like sex ed and anti-oppression, and they discussed difficulties in their personal lives and conflicts happening in the world.
Credit Nicole Musgrave / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The camp schedule posted on the wall shows activities that include instrument instruction, sex ed, meditation, and an anti-oppression workshop.
This past year, some campers wrote songs about their experiences with bullying and sexism. In 2018, Gladson and her band wrote a song called “Melt the ICE,” to speak out against Immigration & Customs Enforcement detaining migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border. In the song, Gladson wails, “Claustrophobic. There is no space. If it was your kid, then what would you say?”
Kudzu Punks
Girls Rock Whitesburg is part of a long Appalachian tradition of protest music written by women—women like Florence Reece. In the 1930s, Reece penned the well-known protest song “Which Side Are You On?” as a response to the bloody labor struggles she witnessed in her home in Harlan County. During the 1930s when Reece wrote it, other female activists in eastern Kentucky were also using music to speak out against injustices in their communities. In the song, an unaccompanied Reece condemns coal operators and law enforcement, and calls on miners to organize.
On the surface, songs like “Which Side Are You On?” that draw on the ballad and old-time music traditions might not seem to have much in common with the punk tradition that many Girls Rock campers and organizers draw from. But there is more in common than meets the eye. The common thread is dissent.
At Girls Rock Whitesburg, the traditions mix and meld. Organizer and music instructor Mitchella Phipps even has a name for it.
“I just like to call us kudzu punks … Whether it’s a fiddle or whether it’s an electric guitar, it’s kind of that same thing. We’re telling stories and we’re expressing things that happened to us in creative ways,” Phipps said.
Another instructor Carrie Carter explained the overlap between the past and present. “A lot of what happens in old-time music in the 1800s and early 1900s is fighting against oppression and fighting ‘The Man’ and fighting systemic issues,” Carter said.
Gladson said she hears similar strains in the music she and Allison are learning to play at Girls Rock. “Punk music’s just kinda saying what you feel and what you think should be said. Just expressing yourself. And you can do that where they can definitely hear you because you’re so loud, you know?”
Music Meets Activism
Following in the path of Florence Reece, the Girls Rock campers are learning the connection between music and activism. When it came time for The Interns to choose a song to cover during their final camp performance, they chose “Which Side Are You On?”
Gladson said they chose “the old song about the miners in Harlan. Just because of what’s happening right now.”
“My dad was playing that song when he was driving me home yesterday. We passed the protesters in Harlan. The miners who are protesting on the tracks in Cumberland. I’ve always loved the song.…So it’s kind of cool to see it be relevant again,” Allison explained.
Credit Lou Murrey
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Larah Helayne (left) wears a Girls Rock Whitesburg shirt while holding a banjo and a protest sign at the Blackjewel blockade in Cumberland, Kentucky. Helayne and several other Girls Rock campers visited the blockade to show support for the protesting miners and their families.
Which Side Are You On?
Credit TRB Photography
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All of the Girls Rock campers join The Interns on the Mountain Heritage Stage in Whitesburg, Kentucky for a group performance of the camp theme song.
On The Interns’ final day of camp, a crowd gathered on a grassy hillside for the band’s final performance. The Interns played the camp theme song they wrote, along with a cover of the song “I Wanna be your Girlfriend” by Girl in Red. They closed their set with a performance of “Which Side Are you On?”
Along with electric guitar, drums, and bass, The Interns added fiddle and banjo to their version as a nod to the song’s place in old-time music repertoires. Girls Rock organizers and instructors Mitchella Phipps and Carrie Carter accompanied the band.
Once everybody tuned their instruments and found their place on stage, The Interns bandmember Larah Helayne introduced the song with words of support for the Blackjewel mining families: “Support miners. Support people over profits. Support these mountains. It is a place worth fighting for and not just a place worth leaving. So this one is called “Which Side Are You On?”
Credit Paulina Vazquez
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Larah Helayne, Adeline Allison, Mitchella Phipps, and Carrie Carter prepare to play their version of “Which Side Are You On?” Along with playing electric instruments, many of the Girls Rock campers and instructors are also old-time musicians.
This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council. The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts, and culture.
Old-time music is a large part of West Virginia’s heritage – it is the folk music of the state. And although it has now gained the popularity of people from all over the world, hundreds of years ago it was isolated within Appalachian communities. However, as it gains traction, some people think the uniqueness is lost.
In a special report exploring folkways traditions, as part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Project, Caitlin Tan explores the master-apprentice relationship in the old-time music community.
Folklife Apprentice Program
In an effort to help preserve traditional Appalachian practices, the West Virginia Humanities Council started a Folklife Apprentice Program, which pairs a master of a craft with a budding artist, to help preserve traditional Appalachian practices.
“That’s part of what makes the tradition special is it’s a folk tradition” says Annie Stroud, an old-time music apprentice. “That’s what makes it work is that you share it and people are learning it and it’s part of the community.”
Credit Caitlin Tan / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Annie Stroud plays fiddle with Doug Van Gundy at his house in Elkins, W.Va. She studied under him for a year, learning the music styles of Greenbrier County.
Through the folklife program, Annie studied old-time fiddling under Doug Van Gundy for all of 2018. Doug is an eighth generation West Virginian and an expert in the music. He says it is the foundation for a lot of sounds today.
“It was the homemade music. It was the local music. It was the kitchen music. And up and down the Appalachian Mountains you had people from Scotland and Germany and Northern England, places that had fiddle music traditions, that came here and that got mixed in with rhythmic traditions from West Africa with the banjo,” he says.
The Homemade Music
Annie had always wanted to learn the specific old-time music of her home, Greenbrier County. She learned to fiddle over 20 years ago, but she says learning the specific Greenbrier style is a way for her to feel more connected to her home, as she grew up on a farm in the grassy valley of Greenbrier. And it turns out, Doug is one of the few people who is an expert in the music.
Historically, within each county in West Virginia, and even sometimes each hollow, the styles of old-time changes. Doug says the music of Greenbrier County is one of the less common techniques still alive.
“The Greenbrier Valley style, the upper reaches, were relatively isolated and so I think the fiddling stayed closer to how it was when it got over here,” he said. “I think it’s a little more archaic, and yet it’s still influenced by radio and records that came through. There’s a lot of drone in it and up bow accenting.”
Doug demonstrates the Greenbrier style by fiddling a tune called ‘Jimmy Johnson.’ The chipper song is played using what Doug calls a “shuffle” and “up-bow technique.” The notes flow together seamlessly.
But when he plays the same song in Pocahontas County style there is noticeable embellishments. The notes are a bit more pronounced; one almost feels inclined to clap along.
The Greenbrier Legend
Unlike Annie, Doug did not learn how to play old time until he was an adult. After an angsty punk rock phase, Doug sought the help of Mose Coffman in the early 1990s. Mose was one of the original Greenbrier Valley old-time music legends. He had learned from players who were alive before West Virginia was even a state.
Credit Caitlin Tan / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Doug Van Gundy plays his fiddle in his home in Elkins. He learned to play under one of the old-time music greats — Mose Coffman.
Mose had a distinct way of playing that sounded rough around the edges, but authentically West Virginian.
So Doug visited Mose weekly in a nursing home for the last year of Moses’ life. At the start of his apprenticeship Doug says he just watched Mose play.
“So he played for about three hours and he kept trying to hand me the fiddle, “Now you play me something.” And I said, “I can’t play. I can’t play anything.” But he would play for me,” Doug says, “and by the end of that he had figured out a tune that I really liked that he thought was simple enough for me to start on and he said, ‘Ok. I want you to come back and play this for me. Come back next week.’”
Mose passed away in 1994, but 26 years later, Annie can have that connection to some of the original old-time musicians through Doug. And Annie says, that is what makes the music so special.
“There are these direct lines of connection of like, stories and nuances, and the way people play it and each time it gets passed down it changes a little bit,” she says. “And that’s part of the tradition, which is really exciting.”
Keeping The Tradition Going
Through the apprentice program, Doug and Annie met up to practice several times a month.
They spent a lot of time listening to Doug’s old recordings of Mose. One of their favorite songs they practiced over the year is called ‘Turkey Creek.’ It is a song Mose wrote.
“It’s named after a little creek in Greenbrier County, and this is a tune that I don’t know that anybody else really played. If people play this out in the world, it probably came from Mose Coffman. Or us,’ Doug says with a chuckle.
Credit Caitlin Tan / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Annie Stroud and Doug Van Gundy warm up their instruments while the WVPB video crew sets up.
Annie says in the past year since her apprenticeship, she has shared a lot of what she learned. She even taught a beginner fiddle class at Augusta Heritage Center this past fall.
The 2020 WV Humanities Council Folklife Apprentice Program will begin this March — pairing together another round of novice and professional artists in the state.
This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts, and culture.
Old-time fiddler Clark Kessinger died in St. Albans on June 4, 1975, at age 78. Known for his near-perfect intonation and impeccable tone, Kessinger was a pioneer in the resurgence of traditional music in the late 20th century.
Kessinger’s career started in the 1920s, when he and his nephew launched a duo known as the Kessinger Brothers. In 1927, they began performing live on Charleston’s first radio station. Over the next three years, they recorded more than 60 instrumental tunes.
As with many other performers, the duo’s career was cut short by the Great Depression. For the next three decades, Clark Kessinger performed primarily at local dances. His obscurity came to an end when he was rediscovered just in time for the ’60s folk revival.
Clark Kessinger’s enthusiastic style is still imitated by up-and-coming fiddlers around the world.
Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats ranging from Tyler Childers to The World is a Beautiful Place…, The Sea The Sea to Qiet and beyond. But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
And today, we are chatting with recent Davis & Elkins College graduate Kaia Kater, a singer-songwriter who traveled from Quebec to West Virginia nearly four years ago to learn more about Appalachia‘s old-time music and culture. We sat down with Kaia in our Charleston studios to talk about her musical journey, her love of bluegrass and R&B, and her recent feature from Rolling Stone magazine.
Kaia Kater’s newest release is Nine Pin, now available for purchase, download, and streaming. You can hear more of her music on A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. And for more #WVMusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic.
Interview Highlights
On being from Canada:
I’m from Montreal, Quebec. I grew up there for most of my life. Then I spent a little bit of time in Winnipeg, Manitoba. And I’m currently based in Toronto, Ontario.
It’s funny because I had very little appreciation for Canada until I left Canada. And then I was like, “Wow… things are pretty ok in Canada!” And so I think, living home was probably the best thing because now I have more of an appreciation for my country.
On falling in love with old-time music at a young age:
Actually my grandpa is a luthier. He used to build harpsichords and guitars, but he cut some of his thumb off in 2013… he’s ok! [Laughing] But I think that sort of cut his career short, but he was retiring anyway. At family gatherings and Christmases and birthdays, we would always gather around and have a kitchen party where we would play tunes. And it was always really exciting for me because it was the time I could stay up past my bedtime to listen to people sing and play. And sometimes I would just fall asleep listening to people singing. It was just really special for me.
I got into old-time music in a really odd way. My mom fell in love with bluegrass music when I was eight. And she was like, “Ok. We’re going to go to a bluegrass festival now!” So I just got carried along, and registration was free if you were under 11. It was actually Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in Oak Hill [in New York], and they ran this Bluegrass Academy for Kids. It’s a really successful program, but at the beginning, it was basically [where] parents could drop off their kids at 9am and pick them up at 3pm and during that time, you would pick either banjo, bass, fiddle or violin. You would bring your own instrument, and all of these kids from 8- to 11-years-of-age would just hang around and learn how to play bluegrass music.
So I tried all of the different instruments. I tried fiddle and bass, and then I settled on the banjo. And I was determined to be a bluegrass banjo player, and somehow old-time swooped in like a hawk and picked me up, so I switched to clawhammer. And I think it’s because a lot of the teachers around me at home were clawhammer players and influenced me that way.
On becoming a professional musician:
You know when you discover your passion is when you trudge through your daily activities and chores and classes, and then at the end of the night, you’re like, “Ok. What do I really want to be doing?” And that was playing music for me.
And I think I was scared because I had seen a lot of musicians around me deal with touring. My mom was the executive director of the Ottowa Folk Festival and the Winnipeg Folk Festival. So a lot of musicians crashed at our house and hung out, and I think it was a really interesting education for me because I did see the darker side of touring, which is not being able to see your family. And some folks had drinking problems (not anything that was overwhelming, but it was a different way of life). And I think I was apprehensive about that, but there is a way to tour in a healthy way, I think.
Credit Susan Bibeau – Beehive Productions
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Quebecer singer-songwriter Kaia Kater.
On deciding on West Virginia for old-time music education:
I had been going to a lot of old-time camps. I went to the Swannanoa Gathering outside of Asheville [in North Carolina], which is a little slice of heaven to spend a week to play clawhammer banjo and living in this community who are nerding out as much as you are. [Laughing] Like “I never want to go back to the outside world!” So I went there twice, and it was really my first introduction to the Southern United States because the furthest I had been was New York State.
I had actually wanted to go to Warren Wilson [College in Asheville, North Carolina] for the longest time, which is the location of the Swannanoa Gathering. It’s funny. I remember the exact moment I clicked on their website, wondering what their tuition was. And it was $42,000 a year or something. And I thought, “What?! Is that even possible?” I took a year off of school, and I didn’t expect to be going to school because I didn’t feel like anything interested me enough and the programs that did interest me, I couldn’t really afford. And I was ok with that. I just played a lot of music out in Montreal.
I casually applied to the Augusta Heritage Center, which is where Davis & Elkins College is. And I got this Facebook message from this guy named Jerry Milnes, who’s quite well-known. At first I thought it was spam. “Who is this person contacting me, offering me free college tuition to go to a school in Appalachia. Are they messing with me? Do they know my deepest dream somehow? [Laughing] Luckily I read through the whole thing, and I called him. My family and I went down exactly four years ago, we checked it out, and I loved it, and they offered me a financial package that made it so that I wouldn’t have to pay $42,000 a year. And the rest is history.
On the meaning behind Nine Pin, her latest release:
It’s named after a particular square dance formation where you have eight people (four couples) and in the middle you have one person, which what makes it a nine pin, and you dance around it. To me, it’s one of the most fun because everybody swings, and then everyone holds hands and dances around the nine pin, and then the caller says something like, “Break,” and basically the nine pin has to try and find a partner. And whoever doesn’t find a partner becomes the new nine pin. So it’s almost like musical chairs.
I started doing a lot more songwriting in my junior year of college, and I was thinking a lot about those formations and the deeper symbolism of being one person surrounded by a lot of people swirling around you (in both good and bad ways).
On her last four years at Davis & Elkins’ Augusta Heritage Center:
In many ways, it was a really beautiful experience. I was not even from this country, and I had so many people offer to have me over to their house for dinner. I don’t have a car, so I had a lot of people say, “Do you need me to take you to Kroger or Wal-Mart?” So I was met with a lot of warmth, and I think that made all the difference for me because there’s a certain amount of challenge moving to a new place and a new school.
There was a certain amount of what I call “ugly face crying,” which is when you cry so hard, your entire face turns red from sobbing and your snotting over yourself. So there was a fair amount of that from the experience of doing that for the first time. But at the end of the day, I settled into a routine, as you do. At the end of the four years, I wouldn’t be the same artist, I wouldn’t release the same music if I hadn’t spent these last four years here because I knew old-time music, and I was good at playing tunes, but I don’t think I understood the communities behind the music or the stories behind the music. And that takes time. That just takes time.
My publicist Devon Leger told me, “Listen I pitched your album [Nine Pin] to Rolling Stone, but I don’t know if they’re going to pick it up because they must have people flinging albums at them left and right.” [Laughing] And then all of a sudden, I get this frantic message from him and he’s like, “I need you to answer these four questions… it’s for a certain journalist.” I was like, “Ok…” So I answer them, sent them back. And he said, “That was for Rolling Stone!”
Credit Polina Mourzina
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Last May, Kaia Kater was listed as one of the best new artists to watch by Rolling Stone magazine.
So we knew they were going to say something about it, but we didn’t know that they would have such kind words about it. I felt totally honored and excited that more people would be hearing the album.
I almost peed my pants when they said I sounded like Gillian Welch. [Laughing] I was like, “Really? She’s my idol!” If I could have a shrine to Gillian Welch in my house, I probably would.
On advice to folks looking to pursue old-time music in West Virginia:
Go for it. Literally nothing bad can come of it. Classical music, you just have to sit in a room and practice and do scales and scales and scales. But with old-time music, you just find someone, play banjo and fiddle tunes for an hour, and you’ve gotten better at your instrument and having fun at the same time.
Last week, Davis and Elkins College graduated its first class of students that includes members of its touring string band and dance ensemble. The Appalachian Ensemble works a lot like a college sports team- the players, in this case musicians and flatfoot dancers, earn scholarships.
One of the graduates is 22-year-old banjo player, Kaia Kater, who was recently featured by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the 10 New Country Artists You Need to Know.
The other graduate is 24-year old Scotty Leach, who plays fiddle and piano. Five years ago, he was living in Centralia, Washington. He played in a local contra dance band, and he loved it. But he didn’t feel content. “I didn’t have a plan to go to school, and I remember thinking one day, I was sitting in the house I was renting, and I felt like I was headed in a downward spiral, like my life had no purpose or meaning or direction or anything. And I thought…this is bad.”
So then, a very strange thing happened. The president of a small liberal arts college in West Virginia visited and invited Scotty to attend his school — with a scholarship. He was one of three performers Gerry Milnes and Buck Smith recruited to Davis and Elkins College for the first year of the Appalachian Ensemble program, in 2012.
Kaia Kater came from Canada. She and Scotty brought very different styles to the program. A third student named Rebecca Wudarski- who ended up leaving the college after a few years- was the only native West Virginian in the band that first year.
The first time they ever played together as a band was in Thomas in 2012. A crowd gathered around the three young musicians as they played an informal jam.
“Even through the anxiety of like are we gonna get along as friends, I think that moment was really when musically we were gonna be ok,” said Kaia.
Their sophomore year, a new group of dance students started at D&E. In addition to West Virginia tunes, the string band learned new music that would showcase the dance students.
Credit Mountain Stage
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Scotty Leach is a fiddle player for the Appalachian Ensemble
Scotty says he thinks the program will continue to grow and adapt.
“I’m curious what this will be like in ten years. You know, after several cycles of students are have gone through it, I’m curious what the repertoire looks like. We have some Duke Ellington now. Gerry would have never let us do Duke Ellington the first year.”
Gerry Milnes retired a year after Scotty and Kaia started at D&E.
As an folklorist of a different generation, he says the break from traditional old time music was something that was tough for him get used to.
“Things move along and things change, and even traditional music changes, it’s never been really static, it’s changed through time, and it’s never gonna change, so I have to realize that it’s a new generation and a new time, and I have to understand that.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMOYkrmQYU
And the Ensemble’s style of fusion Appalachian music has helped bring a lot of attention to D&E. Four years later, the program has grown. There are now 13 students in the Appalachian Ensemble. The college invests in the program in the same way that other schools do for athletic teams.
Scholarships average about $7,000 per year, though the amount varies for each student.
The students tour across Appalachia, performing at schools and festivals. It hasn’t been cheap for the college, which has fewer than 900 students enrolled.
The Chair of Division of Fine and Performing Arts, Tom Hackman, says the Ensemble has helped the college do more outreach and branding. “I don’t want to say that it’s paid for itself, but it’s been worth it from the college’s standpoint. It’s something unique, and a lot of small liberal arts colleges, we have to embrace our uniqueness. We have to look at, you know, these are things that we do that are different from everyone else. And a lot of people here on campus recognized very early on that that was the case with the Appalachian Ensemble, that no one was doing something exactly like this.”
As for Scotty and Kaia, they both say they have a lot of bittersweet emotions this week- after they played their very last performance as D&E musicians.
Credit courtesty Kaia Kater
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Kaia Kater
This summer, Scotty will be staying in West Virginia to work at the Augusta Heritage Center. After August- he’s not sure what his plans will be.
Kaia Kater will be touring in Canada and the United States to promote her new solo album, Nine Pin. On the sleeve of the CD, Kaia says: “Thank you to Scotty Leach, we’ve been everywhere and back again.”
