The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9995   Message #66618
Posted By: Sandy Paton
29-Mar-99 - 02:48 AM
Thread Name: Songs/stories in VA hill dialect?
Subject: RE: Songs/stories in VA hill dialect?
Shula: You probably are familiar with the books that Richard Chase published of tales from the Southern Mountains, namely Jack Tales and Grandfather Tales. Memory tells me they were both published by Houghton Miflin. Betty Smith's new study of Jane Hicks Gentry includes everal Jack tales and others. I know this one is available from Amazon books.

I recorded an album (now available as a "custom" cassette) of Richard Chase telling three Jack tales to a group of kids in a one-room schoolhouse in the mountains of east Tennessee. Chase was a collector, of course, and not a native of the mountains, so his dialect is assumed. On the other hand, I recorded a number of Jack tales from Frank Proffitt's brother-in-law, Ray Hicks, on Beech Mountain, North Carolina, back in 1962. I released four of Ray's tales, told in his very strong, natural mountain dialect, on an LP and have now re-issued it as a cassette. Ray Hicks has since become quite well-known for his tale-telling, has been featured in National Geographic, goes to the Jonesboro Storytelling Festival, etc., but my recording was done before his tellings became (to my mind) unfortunately self-conscious. I think these recordings may be the sort of thing you are looking for.

Take a look at Folk-Legacy

Sandy