Help: A Grant for Mountain Music

Subject: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: michaelr
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 12:50 AM

A friend recently sent me a video he shot of some neighbors of his near Cullowhee, North Carolina, in the west N.C. Appalachian mountains. They're called the Queen Family, they're a family of old-timey pickers and singers, they're mighty hot players, and they are THE REAL THING.

Particularly the matriarch, Mary Jane Queen, age 84. When the boys take a break, she sings unaccompanied versions of "Pretty Saro", with the opening line "When first into this country", and "William Riley". Every time I watch this, my eyes mist up because here is something most of us are far removed from: a person who has received the songs through an unbroken chain of oral transmission... she probably got `em from her grandma! It's quite awesome...

The reason I'm bringing this up is because my friend is going to write to the state government to help get a grant for these musicians to record their legacy, and he asked me to come up with good reasons for tax money to support this.

I'm calling on the Mudcat community to supply some good reasons.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 02:02 AM

Because the songs are not in the wind, they are in people's heats, minds, souls, and throats-- and ya gotta get 'em outta there while you can.

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 02:23 AM

Because singers such as Mary Jane Queen are rapidly dying out, and precious few of their children are learning the old songs in order to continue their ballad tradition, and because North Carolina has long been proud of its rich folklore traditions, such aid should be readily available, especially if the "collector" is a North Carolinian, too. (Long sentence!) Look at the Frank C. Brown collection of North Carolina songs, ballads, and other lore, a multi-volume publication, and you'll realize how much material has been collected in that state, and how the Queen family versions compare to others recovered there.

I know exactly how you feel when hearing (and seeing) Mary Jane Queen sing the old songs. It's like stepping back into another century, another way of life. It can be a life-altering experience. I know, because it happened to me, too, many years ago. Sandy

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: michaelr
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 09:47 AM

Sandy - where can I see the Frank C. Brown collection?

Michael

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 02:24 PM

There are something like seven volumes (I have five of them - the songs, the ballads, the tunes of the songs, and the tunes of the ballads, plus one on superstitions)) which should be available in any good North Carolina library. Your NC friend should be able to find them. You might have to ask for help from your librarian and the inter-library loan system, if you're not in North Carolina. Otherwise, you might try to use a good college library nearby. I always tried to live near a good University library and arranged to get permission to use it through some staff acquaintance. When I moved to the boonies, I had to invest in building a library of my own! With the incredible increase in the asking price for most of the older, now out-of-print folklore publications, I'm glad I bought so many of them a long time ago!

Sandy

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: DougR
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 03:35 PM

michaelr: There are two sources I know of for funds that could be used for a project involving the family. The National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina State Arts Council. Call or write them for guidelines to their folk art programs. Usually, the guidelines are fairly specific as to what types of projects are eligible for funding. I would think either an oral history project or a film on the family and its music might qualify. You can find addresses for both agencies on the Net.

While I worked at the Endowment we funded a filmmaker to do a film on Lighten' Hopkins and it was a very good one. That one was funded by the Public Media program because at that time there was no Folk Art program. Good luck!

DougR

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: michaelr
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 08:08 PM

Thank you, respondents, I appreciate the info. But really what I was after are some reasons why it's a good idea to use public funding for the preservation of old-time music. I know there are many knowledgeable posters on this forum who can put it into words better than I can. Come on Catters!

Or maybe it's like the old saying: "Folk music is not a pickle... it doesn't need to be preserved"!?

Michael

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: DougR
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 08:33 PM

Ah ha! You are seeking a grant writer to do it for you! Way to go, michaelr! :>)

DougR

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: Jeep man
Date: 26 Feb 02 - 10:41 PM

I live near their home and have been aware of them all my life. They deserve a grant. Jeep

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 02:19 AM

I've just been alerted by a friend to the presence of five volumes of the Frank C. Brown collection on eBay auctions. I'll try a clickie hope it works Good luck.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: michaelr
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 03:09 AM

DougR - now I just have to figure out how to get a grant for my own music!

Jeep - you're lucky to know the Queen family; I wish I did! But the question was, WHY do they deserve a grant?

Michael

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: michaelr
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 03:14 AM

Sandy - looks like your collection, while also comprising 5 volumes, is one better, tunewise, than the one on ebay. What is the other volume?

Michael

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: michaelr
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 03:27 AM

sandy - what's the one missing from both, is what I mean (it's late...)

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: Janie
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 12:52 PM

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: Janie
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 12:59 PM

Sorry about the vacant post--the hands are faster than the brain. Michael, I should have rechecked this post before I answered your PM. You are asking the wrong the question--it is not "Why do they deserve a grant" The question is why should the music be preserved. For the same reasons any other piece of history should be preserved, if for no other reason. Now, go write your own grant--you will do just fine. Janie

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: michaelr
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 07:17 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: DougR
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 08:01 PM

Janie is right, michaelr. The chances of getting a grant for the family is not too good. Perhaps the recording of the music the family plays, or an oral history, a or film tracing the history of the family and the music they play family might attract a funder though.

DougR

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: DougR
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 08:22 PM

Michaelr: I checked out the National Endowment for the Arts website and it appears that the Heritage and Preservation program would be the one you would apply to. You might check out the website and write for the guidelines (or you can request it on the Web) to that program. Once you have read them you will be able to better determine how to go about asking for a grant.

DougR

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: michaelr
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 09:03 PM

Okay - I appreciate the posts but I guess I'm not being clear on what I want. I'll try again...

I am not writing a grant. I am not looking for info on how to write a grant, or where it might come from. I know, and you know, that our musical heritage is precious and important and must not be allowed to die a slow, quiet death from neglect. But imagine, if you will, that you're trying to explain WHY to some government bureaucrat!

What I'm after is some good old Mudcat eloquence on the subject. Hell, you guys go on and on at the drop of a clickie about anything and everything! *BG* Why the sudden reticence?

Thanks again,
Michael

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: DougR
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 10:19 PM

Sorry, Michael, I guess I misread your post. I thought you were embarking on a quest, that to me, seemed worth pursuing.

I think it is important to preserve our history, and the family you describe (and others have too), are doing that through the music they perform. If you wonder why, see the movie, "Songcatcher." Not because it is a great movie (I personally don't think it is) but the idea is there. The protagonist is trying to preserve the music of the mountains, just as others had done before her for future generations.

I'm not sure what the point is, though, if you are not planning to follow up on it.

DougR

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: TNDARLN
Date: 27 Feb 02 - 10:33 PM

MichaelR-
This may not be the info you seek either, but I'm pretty sure something has already been done to preserve/record Mary Jane Queen's music. For several years, she and her son have performed at the Swannanoa Gathering near Asheville, and I believe they've [she, rather] been awarded something like a state-cultural-heritage-legacy-prize. Wayne Erbsen or Jim McGill at Swannanoa College would have the details on that. www.swangathering.org And I know she has at least one recording of ballads.
T

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: michaelr
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 02:33 AM

Doug - I am sorry for being so obtuse. My friend from North Carolina e-mailed me to say HE was helping the Queen family apply for a grant (for a multi-volume CD/DVD documentary of sorts; I'm sketchy on the details), and he (my friend) asked me to comment on the importance of preservation efforts.

Having enjoyed the heights of Mudcat scholarship and analysis (and the lows of Mudcat levity), I thought it worthwile to invite the comments of the Forum. That's all... I'll go away now...

Subject: RE: Help: A Grant for Mountain Music
From: DougR
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 05:49 PM

Sorry, michaelr if I sounded terse. It seems, from Tndarlin's post she and the family are well known in that area, so probably my suggestions would have netted little anyway.

Best, DougR