Posted on 02/09/2007 7:56:27 PM PST by Congressman Billybob
We went over the mountains last weekend to attend the Smoky Mountain Storytelling Festival. Before I describe that, what do you think it was? Do you imagine a bunch of good ol’ boys in bib overalls, swapping outrageous fish tales? No such thing. It was far more interesting than that.
When we drive to D.C., we go through Tennessee. Every trip, we’d pass a sign for the National Storytelling Center in Jonesboro. Finally, we took that exit, and spent an hour talking with the lady in charge of the center, in the beautifully-restored downtown of Tennessee’s oldest city.
We decided to attend the National Festival in the fall. Three weeks ago, we found an Internet reference to this Festival in Pigeon Forge. We chose to try a regional event to prepare for the national one to come.
On the way over, we listened to a CD by Donald Davis, one of the invited, national story-tellers. He was also the first performer we saw when we got to the theater. All his tales are from his own childhood. But all of his stories had three common characteristics.
Each story was perfectly told, with every word as well chosen and as well delivered as each brush stroke in a fine painting. Each of his tales was not just told, but acted out. And, in each tale was a moral, not hit-you-over-the-head-obvious like Aesop’s Fables, but a moral, nonetheless.
The following morning, we attended a workshop on the Art and Heart of Storytelling, by Connie Regan-Blake. Two things were highly interesting about that workshop. The first was that by example and exercises given to the audience, Ms. Blake showed us that storytelling is a separate and different skill than writing in any form, or acting in any other form.
As she said, many beginners in storytellers start with classic tales or fables from many nations and going back in history. She noted that historic tales had both “stood the test of time” and had “been polished to perfection in thousands of retellings.”
The other fascinating aspect of Ms. Blake’s workshop was her own history. She got into storytelling after college through a storytelling program at her local library. A generation later, she had become a veteran in many forms of storytelling. She travels the world as an invited guest at folk festivals in many nations.
Before finishing the description of the Smoky Mountain Festival, a personal note is in order. At the end of the formal program each day in the theater, the Festival conducted “Swapping Grounds in the Theatre.” This was the equivalent of open-mike night at a comedy club. The first eight adults to sign up alternated with the first eight youth participants in telling tales, not to exceed ten minutes.
Yes, this Festival, like most of them anywhere, had a youth component divided into age categories. My contribution was modest, but adequate. But it was a good beginning. My taking the chance encouraged Michelle to take the chance, and do a more finished job, the following day. We noted that every participant, even the youngest, most nervous, most unpolished, was praised for what they’d done right. It was a remarkably supportive community to encourage each person to try again, and keep on truckin’.
We saw a wide variety of presenters with tales ranging from what was true, to what was clearly fabulous. There was one classic fish tale, about the surprising contents of a barrel that allegedly floated down stream from the Jack Daniels distillery. It was clearly false from the first word spoken. But the teller was such an engaging character that we all engaged in what Robert Penn Warren called, “the willing suspension of disbelief.”
The most engaging performer at the Festival, and we saw him twice, was John McCutcheon. He is an excellent storyteller, an excellent teacher, and a master of many instruments including the bass guitar, the banjo, and the hammered dulcimer. He’s now a Tar Heel.
So, here are the recommendation we offer to all readers: If you hear about a storytelling festival anywhere in your vicinity, pack a picnic lunch and go on over. If you hear about a performance anywhere by John McCutcheon, postpone all other recreation and attend. During the Grammys, look for his name. His seventh and eighth nominations are up this year.
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About the Author: John Armor is a lawyer specializing in constitutional law, who may again be a candidate for Congress in the 11th District of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
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John / Billybob
Billybob,
Now this is my neck of the woods. My maternal ancestors are from Greeneville, near Jonesborough, settled there in the 1790s. Greeneville is the home of the State of Franklin, is where the Confederate General John Hunt Morgan "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy" was killed, and is on the banks of the Nolichucky River I told you about (class IV rapids).
The first emanicpation newspaper was published there, and President Andrew Johnson went from a lowly tailor (his tailorshop is a National Park Service historical site) to the Reconstruction President there.
Johnson's burial site is there, and his homeplace. There is a church there with a cannonball from the Civil War still inbedded in the brick. That place changed hands from conferate to Union hands nine times during the Civil War, and the Battle of Blue Springs (a CW reenactment) is held there every year.
The Storytelling Festival has been a major thing for several decades, beginning with a few hillbillies telling their "Haint tales" there back in the early 1980s.
BTW, President Johnson was a Tarheel, but was run out of there after getting into trouble with the law, and ended up in Greeneville, where he married a prominent woman, who taught him to read and write.
My grandmother's uncles were in the Civil War, and our homeplace was taken by Union authorities as a headquarters during that time. Grandma used to tell me the stories her aunts and uncles told her about the war, and also she passed down to us the "haint tales" that were brought to this country by the Scottish/Irish immigrants who settled there, my ancestors.
These tales (www.foxfire.org/prodframe.html) were what led to the "Storytelling Festival."
And, Davey Crockett was born on the banks of the Nolichucky River, on the Greene/Washington county line, lived near where my ancestors did at the same time.
The "Storytelling Festival" is wonderful, an extension of what was a communtitywide practice in the days before radio and TV, when folks got together and did a little picking, built a neighbor a barn, sat up with the sick and dying, and entertained the kids with their stories.
Wait till you hear the story of the Wampus Cat, now that's scary!!!
"We went over the mountains last weekend to attend the Smoky Mountain Storytelling Festival. Before I describe that, what do you think it was? Do you imagine a bunch of good ol’ boys in bib overalls, swapping outrageous fish tales? No such thing. It was far more interesting than that."
If you honestly hope to represent the people you describe in such a fashion, I'd suggest you step into their shoes and hear this as they would hear it.
Read your profile page, and you have a point.
I come from the brave and independent early settlers who came to Tennessee. My ancestor, Daniel Harty, came from N.C.
He and his sons and daughters married into other families here, particularly the McCoys. When I researched my family history, I had to use N.C. records, because they were migrants from that state, opposed to taxation without representation.
My ancestors were here when the State of Franklin was organized. If you know your history, you know this group of frontiersmen rebelled and the State of Franklin was a breakaway state (territory). It was shortlived, but an important part of the history of this country.
My ancestors were among those who settled the great frontier.
I am very proud of that, maybe that explains some of my rebelliousness.
Our homeplace is in Greene County, just over the N.C state line, in the mountains, near Madison County, N.C.
I miss that place...
John, I'm less than a ten minute drive away from Jonesborough ... why didn't you at least call?
Thanks for the report.
So much I see and read about the US today makes me think
I should never return, but I am from Tennessee, and if I did come back, it would have to be to the mountains of East Tennessee.
I always thought the best NC storyteller was Andy Griffith.
I'll clean the place up and give you folks a place to stay that's close enough for me to drive you there and come back for you every day, twice a day. I don't fight the crowds any more. But the food and drink at my place is top rate and free to guests! You'll have to put up with my two old cats though.
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