Appalachian Journey

[Wodenhelm]

"Scots-Irish" are British Borderland area English-Scots who temporarily moved to British Northern Ireland for a short time before then moving once again to the Appalatchans (yeah note my spelling there; "Appalayshian" has no historic basis in speech and is a mispronunciation by Northerners who encountered the term in writing, not in speech). 90% of Appalachia's settlers are Scots-Irish (more correctly "Anglo-Scots"), with English, German, and Cherokee abound as well.

[bubbles202]

Watch deliverance



[jpmccue7]

there scots-irish_they did not like the irish people_not irish.

[paulaegraham]

The Appalachians were settled mostly by Scotts, Irish, or some combination. This is a very Irish culture; from the stress on storytelling and ballads, to the place of alcohol in the culture, the lack of trust for outsiders and authority figures, and the philosophical attitude of defeatism.

The people don't trust outsiders because outsiders tend to use or abuse the natives. The missionaries tend to be almost as bad as the coal bosses.

[Solarlad]

@paulaegraham U moron Irish have NOTHING to do with scoth-irish u retard. Appalachian cuulture is mostly english/scottish-anglo-saxon protestants. The Irish are too dignified and too superior to live in appalchian and be scotch-irish.

[paulaegraham]

@Solarlad Thank you for your kind words.

[paulaegraham]

Because of the potato famine of the late 19th century, there are more people of Irish extraction in NY city than in the entire countries of Ireland. Naturally that kind of influx is going to impact the greater culture.

Anyone whose family has been here since colonial times, has some English, Some Irish, some German, and probably some Native American.

[ReverendRayMcCall]

With her legs behind her head she couldn't move but the energy still traveled through her body like a freight train and she did everything she could to contain herself when suddenly she exploded in amazingly silent ecstasy.

[seanrocks15]

ok first off say it like the people from there do APA-LATCH-AH not apa-la-cha second this is the deep Appalachian mountains the north aren't all like ima kill a posem im not making fun of the southern 1s but the northern 1s is where i live like right where they start

[Lostmychops]

In saying 'descendents of the scots-irish frontiers people', you are forgetting the role of English settlers (who were probably more numerous) on the shaping of musical tradition in the Appalachians. I know that you Americans love the Irish, but a great deal of English folk song and melody survives in America, and it annoys me when this is ignored...

[WVliberty]

its probably a mixture of all three but appalachia is mainly irish/scottish/scotch-irish blood people here are still clanish like thier ancestors, i am pretty much it takes me a long time to trust outsiders

[Lostmychops]

Well, i'm certainly not an authority on appalachian history, but it would seem to me that the prominent ancestral 'stock' would depend on locality, and is probably not as clear cut as people like to think. I'm scotch-english myself, and I think that there was more cross over than people realise. I like the Irish, and I must have visited the country about 20 times, but I don't understand why Americans are so despereate to cling to supposed Irish ancestry...

[Lostmychops]

...Just to clarify, this comment is not intended as a slight on you, WVliberty; i'm sure that your claim is genuine. I'm also sure, however, that a lot of Americans seize on even the most flimsy and tenuous links in their family trees and use it as an excuse to adorn themselves with shamrocks and support the IRA, which is quite obnoxious behaviour, from an English point of view.

[WVliberty]

in my region there were alott of english/german settlers, i do understand what your sayin about the irish, its just like the people where i live fly confederate flags when thier ancestors more likely fought for the union or stayed neutral during the civil war

[breda83]

@Lostmychops cos we don't like ya

[CadillacL]

Love the old-time dancing done in the mtns there :)

[BlindPigAndTheAcorn]

Neat! I'm a native of the Southern Highlands-and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the world!

[mrbeano1]

Where men are men and the sheep are nervous!

[oshjump]

Fuck you Mrbeano1. If you don't like mountain people take your yankee ass back to Maine and shove a lobster up your stupid ass.

[AnykeyTx]

OMGosh, that first guy is Ray Hicks. I spent many hours listening to his stories as a child. I also spent time in Edd Presnell's house. It was a wonderful place. I'm sorry to know that he has passed.

[amerikanerMarinen]

Just like that here in Virginia, right at the foothills til you get up in Climax and Rocky Mount, and up yonder towards Roanoke.

[notlqueen]

Do you know of any children's books I could get for my classroom to teach my students about this culture?

[Banjomountain]

There is one I liked as a kid called "When I Was Young in the Mountains". I believe it's still in print. This was about 18 years ago.

[notlqueen]

Yes, I just saw it in a bookstore last week!

[UP58]

I just watched some of the whole film. A few other people unidentified by Lomax: Stanley Hicks' sister was Hattie Presnell. The younger man sitting on the porch with them is Frank Proffitt, Jr., now deceased also. His father introduced the song "Tom Dooley" (or "Dula"). Despite the uninformed drivel, Lomax performed an invaluable service. We have CDs of all his Smithsonian recordings. A few minor slips: Beech Mt. is in the Blue Ridge, not the Smokies, and Edd Presnell's name was not Estil.

[UP58]

It was interesting and unexpected to see very brief glimpses of amazing people I knew here in the mountains of North Carolina. A few times - but not always (?), there was a very short view of the late, great storyteller and our friend, Ray Hicks. Shortly after that, and before Raymond Fairchild, there was a shot of singer and banjo maker Stanley Hicks sitting on a porch with the the noted dulcimer maker and all-around fantastic wood worker, Edd Presnell, both now, unfortunately deceased also.

[down8ve]

francoamerican,

You should realize who you are talking about. If it were not for Alan Lomax, and his dad, John, much of this music would have been lost. These two were the original "song hunters," collecting songs for months from all over the country. Alan later traveled all over the world collecting songs.

Look up "Cantometrics," for instance. As a music teacher I use their work constantly. Just today I used Alan's extensive interviews with Jelly Roll Morton. Priceless.

[Nelliebones]

That is absolutely true. Alan & John Lomax's extensive collection now resides as part of the Library of Congress. So he didn't sound like a slick narrator? So what.

[alanaldasucks]

this music is so bad that this dumb guy had to save it, don't you think if this music was worth saving then other people would have saved it? i mean, its not hard to find an ac/dc album at the store!

[francoamerican99]

I watched the video and the people in it were great, but i agree that the narrator is terrible! He is struggling to find words and then we have to break to hear his version of sixteen tons. They should fire Alan Lomax.

[appalachianangler]

this narrator is terrible. He mixes up general southern culture with southern appalachian culture. when he sings the song about coal and says born without the "R" that is not Appalachian (which is rhotic, which means they pronounce R wherever it occurs and even sometimes when it does not). Appalachian would be pronouncing it "Borned." The people are great but this film has a lot of inaccuracies. not to mention he pronounces app-a-LATCH-an as app-a-lay-chan,

[notlqueen]

well at least he tries, right? Most ppl know nothing about this region.

[barnettrs]

Where I'm from, we say Appalachia just as he does. I'd never heard it spoken of as you say until that sad documentary Rory Kennedy made back in the late 90's. Everyone here laughed because her crew pronounced it as Appalatchan. Anyway, makes no difference, at least hr tried as someone else posted.

[dave777blaster]

@barnettrs actually the term is Appalachian

Apalachie and Apalachchan are local terms of endearment .

The Appalachian runs from the Southern USA clear on up into Canada into the Gaspesie

Though the peoples living along the mountain have divers back grounds

they are all people of the land

[galahad143]

This is the essence of America and should be kept alive! I was a Filipino immigrant and now a citizen, and am proud to be part of this culture.

[Solarlad]

@galahad143 Slave.

[galahad143]

@Solarlad ?

[kevindsims]

thank you for the tip, though i'm having trouble getting the streaming to work, i have a mac and tried vlc and quicktime player with no success, do you have any advice? thank you again

[folkstreamer]

you need to download the Real player. Is a free download at Real dot com. Use the the Real sure stream.

[kevindsims]

do you have more of this documentary?

[folkstreamer]

go to folkstreams dot net and you can stream the entire film.

[eatmyshittyasshole]

Thank you very much, I look forward to seeing and hearing this :-)

[ReaganD]

Someday I'm going to visit there!

[uidittybop]

Great pace to grow up. It's God's Country.

[lynnwoodsmeghead]

reminds me of my drunk uncle Larry...

[maeviac30]

lol...