Appalachian Studies Commons^™

A Preliminary “Then And Now” Look At 70+ Years Of Historic Landscape Photos From Roan Mountain, Nc-Tn, James T. Donaldson, Charles F. Warden, Jennifer Bauer

Faculty Open Access Works

PowerPoint originally presented at the 18th Annual SAMAB Conference, Carnegie Hotel, Johnson City, TN (October 22-24, 2007).

Updated in 2015, 2023, 2026 (reformatted and clarified).

Great Graminoids! Quantifying Vegetation On Roan’S Western Balds Over The Last 80 Years (1936, 1956, 2016), James T. Donaldson

Faculty Open Access Works

PowerPoint originally presented at Friends of Roan Mountain Winter Naturalists' Rally 11 Feb. 2017.

Grant funding from Friends of Roan Mountain for resampling historic transects from Carvers Gap to Grassy Ridge. Revised 2021, 2022, & 2023 (technical features and diversity); edited for clarity 2026 (for written rather than oral presentation & added references slide).

All Roads Lead To Darrington: Building A Bluegrass Community In Western Washington, James W. Edgar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through the mid-twentieth century, a significant pattern of migration occurred between Appalachia and the Pacific Northwest, with Washington’s thriving timber industry offering compelling economic opportunities. Many workers and families from western North Carolina settled in the small mountain town of Darrington, Washington, frequently accompanied by their banjos and guitars. As a group of young bluegrass enthusiasts from Seattle established relationships with Darrington’s “Tar Heel” musicians, a collaborative music community formed, laying the foundation for the region’s contemporary bluegrass scene.

Drawn from a series of ethnographic interviews, this project illuminates the development of a bluegrass community in western Washington, while identifying …

On The Plains In ’65 : The 6th West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry In The West, George H. Holliday, Glenn V. Longacre

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

A new scholarly edition of an Ohio boy soldier’s revealing post-Civil War memoir.

This annotated edition of Holliday’s recollections—known primarily among historians of the American West—re-contextualizes his memoir to include his boyhood in southern Ohio and the largely untold story of the hundreds of Buckeyes who crossed the Ohio River to serve their country in Virginia (later West Virginia) regiments, ultimately traveling across Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming to safeguard mail and stage routes along the celebrated Oregon Trail during a pivotal time in American history.

Glenn Longacre’s extensive research in federal, state, and local archives, manuscript collections, and period …

Consuming Appalachia: An Archaeology Of Company Coal Towns, Zada Komara

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

Material culture is an understudied aspect of social life in Appalachian Studies, the multi- disciplinary investigation of social life in the Appalachian region. Historically, material culture in the region has been largely studied for its semiotic properties, decoded as a tangible symbol of “a region apart,” lagging behind the rest of America in terms of moral, mental, economic, and social development. Critical material studies from archaeology and other disciplines paint a different picture, however, and construct a region as American as any other. This study utilizes discourse analysis of material rhetoric about Appalachia and archaeological and oral historical data from …

Recording Review Of Georgia Yellow Hammers & Associates, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Review of Georgia Yellow Hammers & Associates: Vols. 1-4

Recording Review Of Folksongs Of Another America: Field Recordings From The Upper Midwest, 1937-1946, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Review of Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937–1946. 2015. Produced, compiled, and annotated by James P. Leary. Dust-to-Digital, CDs (5), DVD, DTD-43.

The Old Deery Inn & Museum: An Ethnographic Case Study, Rebecca J. Proffitt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses qualitative ethnographic research methods to present a case study that explores the multiplicity of meanings and representations that are attached to the Old Deery Inn & Museum in Blountville, Tennessee. Within the community, the Inn functions as a center for cultural memory, with the physical structure itself acting as an artifact that holds community identity. This community narrative contrasts with the official narrative used by tourism entities that markets the Inn as a part of the Appalachian region, situating the Inn within a complex and intricately constructed identity of place that is shaped by lived experiences as …

The Stanley Legacy: Mountain Music Creators And Ambassadors, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt The most traditional-sounding of first-generation bluegrass music greats, Carter (1925-1966) and Ralph Stanley (1927-2016) were from Dickenson County, Virginia.

Scottish Culture: Scottish And Scots-Irish Music, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: A majority of the early settlers on the Appalachian frontier were immigrants from Lowland Scotland or from Northern Ireland (the Scots-Irish, who descended primarily from Lowland Scots).

Ballads, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: Arguably the most enduring artifacts from the early days of European settlement in Appalachia, ballads are still sung in households and on festival stages along The Crooked Road.

"God, Mother And Island Creek": The Story Of Holden Central School And The Emergence Of Nurturing Paternalism, Harley D. Walden

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The story of the community of Holden, West Virginia (Logan County), Island Creek Coal Company, and its model school (Holden Central School) offers a counternarrative to the dominant deficit-oriented narratives concerning Appalachian education. In particular, the progressive nature of Island Creek Coal Company led it to create a model coal camp community and a school that educated their employees’ children. The school operated from 1922 until 1970, when the combined elementary and junior high school closed its doors forever. Island Creek Coal Company both designed, supplied, and oversaw the daily operations of a benevolent community with all the modern amenities …

Recording Review Of Legends Of Old-Time Music: Fifty Years Of County Records, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Review of Legends of Old-Time Music: Fifty Years of County Records

Book Review Of Fiona Ritchie And Doug Orr: Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage From Scotland And Ulster To Appalachia, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Review of Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr: Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia

The Guitar: ‘An Orchestra Unto Itself', Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: The guitar, brought by the Spanish to the New World in the seventeenth century, was not common in the Blue Ridge through the dawn of the twentieth century.

The Celtic Influence On Appalachian Music, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: Visitors fortunate enough to hear the John Doyle Trio during the Mountains of Music Homecoming will be reminded of the old but not forgotten bonds between Appalachia and the British Isles.

Recording Review Of Spain In My Heart: Songs Of The Spanish Civil War, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Spain in My Heart: Songs of the Spanish Civil War. 2014. Written and compiled by Jürgen Schebera. Bear Family Records, book, CDs (7), DVD, BCD 16093.

Old Time And Bluegrass: Two Main Strains Of Music Along The Crooked Road, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: Visitors to the Crooked Road and the Mountains of Music Homecoming will hear both old time and bluegrass music, though the difference between the two is sometimes unclear.

In The Deep Heart’S Core: A Mystic Cabaret By Joseph Sobol, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

A cycle of songs and spoken pieces from the verses and essays of Ireland's master poet, W. B. Yeats, In the Deep Heart’s Core is a stunning evening of musical theatre. The Chicago Tribune called it "A joy--poetry to the ears, alternately tender and rousing." Featuring Joseph Sobol and original cast member Kathy Cowan. Performers include Lee Bidgood, Dominic Aquilino, Clara Ray Burrus, and Robbie Link.

Bill Monroe And Czech Bluegrassers: Imagination And The Production Of Place In Music, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Journal Summary: Bluegrass and Old Time Country Music: Buried Roots is a collection of articles by noted country music scholars Wayne Daniel, James Akenson, Gregory Hansen and Lee Bidgood. This is a special publication of the International Country Music Journal, an extension of the International Country Music Conference held annually at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Blind Alfred Reed: Appalachian Visionary, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: An unpublished song by Blind Alfred Reed, transcribed by Reed’s granddaughter Delores Crawford.

Recording Review Of Parchman Farm: Photographs And Field Recordings, 1947-55, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Review of Parchman Farm: Photographs and Field Recordings, 1947-55

The 1927 Bristol Sessions And Ralph Peer: A Myth And A Legend Losing Luster In The Cold Light Of Recent Scholarship, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: The so-called 1927 Bristol sessions—the recording sessions conducted in Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia, during July-August 1927 by A&R (Artists & Repertoire) producer Ralph Peer and his employer, the Victor Talking Machine Company—garnered relatively little attention until the 1970s. At that point, a few scholars (notably, music historians Charles K. Wolfe, Bill C. Malone, Tony Russell, and Nolan Porterfield) and some serious music fans began to view this long-ago event in a small Appalachian city as one of the most important recording sessions of all time.

Czech Bluegrass In Play, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Drawing from scholarship on play, ritual, and performance, I propose that Czech bluegrass thrives – as does my fieldwork – in a state of in-betweenness, in a territory that is between work, play, here and there, self and other. Being comfortable with this kind of in-between state is important for fieldwork, and for music-making – play, I find, is both a central activity and metaphor in both. The bluegrass play I discuss in this essay can become a response to the encroachment of Americanization in economic and cultural globalization, but also a way of being “Americanist” – and entirely Czech.

Review Of The Original Carolina Chocolate Drops: Giddons, Rhiannon. 2015. Tomorrow Is My Turn; Flemons, Dom. 2015. Prospect Hill; And Robinson, Justin. 2012. Bones For Tinder, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson met at the Black Banjo Gathering at Appalachian State University in 2005. Inspired by this meeting in Appalachia, the trio worked to connect the legacy of Cumberland Plateau fiddler Howard Armstrong (of the 1920s band the Tennessee Chocolate Drops) with musical material they learned from their mentor, North Carolina Piedmont fiddler Joe Thompson. As the Carolina Chocolate Drops (CCD), these musicians explored a variety of black string band traditions.

Book Review Of Robert Morgan's Nonfiction Books, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Robert Morgan's Nonfiction Books

Collaboration, Fieldwork, And Film, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: I never imagined that I would help produce a documentary film based on my ethnographic fieldwork. Meeting documentary filmmaker Shara Lange during new faculty orientation at the university where we were both newly hired eventually led to our film Banjo Romantika (2013)—a full-length feature based on my research on bluegrass music in the Czech Republic, in which I play a key role as writer, producer, and on-screen character. Taking part in this film project has led me to consider how film enriches relationships with field colleagues, providing new opportunities for teaching and learning. I find that collaborations like ours …

Recording Review Of Alexis Zoumbas: A Lament For Epirus, 1926-1928 And Five Days Married & Other Laments: Song And Dance From Northern Greece, 1928-1958, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Review of Alexis Zoumbas: A Lament for Epirus, 1926-1928 and Five Days Married & Other Laments: Song and Dance from Northern Greece, 1928-1958

Book Review Of 'Exploring American Folk Music, Ethnic, Grassroots, And Regional Traditions In The U.S.’ By Kip Lornell, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Review of ‘Exploring American Folk Music, Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions in the U.S.’ by Kip Lornell

Book Review Of Hank Reineke: Arlo Guthrie: The Warner Reprise Years, Ted Olson

ETSU Faculty Works

Arlo Guthrie: The Warner/Reprise Years. By Hank Reineke. (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2012. Pp. xix + 327, series editor's foreword, preface, acknowledgments, discography, bibliography, index, 11 photographs, three illustrations.)