The Doyen of Dixie: A Survey of the Banjo Stylings of Uncle Dave Macon

David Harrison Macon (1870-1952) is often memorialized for his showmanship rather than his banjo playing. To compartmentalize such a significant American musician yields a wide gap within scholarship about Macon, country music history and the banjo. Macon’s banjo playing, documented through over two-hundred and fifty recordings made between the 1920s and 1950s, represents an array of cultures, eras, ethnicities, and styles all preserved in the repertoire of one of the most prolific country musicians of the 20th century. This study reveals Macon’s playing by considering such factors as influences that preceded his professional tenure, identifying elements within his playing from specific stylistic origins, and by technically notating selections from Macon’s canon that represent those influences. To understand the instrumental playing of one of early country music’s most important figures broadens understanding of banjo influences from the nineteenth century which laid the foundation for the instrument’s renaissance in the twentieth century

The Broad(er) Reach of Upper East Tennessee Fiddling

This session will present new research on the reach of upper East Tennessee fiddling throughout southwest Virginia, and particularly in Western North Carolina. We will show new connections between East Tennessee fiddlers JD Harris, Osey Helton, and others, and well-known fiddlers thought to represent the western North Carolina fiddling style. We will also present two previously unknown 78rpm recordings by JD Harris that help broaden our understanding of his particular approach to the instrument

Tennessee State Parks Ranger Roundtable

Since its creation in 1937, rangers in the Tennessee State Park system have worked to fulfill it’s mission: “To preserve and protect, in perpetuity, unique examples of natural, cultural, and scenic areas and provide a variety of safe, quality, outdoor experiences through a well-planned and professionally managed system of state parks.” This roundtable addresses a primary question: How does Tennessee State Parks\u27 fulfillment of the mission statement affect their Appalachian communities? Featured here are Park Rangers from Roan Mountain State Park, Rocky Fork State Park, Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park, and Fort Loudon State Historic Park. Drawing upon their experiences from East Tennessee State Parks situated in Southern Appalachia, the park rangers will discuss issues of natural resource management and cultural and historic interpretation specific to their parks and broader regional communities. In so doing, the discussion will consider the consequences and problems of natural resource management, such as tree destruction by the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid and Emerald Ash Borer, exotic invasive plant species, water quality, wildlife habitat, and climate change. Equally important, cultural interpretation of local history, music, community engagement, education, and tourism speak to the broader issues of cultural resource management by state parks in Appalachia. Finally, the ways in which interpretation of park resources, local history, and cultural resources influence others\u27 definitions, ideas, and identities associated with Appalachia will be considered

Appalachian Studies Anachronisms: A Roundtable Discussion

Since its inception in the 1970s, Appalachian Studies scholars and activists have worked to mediate, and at times rebuke, the region’s romanticized and stereotyped characterizations. And yet the very concept of a field of Appalachian studies inherently argues for an exclusivity and uniqueness that easily reinforces those romanticized notions. As this field of study enters its fifth decade, voices across this discipline are calling for recognition of Appalachia’s politically, economically and ethnically diverse histories, advocating for the field to continue to develop an interdisciplinary identity. Our question is whether “Appalachia” is a term under which these histories can truly be recognized, or whether the term itself can only inherently peripheralize and obscure these realities. To explore this question a roundtable hosted by ETSU Appalachian Studies graduate students will briefly present 8 themes or topics that have been historically characterized as unique to Appalachia. Participants will then discuss how these themes characterize the region, obscure its history, and/or can be applied to other national or global experiences. In the introduction to the collection Studying Appalachian Studies (2015), Chad Berry, Phillip Obermiller and Shaunna Scott state, “It is not useful to think of the Appalachian region as exceptional and distinctive but, rather, to scrutinize its similarity and connection to other places…charting a middle course between an overgeneralized universalism and an exclusionary individualism…is clearly no easy task.” This conversation will help explore the challenges and strengths of charting that middle course, and raise questions about the many paths the field can take at its next stage of evolution