Society and Culture

Virginia Highlands Festival Announces Venue Change

Jay Henderson — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:57:54 +0000

The Virginia Highlands Festival of Abingdon, Virginia, has announced that its popular Arts and Crafts show will have a new venue for 2010, moving from the Barter Green on Main Street to Remsburg Drive downtown. While the Barter Green has some nice sidewalks, it is mostly what the name implies -- green lawn -- and tends to get muddy when the rains come during the Festival. In 2009, the downtown site was limited when the inn next door withdrew its lawn from the event, concentrating the traffic in a smaller area. The move to Remsburg Drive will mean a paved way and closer parking. See details (somewhat inaccurate) in the local newsrag. (The entire Festival isn't moving; there already are numerous venues for the variety of Festival events.)

The Virginia Highlands Festival for 2010 begins on July 24 and continues to August 8.

Backcountry Music -- The Bogtrotters Band

Jay Henderson — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:44:16 +0000

The name "bogtrotter" is an Englishman's ethnic slur against the Irish. One wag's definition: "Slur directed against the Irish, mostly by jealous English bastards." Related to the use of the disparaging "bog Irish" to describe Irish commoners, and alternately rendered as "bog-trotter" or "bog trotter," the name came to America with the Scotch-Irish (along with another such ethnic slur -- "hillbilly"). The Scotch-Irish settlers' fine sense of irony led eventually to the naming of The Bogtrotters Band of Galax, Virginia.

Note: Click on any image for a larger view.

The epicentre of old-timey country music is Galax, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Plateau of Virginia. An independent city located between Carroll and Grayson counties, Galax hosts the grand-daddy of all mountain music events, the Old Fiddler's Convention. This gathering of musicians began in 1935 and in its early years featured one of the great mountain-music bands, The Bogtrotters Band. During the late 1930s and early 1940s more than one hundred examples of the music of the Bogtrotters Band were recorded by John Lomax and Alan Lomax for preservation in the Library of Congress. These recordings are a treasure-trove of old-timey music.

Cedar Bluff Heritage Festival 2009

Jay Henderson — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:00:55 +0000

The town of Cedar Bluff, Virginia, has an annual street fair which draws a good selection of exhibitors, vendors, and fairgoers. The 2009 version went off well, with very sunny weather instead of the scattered showers that had been forecast.

Note: Click on any image for a larger view.

Fairgoers and loiterers in front of the Cedar Bluff Elementary School, which serves as a hub for the festival.

Recalling The Log Cabin Times Of The Southern Piedmont

Jay Henderson — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:36:10 +0000

The following is from my friend Tom Evans, a distant kinsman through Clan Gunn, who hails from the Virginia Piedmont.

My father, sixth of the seven children of his family, was born in July, 1919, in a one-room log cabin on a rented farm near Wentworth in Rockingham County, North Carolina. A later owner of this land burned the cabin in the late 1960s to "get rid of that nuisance." It had stored farm tools for more than 30 observed years, before it was burned, and probably since the Evans family moved out of it.

Backcountry Architecture - - The Craft of Log Cabin Corner Joints

Jay Henderson — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:17:36 +0000

While it is possible to simply stack logs without notching the corners and thus make some sort of enclosure, such structures are neither stable nor durable. Log cabin construction thus requires some sort of notching at the ends of the logs where they are to be stacked to form the corner joints of the "crib."

The Saddle Joint. The Scotch-Irish immigrants learned the craft of log construction from settlers who brought the techniques with them from Sweden and Finland. The Nordic cabin-builders used two very similar methods. The simpler method is the saddle joint, which needed few tools and but a little practice . . .

Log Houses Of Abingdon, Virginia

Jay Henderson — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:26:26 +0000

The Parson Cummings Cabin

Parson Cummings Cabin at Sinking Spring, Abingdon, VirginiaCharles Cummings was minister of the Sinking Springs Presbyterian Church from 1773 until 1792. “Parson” Cummings built this cabin, which was originally located about two miles north of Abingdon on the road now known as U.S. Route 19. The cabin was given to the church by Cummings’ descendants and was moved to its present location at Sinking Spring Cemetery in 1971.

Log Cabins and Stone Buildings

Jay Henderson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:15:19 +0000

David Peery Cabin at Crab Orchard Museum, Tazewell. This is a nice single-crib log cabin with a loft.The early settlers of the Backcountry built cabins, barns, spring-houses, and other structures of the materials at hand - - logs and stone. Foundations, fireplaces, chimneys, and sometimes walls were built from fieldstones and river-rocks. Trees were felled and hewn into logs, planks, and shingles used to construct cabins, sheds, barns, and shops. Because nails and iron hinges were expensive, these structures were made as much as possible without them; a cabin can be built entirely from stone and wood.

Fiddlers' Conventions

Jay Henderson — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:00:13 +0000

click on the picture for "A Fiddler's Convention In Mountain City, Tennessee [1925]"A tradition throughout the Backcountry - - and these days, beyond - - the "fiddlers' convention" is a gathering to celebrate traditional folk ("old time") music. Fiddlers' conventions go back at least a century, and probably grew out of smaller community gatherings where music was played.

How To Pronounce "Appalachia"

Jay Henderson — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:35:03 +0000

The Appalachian Mountains stretch from northeastern Alabama to southern New York. An "extension" called the "Northern Appalachians" runs from southern New York, through New England and into New Brunswick; the New England range is not however characterized by the geology of the ancient Appalachian Basin, which is composed of many layers of sedimentary rocks - - sandstone, shale, and limestone. So the New England range is the Fake Appalachians. Strictly speaking, Appalachia consists of two geological provinces, the Ridge and Valley Province and the Appalachian Highlands or Appalachian Plateau (see map at right).

All of Appalachia was encompassed within the Backcountry of colonial and early American times. The point where my abode is located sits on the hinge line between the Ridge and Valley Province and the Appalachian Highlands.

Backcountry Architecture

Jay Henderson — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:23:36 +0000

Photographs of vintage buildings in the Backcountry

Old Church on Clear Fork Road, Bland County, Virginia