Catch the Spirit of Appalachia
Presents A Dramarazition to the People of Foley, Alabama

Settling the Great Smoky Mountains
Written by Amy Ammons Garza

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Part One—Introduction:

Amy:
STORIES...Grandpa told me stories!   In a cabin high on the mountain I’d sit on the floor at Grandpa’s feet. The warmth of the fire crackling  in the fireplace, the flickering shadows of the lamplight on the wall, the swish of the wind on the tin roof...all this intertwined with the sound of  Grandpa’s voice as it echoed in the quiet of the room.   He told stories about our ancestors who over the mountains...handsome men of the 77th Highlanders Regiment playing handsome music. If you listen you can hear them coming....

            Josh plays bagpipes. Then settles into chair to play the harp                  
            behind Amy & Doreyl’s continuing stories--“The Last Rose of Summer”      

Grandpa told stories of stalking panthers, of front porch music, of people born and people dying.   All his stories brought true life drama to a little girl searching for heroes...heroes she could just reach out and touch....(touches Doreyl’s shoulder)

Doreyl:
And Grandpa was my hero....(she continues with Josh playing the harp.   When she’s finished, she begins to draw, and will continue throughout the hour.)

Amy:
Growing up in the Western North Carolina mountains, my sister, brother and I lived close to the earth...we were best friends.   We had no plumbing, no electricity, and clothes made out of feedsacks.   We roamed the hills, findings groundhogs to play with, waterfalls to slide down, and arrowheads to wonder about... I’d turned arrowheads over and over, imagining what had gone on here in this very spot!   Who had been here before us? What kind of stories did they have....

            (Harp fades out...rattles & drums begin)      

            (Jon Jon Grant, Cherokee stories and dance—approx. 15 minutes)

Amy:
At night in the summer, sitting on the porch at Grandpa’s house, the fireflies would be the only light.   He start telling us about what it was like on  the mountain when they first come to settle there.   How lonesome it was for Grandma.   The only thing that would make her feel better would be to hear familiar ballads from the old country.   The songs would start then...songs like....

            (Emily: "The Mist Covered Mountains of Home")

Amy:
The songs would go on and on.   Then an instrument would be added to the front porch.   A song sung and then a song played.   Floating across the  breeze would be one after another, a song, a melody...the music of those days, long ago....

            (Josh:   "Shannadoah" —Harp)
            (Emily:   "Wild Mountain Thyme")

Amy:
Grandpa would jump in then...and talk about our people who came by covered wagon...they came walking; they came on horseback...to settle in the mountains.   My great grandpaw William Bryson came and settled in Haywood County, near Maggie Valley.   The stories they told would sometimes make the hair stand up on the back of my neck...and they’d sing about it, telling the stories of the old country but this time, it would be...blood red stories....

            (Emily : “The Highwayman Came Riding")

Amy:
The stories and music always lead us back to our Scotch/Irish/Irish culture.   And teaching our young ones to honor and preserve their heritage.  Our Joshua Bulla teaches a lot of children younger than him to do just that.   Shelby Ray Meyer is only 6 years old.   Here he is, assisted by his teacher, Joshua.

            (Shelby Ray:   need name of songs)  

Amy:
Saving our heritage is so important to Catch the Spirit of Appalachia.   Here’s a sample of how some other families are working hard at saving the traditions of our celtic heritage.   The Bravehearts!!!

            (The Bravehearts will dance for approx. 15 minutes)

Amy:
 (Amy will invite everyone back to see the rest of the show in the afternoon...giving a few highlights.)


Part Two

Amy:
STORIES...Grandpa told me stories!   My sister Doreyl, brother David and I grew up in a little cove in the mountains of Western North Carolina,  we lived away from all other children.   With no electricity, no plumbing, no money...we had to be creative.   Doreyl drew a lot....
     
            (Doreyl:   Just a little about drawing in the dirt
              before going to draw)

Amy:
Some nights, my uncle Sterlen would come out of the shadows to visit, coming from Wolf Mountain —always bringing a banjo on his shoulder.   I  remember asking him once how he learned to play the banjo...

            (Amy tells the story “The Banjo hidden in the old hollow log”)
            **(need the banjo player to come up and play with the story)  
 
Amy:
Storytelling...stories saved through the telling, saved through the illustrations, saved through the music...saved through song.  In the mountains we  had to talk loud so our neighbors would hear us...this obviously is why one of our oldest traditional mountain way to sing our lonesome mountain songs is called hollering. Judy, another 7th generation mountain woman, is going to demonstrate that old tradition.

            (Judy:       "Gospel Ship"             —Hollering)
            (Judy continues with her own stories & songs—
            approx. 15 minutes)

Amy:
The canhouse behind our house became the place where we three kids hid away all our treasures.   We played house there; we smoked our rabbit  tobacco there; we played our music there.   It was in the canhouse that we stored our collected instruments that made up our canhouse band!
           
            (Amy:         "The Canhouse Band Story")
            (Judy:           "I'll Fly Away"     Amy plays bucket bass )      
            (Josh:       Play Bagpipes with canhouse band)
            (Audience participates)
               
Amy:
Everything is linked!   We played music...with anything we got our hands on.   What our ancestors has given us was a love of music, a love of family.   It evolved from old world folk music, to Appalachian folk and to country.   In the back woods, mountain gospel became the release from the hard struggle of making a living in the mountains.   Mountain families played mountain music! Here’s the McDowell Family!

            (McDowell Family plays approx. 15 minutes)

Amy:
We Scotch-Irish came from the old country looking for freedom of worship and a new way of life.   For seven generations, my people have survived, and survived well.   We still honor our roots, while at the same time using the stories left for us as the key to unlock our precious heritage.  Strength and survival is ours! It's our Amazing Grace.

            (Josh:     "Amazing Grace"  —Bagpipes)
 

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