ALLEGHANY MUSIC BY LUCAS PASLEY

lucas pasley talks at library - 27may10



Tonight was the 2nd part of Lucas Pasley's 2-part talk on old-time mountain music specific to this county, this region. He held my attention every word. He held the whole audience's attention as closely as he held mine. His years of teaching experience gave him the right voice for a room that size with that many people, about the size of a class. I appreciated that he disclaimed for himself as not a folklorist. He's written no books, has no degrees in anything to do with mountain music. I felt like that ran his credibility up a notch or 2. He's talking as a mountain fiddler who has learned from other mountain fiddlers, not as a scholar who read books about it.



He told about the sudden interest around 1750 in fiddle music. Before, violins were made by serious artisans. Violins were expensive. The factory-made violin made them available to the working people where they became fiddles. Lucas addressed the likelihood that young men took up the fiddle to attract babes. It motivates rock musicians. He talked about the excitement of the times, finding Cumberland Gap, the passage through the mountains, otherwise difficult to cross. He talked about how old time music varies from region to region throughout the Southern mountains. He talked of the blues influence on old-time, pointing out the sudden run of fiddle tunes called blues; Lee Highway Blues, White House Blues, Lonesome Road Blues. Then he played on the fiddle Florida Blues.



The audience was an interesting mix of people, like what you see at the Blue Ridge Music Center concerts on the Parkway. There, you see about half mountain people and half people from other places. I've found a lot of audiences at music shows are about half and half, like the local population now. Tonight I saw several people from the mountains. And several who had lived here a long time, many who were new, curious about mountain music. I'd say about everyone there went away from it believing they understood something about the music. I found it predictable that no one was there from the newspaper. It didn't bleed, so it sure as fire doesn't lead. It didn't have anything to do with the hospital or the schools. It was a significant moment in the history of the county, as was Part 1 that Lucas presented last month. The county is beginning to take an interest in itself, now that the old ways are gone. The music continues into our time. It didn't bleed, so it's not news. You can bet the demolition derby was noticed by the local paper. If someone was actually there from the paper, I apologize in advance for my rant. If not, I don't apologize.



It was a very comfortable crowd in that everyone there was wanting to hear what Lucas had to say. The first talk, no word was around much, nobody much knew what it would be. That time had been the first one to advertise it to everyone who had been there. The library had put a visible ad in the paper this week telling about the talk. I take it for a marvelous event that we have in the county a fiddler in the tradition who has studied the styles of different fiddlers from our county and played old-time fiddle tunes in their different styles. Lucas's talks are significant in the county's history because they are flashing arrows pointing to this county's musical heritage that is significant and quite remarkable. It seemed like the varieties of people gathered to hear Lucas talk were some with historical interest, some with musical interest, some with cultural interest, to hear about the new music that was the exciting new music of the first couple centuries of our country, meaning old-time was the pop music before electricity. Now it's roots music.



Lucas explained how the Southern style of fiddling had strong influence from black ways of playing, even Indian ways of playing, and noting as an aside that slavery and racism were not all that was going on in the South. Northern old-time music did not have the black influence. It's the mix of anlgo music with black music that sets Southern music apart. Right on up to and through the Allman Brothers, Skynnard, Marshall Tucker Band, REM. I don't keep up with what's going on in rock any more, so I can't say anything about what Southern rock is about now except Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle. It's changing too fast and there's too much going on. It's like rock is in a melting pot now, everything that's ever been done in rock heretofore thrown in a blender and coming out in new, different ways, some the same as before, some new. Too many too fast. Kids who want to be rock stars really bad. I like about now in pop music that everything goes. Same as in international art. Everything goes. Boiling, boiling. All the parts that were in place in the traditions of the world swirling around in the boiling mass of parts. The heat turns down and the boiling ceases, the parts settle, this time in a whole new arrangement.



It was a happy crowd to be in this evening. We were however many different individuals, entirely different world views from one to the next, different experiences altogether, varying degrees of familiarity with mountain culture, an interesting spectrum of people. Lucas's grandmother, his dad, his wife, his 3 kids, his aunts, family support was there to hear him like everybody else. I do believe everybody got something out of it they regard important. Different points for different people, but I felt like everyone was enjoying it as much as I was, each for their own reasons. Lucas gave us a lot to digest. I certainly came away with some insights of my own. When the talk was over, it seemed like the audience swarmed around Lucas, people talking with people next to them, the whole place in instantaneous conversation about what they'd just heard. It was like everyone was inspired and light hearted. Lucas brought old-time music to life tonight, opening up new ways to see it besides just "roots" music. He brought it home and he really did bring it to life for the people present. Like his first talk of the 2, I felt like this one, too, is a moment in the county's history worthy of notice.

ALLEGHANY MUSIC

mr pasley--fiddle made by floyd reeves



The Library puts on a variety of programs just about every week. Tonight's program was from the Hometown & Heritage Series, Traditional Music of Alleghany County, NC,' a presentation by Lucas Pasley. I feel like Time Magazine writing half a paragraph of credentials to the name mentioned in an article to focus on expertise. Wouldn't want to leave out they went to Harvard. Not that Lucas did. No, he's not a Harvard graduate, nor was meant to be. He parcels out his life in coffee spoons, roasts beans, grinds them, makes exotic coffees available to his friends and neighbors and the internet, picks old-time banjo, guitar, bass and fiddle. He's an old-time mountain musician with a strong musical heritage on his Brooks side. Lucas teaches English at the high school, is known as Mr Pasley, wears a sport coat, is well liked by the kids because he liked them first. He's a teacher who respects each of the kids as a unique individual and they respect him in turn. Times I've mentioned to someone in high school or recently out that I know Mr Pasley, they always light up. I feel good for Lucas, because it tells me he has become what he wants to be, a teacher who makes a difference.



The library's space for the event this evening was packed with audience. I'm not one to guesitmate crowd sizes. The place was full. I found it curious the number of people there fit the size of the place perfectly. Like there's always a parking spot at the Post Office. Quilts were hanging all around the wall. The quilters were showing this month. Perfect for spirit to go with the subject of Lucas's presentation and acoustics. Made a good sound box. Lucas's music and the music he talked about worked well with the spirit in the quilts around the walls, like the quilts illustrated the music and the music illustrated the quilts. The traditional music of these mountains, specific to Alleghany County, the musicians of the county Lucas did not hesitate to give their due as exceptional musicians not to be dismissed for any reason, but to be listened to and appreciated.



Lucas said of the musical heritage of this county that it is not less than any of the counties around us. It's that the musicians of this county were not interested in recording. I see the musicians of this county purists in their art form. It's about having a good time making music together, playing for a dance, making music. It was all about the music. It was not about being a star, having a big name, making money. It was only about the music. There wasn't any money in old-time music. Nobody had any money to pay the musicians. Old-time music was taken very seriously musically in its time and is now.



To illustrate Lucas's talk about the music, he used the fiddle and the banjo to illustrate the styles of the different musicians. He has studied the styles of the various fiddlers, like Hus Caudill, Joe Caudill, Howard Joines, Guy Brooks, Lawn Brooks and T-Model Mack Brooks. Lucas can play the banjo as well as he plays fiddle. He played Bertie Dickens style Cindy. Lucas talked about these people individually as people who lived among us, some as relatives to many present. He talked much about the tradition of the music as it expressed here in individual styles particular to our county. He made a small leaflet for the show that got a great deal of information on a limited space and pictures of the musicians he talked about and played music like.



Lucas amazes me all the time with his talent not just playing old-time music, but he's doing what he believes needs doing and nobody else is doing it, making it his place to step forward and get it done. I was thinking Lucas's presentation would be as well received at every community center in the county as in the library in Sparta. And maybe not. Those things cannot be known in advance in Alleghany County. This county is so interesting in its own particular ways that a lot of people don't get, because anything that draws attention to itself falls flat here. It seems a shame we don't have at least a few LPs of Howard Joines and his band, Fred Roupe's Swampgrass, and Jr Maxwell's Green Mountain Boys. And these are just Pine Swamp / Whitehead bands.



The tradition in Alleghany County is that you don't hold yourself higher up than the next man, and you don't be calling attention to yourself. This is a strict code and not necessarily reprehensible. I'd guess it's a fair chance it came from the time when all the men carried guns. Diplomacy. Treat everyone you meet with respect, because if you don't the consequences will likely be serious. This code of not calling attention to yourself applies on stage for musicians, too. In the old way, the musicians stood still. They were vessels the music flowed through. It wasn't something to be paid for. It was a gift, a talent. Like in the old-time preaching, the preachers weren't paid, because what is freely received must be freely passed on. That old-time preaching and church singing are hand-in-hand with old-time music, though the fiddle music at square dances was considered by the church people as the devil's music. I think I heard something like that in the late 50s about rock & roll.



In an existing video of Jr's band, The Green Mountain Boys, the mandolin player, Bill Caudill, is bobbing about while he's playing the mandolin like he's been watching television, and Jr barked at him, "Stand still, boy." Bill straightened right up and it was awhile before he started moving again. Bill was from Wilkesboro, but lived away someplace when he was young. He came to mountain music with the urge that came in among white people with the 50s to flow with the music, and for musicians to bob up and down or move about to the music they're making. Standing still was new to him.



Lucas is giving another talk, Thursday, May 27 at the library, part 2 of his talk today, more musicians. It's quite a feat of him to teach himself to play a song in the style of these given musicians. I felt the whole time that this was an historic moment in Alleghany County. It belongs on calendars in the future of great moments in the county's history.