Rather Surprising Visit with a 92-year old Mormon Lady

[_angsty]

You have my dream job, angsty.

Also, I think I know a few skitzo-termite-bastards, myself.

I know! I asked her how he got to be called that, and she said "He just won't die. I'd have to hire a professional to get rid of him. The other two labels need no explanation".

[_sock puppet]

You have my dream job, angsty.

Also, I think I know a few skitzo-termite-bastards, myself.

Hey, easy there on the personal attack, Blixa. I may be a termite-bastard, but a skitzo one?

[_Quasimodo]

Love the story, angsty! Post more details when you can.

I met a lady on a visit to England when I was twelve. She was the next door neighbor to my cousin and nearly 100. My cousin visited her every day to make sure she was OK and dragged me along with her one day .

She was nearly bald and her eyebrows had grown long and covered her eyelids... scary looking. The last place I wanted to be when I was twelve.

When she heard I was visiting from the states (she was mentally quite sharp) she told me about living in Wyoming as a young girl and going with her father to visit the Cheyenne when they still lived in tepees. Riveting.

I wish I could go back. I would have a thousand questions.

[_huckelberry]

"Part of my job includes work as a roving folklorist of sorts, conducting recorded interviews and collecting images and folk music recordings for our state archives. I have recently been involved in a long-term project documenting the lives of the descendants of a particularly-important folk musician of the Cumberland plateau area"

Angsty, I do not want to take away from your picture of the 92 year old Mormon. Still I cannot stop my curiosity. I thought the folk song collecting back there sort of wound up by 1950. Its a famously rich area for that but who are you recording now? Or what sort of research is still possible?. There is something particularly American folk about a mixture of Cumberland plateau and Salt Lake City.

Forgive me if I am missing the obvious. North Carolina is a long way from my Pacific Northwest.

[_angsty]

"Part of my job includes work as a roving folklorist of sorts, conducting recorded interviews and collecting images and folk music recordings for our state archives. I have recently been involved in a long-term project documenting the lives of the descendants of a particularly-important folk musician of the Cumberland plateau area"

Angsty, I do not want to take away from your picture of the 92 year old Mormon. Still I cannot stop my curiosity. I thought the folk song collecting back there sort of wound up by 1950. Its a famously rich area for that but who are you recording now? Or what sort of research is still possible?. There is something particularly American folk about a mixture of Cumberland plateau and Salt Lake City.

Forgive me if I am missing the obvious. North Carolina is a long way from my Pacific Northwest.

Without getting into a lengthy rant, there's an established history of academics seeking out exponents of rural southern culture, objectifying, commodifying and evaluating it using outsider standards. What got preserved was what they thought was worth preserving, and what served their purposes. There are many sticky issues and common misconceptions that have come out of those efforts.

That being said, the project I'm involved with is sponsored by the state, and supported by the communities here (TN). Our goal is to present an ongoing, more-honest and comprehensive view of the musical heritage of this region. We view musical heritage as something ongoing and worthy of being preserved for its own sake, and not just becuase outsiders view it as something worthy and unique.

There are still families who have passed down traditional music through generations. Not all bearers of such traditions were documented by Northern folklorists. I've heard numerous stories of instances where a family felt exploited by such efforts and when other people in the area were asked to share songs and tunes, they refused, because they were (rightly) suspicious based on the experiences of other people in the community. My boss has maintained relations with a number of such families over the past forty years or so. We've been working with them to preserve and present their family's musical heritage on their own terms in a way that will honor it as something unique and valuable to the entire community.

I record a lot of songs, but also instrumental music, and interviews that give context. Some of the families have donated reel and home-cut disc recordings that were made back in the day, and we work with them to digitize the analog masters so that they can be part of the archives.

Personally, I think every community ought to have projects like this going on. It might help change and improve our popular cultural ideas about what is valuable musically-speaking. It's too bad that so many people outsource their musical experiences to money-making machines. Not that there isn't something great there at times, but it's a piss poor substitute for local culture and an immediate, personal connection. Okay, I'll quit ranting now. Lol. I just can't help myself.

Also (not a rant), while this lady is Mormon, it is definitely her own brand of Mormonism. Mormon culture seems to have stayed at church, so-to-speak. She would probably be bothered by the idea that she might be seen as representing a mixture of Cumberland Plateau and Salt Lake City. She doesn't give a rat's ass about Utah-- that isn't what the church is to her. She is all Cumberland Plateau, all the time, and the church, to her, is the Book of Mormon, the building in town, and her friend the Bishop who has visited monthly for twenty years.

[_huckelberry]

"personally, I think every community ought to have projects like this going on. It might help change and improve our popular cultural ideas about what is valuable musically-speaking."

Thank you for the reply Angsty. Though to me a musical tradition for every community seems a bit out of reach. Here in the Pacific Northwest non native settlement is recent enough that there is little community music tradition. Best possibility I can think of is Seattle area, Wailers, Sonics, Spanish Castle magic for Hendrix. It is all imported mix. Salt lake mixed with Cumberland would be natural. I realize on the other side of the continent mix patterns are different. I am not suprised you say your friend would not care for Salt Lake.

I am aware that study of folk music traditions has been something of a theoretic and sometimes political foot ball. Hope your current study goes well, and sees anew..

[_angsty]

Though to me a musical tradition for every community seems a bit out of reach. Here in the Pacific Northwest non native settlement is recent enough that there is little community music tradition.

Every musical tradition started somewhere, from influences that originated somewhere else. Every style was new at some point. Every tradition was new at some point. I think you might be surprised at the amount of traditional music that gets played in communities in Seattle. I know there's already a big Irish scene there. Portland has a fantastic Irish scene for music and dance as well. If you know how to look for it, you'll start seeing it all over the place.

In case it isn't evident already, my #1 soapbox is labeled "Let us reclaim our musical birthright, which has been temporarily interrupted by commercial influences and interests!" People come up to me on a regular basis and say things like "I've always wanted to play the fiddle, but I just wasn't born into a musical family" and it saddens me deeply to think that there's this pervasive idea that we have to be born into a specific situation to be entitled to a rich, personal musical experience.

I was born into a musical family, and my grandfather was my first fiddle teacher, and I grew up in a house where music was something to be made in person by friends and family. I could say a lot of truthful things that would make it sound like I had some exceptional musical heritage over and above my classmates at school who were just taking lessons there, or an adult learner who decides to find a private tutor and learn to fiddle out of personal interest. There's a way to look at it in which that is completely true. But, it is also true that my grandfather died when I was a teenager and while he got me started, and certainly gifted me with the idea that musical experience was mine for the taking, most of my musical development took place outside that family setting in much more ordinary and readily-accessible ways (I studied with teachers whose fiddling I liked). And, I'm not a typical example of the level of musicianship in my family-- I'm the only one who decided to pursue music as a profession.

I think it's important not to falsely idealize and romanticize folk music in a way that makes it inaccessible. I think it's also important to realize that sometimes people who are presenting a certain view of what folk music is and should be have marketing interests that are served by a less-inclusive, less-honest view of how these traditions have evolved and continue to evolve. Folk music traditions are going on everywhere, but we won't see them if we think they have to look a particular way or have exclusive credentials.

Salt lake mixed with Cumberland would be natural.

I guess I'm not sure what you mean by this. The Mountain West and the Mountain South are very different culturally. That would be expected based on geographic isolation and also the lack of substantial long-term interaction between communities in both places. By contrast, there have been sustained interactions between communities in the Mountain South and communities in Ohio (where I was born), Indiana, and Iowa, and even New Jersey, where families and individuals have migrated back and forth based on work opportunities, so we would expect more cultural similarities between the regions where they have influenced each other more substantially, intermarried, etc.

Another thing that causes me to be skeptical of the idea that this region and SLC are a natural fit is the degree to which the LDS church is still seen as an outside, non-Christian, cultic organization here. The LDS church is probably the element of Utah culture most prominent outside of Utah. I would expect activity rates and community integration to be substantially higher if there were a special fit between cultures-- and I just don't see that. Activity rates are abysmal, and missionary work isn't exactly booming-- never has been. This great lady, is a rare exception and a rebel-- someone who is proud to identify as a Mormon although she does it her own way, completely rejecting the the prominent mores we've come to associate with a Mormonism. She absolutely loves that her association with the church and identity as a Mormon has rankled her family and friends-- gets a charge out of it. Her rebellion would be meaningless if she weren't going against an existing consensus that the LDS church is not acceptable in the first place.

[_huckelberry]

skeptical of the idea that this region and Salt Lake City are a natural fit is the degree to which the LDS church is still seen as an outside, non-Christian, cultic organization here. The LDS church is probably the element of Utah culture most prominent outside of Utah. I would expect activity rates and community integration to be substantially higher if there were a special fit between cultures-- and I just don't see that. Activity rates are abysmal, and missionary work isn't exactly booming-- never has been. This great lady, is a rare exception and a rebel-- someone who is proud to identify as a Mormon although she does it her own way, completely rejecting the the prominent mores we've come to associate with a Mormonism. She absolutely loves that her association with the church and identity as a Mormon has rankled her family and friends-- gets a charge out of it. Her rebellion would be meaningless if she weren't going against an existing consensus that the LDS church is not acceptable in the first place.

Angsty, I may have layer too many ironic images together making it difficult to follow. I thought the combination of Cumberland and Salt Lake an irregular combination which would not be likely. I was thinking of the relatively mixed culture of the Pacific Northwest where all things are imported and mixed together not entirely naturally. Sure there is interest in folk music. A large amount transmitted through sources like blue grass or other sources from your area. After all I can make folk music, song Cumberland gap courtesy of Alan Lomax.

perhaps you are hoping encouragement for all the streams of music made by people directly for other people locally instead famous recordings. I think that is a valuable and sometimes threatened treasure.

In order to keep this subject connected to Mormon studies, It is interesting to consider that there is a bit of cultural protest or independence common in Mormons. that is not an unattractive dimension. At the same time it is so oddly mixed with cultural conformity and conservatism most of the time. isn't conservatism sometimes a protest and rejection of dominant culture?

[_ludwigm]

Very old ladies who still have all their marbles are some of the best company I know.

True, true. I love how they just don't give a damn about conforming to the expectations of other people. It gives me courage.

[#img] http://wumocomicstrip.com/img/strip/-WM ... -12-03.gif[#/img]

[_Kishkumen]

And I realize that's what [sic] is for-- we've adopted her spelling around work these days, so I forget.

Sorry, angsty. Had I thought about it for another moment, I probably would have concluded that you had adopted her preferred spelling. Great story, again. Thanks so much for sharing it with us!