Listening to Friends: Poems, Music, and Storytelling

One thing I haven't been doing in the last few months is getting out to hear live music, storytelling, or poetry. There is nothing quite like being there, in the moment, listening and living in the words and music, especially when it is the words and music of friends.

The last few weeks I've been making up for lost time. First was the fiddle concert with Dave Bing and the fiddle class from Cedar Lakes, which I posted about in this blog.

And, as luck would have it, I got to hear Dave again at the local library, presenting a program on West Virginia fiddlers and fiddling. Dave is a multi-instrument musician who makes his own fiddles and travels to Spain and other places teaching workshops and presenting. But lucky for us, he lives in the neighboring county. His presentation at the library was an hour and a half long, and spanned a wide variety of West Virginia old-time fiddlers and fiddling styles. This tune, I believe, is called Bob Wine's Favorite.

I have learned a lot about our state's music and musicians over the years but Dave introduced me to some I'd never heard of before. I really liked his banjo playing too.

You can learn more about Dave and his music from the video The Crooked Tune: An Old-Time Fiddler in a Modern World. You can also hear him playing a few years back at the Wolf Folk Club in Norfolk, England on this clip.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to hear my good friend Ellouise Schoettler present her program, The Hello Girls, at Fairmont State University. Ellouise lives in the suburban DC area and I don't get to see her often, so I was thrilled that she was coming to Fairmont, only 2 1/2 hours away.

Ellouise's presentation explored the story of women operators who were recruited in 1918 by the US Army and sent to France to man switchboards that transmitted messages from the trenches to Army headquarters. Some of these women were very close to the battlefields and went through some harrowing events, and yet on returning to the US were denied their rights as veterans. It's the kind of history often lost, not told in history books or even (yet) in movies, but an important story that needs to be told. Ellouise did a fantastic job of making these women come alive for a full house that included many college students as well as people from town.

Yesterday evening I drove up to Parkersburg for a poetry reading by the Sacred Way Poets, a group based in Parkersburg that drew their name from a street in Marietta, Ohio. I think it fits them well. Poems ranged from thoughts of spring to love, both bitter and sweet, to old memories, Native Americans, holidays, and one of my favorites, The Red Dress of Poetry by Sherrell Wigal, a poem that found its beginnings in Sherrell's mis-reading of a line that actually read "the redress of poetry." But the red dress of poetry--ah, yes. That defines the richness and variety of poetry so well.

Wilma Acree's poem, whose title I cannot remember, warned of falling in love with a man born in the astrological fire signs. I would really like to have a copy of that poem to read again and again. It was a good evening, and has pushed me to get back to writing more poetry, something I've let slide in the past couple of years.

Next week, the poets are bringing the vibrant voice of Amber Decker to Parkersburg, and I plan to be there to hear this outstanding young poet's strong work. This old lady intends to shake the winter dust out of her hair and get out to be inspired by the songs, poems and stories of my talented friends!




Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Where Has the Time Gone? Gardens, Travel, Furniture, Music--That's Where

It's been a whirlwind lately for sure! So many projects, so many things to do now that Spring is officially here.

There's been storytelling too--last week I was in Abingdon, VA, telling stories and giving a workshop for members of the Southwest Virginia Reading Association. We talked and played with stories and had a fantastic time exploring a variety of ways to introduce participation into telling a story. The drive down was beautiful, with trees more leafed out and more flowers in bloom than we have here. We enjoy being in that part of Virginia, part of the Holston River valley--that river was named after an ancestor of my husband, Stephen Holstein or Holston (spelling of the last name varies widely from one family to another), so it almost feels like a visit to an old homeplace.

More storytelling is coming up tomorrow as I travel to Weston, WV to tell stories to seventh grade students. Middle school age children are so interesting to interact with--they're feeling grown up but there's still plenty of little kid in them, enough to keep their outlook fresh and lively. I always like telling stories to this age group. So tomorrow, Appalachian stories and ballads on tap!

At home we've been into all sorts of projects. The early spring garden is all planted; lettuce and onions are almost ready for picking and Larry is ready to head to the mountains to get some ramps. And I am thinking it's time for some sassafras tea, that tasty spring tonic.

 Furniture work has been a priority as several pieces sold recently and we needed some new things to replace them in our booths. Right now we have five projects all at about 75-80% complete, and hope to wrap them up in the next few days. This little chair was a quick fix to go with a desk we have in our Marietta booth. Finding a chair to fit wasn't really easy but we were lucky enough to find two on our way back from southwestern Virginia.

I could not bear to remove the cool vintage vinyl fabric on the chairs, though, so I settled for giving it a good scrubbing (they were black with dirt) and painting the frame to match.

I call these "his and her" projects. Larry has been restoring the Hoosier-style Keystone kitchen cabinet, and I have been painting the china cabinet. I need to finish painting the shelves for mine, and he needs to repair one drawer and then paint both of them and he will be finished. My cabinet did not need much work but the Keystone was a right mess, needing a new bottom and back on the lower cabinet, door repair, much cleaning and sanding and that drawer that needs to be rebuilt. But it's really coming along well, and he's so happy with it.  Here are some before photos of the Keystone:

I am almost finished with the little dressing table I showed in a post a while back. It was blue and kinda rugged:

and now it's Coral Crush (General Finishes paint), with a wash of antique white and some stenciling on the top.

 I still need to paint and re-cover the seat of the bench that goes with this table but I am pretty happy with the way it's coming out. (Those whitish squares you see in the photo above are just mirror reflections on the table top--whew! I thought something weird had happened when I wasn't looking!).

I am at a standstill on the tall chest I've been painting, waiting for Larry and I to get a minute to work together on drilling new holes for some bin-type pulls for the drawers. The old holes will be covered thank goodness. I decided on the pulls AFTER getting the finish on these drawers the way I wanted it. They're pretty wild-looking but it's going to look awesome when it all comes together.

And last, this shelf that was ugly ugly and is now looking pretty pert in General Finishes Brick Red paint. Another coat, then flip it up to paint the top, top-coat it and it will be done. I'm leaving the back in the natural pine wood which looks great. The rest of the wood was not nearly so nice.

Besides projects and storytelling, I've been lucky enough to get out to a couple of good music shows locally.
First was a concert given by fiddle students at nearby Cedar Lakes Conference Center, who were taking a masters class from one of West Virginia's finest fiddlers, Dave Bing.

Then last night, Dave came back to our county for a program on Appalachian music at the library. I am just fascinated at how many tunes, and variations of tunes, he carries around in his head. The fiddles he plays are ones that he builds himself. He doesn't read music, learning his tunes from older fiddlers that he visited over the years, building a repertoire based on old music that, but for people like Dave, would possibly have disappeared by now.

So much going on, and all of it good. There is nothing quite like life in these mountains, with all of its richness, work and variety.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.