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- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 1 Mar 2010.
Myers horses brought out of Cades Cove for final time
- [S4] Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), 29 Mar 2009.
When the first Europeans settled the Smoky Mountains in the early to mid 1800s, they brought with them an affinity for hard work, frugal living, and, in keeping with their Scots-Irish heritage, a love of music.
Traveling westward through the Piedmont region of North Carolina to the mountains, they packed only the essentials. Most families could afford a tin whistle or a Jew's harp, while others were fortunate enough to own a fiddle.
The banjo, an instrument of West African origin, would soon be added to the mix, but the guitar wouldn't appear as a backup instrument until the 1920s.
Music was woven into the fabric of daily life. In this sense, the region that would become Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Cocke, Sevier and Blount counties on the Tennessee side; Swain and Haywood counties on the North Carolina side - was no different than the Southern Appalachians as a whole.
"Everyone made music," said Bradley Reeves, co-director of Tennessee Archive of Moving Images and Sound, located in the East Tennessee History Center. "That's what they did back then. There were few radios in homes. It was part of everyday life."
Congress authorized the park in 1934. It was the golden age of old-time music, a time when radio ruled supreme, and record companies were tapping into the rich vein of homegrown musical talent across the South.
In 1929 and 1930 Brunswick Records conducted a series of recording sessions at the St. James Hotel, in downtown Knoxville. People from miles around responded to the newspaper ads - not just old-time bands, but jazz and ragtime musicians, too.
Union County was a hotbed of talent in the 1920s and 1930s, as were the East Tennessee towns of LaFollette, Oliver Springs, Clinton and Lake City. The Smoky Mountains undoubtedly were blessed with fine musicians, but few of them ventured outside their communities to make records.
"In those early recordings we hear people from all around Knoxville, but there's nothing from the Smokies," Reeves said. "Isolation may have had something to do with it. I don't think people from that area got the Knoxville News Sentinel, which advertised the recording sessions. Personally, I feel that a lot of folks that made music stayed at home."
Reeves said performers from Knoxville often traveled to the Smokies during the 1920s through the 1950s to perform at the Wonderland Hotel, in the Elkmont community. Most were jazz orchestras, such as Maynard Baird and His Southern Serenaders, and the Fred Murff Orchestra.
In the absence of old recordings, how do we familiarize ourselves with the musical landscape of the Smokies prior to the park?
We talk to those who lived there.
Glenn Cardwell grew up in the Greenbrier community on the Tennessee side of the Smokies between Cosby and Gatlinburg. He's now 78, and the mayor of Pittman Center, a small community located just outside the park between Cosby and Gatlinburg.
Cardwell's father, Bill Cardwell, played fiddle, banjo, mandolin, Jew's harp, harmonica and piano. Like many mountain musicians of his day, he built his own banjos by stretching a groundhog hide over a wooden hoop.
There were 11 people in Cardwell's the family, and everybody either sang or played an instrument.
"Our house was the gathering place for music," Cardwell said. "Singing was important. Church music was dominant because people would learn those songs and bring them home. At the end of the day, it was nothing to be sitting on the front porch, singing those church ballads."
Cardwell remembers radios coming into vogue in the early 1920s.
"I grew up on the Carter Family and the Grand Old Opry," he said. "To power the radio, we had to disconnect the car battery and bring it in the house."
Ballads were important - not just traditional ballads like "Barbara Allen," but ballads that told stories, ballads made up on the spot to commemorate an incident drawn from daily life.
And then, there was the deep divide between the secular and the sacred.
"The tragedy was, alcohol got mixed in with the entertainment, and the church had something to preach on," Cardwell said. "Square dances were a big thing. We called them Saturday afternoon frolics. We had dances at our house, but my father never permitted alcohol."
Verna Myers was born in Cades Cove and raised there until she turned 3 years old, in 1936. Her ancestors include some of the Cove's original settlers, families like the Tiptons and the Burchfields.
At age 17 Myers returned to the Cove with her husband, Hugh Myers, and together they ran Cades Cove Riding Stables for 43 years.
Myers had an uncle named Ollie Myers who was blind, and could play any instrument that fell into his hands. He spent two years at the Nashville School for the Blind, where he refined his skills at playing the fiddle, guitar, banjo, harmonica, autoharp, organ and piano.
"Back in the mountains, just about everybody knew how to play something," Myers said. "They had extra time back then. On Saturday nights, they'd go to each other's houses and make music and sing. There were no movies or television, so they'd have singings.
"It was just a good time. Everybody had a good time."
Morgan Simmons may be reached at 865-342-6321.
- [S25] Smith Mortuary Company, www.smithmortuary.com, 24 May 2010.
Harley Leon Burchfield obituary
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 4 Feb 2013.
Former residents share experiences of life in Cades Cove
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
name: Vernie Burchfield
titles & terms:
event: Marriage
event date: 30 Jul 1927
event place: Blount, Tennessee, United States
age: 19
estimated birth year: 1908
father:
father's titles & terms:
mother:
mother's titles & terms:
spouse: Nora Mae Myers
spouse's titles & terms:
spouse's age: 19
spouse's estimated birth year: 1908
spouse's father:
spouse's father's titles & terms:
spouse's mother:
spouse's mother's titles & terms:
reference number:
film number: 2073553
digital folder number: 004646462
image number: 00258
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
name: Hugh Lee Myers
titles & terms:
event: Marriage
event date: 17 Dec 1949
event place: Blount, Tennessee, United States
age:
estimated birth year:
father:
father's titles & terms:
mother:
mother's titles & terms:
spouse: Verna Lee Birchfield
spouse's titles & terms:
spouse's age:
spouse's estimated birth year:
spouse's father:
spouse's father's titles & terms:
spouse's mother:
spouse's mother's titles & terms:
reference number: see next entry
film number: 2073868
digital folder number: 004646470
image number: 02926
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