Prologue

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
David Menconi
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Musical History

This sets the scene for the story of North Carolina music, with the author’s introduction to the state’s music via the 1952 compilation “Anthology of American Folk Music.” Through vignettes and interviews with an array of figures, historical as well as contemporary, it sets the stage for a narrative of musical history with a through-line of underdog working-class populism. Old-time legend Alice Gerrard, Piedmont blues guitarist Etta Baker, pianist Ben Folds, Kruger Brothers Uwe Kruger, and Hiss Golden Messenger leader M.C. Taylor all figure prominently.

Kaye Gibbons: Tough Women in a Rough South

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Godwin
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Foster Home ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Sleeping Pills ◽  
Farming Community ◽  
Written Word

This chapter discusses Kaye Gibbons's work, which portrays wise and hardworking women whose gumption improves the lot of the suffering lower class. Born Bertha Kaye Batts on May 5, 1960, Kaye Gibbons grew up in a Nash County, North Carolina, farming community named Bend of the River. When Gibbons was ten, her mother committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills; her father drank himself to death soon thereafter. Orphaned at age twelve, Gibbons lived briefly with an aunt and then in a foster home, before moving in with her married older brother. Gibbons learned early to love the written word, a key to her survival. Her first novel, Ellen Foster, was published in 1987, and its sequel, The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster, in 2006. Gibbons's second novel, A Virtuous Woman (1989), features a character whose inner conflict highlights the tension between the Rough South and the working-class South her family represents. Gibbons's other novels include A Cure for Dreams (1991) and Charms for the Easy Life (1993).

Linthead Pop

2020 ◽  
pp. 10-25
Author(s):  
David Menconi
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Country Music ◽  
The North ◽  
North Carolina Piedmont ◽  
Music Hall ◽  
Music Recording ◽  
Hall Of Fame

Charles Cleveland “Charlie” Poole was a banjo-playing mill laborer who lived an eventful life before passing at age 39 from one alcohol binge too many. He was arguably the most important musician to emerge from the stringbands populating mill towns across the North Carolina Piedmont -- a working-class hero as well as an important crossroads figure in the 1920s evolution of old-time music into what became bluegrass and country music, recording songs that remain bluegrass-festival standards to this day. And yet he has never been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

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