Published: May 17, 2009 12:19 am      

Traditional music

Heritage of past passed down by ear

PRICKETTS FORT — A brisk wind whipped around the outbuildings at Pricketts Fort and the heavily wooded hillside across the one-lane road leading to the fort.

Elmer Rich, the oldest and unofficial leader of a stringed sextet gathered beneath a tent protecting them from the threatening rain, closed his eyes as he coaxed the plaintive chords of “Over the Rainbow” from his German-made fiddle.

The rest of the impromptu band — Dan Manka, Pat Harper, Tom Gibson, Ed Robey and Lynette Swiger — came in when they felt comfortable.

All around them were similar groups creating similar music, snatches of “Listen to the Mockingbird” playing off “East Tennessee Blues.”

The sharp twang of the fiddle and plunk of the banjo, mixed with the strum of guitar and dulcimer, floated skyward and meandered throughout the fort grounds. Drifting over the slow-moving river, it bounced off the heavily wooded hillside, giving a free concert to anyone lucky enough to within earshot.

Gathered for the popular Traditional Music Day at the fort, they know each other as musicians, some as friends, but for the most part they were just jamming together in the impromptu style of traditional music.

While some songs may not be as old as the original fort was, the way the musicians played them was straight from the earliest days of West Virginia. Close your eyes and you could be back in the days of the original settlers of the area, the musicians playing their own version of songs years and years old.

“This was music brought over by the early settlers and maybe transformed somewhat by the Appalachian region,” said Melissa May, executive director of the Pricketts Fort Memorial Foundation.

“It was influenced by the type of musical instruments available and molded into a music that is very unique to this area.

“It’s not country and it’s not bluegrass. It’s songs passed down by ear — not written down — from one musician to the next. That gives the younger musicians a chance to learn from the older.”

All she had to do was ask for musicians to play.

“There’s a community of musicians in this area. We put out a call. It was first come, first served. Really, we had more who wanted to perform than we had time slots.”

Traditional Music Day continues to be popular, she said.

“It’s the only time all year that we focus on music. That was an important part of the culture and musicians in this area are appreciative of that.

“That’s what’s unique to traditional music. You just play with who happens to be there.”

While a pleasure to the ears, the event is also (don’t tell anybody) educational.

“It’s my job as director to convey to the visitors the breadth of the culture of this historical time period. Music was an important part as a leisure activity of the time, the way community was built among families, who would get together with music for recreation, weddings, that sort of thing.

“This event is a great example of that tradition, particularly with the informal learning that goes on. The wealth of knowledge of the elderly musicians can be passed on exactly like it was done in the past, perpetuating the music and the way it was learned.”

This is how Joe Coe of Fairmont learned to play the fiddle.

“My dad (Charles) was a great fiddler, so I grew up fiddling.

“But I guess I heard so much fiddling it didn’t take too much to satisfy me. I got tired of hearing it by the time I was 8, so from then to my 30s I didn’t fiddle. And then I picked it up again. It was a different situation.”

And it was a different kind of music, too.

A friend loaned him some recordings of fiddle music and the spark was rekindled.

His dad’s fiddle music was “square dance, hoedowns, jigs, reels and hornpipes,” he said. “It was the same square dance beat, practically all the same.

“This (new music) was a different kind of fiddling. It was more interesting to me than my dad’s music was,” said the former watch repairman, who recently celebrated his 91st birthday,

“Traditional music is folksy, you might say. Lots of times a fiddle tune will have reference to somebody or something in West Virginia. There’s one that we play and most everybody plays, ‘Little Home in West Virginia.’”

And there’s the song about Phoebe Ice.

“My dad used to play a fiddle tune that referenced to a lady in Barrackville by the name of Phoebe Ice,” Coe said. “There are lots of Ice families in the Barrackville area.”

So he decided to investigate, Googling the name on his newly bought computer.

Turns out she’s buried in the Barrackville cemetery, he said.

“I presume she’s the same one, but I can’t pin it down exactly. I think it was in the 1800s or slightly after that when she passed away, so I don’t know if she’s the same one or not.

“Not too many people play this. It’s an old tune, but I’ve heard it since I was 6 or 7.”

You don’t have to know Pete Seeger from Bob Seger to appreciate traditional music.

“Before radio and TV, a bunch of people would get together at somebody’s house or barn, and they’d sit around and play,” said banjo player Scott Phillips of Morgantown.

“They were just jamming together. That’s the way this kind of music happens. It’s not a formal kind of music. You pretty much play for your own enjoyment. That's how this music has always been done.

“There are stories of fiddles and banjos sitting in the doorway between two rooms, and people’d clear out the furniture and play and dance.

“This kind of music is fairly simple and complex at the same time. There are a lot of variations in this music, regional variations. Some tunes can be completely simple and others really subtle with bowing patterns that may sound simple but are really deep, complex kind of tunes.”

E-mail Debra Minor Wilson at dwilson@timeswv.com.