They Know Music in Marshall, N.C.

My ears are still ringing with the melodious sounds I heard this week in Marshall, N.C. From our family's trip around Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas, I can see that the place to live if you're a musician is in western North Carolina. Yes, that's me on the pennywhistle, accompanied by my dad on banjo and Robert John on fiddle! (OK, I haven't really learned to blow air through the whistle yet, but I practice fingering while sucking on the mouthpiece...)

These musicians are friends of my friend Lorna's, who we stayed with in Marshall, N.C. Lorna plays the hammered dulcimer and along with the fiddler Robert John, she invited over Carol on guitar and Dorothy on psaltry. We had a mountain music jam on Lorna's porch, and Mom and Dorothy's husband Bruce and I clapped along. They played tunes like "Shady Grove" and "Rocky Top" and also folk standards like "Scarborough Fair." This group gets together and plays in hospitals and nursing homes. I'd sure rather be listening to their music than anything else if I had to sit through kidney dialysis.
Oh, here's a better view of the psaltry (at far left, the funny-looking triangular instrument played with a bow), and Lorna's dulcimer. Dad is playing a bodhran (Irish drum) that Bruce brought but didn't really know how to play. Dad gave him a lesson, and now he does!
The porch jam was on Thursday afternoon. That evening we headed downtown to a hip little coffee shop (reminded me of the ones in Port Townsend Mom likes to frequent) called Zuma's, and Dad joined in a bluegrass jam. The room behind him was filled with appreciate people sipping coffee and eating delicious cookies.
I got up front to dance, and then the nice lady playing the bass fiddle let me pluck her strings from the bottom while she plucked them up top! I could feel the deep vibrations in my hands and whole body.
The next morning we awoke to rain and even some thunder and lightning, but that didn't stop the music festivities from happening in downtown Marshall. We hit three music venues that Friday night, starting with the old-time music at the restored railroad depot at 7 p.m. Each band played 30 minutes of music, and tradition holds that they finish their set with a gospel tune.
I liked sitting on Lorna's lap and bouncing to the music, and smiling at everyone around me. You can see a grapevine of dancers winding their way around the room in this photo.
People with hard taps on their shoes danced beside the stage on the fast tunes (and made a racket!), but Mom and I danced to a slow one. You can see I was the youngest one up there, but not by much! This was truly a place for young and old to mix.
At 8 p.m., ducking under our umbrellas, we walked down the street to catch the end of an exhibit opening at the Madison County Arts Center. The show's theme was "found art," and we had heard there was to be a "found art fashion show." Sure enough, the models were wearing things like clothespins and plastic bags, and they were grooving across the stage to the improvised sounds of a guitarist and a drummer. This is where all the hip young people in Marshall could be found that Friday night.
Around 9 p.m. we ducked into a chiropractor's office where Lorna had heard there was a music circle, and sure enough, there were eight or so musicians jamming away in a room with a human skeleton in the corner (!). Two of the musicians were teenage girls, giving me hope that when I am a teenage boy, I will be able to find cool girl to hang out with like the ones living in Marshall. Maybe if I keep practicing the pennywhistle...