Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter

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Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:45:00 GMT

(You have received this message as you have previously joined or requested to join our mailing list. Information, including unsubscription instructions and our physical mailing address and phone number are located at the bottom of this message) ED4O1162 - ROOTS, BRANCHES, BLOSSOMS AND BRIARS: CULTURAL COLONIALISM of the MOUNTAIN ARTS in WEST VIRGINIA MORRIS, CHRISTINE MARIE DISSERTATIONS/THESES - DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS; REPORTS-RESEARCH Ph D THESIS PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY 1995 DR. MORRIS HAS BEEN TEACHING AT OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE THAT DATE http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=ED401162 ********** [I PLAN TO SEND OUT ONE OF OUR TRANSCRIBED HAMMONS STORIES WHICH WILL BE USED IN HAMMONS LEGACY PROJECT - HOPEFULLY WITHIN THE WEEK- THANKS] -- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following: Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by clicking on the following link (URL): DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/newsletter/ DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE If the above link (URL) is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long link (URL) and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism into two lines which may not work. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter If you're still having trouble, please contact us: mailto:dillerbanjo@yahoo.com Yew Pine Mountain Music PO Box 376 Marlinton, WV 24954 304-799-4965 Mailing List Powered by Dada Mail http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/

LOCAL MUSIC RHYTHMS ARE BUILT INTO THE LANGUAGE DIALECT

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 04:32:00 GMT

(You have received this message as you have previously joined or requested to join our mailing list. Information, including unsubscription instructions and our physical mailing address and phone number are located at the bottom of this message) I wrote on this subject and thought i had mailed it out, but i cannot find it in any folder/archive. If i have already sent anything out like this i will appologize. Trying to deal with this newsletter is really hard for me; dont know much what i am doing. What dawned some many years ago probably in the mid 1970's is that a person cannot tell a lie with the "music she or he is trying to play"> Listen long enough and you will be able to discern if it is a fake, an imitation or that the person has spent some time or actually a lot of time in the learning process. Now in this old music I am not talking about "speed, 'correct intonation', lots of 'fancy' stuff hoping to impress other people. I am talking about spending some on technique and then moving out onto 4-5 tunes and spend a year or so with them without.trying to add to that number,is the smartest move.. especially now, there has been in past 40-50 years by many who grew up on side walks to :learn tune after tune after nune and never really learn to play one of them. there is great pressure on those who read the magazines, etc ,etc to keep working on more and more. IE: there is story about a group of the many thousands who tramped thru tommy jarrell's house who were showing off for him. after they left, he sadly said "they know a thousand fiddle tunes and cant play one of them"!! So a major problem has arisen from people who write "tab books" and are really pushing them, are not warning the buyers to avoid thinking that one more book is going to help that person learn to get good on banjo or on fiddle. that is an impossibility BTW."tab books are at home over in the analytical, intellecvtual part of the brain WHICH CAN NEVER LEARN TO PLAY THE MUSIC"> WHEN the student finally switches over to th ecreative, intuitive part of the brain and permits itself to be finally taught by the Source of Revelation, then music will come gushing out. Thus the human "soul" [intellect, emotions, will] must finally give up it's stubborness and be moved out of the way. OR the music will stay "soulish" forever. No real life or depth; gimmicks and flashy melody will be all it can ever do. BTW, i have found that the closer one can stay to the 19th cwnruey source, the better. The commercial music that came along in late 'teens was the beginning of the end. the end of the depths; it became shallow. there is story about sampson in the OLD TESTAMENT and he was a "set apart nazarite" = never to cut his hair, touch dead bodies, etc etc etc. he grew up "spoiled and would throw a tantrum" if he did not get what he wanted. after he grew up a bit, he was fulfilling the job he was called to do: "JUDGE ISRAEL" and for a number of years he did relativelly well but he began "backsliding and indulging in what he had orders not to do" he was hanging out with a certain philistine woman [breaking direct orders from the Lord]. she was wondering where was source of this strength. If she had checked it out with any Jew, they could have told her "Sampson is a Nazarite" and these are the orders he has to live under. take note: when the Spirit of the Lord would come over him, he was strong enougjh to do amazing things like carry off the big gates of the city, etc etc. so she kept on and on and on and he got tired of it and told her finally -- cut off my hair and i will be just like like every other man. somewhere it reads "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD HAD LEFT HIM AND HE DIDNT EVEN KNOW IT" so it wasnt the hair that had never been cut; it was the Lord just gave up because Sampson had presumed on Him for too long, sinned against Him.--. go read the rest of the story if interested. POINT: after the turn of the century; after about 1910-1920 the attitude toward the old music was turning toward the commercial influence. the old music was/is a paradox: it was/is "extremely powerful but it was extremely fragile" this is why one of the certain "band contests at clifftop is a terrible insult on the Old Music" so diring those years i just mentioned, "the SPIRIT OF THE OLD MOUNTAIN MUSIC LEFT AND ALMOST NO ONE EVEN NOTICED". it was the idea about the millions and millions acres of virgin timber that was covering these mountains and from what i can hear, everyone believed cutting timber would just go on forever. however, after about 35-40yr most of it was almost all cut down and shipped out or burnt up and nohing put back in its place. The coal barons have done the same thing; they have just been doing it longer and raping and pillaging in a far more destructive way. But one might say "that was then; this is now. We have all the ducks lined up in a row and nothing like that will ever take place within the music and culture of the middle of the southern Appalachians". AS Dr Christiane Balangee Morris wrote in her PhD dissertation at Penn State Univ, in recent years the main thing in the rape and pillaging, taking it out and putting nothing back is the "Traditional Culture of the indiginous people". So it has been "West Virginia: the "Third World Country' within the United States". That goes back at least as far as Geo Washington in 1750s-1760s surveying for Lord Farfax.. And it is still most all WVa is owned and operated by outside interests who care nothing for it. In my years of working as a pastor as well as a banjo teacher, I had call to be in rooms where folks were dying. There is something called "the Death Rattle" that shows up sometimes. Within the Old Time Traditional West VirginiaMountain Music, the true old music has been slowly smothering; hardly able to catch it's breath; Back in the lat 1960s when i went in search,tThere were a handfull of folks who still remembered the old stories, the old songs, the old banjo tunes, and the old fiddle tuns. [All solo} I was blessed with visiting my neighbors here in Pocahontas county and east central WVa. My neighbors, the Hammons were direct decendents of the last literal "frontiersmen" who had gone into the "FRONTIER" in the 1700s and stay in the wilderness into the 20th century. they were "old" but still remember it all with clear mindes and were able to get around well in 1968 and following. This project we are working on - we plan to do a first shortened release called: "BEST OF 'ACROSS THE YEW PINES". IT will have a lot of material in it and be about 1/3rd of the whole that we have available. we are not too far from "BEST OF......" being finished. folks will have to be really "HARD CORE" to want the monster. as it is at present, i think the "BEST OF........" WILL BE CLOSE TO ONE HOUR Iwill try to send newslettesr more often remember, anyone can learn this old music; it just takes a lot of work - listening 5x as much as playing. problem is -- this music is alien to almost everyone's tongue who starts otu trying learn it. thus, have to get the dialect of the old music. if gonna learn Irish music -- get a grasp of how the dialect goes" delta blue, then beginniing with how the dialect goes. if like "round peak" then get a grasp of that dialect; if like kentucky music, get dialect of that region. dont say "this is the way tommy jarrell played ______" until you have spent many long years trying to learn without "cloning" wilson douglas said "it takes abotu ten years just to START TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY THE FIDDLE" [OR BANJO OR OLD TIME WVA MUSIC. so dont get in a hurry; it ii sfrom a people from another time; another place; and outlook on life, and whether you like or approve of them, it will take a lot to catch a grasp if you dont. blessings diller ! -- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following: Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by clicking on the following link (URL): DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/newsletter/ DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE If the above link (URL) is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long link (URL) and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism into two lines which may not work. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter If you're still having trouble, please contact us: mailto:dillerbanjo@yahoo.com Yew Pine Mountain Music PO Box 376 Marlinton, WV 24954 304-799-4965 Mailing List Powered by Dada Mail http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/

Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Message

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:46:00 GMT

(You have received this message as you have previously joined or requested to join our mailing list. Information, including unsubscription instructions and our physical mailing address and phone number are located at the bottom of this message) THIS IS A COUPLE OF STORIES FROM THE HAMMONS' WHICH HAVE BEEN TRANSCRIBED FOR UP COMING MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION OF THE HAMMONS' LEGACY. WE HAVE BEEN ENJOYING THEM GREATLY AND HOPEFULLY YOU CAN TOO. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HEAR THE SPOKEN PART; THIS IS JUST HARD COPY. The first one is Sherman Hammons telling about his [famous fiddler] Uncle Edn Hammons and the journey from down at White Oak on the Williams River here in Pocahontas County WVa. I am assuming that Sherman [b. 1903] is in his mid-teens and is extremely excited that Edn [b 1875] would come up to visit his brother, Parris Hammons [b. 1858?] to spend a few days. For Sherman it was all about getting to listen to the powerful fiddle music which was far far better than multi-vitamins for a growing boy! Uncle Edn and Shoes Sherm 3202 diller final fix S: Well, me and Uncle Edn started up, he lived at White Oak, now he said, I 's down there and stayed overnight, " 'Pon my honor," he said, "I have a notion to go home with you in the mornin'" Well I said "do please Uncle Edn by George go" and he had a, he had a pair a canvas shoes, Edn did, and he said "I b'lieve I'll wear my canvas shoes." Well, I said he wore about the same, about nine or ten. Got on up there about, well, got up there about the Needle Branch, what they call the Needle Branch, and, uh, " 'Pon my honor" he says "the shoes is a'hurtin'" he said, "Let's swap." I said "You reckon I can wear them?" "Yes, 'pon my honor" he said, "I think you can", he said, "Let's trade." Well, down I took and put the shoes on. I walked about a mile in them things and they began to draw to my feet, just a, just seem like they got smaller every step,and afterwhile I swear them things got to hurtin' me s' bad that I didn't even have no feelin's. I said I'll be danged if you won't ha ve to either take 'em or I said we're gonna have to go back because I ain't one of the two. And I pulled them damned things off and walked, I know I walked two or three miles barefooted, and they turned my feet, just drawed 'em as white, just right white. And I never, never would wear a dang canvas shoe after that. Yeah he said, he said " 'Pon my honor, you know one thing" I said "What is it?" "'ell, you take a shoe that'll fit one Hammons, it'll fit another!" I said, "I'll be damned if these fit me." ********** The second short story comes from Sherman's brother, Burl who was literally one of the greatest fiddlers anywhere. Burl told us one time, "My dad told me one time when I was young: 'Now Burl, you are going to have to make up your mind -- either you are going to work or you are goin to fiddle BUT YOU CANT DO BOTH'!",Of course to use the word "work" in that "context" meant holding a "job when someone else told you when to show up and when you could leave - basically owning you". It was 18th and 19th centuries mountain outlook on the world. Pre-New Deal and mostly avoiding the Industrial Revolution, etc. Of course everything comes with a cost, but they decided to pay that cost to maintain their "self respect" and "control over their lives". Burl was telling me stories about one old man in that "Williams River mountain country" by the name of George Davis. We are calling this short story "the man who went barefoot all the time". In the same breath, Mr Davis proceeded to tell about his little feist dog finding a rattlesnake in the snow that day and he SAID he had proceeded to kill it. I shall tell no more; just hold your water. The Fellow Who Went Barefoot All the Time/Burl3401 DLLRfinalfix Diller: Burl? B: What? D: What's 'at, what about that guy that went barefooted all the time, what was that, what uz his name? B: Ol' George Davis [??]? D: Yeah. B: Ol' George Davis . . . D: An' that little feist he had with him. . . B: He'd tell what all hit'd do? D: Yeah. B: And the snow was out there, now did you ever see the snow about that . . . ….and we seen somebody comin', his britches rolled up ya know, and I said ta Clyde, I looked down, we started up, up the railroad . . . no, we uz going up through the bottom instead of the railroad, and I said "Tell me", I didn' know him ya know, and I said, "Tell me who that is. Can you tell me?" .. "It looks like he ain't got no socks on." An' I said, "hmmh. . ." and Clyde said, "that's ol' George Davis ain't it?" And I said, "I don' know him." Clyde said, "That's ol' George Davis, he's got the dog with him." D: Got? B: Yeah he said, "He's got that dog with him." And me and Clyde walked on an' afterwhile he just set there and I looked down boys an' I seen he didn' have no shoes on, and I said " yu sore feet?" An' he said "No, hell, no" he said. "That's the way I go all the time . . . " D: Said what? B: "No," he said. "Hell, that's the way I go all the time," he said. "I can't wear shoes," he said. An' his feet was as black, they was just like a bear's foot now boys. I tell you the truth, they looked just like a bear's foot, an just right on up through there, an' it-z kinda cold too. "kinda cold too"...One can always expect for Burl to speak that way since he was the master of the "understatement". In those mountains and in those days, when the snow was on, the temperatures ran from "kinda cold" right down to "severe" like -20F and much lower at times. Mr Davis' legs were black 6 inches or more above his ankle. The coldest I have heard of was -44F on Cheat Mountain; I remember - 27F on 9th January 1982. I just happen to remember the date. Again, I hope you enjoy these two stories. As I have been working on all this material, mountains of good memories have just rolled in day after day. blessings diller -- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following: Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by clicking on the following link (URL): DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/newsletter/ DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE If the above link (URL) is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long link (URL) and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism into two lines which may not work. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter If you're still having trouble, please contact us: mailto:dillerbanjo@yahoo.com Yew Pine Mountain Music PO Box 376 Marlinton, WV 24954 304-799-4965 Mailing List Powered by Dada Mail http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/

YEWPINE MOUNTAIN MUSIC / DWIGHT DILLER EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:17:00 GMT

(You have received this message as you have previously joined or requested to join our mailing list. Information, including unsubscription instructions and our physical mailing address and phone number are located at the bottom of this message) I RECKON IT'S BEEN ABOUT 5 YEARS SINCE I GOT AROUND TO SENDING OUT A NEWS LETTER. MAGGIE HAMMONS SAID LONG ABOUT 1969 "NOW, DE-WIGHT, YOU'LL SEE WHEN YOU GET ANY AGE ON YOU THAT FROM ONE YEAR TO THE NEXT, WILL SEEM LIKE A MONTH OR TWO.". IN MY YOUTH IGNORANCE, I WAS SURE SHE REALLY DIDNT KNOW WHAT SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT. THAT ALONG ABOUT THE SAME TIME SHE SAID, "NOW, DE-WIGHT, THERE'LL COM ON A TIME WHEN YOU GET TIRED OF THE MUSIC; JUST WATCH AND SEE." THAT WAS WHEN I SAID, "MAGGIE, I'LL NEVER GET TIRED OF THE MUSIC" THAT WAS WHEN SHE SUFFERED THIS YOUNG FOOL BUT SAID NOTHING MORE. [A NORMAL STATE OF AFFAIRS WHEN DEALING WITH ME BACK IN THOSE DAYS WHEN I OFTEN HAD THE BRAINS OF A DOWNHILL SLEDTRACK] SO FINALLY FOUND A CALENDER AT THE DOLLAR STORE ON MONDAY AND GOT THIS COMPUTER WORKED UP SO I CAN, HOPEFULLY, SEND OUT A FEW MESSAGES.GAIL HATTON WAS "HELPING ME GET THIS NEWSLETTER THING INSTALLED" WHICH, WHEN TRYING TO HELP ME WITH DEALING IN THE COMPUTER WORLD, IS LIKE TRYING TO LOAD A BUSHEL OF FROGS INTO A WHEELBARROW, ONE AT A TIME. SO IF YOU HAPPEN TO WANT TO PROCEED, HANG ON................ THE DATE TODAY IS 13 JAN 2010. I AM GOING TO TRY TO FIGURE JUST WHAT MIGHT WORK FOR ABOTU 4-5 CLASSES HERE ON THE "KNAVE RUN" [ AKA "BROWN'S CREEK" WHICH IS ACTUALLY ACROSS THE ROAD AND OVER AGAINST THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. KNAVE RUN, I CANT IMAGINE WHERE THE NAME KNAVE CAME FROM, COMES OUT OF THIS SMALL HOLLAR JUST BEHIND MY PROPERTY/BUILDINGS; HOWEVER, THERE IS ANOTHER SMALL HOLLAR WHICH RUNS PARALLEL TO KNAVE RUN WHICH HAS NO NAME ON ANY OFFICIAL MAPS. JEFF FROM CHICAGO WHO HAS MOVED IN HERE IS PUTTING UP A SMALL BUILDING [12' X 16'] FOR LIVING QUARTERS IN THE MOUTH OF THE SMALL HOLLAR. HE IS ALWAYS HIKING IN THE WOODS WHEN THE SNOW IS NOT HIP DEEP, SO WE DECIDED THAT WHILE HIS "OFFICAL U.S. GOVMINT MAPS HAS NO NAME FOR THE LITTLE HOLLAR, WE TOOK IT UPON OURSELVES TO USE EXECUTIVE PRIVILAGE SINC GOVMINT WAS SLACK IN THEIR DUTY AND NAME THE TINY RUN OF WATER" WHILE SEARCHING AROUND INSIDE MY MIND, IT CAME TO ME TO NAME IT AFTER MY FEMALE CAT THAT ROAMS A SMALL BIT AROUND THE HOUSE HERE - "ROXIE" SO WE ARE GOING IN AND ANNOUNCE TO THE "UNITED STATES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, MONONGAHELIA NATIONAL FOREST" THERE IS NEW LAND THAT HAS BEEN DISCOVERED AND NAMED: "ROXIE RUN". MAYBE WE CAN HAVE ONE OF THOSE METAL SIGNS INSTALLED OUT ALONG THE MAIN ROAD STATING THE NEW DISCOVERY. KIND O' LIKE "GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE". ACTUALLY IT DID DO THAT AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE'S CLOSE BY. WHEN HE WAS "A RAKE 'N AH RAMBLIN BOY", HE CAME THROUGH MY HOME TOWN, MARLINTON, WHICH IS 7 MILES AWAY. THERE WAS A LARGE OR SHOULD I SAY, "A GREAT OL BIG OAK TREE" WHICH HE USED FOR A CORNER WHEN SURVEYING THIS COUNTRY FOR "LORD FAIRFAX' WHO "OWNED" ABOUT A KA-ZILLION ACRES OF LAND HERE IN THESE MOUNTAINS. I THINK THE TREE MIGHT HAVE BEEN CALLED THE "LEWIS OAK". I BETTER NOT GET INTO JUST WHO IN THE WORLD ANDREW AND CHARLES LEWIS WERE. IT WAS STILL THERE WHEN I WAS A BOY IN THE 1950s BUT NO ONE HELD IT IN ANY HIGH ESTEEM. [OH, I'LL JUST WHET YOUR APPATITE - THEY WERE THE HEAD HONCHOS FROM THIS AREA OF THE "WESTERN FRONTIER IN 1700s WHO RECRUITED A BUNCH OF MEN TO GO DOWN TO THE 'POINT' WHERE THE OHIO AND KANAWHA RIVERS JOIN TO MEET VIRGINIA GOVERNOR LORD DUNMORE WHO WAS 'SUPPOSED' TO BE BRINGING ANOTHER GROUP OF VIRGINIANS TO MEET SOMEWHERE ON THE EASTERN SHORE OF THE OHIO RIVER TO DEAL WITH THE 'INDIAN PROBLEM'. AT THAT 'POINT', THERE WAS THE FIRST LAND BATTLE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR - AS WE KNOW IT. LORD DUNMORE, WHO WAS APPOINTED BY THE CROWN, ENDED UP OVER IN OHIO COUNTRY POW-WOWING WITH SHANAWEES AND LEFT THOSE MEN DOWN AT THE POINT TO SWING IN THE WIND. IT SEEMED TO BE AN ACT OF TREASON. AS SOON AS HE COULD GET BACK TO THE OLD DOMINION OF VIRGINIA, HE HOPPED A SHIP AND BEAT IT BACK TO ENGLAND. SO THE PLACE WHERE THAT BATTLE TOOK PLACE CAME TO BE KNOWN AS 'POINT PLEASANT'. BUT THAT IS ALL 'REALLY OLD NEWS' I RECKON.] SEE WHAT YOU GET BY WASTIN TIME READIN MY SO CALLED "NEWSLETTERS". AS MY FRIEND RICHARD SAID ONE TIME "I APPOLOGIZE, BUT I AINT SORRY". NOW MOVIN ALONG WITH THE PROGRAM WITH ALL SERIOUSNESS ASIDE............. I AM GOING TO TRY TO KEEP THIS ITINERARY IN THE REGION OF FACT RATHER THAN FICTION. FOR MANY, MANY YEARS NOW [APPROX 23 - 24] I HAVE BEEN TRAVELING TO MICHIGAN IN LATE WINTER OR EARLY SPRING TO DO WHAT I CAN TO PASS ALONG BANJO/TRADITIONAL WVa MTN MUSIC THOUGHTS. HOWEVER, THIS YEAR IT LOOKS LIKE I WILL 1. EITHER NOT COME UP AT ALL 2. OR POSSIBLY COME UP LATER ON IN THE YEAR. KEEP AN EYE OUT IF YOU ARE INTERESTED. I AM GOING TO KEEP THE NUMBER OF CLASSES TO PROBABLY NO MORE THAN 4 OR AT MOST 5. PLUS THE SIZE WILL BE RUNNING 3 OR 4 STUDENTS. MAYBE THERE WILL BE 1 OR SO MORE IN THE LAST CLASS IN OCTOBER. THIS IS MY 40TH YEAR OF TEACHING AND I AM A NATIVE SON OF THIS HIGH ALLEGHENY PLATEAU. JEFF WHO HAS MOVED IN HERE TO LEARN BANJO WAS ASKING ME LAST NIGHT 1. WHY I DONT SOUND LIKE THE HAMMONS THOUGH SPENDING SO MUCH TIME WITH THEM? 2. WHY I DONT SOUND LIKE ANYONE ELSE ON "AFRICAN DOWNSTROKE CLAWHAMMER FRAILING THUMPING STYLE"? THE ONLY ANSWER I COULD GIVE IS "I CANNOT SOUND LIKE OR LEARN FROM ANYBODY ELSE. I AM NOT REALLY A MUSICIAN; PEOPLE JUST THINK I AM. I AM A TEACHER/PREACHER/SHOWMAN ALL OF WHICH WORKS ON STAGE, BUT I AM VERY LACKING WHEN IT COMES TO BEING A MUSICIAN. IT TOOK ME 2 YEARS TO JUST BEGIN TO START TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY THE BANJO AND IT TOOK ME 37 YEARS TO BE ABLE TO FINALL GRASP ANYTHING ON A FIDDLE - SO THERE'S THE PROOF OF THAT PUDDIN. THE OTHER THING I POINTED OUT WAS 1. PROBABLY NONE OF THE PRESENT DAY REVIVALISTS GREW UP IN A WVa MOUNTAIN BEER JOINT WHICH HAS IT'S OWN CULTURE 2. I DID NOT GROW UP ON A SIDEWALK IN THE FLAT LANDS 3. THERE IS A CERTAIN KIND OF "VIBRATIONS IN THE 'MIDDLE' SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS THAT ARE BROUGHT ON BY THE GEOGRAPHY WITH THE CROOKED MOUNTAIN STREAMS/RIVERS/ROADS/MOUNTAIN RIDGES" THAT ARE JUST ABSORBED UNKNOWLINGLY. 4. THIS AREA OF MIDDLE WEST VIRGINIA CONTAINS A CERTAIN KIND OF UNDERNEATH KINSHIP WITH DEATH/VIOLENCE/DARKNESS WHICH IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE 'YA-HOO' GET DRUNK AND DANCE ALL NIGHT WITH AT BOTTLE IN YOUR HAND -----I WILL STOP RIGHT THERE; YOU GET MY DRIFT. ["APPALACHIA" = PROUNCED 'APPLE-LATCH-CHA"] THIS IS WHY IT IS SO VERY VERY VERY HARD TO CATCH THE "RHYTHM" OF THIS LAND. IT IS ALSO WHY WHEN FOLKS SAY, I WANT TO PLAY THE WAY YOU DO, I CAN UNDERSTAND IT AND APPRECIATE THEIR SAYING SO, BUT I ALSO KNOW JUST HOW EXPENSIVE IT IS TO CATCH TO. "NOW" TAKE NOTE THAT I AM NOT SAYING IT IS IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE I AM OBSERVING JEFF QUICKLY MOVING ALONG TOWARD THIS ;GOAL IN ABOUT 18 MONTHS TIME. HOWEVER, HE IS HITTING A WALL AT THE MOMENT; NOT ONE THAT HE CANNOT GET AROUND. IT IS JUST ONE THAT HE HAS TO DIG DEEPER THAN HE HAS BEFORE. DO NOT EVER FORGET WHAT WILSON DOUGLAS, THE NOW DEAD FIDDLER FROM CLAY COUNTY WVa, SAID "IT TAKES ABOUT TEN YEARS JUST TO START TO LEARN THIS FIDDLE [BANJO-WVa TRADIONAL MUSIC]" SO IT IS JUST COMMITTMENT AND DISCIPLINE. - BTW, NO ONE IN THIS WORLD PLAYS LIKE TOMMY JARRELL DID; OR FRED COCKERHAM DID EITHER. QUICKLY HERE IS POSSIBLE ITINERARY FOR 2010 MOST ALL CLASSES WILL BE CENTERED ON LEARNING GOOD RHYTHM. AS I SAID, I HAVE BEEN TEACHING FOR 40 YRS NOW AND ALMOST NEVER EVER EVER HAVE A STUDENT WHO HAS RHYTHM THAT WORKS. OFTEN LOTS OF TUNES AND RIGHT HAND TECHNIQUE IS NOT GOOD AT ALL.. SO RHYTHM WILL BE MAIN EMPHASIS; NO PROPER RHYTHM, NO MUSIC - PERIOD. CAN KNOW A THOUSAND TUNES, BUT WITHOUT PROPER RHYTHM, THEY MEAN NOTHING. MOST WEEKS STUDENTS ARRIVE LATE AFTERNOON SUNDAY AND GET SETTLED IN. CLASS RUNS FULL DAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY MORNING;. THURSDAY AFTERNOON STUDENTS TAKE A SHORT TOUR THROUGHOUT COUNTY. EVENINGS THERE IS GENERALLY NOTHING PLANNED, BUT SOME CONVERSATIONS WILL BE CARRIED ON. MIGHT BE ABOUT THE MUSIC, THE CONTEXT, SOME HISTORYM ETC ETC FRIDAY MORN THE STUDENTS DEPART. FOR SOME OF THESE WEEKS THERE WILL BE A STATE MUSIC GATHERING WHICH IS FREE TO THE PUBLIC . ONE ON WVa CAPITAL COMPLEX SPONSORED BY THE STATE; ANOTHER IS THE WVa STATE MUSIC FESTIVAL AT GLENVILLE WVa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a; IT HAS BEEN RUNNING SINCE THE 1940s. IT IS REALLY GEARED FOR LOCALL FOLKS WITH PARADE AND OUTDOOR SQUARDANCING. THEY ARE BIG TIME DANCING FOLKS. STREETS ARE BLOCKED OFF. THERE ARE ALSO SMALL CONCERTS AND CONTESTS UP AT THE SMALL COLLEGE AUDITORIUM AT THE TOP OF THE HILL. OFTEN A GOOD TIME IS HAD BY ALL!!! 4. JULY ______SOMETIME AROUND THE MIDDLE OF THE MONTH - 2ND OR 3RD 4 DAY WEEK, I AM THINKING OF HAVING A 4 DAY FIDDLE CLASS FOR FOLKS WHO ARE FAMILAR WITH WHAT FIDDLING I DO. LET ME KNOW IF ANY OF YOU HAPPEN TO BE INTERESTED IN A FIDDLE CLASS 2-3 STUDENTS [SINGLE ROOM, FOOD, INSTRUCTION]. I DO HAVE A CD OF MY FIDDLING. ****BTW, MY FACILITY SITS IN HIGHLANDS OF ALLEGHENY PLATEAU, SURROUNDED BY WOODED STEEP HILLS AND THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF NATIONAL FOREST FOR HIKING IF YOU ARE SO MOVED. 5. AUGUST - I HAVENT PLANNED ANYTHING YET FOR AUGUST. CAN SEE IF THERE IS ANY INTEREST IN BANJO INSTRUCTION 6. SEPT - LAST YEAR I HAD A 2 PERSON 4 DAY FIDDLE CLASS AND IT WORKED WELL 7. OCTOBER - FIRST FULL WEEK - OCT 3 SUNDAY AFTERNOON UNTIL **SATURDAY MORN** OCT 9TH, STUDENTS DEPART. THIS WILL BE A FULL 5 DAY WEEK. THE STUDENTS CAN MAKE A DECISION WHETHER THEY WANT TO TOUR FOR 1/2 DAY OR WANT TO TRAPSE AROUND FOR A FULL DAY. AND CAN BE DIVIDED UP HOWEVER. EITHER WAY, IT WOULD BE ON THURSDAY UNLESS THE WEATHER WAS SO BAD THAT FRIDAY MIGHT SUIT BETTER. ONE OF THE FAMOUS LOCAL ATTRACTIONS IS THE CASS LOG TRAIL WHICH TAKES FOLKS UP ON CHEAT MOUNTAIN. BUT UP THERE AT 4500'-4900' IT WILL SNOW, SLEET, FROST ALL MONTHS OF THE YEAR. MY UNIVERSITY PROF SAID IT WAS SAME CLIMATE AS "400-500 MILES INTO CANADA" THERE ARE CLOSE TO A HALF MILLION ACRES OF NATIONAL FOREST PLUS 8 WVa STATE PARKS AND FORESTS 8. FOR QUITE A NUMBER OF YEARS, I HAVE BEEN TRAVELING TO PITTSBURGH PA TO TEACH FIRST WEEKEND IN DEC. IT IS HELD AT CINDY HARRIS' HOME. CAH@LONEWOLF.COM. SHE CAN TELL YOU WHETHER SHE CAN STAND ONE MORE TIME. NOW, I AM GOING TO TRY TO FORWARD THIS ON. LAST NIGHT I WROTE ONE AND THE MACHINE ATE IT AND THERE WAS NOTHING I COULD DO SHORT OF DOING WHAT ELVIS DID -- SHOOTING HIS TV. I'LL TRY TO DO BETTER TO SOMETHING BETTER THE NEXT TIME - MAYBE IN A FEW WEEKS; I SURE HOPE THIS DOES NOT CRASH AND BURN!!!!!! SINCERELY DILLER -- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following: Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by clicking on the following link (URL): DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/newsletter/ DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE If the above link (URL) is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long link (URL) and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism into two lines which may not work. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter If you're still having trouble, please contact us: mailto:dillerbanjo@yahoo.com Yew Pine Mountain Music PO Box 376 Marlinton, WV 24954 304-799-4965 Mailing List Powered by Dada Mail http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/

Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Message

Tue, 05 May 2009 16:49:00 GMT

<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <title>New Page 2</title> </head> (You have received this email as you have previously requested to join our mailing list.  Mailing List Information, including unsubscription instructions as well as our physical address and phone number are located at the bottom of this message.) AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE New Ordering Instructions May 5, 2009 Elaine Maxham Diller, the distributor for Dwight�s music, has had to make the difficult decision to dismantle her website due to the theft of the domain name morningstarfolkmusic. It seems many of the problems encountered this year can be traced to negligence on the part of the host go-daddy.com. If you are interested in finding out more, search �complaints go-daddy.com� online�the horror stories told there are similar to what has happened to Elaine. Several years and websites later, enough is enough. Dwight will be working with Elaine to develop an internet presence of some sort (blog? Facebook?) specifically for ordering the well-received dvd �West Virginia Mountain Music with Dwight Diller� as well as Dwight�s other products. There will be no shopping cart, but all ordering information will be in one place. We hope to have this in place within a week & it will link with dwightdiller.com. Elaine had already started her own artist blog where her artwork and products from the store will be made available. She will be using the physical store�s mailing list for announcements�if interested, you may be added to this list also. Thank you all for your feedback and help in getting the Diller/Littlehales production out there! The introductory price of $19.95 still goes for subscribers, residents of Pocahontas County, and Pocahontas Times readers. ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Credit Card information is received and processed at Morning Star Folk Arts by phone: 304-653-4397. Elaine will call you back if you would like or if you need to leave a message. Business hours are generally 11 a.m. � 6 p.m. Sundays 2 � 6 pm. 2. Credit Card information may also be processed through PayPal invoicing. Elaine has a PayPal account�you don�t have to have one�and she will invoice you through her account. All she needs here is your email address. Instructions will follow. 3. Email Elaine (ediller@gmail.com) with your request and contact information. She will answer you quickly with availability, shipping rates, and total cost. You may also contact Dwight at dillerbanjo@yahoo.com and he will coordinate with Elaine. 4. Checks or money orders may still be sent to Morning Star Folk Arts, HC 64 Box 415, Hillsboro, WV 2494 DO NOT CLICK BELOW THE RED LINE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM OUR MAILING LIST! <hr color="#FF0000" size="5"> The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to: Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter With the following email address: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by clicking the link (URL) below: DO NOT CLICK THE LINK BELOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE <a href="http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/newsletter/"> http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/newsletter/ </a> DO NOT CLICK THE LINK ABOVE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE! If the above link (URL) is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long link (URL) and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism into two lines which may not work. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: <a href="http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter"> http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter </a> If you're still having trouble, please contact us: <a href="mailto:dillerbanjo@yahoo.com"> dillerbanjo@yahoo.com </a> <pre> Yew Pine Mountain Music PO Box 376 Marlinton, WV 24954 304-799-4965 </pre> </html> <a href="http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/">Mailing List Powered by Dada Mail</a>

Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Message

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:12:00 GMT

<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <title>New Page 2</title> </head> (You have received this email as you have previously requested to join our mailing list.  Mailing List Information, including unsubscription instructions as well as our physical address and phone number are located at the bottom of this message.) Dear Friends: Dwight would like to announce the new DVD "West Virginia Mountain Music" with video footage of West Virginia's mountain beauty accompanied by Dwight's banjo and fiddle. Retailing for $24.95, he is offering this new production to his subscribers at an introductory price of $19.95. First Class shipping is usually under $3.00. There is no spoken word on this video. Its voice is banjo and fiddle. Its subject is nature. There is no human presence except that of the music. It is about the stark beauty of nature in its own setting. 19th century style banjo and fiddle tunes from the earliest settlers, music endemic to these WV mountains, forms a matrix for their timeless natural history. Bates & Jody Littlehales have spent several years finding, filming, and editing footage of the mountains of Pendleton & Pocahontas Counties. The video follows the seasons from earliest spring into winter. Bates and Jody are both retired from long careers with National Geographic. The North American Nature Photography Association recently gave Bates a lifetime achievement award. For Dwight's students the DVD has a music menu to navigate to individual tunes. And for those interested in location and species identification there is an option for subtitles. For information and online ordering, go to www.morningstarfolkmusic.com. The discounted price will be applied during processing. Please put NEWDVD in the comments section of the order form. Dwight is currently teaching in Michigan but you may also order by phone by calling Elaine @ 304-653-4397. Thank you, Dwight 10 April, 2009 DO NOT CLICK BELOW THE RED LINE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM OUR MAILING LIST! <hr color="#FF0000" size="5"> The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to: Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter With the following email address: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by clicking the link (URL) below: DO NOT CLICK THE LINK BELOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE <a href="http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/newsletter/"> http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/newsletter/ </a> DO NOT CLICK THE LINK ABOVE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE! If the above link (URL) is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long link (URL) and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism into two lines which may not work. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: <a href="http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter"> http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter </a> If you're still having trouble, please contact us: <a href="mailto:dillerbanjo@yahoo.com"> dillerbanjo@yahoo.com </a> <pre> Yew Pine Mountain Music PO Box 376 Marlinton, WV 24954 304-799-4965 </pre> </html> <a href="http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/">Mailing List Powered by Dada Mail</a>

Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Message

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:24:00 GMT

(You have received this message as you have previously joined or requested to join our mailing list. Information, including unsubscription instructions and our physical mailing address and phone number are located at the bottom of this message) Dwight wanted to pass along this recent announcement of the grant award for the Hammons Family project: The WV Humanities Council awarded two major grants to Pocahontas County organizations during its fall 2008 grant cycle. Pocahontas County Free Libraries in Marlinton received funding for its �Across the Yew Pine�the Hammons Legacy Project�. The multimedia project is the first release of the largest individual collection of stories, music, photographs and video documenting the history and culture of Pocahontas County�s legendary Hammons Family. The �Across the Yew Pine� project will result in several DVDs combining over 80 field recordings of the Hammons� music and stories along with more than 700 photographs and some film footage. The DVDs will be accompanied by a book of transcribed Hammons family stories. These materials will be distributed free to West Virginia�s public libraries, schools and archives. �Across the Yew Pine�the Hammons Legacy�, due to be completed in June 2010, will become a permanent record of the history of WV�s mountain people. The Littlehales/Diller nature & music DVD is also moving along and should be available for sale in April. Dwight will send an announcement when this happens. When you order from www.morningstarfolkmusic.com, you will be entered automatically in a monthly drawing for a free CD (or gift item if you choose). We had a winner on February 14 and will have another drawing March 31. Subscribe to morningstarfolkmusic.com to be included in other specials offered during the year. Dwight Diller dillerbanjo@yahoo.com March 10, 2009 -- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following: Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by clicking on the following link (URL): DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/newsletter/ DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE If the above link (URL) is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long link (URL) and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism into two lines which may not work. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter If you're still having trouble, please contact us: mailto:dillerbanjo@yahoo.com Yew Pine Mountain Music PO Box 376 Marlinton, WV 24954 304-799-4965 Mailing List Powered by Dada Mail http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/

Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Message

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:18:00 GMT

(You have received this message as you have previously joined or requested to join our mailing list. Information, including unsubscription instructions and our physical mailing address and phone number are located at the bottom of this message) THOUGHTS ON ABC's 20/20 'A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains' ON FRIDAY NIGHT FEB 13th 10 p.m. DIANE SAWYER, I AM TOLD, IS HEADING IT UP. IT SPEAKS OF PROBLEMS IN APPALACHIA [APPLE-LATCH-AH]. IT MIGHT BE INFORMATIVE FOR ANY OF YOU WHO WOULD BE INTERESTED. I WAS TOLD IT GOES FOR THE JUGULAR IN REGARD TO POVERTY WHICH RESULTS IN A CERTAIN SLANT IN OUR REGION. ONE OF THE MANY SLANTS IS: THERE WAS A CERTAIN PAIN KILLER WAS PASSED OUT IN LARGE DOSES BY THE NAME OF 'OXYCONTIN' IN THE COAL FIELD BECAUSE OF THE CHRONIC BACK PROBLEMS FROM WORKING UNDERGROUND. IT IS EXTREMELY ADDICTING AND SPREAD OUT VERY QUICKLY IN THIS WHOLE REGION. OF COURSE IT IS BAD "EVERYWHERE". YOU WOULD OR WILL HAVE TO HAVE SOME MORE FACTS TO MAKE THAT JUDGEMENT. WHAT CAN BE QUICKLY DISCERNED IN THIS WHOLE REGION IS: "DESPAIR AND DEPRESSION" IMMEDIATELY. IT IS HERE IN THESE MOUNTAINS FILLED WITH 'INNOCENT BEAUTY' JUST AS MUCH IN THOSE STRIP MINING REGIONS WHICH WERE TURNED INTO 'MOONSCAPES' LITERALLY. 'MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL NEVER TO RISE AGAIN' IS THE CONSTANT. I HAVENT SEEN THE 20/20 SHOW, OF COURSE, BUT I WILL JUST TRY TO SET UP A ONE PERSPECTIVE FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF SOMEONE WHO WAS BORN AND LIVED HERE ALL HIS LIFE. WHETHER IN THE GHETTO OR IN THE APPALACHIAN REGIONS, IT IS THE CONSTANT FEELING OF POWERLESSNESS. AS HANK WILLIAMS' SONG: "AINT NOTHIN NEVER GONNA BE ALRIGHT NOHOW". SO REMEMBER, THOSE FROM THE APPALACHIAN REGION WHO HAVE MARKETABLE VALUE IN THE "OUTSIDE WORLD", HAVE MOSTLY MOVED ON. THE POWER AND MONEY HUNGRY HAVE STAYED BEHIND OR MADE A PILGRIMAGE IN, TO EXPLOIT AND PUT NOTHING BACK. THOSE NATURAL RESOURCES ARE COAL, OIL, GAS, TIMBER AND IN RECENT YEARS IT IS THE "MOUNTAIN CULTURE"; ALL GOES OUT AND NOTHING IS PUT BACK. IF YOU DO WATCH 20/20, YOU WILL SEE A THIRD WORLD NATION WHICH IS THE RESULT OF COLONIALISM. THE LEGAL SYSTEM AND THE MONEY SYSTEM WHICH CONTROLLED BY OUTSIDE INTERESTS. SO IF YOU SEE FOLKS WHO ARE IN DOWN IN HARD SCRABBLE POVERTY, PLEASE DO NOT CONDEMN THEM; KEEP THAT FOR THE POWER STRUCTURE WHICH MAKES THESE FOLKS CAPTIVE. "OWE THEIR SOUL TO THE COMPANY STORE" STILL IN THIS 21st CENTURY. JUST ENOUGH TO KEEP THEM ALIVE. THAT IS HOW PRISONS HAVE ALWAYS KEPT PRISONERS UNDER CONTROL. PLEASE DO NOT THINK TOO HARD OF THOSE WHOSE CHILDREN HAVE ROTTEN TEETH AS A RESULT OF THE "DRINK OF CHOICE" - FULL OF HUGE AMTS OF CAFFINE AND SUGAR: 'MOUNTAIN DEW'. I DONT SEE FOLKS BEING CONDEMNED FOR DRINKING 'STARBUCKS' WHICH IS FULL OF CAFFINE! YOU GET MY DRIFT; ITS ALL DRUGS. SO PLEASE DONT THINK TOO HARD OF FOLKS WHOSE HEARTS AND MINDS ARE EMPTY OF HOPE IN THIS SECULAR WORLD; WHO HAVE BEEN LEFT BEHIND. MANY CANNOT EVEN DREAM; WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN FACING IS A WALL BLOCKING THEM FROM THE OUTSIDE. BUT THERE IS ALWAYS ANOTHER SIDE TO ANY COIN: JOHN MORRIS MENTIONED: "WE GET DISCOVERED BETWEEN 25YRS AND 50 YRS, BY FOLKS LIKE THE KENNEDY'S WHO NEEDED OUR VOTES. OR THE 'ROCKY-FELLERS' NEEDING TO GET IN THE SENATE. OF COURSE, REMEMBER THAT THE POWERFUL "BLUEGRASS" CAME FROM FOLKS OF THAT REGION. IT IS THE REAL VOCAL MUSIC OF FOLKS FROM THAT REGION WHO SPEAK OF IT. IT DOES COME FROM BABY BOOMER COLLEGE KIDS WHO WERE RAISED ON SIDEWALKS. BLUEGRASS MUSIC IS A "WAY" PUSHING THE TIMETABLE BACK, THE SO CALLED OLD TIME TRADITIONAL APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN MUSIC WAS WHERE IT WAS INVENTED BY A PEOPLE WHO WERE "UP AGAINST IT". OLD TIME MUSIC WAS NOT FROM ENGLAND OR IRELAND NOR IN AFRICA, BUT A "COMBINATION" OF THE RHYTHMS AND TUNES FROM THOSE DIFFERENT REGIONS DOVETAILED TOGETHER. THE REAL OLD TIME MUSIC IS ABOUT A "WAY". SO IT IS THAT GENERALLY AN OPPRESSED PEOPLE ARE THE ONES WHO CAN COME UP WITH "GREAT HOMEMADE MUSIC ALL OVER THE WORLD". WHICH IS ABOUT A "WAY" THE BLACKS TOOK THAT 19th MUSIC AND CAME UP WITH "THE BLUES", "JAZZ", ETC, ETC. WHICH IS ABOUT A "WAY" THE 20/20 SHOW MAY HAVE COME FROM EASTERN KENTUCKY. AND IF IT CAME FROM "BIG MUD CREEK" OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT, THEN THAT WAS THE AREA WHERE JOHN AND DAVID MORRIS BAND AND I WAS PLAYING BANJO FOR THEM IN 1972 WERE WORKING ON HOLDING A "FESTIVAL". JOHN OR I CAN TELL YOU THE STORY SOME TIME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED. HOPE THIS HELPS PUT A BIT OF POSITIVE LIGHT RE THINGS YOU MIGHT SEE DOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF POVERTY AND HOPELESSNESS. THERE IS A WELL WRITTEN BOOK CALLED "STORMING HEAVEN" BY DENISE G_____ WHICH GOES INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE REGION, IF YOU ARE INTERESTED. DWIGHT Dwight Diller PO Bx 376 Rt 2 Bx 22 Marlinton WVa 24954 304-799-4965 -- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following: Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by clicking on the following link (URL): DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/newsletter/ DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE If the above link (URL) is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long link (URL) and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism into two lines which may not work. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter If you're still having trouble, please contact us: mailto:dillerbanjo@yahoo.com Yew Pine Mountain Music PO Box 376 Marlinton, WV 24954 304-799-4965 Mailing List Powered by Dada Mail http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/what_is_dada_mail/

Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Message

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:38:00 GMT

(You have received this message as you have previously joined or requested to join our mailing list. Information, including unsubscription instructions and our physical mailing address and phone number are located at the bottom of this message) ITINERARY 2009 DILLER OLD TIME MUSIC CLASSES W/ BANJO, SMALL AMOUNT OF FIDDLE & VOCAL This is the approximate itinerary for this year. In the past couple of years I have started having classes that run 4 full days � that is Monday thru Thursday. Students arrive late afternoon on Sunday and leave Friday morning. Here in the past 4 years, since I had the auto accident, the classes have been kept small - from a couple of students up to about four. I tire easily anymore, but all the years of teaching experience is still there. Consequently the student gets more of a one on one instruction. AND the setting is out in the rural highlands of West Virginia where the old music was born and/or nurtured. There was one of my �English� students who made the trip over one year, and his comment was �Just being in these mountains was worth the trip alone�. Over the years, we have provided the board and room as well as the instruction. The student has a small single room in the new building erected a few years back specifically for the purpose of teaching. It has a small kitchen, two bathrooms, and large area for teaching is the layout of the building. One thing to keep in mind: it is not some fancy motel or Swiss chalet, so do not come expecting the ritz. It is plain with good mattresses on the beds and some pictures of the old people I learned the music from on the walls. [QUICK NOTE: until a student gets the basics, s/he will never play the music: IE rhythm.] As you go out the front door you can look at the Monongahela National Forest which starts 40 feet from the back side of my building. That part of the Forest contains tens of thousands of acres, free of �improvement�; just federal forest. The lodge sits at the mouth of two hollows which are pleasant to hike in. There are other back roads which meander through more open countryside. If you should want to know more about this area, go to www.pocahontascountywv.com and they will fix you right up. It is best to bring shoes that are at least 6� high. This land is east of the local Greenbriar River which sometimes has a rattlesnake or copperhead. West of the Greenbriar, there is almost never a poisonous snake. I had an uncle whose answer for most everything, like poisonous snakes east of the Greenbriar river, was, �they probably don�t pay their preacher good enough�. Since I was ordained some 25 years ago, I have wondered about that. We generally take an afternoon to go out to the high ground �IE the Back Allegheny Mountain area. Where we always go is part of the Yew Pine Mountains � to the Highland Scenic Highway that runs across the top of Black Mountain @ about 4500 feet elevation. It is up there at 4000 feet and above that the red spruce, or �yew pine� as the old people called it, grows. At that height, my WVU college professor back in the �60s made the statement that the �climate up there is like 400-500 miles into Canada� This was the area where the old folks, one branch of the Hammons�, settled back in about 1860, moving away from the storm clouds which were rising in Kentucky just before that �war�. The land was still a pure wilderness which, except for the danger from Indians, was what Daniel Boone et al encountered when they first went into the �Kentucky� region in the mid-1700s. It was a complete and total wilderness. Old stories which were passed down tell of events which happened during �the war�, but for the most part, there were just a few troops coming through that isolated region during the war. Plus after the Civil War, Maggie, Burl and Sherman�s grandfather, Jesse Hammons, said there was a period of �13 YEARS� that �a stranger never darkened my door�. That is a lot of isolation in those Yew Pine Mountains in eastern U.S. by the late 1800s. Sounds more like back in the really isolated areas of the Rocky Mountains. My neighbors, this family of Hammons, were different from even the other �mountain people� in this region. Their threads were connected directly to the mid to late 18th century �frontier�; whereas, these valleys were being settled were �somewhat� civilized/safe by the late 18th century. I mean a complete change from �hunter/gatherer� to �farmer�. The �frontier� was passing it by sometime in the 1770-80s. So the Hammons and their isolation was being carried on until AFTER the turn of the 20th century and the coming of the �timber boom�. I could go on and on expanding on the regional history but will stop. However, most importantly is for the student to try to get a grasp of the context which is absolutely impossible to get anywhere else besides the literal Appalachian Mountains. And only a few places here are left to catch a grisly sense of what might have been. this place is, in its own way, still a harsh land. Outsiders come here and build big fancy homes but they are unable to take the 4 months in winter when they close in. For sure this music cannot be picked up on college campus� or some flatland setting whether in a city or more rural area. Therefore with my background of living most of my life here where my ancestors lived, teaching the old banjo and the history for 37+ years now to hundreds of students, plus having accommodations for a few students at a time, this is a real opportunity that cannot be found anywhere else. Note, I didn�t imply or say everything was perfect; I would be a fool to make promises about what will happen. However, I can guarantee the student will be challenged; it will be hard work to learn this alien music since it is almost never ever �natural� for a student whether s/he has been working at it for two months, two years, two decades. But the �enjoyment and sense of accomplishment is in the journey, not the arrival�. I personally KNOW from my own experience. For the butterfly, it must fight, beat, pound, clobber before it can take flight. To �REALLY PLAY THE TRUE OLD MOUNTAIN MUSIC, IT TAKES MUCH DISCIPLINE, STRUGGLE, AND LIGHT HEARTEDNESS. NO TAKING YOURSELF SERIOUSLY�. THESE ARE THE DATES I AM PROPOSING; NOTHING IS CAST IN CONTRETE AT THIS TIME EXCEPT MY TRIP TO MICHIGAN. I WILL BE CUTTING BACK ON THE NUMBER OF CLASSES TO ABOUT A TOTAL OF THREE BANJO CLASSES. I WILL PLAN A WEEK IN LATE JUNE? OR MID JULY? AND VERY EARLY AUGUST PLUS ONE INCLUDING THE FIRST OF OCTOBER THAT I HAVE BEEN RUNNING FOR MANY YEARS. NOTE: it is of up most importance for you to have ordered my �JUST RHYTHM� dvd from Elaine at ediller@gmail.com to study deeply. APRIL 9-12: ?Grand Rapids Michigan. This plan just hit the ground the first week of Jan 09. If enough students sign up, we will go forward with the class. I have been traveling to Michigan every year since the late �80s except for �06. If you are interested, please email and I will give you the email address to contact the person, Pat Harkins, who hosts this class in her home. She can then give the particulars. Since I have to fly up, the sooner there is enough folks signed up, the less expensive my plane ticket will be. The plane ticket last November to England was so expensive that it made the trip touch and go to come out ahead. It�s just the times. So plans have to be made asap. Unlike other outfits, when you come here to Knave Run- Brown's Creek, you will not be charged for linens or towels. And for a small charge they might even be clean. MAY 22-24: FYI �Vandelia Gathering at WVa State Capital in Charleston� every Memorial Day weekend. Free and open to the public w/ lots of music on the grounds as well as concerts inside. I am scheduled to play at the Saturday Night concert inside. The music starts Friday afternoon and runs until Sunday evening. There is also food stands, some right good craftsmen there selling their wares. So the cost is the price of a room unless you 1. have a camper 2. someone to stay with. Tiz a good learning experience; many of the best true old time musicians in the world are still left in WVa. Don�t forget to bring machinery for to make recordings. I have been told they are handy years down the road. Though I have a �tab book� with my name on it and it includes all WVa tunes, many of which are from this region especially the Hammons, I cannot read tab, cannot teach tab, cannot encourage tab except to the person who wants to try to get ahold of a skeleton framework. As far as exact notes in each tune each time, that does not happen with me nor did it happen with the old musicians. They were playing their �heart� and not some dots on a page; thus each time the tune was played, their heart/spirit was in a different �mode�. It just takes a long time to know which is correct groups of notes and which are not part of the tradition. Wilson Douglas said �It takes about 10 years �just to start to learn� about the old music�. And he grew up smack dab in the middle of the tradition. JUNE 19-20-21: FYI WVa State Folk Festival @ Glenville St College, Glenville, WVa. This festival has been on going since the late 1940s and I am told it is the longest running of it�s kind. I don�t know, but I do know for sure, it has had some of the world�s absolute very best Appalachian old time musicians pass through it�s doors. This was a region where the �old music� and culture was kept alive when the old music was being rejected like a ugly mongrel dog most everywhere else. I highly recommend for people to attend. The main folks who really attend are the local people who enjoy the yearly Friday and Saturday night square dance by blocking off part of main street and building a dance platform. Also people turn out for the yearly parade. It�s THEIR festival. Aint no big deal except it has never been artificial. There are music contests but only little ribbons are given out. The concerts have real people with real music. And generally the student dormitory rooms are open for a small fee and bring your own bed clothes and fan. JULY 12-17: Knave Run of Brown�s Creek [my facility which can be seen on my website �www.dwightdiller.com]. This week will be geared more for some of the most important "basic" which is rhythm as well as some tunes. Obviously I am cutting back on the number of classes. I am planning on three classes this year. There are some folks who have assisted me over the years. Perhaps they can make it; i dont know. Class size will depend on how many students want to sign up, and whether my friends who have assisted can attend. But a large class will be 4 or 5 students. BTW, this class could be the week before which includes the 4th of July holiday. It will be set up for people who would be interested in either one of these 2 week time periods. Re: the holiday weekend, students would still arrive late Sunday afternoon. AUGUST 9 - 14: Knave Run on Brown�s Creek. This class is one of a total of three for 2009. Class size will depend on whether any of my friends who have helped so much can make it also. As always over the decades, I zero in "how well a few tunes can be played" and not this feeding into "tune-aholicism that has been running rampant for a long time now". Either the student learns how to handle the banjo and the proper rhythm, lest s/he insult the 'Music', OR it is just a mish-mash travisity. Through much discipline and joy, the student learns to really properly play 25-30 tunes or s/he does not. Tuition, room and board w/ 4 full days of morning and afternoon classes and what ever can be stirred up in the evening. Students arrive late Sunday afternoon and leave just after breakfast Friday morning. The total both weeks is $520 since these two classes will be small so you dont get lost in the rush. Either/Or. And it is not about lots of "technique" or "speed" or "exact proper notes"; it is about "heart/spirit and soul". That is always the goal in my classes. Always has been; always will be for this "old homemade traditional mountain music". It is my heritage which I try to pass along. Not "round peak" heritage or "kentucky" heritage or etc. It is about Central and East Central WVa's Heritage and Culture. It was not born on a sidewalk in the "flatlands". Much to many folks chagrin, this is the heritage i have always tried to share and pass along; this is why i have been so serious about it. SEPTEMBER 4 MORNING: FYI - THOSE WHO WANT TO ATTEND THE STONEWALL JACKSON JUBILEE @ NOON FRIDAY THRU LABOR DAY MONDAY; THE SETTING IS AT THE WVa STATE 4-H CAMP NEAR WESTON, WVa [JUST OFF I-79]: I have been attending this festival since 1977 and been blessed with not having missed a year. There is generally between 100-150 WVa musicians who are in attendance and there are NO CONTESTS AND THE MUSIC RUNS FROM THE AM UNTIL ABOUT 11PM AT NIGHT. There is a large parking area with tractors and covered hay wagons with benches running day and night. Some of the tractors have been �souped up� by the young men driving them, but there is no danger. The large parking area is a great field where a tent can also be pitched or a trailer parked for no extra charge. It is also a brief walk over to the field from the grounds. There is a huge number of �juried craft booths�, glass blowing, quilt contests, photography contests. BBQ chicken or pork meals stands, Civil War reenactments; rendezvous gatherings, etc. I�ll shut up. Its just that I get more out of this than any other music gathering. Clifftop has no old time music compared to this. I dont know of any person/student of mine who attended and did not have a good time. if you plan to go, better get you a motel room right soon; the ones near by fill up right quick. OCTOBER 4-10: 5 DAYS OF CLASS AND 6 NIGHTS SLEEPING: Over the years this was a larger class and was attended by some of the students previously here. However, last October I don�t remember any of my older students being able to make the trip. But the lodge was full if I remember correctly. I have tried to time the class when the leaf color is at it�s peak and have almost always been close to correct. Last fall we had no killing frost by that time so the leaves hung on. Once again, this class will be geared for those who want to attend whatever their level. Contrary to old wives legends, students will not be bodily thrown out of class. This week, being one extra day of instruction, will be $70 more = $599 total. NOVEMBER IN ENGLAND: The trip to England has generally been the first Tuesday after November 1st because of plane ticket rates and that seemed a convenient time for everyone all around. I am still planning to make the trip if possible. It will mostly depend on expenses and whether folks decide to sign up. The economy of course has made many changes in England as well as the U.S. But as fuel prices have gone down, it will be interesting to see if the airlines reduce their rates. If I do come it will possibly be from the 2nd of November until the 16th of November or Tuesday until Tuesday. This will allow for the usual 2 weekend classes. When I travel over to England, I have extra good friends over there just as i do here. There is a bunch of them that have a sense of humor to what we have here in the blue collar group. There is a lot of laughing and joking mixed in with the seriousness. My first year was 1998 and last year was 2008. Because of the auto wreck, I had to miss 2005, so that was a total of 10 teaching trips. Going to England is like going to the Jubilee each year - a peaceful and fun family reunion. DECEMBER 4-6: For quite a few years I have been coming to Pittsburgh to teach a weekend class � Friday evening until Sunday afternoon. Cindy Harris has been hosting the class in her home for many years now. This date is not cast in concrete but has been the first weekend in December. The heavy weather usually has not set in yet. This year there was some, though. Her email address is cah@lonewolf.com when you are ready to contact her. She is right well organized. I am going to get around to that one of these days, I think. Actually I am doing good to get this out before June. Anyone with questions, please feel free to email dillerbanjo@yahoo.com. Sometimes I am available for a phone call but not as regular as email: 304-799-4965 As I said, if you have never been in one of my classes, I highly recommend you purchase my �JUST RHYTHM� dvd and if you can afford it, possibly a cd like �JUST BANJO 99� or �JERICHO ROAD� both of which are my solo banjo recordings. www.morningstarfolkmusic.com or ediller@gmail.com for questions I plan to send out something before long that is more personal. Its about a recent discovery which fit some pieces of my music-history walk � IE my personal influences from years past starting at least 55 years ago. It was a real whiz-bang for me. If you are not interested, just dump the thing for sure. It�s just one native West Virginian�s experience growing up as part of the underclass or blue collar class of the mountains, and having some sort of a professional career in the traditional native mountain music. The threads in people�s lives are generally not readily apparent on the surface. At the moment, there is a brand, spankin new DVD set to be released. When it is on the market, an announcement will be in my newsletter. It is a work that has been several years and probably tears of frustration as well as joy. Bates and Jody Littlehales have put all their decades of work at the National Geographic Society as highly acclaimed wildlife photographer as well as jaunts from under the seas to the mountains for Bates and Jody�s many years of work in layout and publishing. All that is left to do on this release is front cover and text. They have very generously produced my teaching videos/dvds over these past few years. This new dvd has animal life, plant life, bug life, bird life from here in Pendleton and Pocahontas counties, WVa. They own property up around 4000� elevation, and the county line goes about through their house. Some animals were photographed right out the bedroom window. Some footage was from a few yards down over the hill, but other footage took time, travel, much patience to get what they wanted. However, with the books of birds in all kinds of positions, Bates said �I�m not patient; I�m just curious.� Or something like that. I think I be safe in saying "it is a work of art and you can hold me to that" TAKE NOTE: THIS IS NOT SOME HONKY TOURIST FLAP. It has a continual running theme set in a background of all four seasons in these mountains with flora and fauna in their appropriate setting. They used my solo banjo tunes as a thread to carry everything along. Jody has done an excellent job of putting chapters/tracks and closed captioning can be chosen also. This allows the names of all the birds, animals, bugs, insects, tadpoles, newts, etc to be identified. It is a real honor for me that my music was chosen to be the background music for this, again, �timely work of art�. I�m not one to use superlatives like this, spectacular and brilliant fit in the slot to describe this powerful addition to a world of artificial and imitation. I will notify you when they are ready and rarin to go. Actually, i am going to request some help here. This is going out to some 800 of you. It would really help if you sent word "IF" you would be interested in a copy. It is hard to judge how to order. If only a few of you would be interested, then decisions can go one way, but if a good many of you would be interested, the another route might need be taken. Now if you notify me and then decide "No thanks" later, you will not be held to that. i would not do some trick like that. so i am cousulting with you. as for price? i dont know yet, but i would think for the DVD in the case would be up close to $30. Anyway, i have never seen anything to compare with the footage, with how the tracks are divided up, how it is organized and close captioned, etc, etc. it is so hi-tech that i got confused working with it; but i am a DUD when it comes to complex work such as this. [I dont even own a cell phone.] There are just too many options for me dwight -- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following: Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by clicking on the following link (URL): DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=newsletter&e=example@example.com&p=1234 DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE If the above link (URL) is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long link (URL) and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism into two lines which may not work. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter If you're still having trouble, please contact us: mailto:ediller@gmail.com Yew Pine Mountain Music PO Box 376 Marlinton, WV 24954 304-799-4965

P.S. Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Message

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:01:00 GMT

(You have received this message as you have previously joined or requested to join our mailing list. Information, including unsubscription instructions and our physical mailing address and phone number are located at the bottom of this message) The last newsletter was sent out before this post script from Dwight came in: "A student has emailed to see about coming for 2-3 days between Christmas and New Years. I have room for one or possibly two more students. Anyone interested please contact me at my dillerbanjo@yahoo.com OR dwightdiller@gmail.com address. I am in England until Tuesday, Nov. 20 so please use my 'gmail' address until then; 'yahoo' refuses anything from over here." Thanks, Dllr -- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following: Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by clicking on the following link (URL): DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=newsletter&e=example@example.com&p=1234 DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE If the above link (URL) is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long link (URL) and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism into two lines which may not work. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter If you're still having trouble, please contact us: mailto:ediller@gmail.com Yew Pine Mountain Music PO Box 376 Marlinton, WV 24954 304-799-4965

Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Message

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 03:34:00 GMT

(You have received this message as you have previously joined or requested to join our mailing list. Information, including unsubscription instructions and our physical mailing address and phone number are located at the bottom of this message) My friends, who help, aid, assist, and encourage, about the only words I can say are thank you. Hundreds of you have helped in small and great ways over the past forty years. I have been given a couple gifts of teaching and having a grasp of the old music from these east central WVa mountains. But that would have meant nothing if it hadn�t been for you who care. In order to give you fair warning, there is a bunch of chit-chat in here. You might want to just punt right now. If you don�t, don�t blame me; you have been forewarned. [This is a �Word� document and Word drives me up a wall. But here goes.] Tuesday November 4th, Dave Bing & I head out for our annual trip to England to teach those students, many of whom have become our extra good friends over the years. 1998 was my first trip over and I taught many of these students - 24 in one class � then afterwards attended the festival headed up by FOAOTMAD [Friends of American old time music and dance]. Then on Sunday afternoon, Phil Tyler, who had just gotten his drivers license two days before � on Friday, took me on a wild and woolly trip to play music at many folk clubs crossing back and forth across England several times. We returned safely. Sometimes there was a question. Just like here in the states, though I only see these folks maybe once a year, it is like a family reunion without the knives or fisticuffs Somehow I was able to pick the week of the major fall colors in October this year. In some places in the mountains, it looked like the trees were on fire. This time there were, besides me, four on staff including my son, Caleb. He is really coming on strong as a player and teacher. At age 24, he has made a decision to go after the bottom line, and with his talent and ability, he is going to be as good as it gets one of these days. Folks will say, well he heard you around the house, but I maybe pulled out my banjo at the house not over 30 times between 1974 and now. So that doesn�t wash. And he knows the good stuff from what is a fake and fraud [as my daughter does also]. Just one more and then I will shut up: if it takes him longer than 12-13 minutes to catch a tune, he is put out by it. It took me from 1968 until 1970 just to catch on to the clawhammer style; it took him about 6 minutes. I have very little musical talent, but the mountains do play tunes that sidewalks cannot. They play in my heart right often. Starting last spring, the classes began running with approximately one each month. However, because of my fatigue problems, I have to keep the classes really small. What I mean is two to four; once in awhile I will go ahead with only one student though that doesn�t maximize my time. BUT I remember wanting the music so badly that I could taste it. The old people did what they could; it is up to me to do what I can. First was Michigan in march, then here on Knave�s Run/Brown�s Creek, May, June, July, August, September, and October. I fulfill my scheduled visit to Pittsburgh for my annual pilgrimage to teach the first weekend in December. Btw, that same class is on the books again this December, same time. Anyone interested can email Cindy Harris at cah@lonewolf.com. Seems the class is already filling. I think Caleb will be able to ride with me to teach also. It works out that there generally is some instruction Friday evening, Saturday morn and afternoon, a small concert on Saturday night and then instruction from 10am until about 12:30 �1:30pm on Sunday. Just depends on just how much the students have started to �white eye�. That is when their noggins are on overload, and their �eyes start to roll back in their head like a dying calf�, as is said around here in WVa where rules is different. These are my recordings which are in short supply: �Harvest�, �Just Banjo 99�, the new �Mountain Voice�. At the moment , �Hold On�, �Red Rooster�, �Oh Death�, �Piney Woods�, �Papa�, �Just Banjo 96� are still available in small numbers. My friends, Jerry and Russ, were the ones who switched my cassettes over to cds and ran off large numbers of those for me over the past few years. As a new project, I I have recently considered sifting thru the approximately fifteen recordings and picking out some �best of�, maybe using some theme or another. The �In England� cds are also gone. There are still plenty of �Trouble on Spring Creek�, �Festival Favorites�, but I don�t know what happened to the �New Plowed Ground�. Sometimes it seems that �things that go bump in the night� pack them off somewhere like rats and mice do. While trying to get packed today, avoiding cleaning the mess in the kitchen sink, draining the water tank in the lodge and on and on and on, suddenly reality rolled in: my passport was no where to be found. I had just had it two days ago. Duh, one of my daily senior moments had rolled in. I keep telling myself if I had more order around here, �things would not get lost�. I will say no more except after several hours, it did show itself with some help from my Friend and friend. The massive �Audio-Visual� project is moving forward. Still very, very slowly, but not like the previous 40yrs [May/June 1968 to June 2008]. Presently we are waiting to hear from the WVa Humanities Foundation about a large grant. It is going to take a bunch of bucks $�s to sustain this. I figger out of that $700B that is being passed out to special interest groups as well as other notable worthies, that ship will come in for us also. Again, for any of you who are not familiar with what is taking place, we have all the recordings that I made back in 1969-�71 of the Hammons� folks which include hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tracks. They were all salvaged by David Nemec, my savvy flatlander originally of CN and then arranged in a great data base by Russ Hatton who is a part of the WVa diaspora. Between those two, hundreds and hundreds of critical hours were spent bringing that material to the true light of day. And the approximately 700+ B&W photos which I took in 2nd & 3rd weekends of October 1970 to choose from, are in the plans. As I have said before, my vision has been to put them all together for the public. However, over the decades there was no technology possibly available to me to put the transcribed stories in hard copy form accompanied with audio of the talking so folks could listen and read along. Well what is available now is to use my little camcorder to get some footage of the mountains where the Hammons� first settled about the time of the War of the Rebellion in 1861. Use it for back ground scenery, put appropriate photos in, and have the voice over of the Hammons� telling the actual story so folks can read the hard copy and follow along. They had come from Kentucky in a round about way. Like many others who settled in the central and east central region of what is now WVa hills and mountains CAME FROM THE FRONTIER WEST, TRAVELING EAST/NORTH EAST. That land was to hard to penetrate from where I live going into the �Back Allagheny Mountains� to my west. The Hammons were living here in the same community where I grew up � Pocahontas County. They had carried the old stories in their hearts and minds from childhood and were in their very late 60s and in their 70s by then, but their minds were still very sharp and clear. The stories dated back as far as the frontier in possibly mid-1700s. Maybe around or just after what was called the French and Indian war. So these stories AND songs and tunes are a powerful legacy which they gave to me as I visited them. I just knew that I liked the old stories and music, but was in no way one of those �folklore people�. People keep saying I �studied� with the Hammons�. As the Hammons� often said, �that is fool�s talk�. So the decision from �WVa Humanities� should be forthcoming before long. Of course there is always a bunch of politics involved, but this thing has to get done somehow, even if I have to finally put it on a dvd and issue it that way. Mr Lee Hammons [no kin; born 1883] said, in amongst all the other things, �you don�t have to always choke a cat on butter to kill it�. Trying to deal with government and councils when money is involved, most generally is not a good thing to do. Often too many strings attached. Jimmy Costa told a story about an incident back when FDR was elected and took office and there was the idea he was going to fix everything which is something you might have heard before. Anyway, someone asked an old woman in the maybe Talcot area what she thought about the new group who had been elected and were on their way to Washington? Her answer was � Same old pile of �s__t�; just a new set of flies!�. Hmmm��. She obviously had been aware of politicks as usual maybe since the late �70s or 1880s. Hmmm�� I don�t have a calendar at the moment, but I do plan to have maybe a Michigan trip in March, then maybe a late March/early April class; a 4 day class the week before memorial day with the class ending on Friday morn; a 4 day class probably before the 3rd weekend [close to June 20th ] since June 20th 1863 was the day WVa became a state illegally; then I plan to have a class sometime in July [I will need to hear from a few students when they would like to have a class around that time]; There is an offer to travel to England in early August for a few days, as Elmer Fudd said �West �n WeWaxashen @ Wass�. Then a 4 day class ending on Friday of the Labor Day weekend. Memorial Day, WVa Day and Labor Day each have a WVa festival which is worthwhile attending. This year I had a class in mid-September weekend and then the longer full week class sometime around the first full week in October. Again, except for any trip to England in the summer, I am planning to have classes so students can hit the good WVa festivals if at all possible. Note that I did NOT mention clifftop. But surely that was just faux pas up that can be overlooked. [There are lot of my student friends who I would like to see who attend clifftop, but�] Well, it�s past midnight and I have managed to put those dishes off for a few weeks now. At the moment I still don�t have any vermin; my cat, Ms Roxie, stays on patrol. However, if I keep feeding them, she may not be able to hold her own down here where it is hard scrabble in the poverty belt. Presses Kennedy and Johnson swore they would wage war agin it; then come that J.D. Rocky IV fellar, on his way to u.s. senate, stopped by to also save us from ourselves, but here we still sit after his two terms. But, one thing was/is for sure, Gov Rocky had no need of stealing funds which is just accepted as normal practice of ours; how many millions did uncle Nelson leave him while he was here? My old friend Len Reiss said �WVa should automatically send their governors, for their second term, directly to jail; �Do not pass Go�.� [Len was originally from N.J.]. Thus, in keeping with that word of wisdom, right often we send our governors to the pokey. The Honorable Wally Barron in the �60s represented us at one of the federal resorts. Then we had the Honorable Gov Arch Moore whose desk drawer held $200,000 in cash smackers. Well, HE did NOT know where it had come from and there it set/sat, so obviously HE was not using it!! �MOI??� So when our Honorable Gov Moore paid his debt to WVa society, he ran for the governor�s position again. My Friends, never let anyone try to convince you that the roads, the music, the pollyticks in WVa is not crooked. Nor should you ever consider for one moment that there could possibly be a need for �tall tales from the Legendary Past�. Known to handle our Truth very carefully, we have no need whatsoever of those stupid �Jack Tales�. Remember, �rules is different in WVa�. And to all �Good Night�, Ho, Ho, Ho. -- The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following: Yew Pine Mountain Music / Dwight Diller Email Newsletter Using the following email: example@example.com You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by clicking on the following link (URL): DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=newsletter&e=example@example.com&p=1234 DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE UNLESS YOU WANT TO UNSUBSCRIBE If the above link (URL) is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address. Some mail readers will wrap a long link (URL) and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism into two lines which may not work. You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen: http://www.dwightdiller.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=newsletter If you're still having trouble, please contact us: mailto:ediller@gmail.com Yew Pine Mountain Music PO Box 376 Marlinton, WV 24954 304-799-4965