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The Route 23 Corridor: Country Music and More by Judy Sizemore
"I'm proud to be a coal miner's daughter."
With these opening words to her classic song, Loretta Lynn brought the music
and culture of eastern Kentucky to the attention of country music fans all
across the country. She was just one in a long line of musicians from the
hills of eastern Kentucky to gain national recognition. In fact, in 1997 the
Kentucky Tourism Development Cabinet designated U.S. Route 23 in eastern Kentucky
the "Country Music Highway" in recognition of the fact that twelve
major country music stars come from the region that Route 23 transverses.
Signs honoring the home counties of the twelve stars (Billy Ray Cyrus, the
Judds, Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Tom T. Hall, Dwight Yokum, Patti Loveless,
Hylo Brown, Crystal Gayle, and Loretta Lynn) were provided.The designation
of Route 23 as the "Country Music Highway" prompted the Kentucky
Arts Council and the Kentucky Folklife Program to select the Route 23 Corridor
for a pilot project. Eight counties (Boyd, Lawrence, Carter, EIIiott, Floyd,
Johnson, Pike, and Letcher) participated in this project, which explored the
potential for cultural/heritage tourism development from a regional perspective.
During the summer of 1998, four folklorists were assigned to the region to
conduct cultural resource surveys — to learn about the culture behind
the Country Music Highway signs.
The folklorists discovered that the communities along and adjacent to Route 23 have much more in common than a highway and a propensity for producing country music stars. They are bound together geographically and economically and share a unique and vigorous folklife that finds expression not only in music and the arts, but also in the occupations and daily lives of the residents.
In
order to understand the culture of this region, one must start with its geography.
The steep, coal-rich mountains and deep, twisting valleys of the southern
region contrast with the gently rolling uplands along the Ohio River in the
north, but the entire region is bound together by the network of creeks and
rivers that constitute the Big Sandy drainage basin. In pioneer times, the
Big Sandy and its tributaries were the major transportation corridor because
the mountain terrain made travel by land extraordinarily difficult. As the
timber industry grew in the 1800s, logs were rafted together and taken down
river to the mouth of the Big Sandy at Ashland, establishing a pattern that
continues today. Natural resources are extracted in the mountain counties
and travel north, where they are utilized by industry or disbursed to other
areas. While raw materials have always traveled northward from the mountains,
a steady flow of people and goods has consistently entered the Appalachian
region.
Shortly after the Civil War, northern businessmen became interested in developing the region's mineral and timber resources and invested in the development of the eastern Kentucky Railway. Tracks were laid from the Ohio River into Carter County at Grayson and then extended to Willard. The railroad transported pig iron, livestock, and passengers, connecting the people in this northeastern corner of the Route 23 Corridor with one another and with the outside world. It wasn't until much later, in the early 1900s, that the railroad penetrated the southern counties of Floyd, Johnson, Pike, and Letcher, ushering in the era of coal mining.
The culture of the Route 23 Corridor has been thoroughly intertwined with coal ever since. Even today the coal cars rumble north, joined by trucks traveling Route 23. Eastern Kentucky has some of the richest reserves of high quality coal in the world, and there are few people in the area who don't have some connection with coal. Because mining is a hazardous occupation requiring smooth teamwork and mutual trust among miners, miners and mining families have developed a strong occupational folklife rooted in the shared elements of danger and trust. Union struggles have also played—and continue to play—an important role in the folklife of mining communities.
Coal mining has affected the regional culture in another way. Despite fierce conflicts between European settlers and native peoples, there was also a great deal of cultural sharing and intermarriage, resulting in the unique culture we think of as "Appalachian." When the coal fields opened up in the early 1900s there was an influx of settlers from countries such as Italy, Greece, Russia, and Hungary, as well as African Americans from southern farms and northern cities. Each ethnic group brought its own traditions to add to the Appalachian mix. Today, Hungarian stuffed peppers are often served alongside the traditional soupbeans and cornbread, and mandolins introduced by Italian immigrants are as much a part of mountain music as fiddles.
The company controlled everything in a coal town—from private utilities and police forces to movie theaters and schools. Although coal companies no longer maintain towns for their employees, there are many surviving examples of the coal town era, such as the towns of Jenkins (Consolidated Coal) in Letcher County and Benham/Lynch (U. S. Steel) in Harlan County. There are efforts in several areas to preserve the remains of company towns in order to showcase the region's coal heritage.Although coal mining is the economic basis of the Route 23 Corridor, the boom and bust cycle of the industry has kept the region from achieving economic stability. This instability, coupled with the Appalachian penchant for self-reliance, has helped to encourage people to maintain traditional practices, even though these practices may have changed slightly from a generation or two ago.. A young man's first deer hunt is still a rite of passage among many families, although today the hunters are likely to use four wheelers and dress in camouflage.
Gardening and family farming continue to play a major role in this region. The art of butchering a hog, curing the ham, and making use of every possible part of the pig remains important. There are country ham contests at each county fair. Many people preserve the foods that they grow, using traditional methods such as canning and drying. One food unique to this area is "shuck beans," which are dried green beans cooked with salt pork. Everyone has their own recipe and everyone loves them. Corn relish and chow chow are other regional favorites. For those who don't do their own canning or benefit from a relative's efforts, there are a few general stores that carry local canned goods, such as Ed's Surplus in downtown Paintsville, where you can purchase country cooking supplies and the canned goods of the owner, Maxine Eldridge.Another specialty of the region is molasses, made from the juice of the sugar cane stalk. Cane stalks are fed into a mill, which squeezes out the green-colored juice. As it is slowly boiled down to a thick, syrupy consistency, it turns golden in color. Not too long ago a molasses "stir-off" was a major social event. Many families remember gathering together around the fire to socialize as they tended the molasses. Heaps of fresh biscuits were topped off with the "joe-foam" skimmed off the top of the boiling molasses and consumed by all. Youngsters chewed on the sweet stalks of cane. Today, modern mills are often powered by a generator or a tractor, but some people still follow the old tradition of a mule-powered mill. Molasses-making is now the highlight of many local festivals.
Another tradition that was born out of the necessity of understanding nature is wildcrafting. Until the roads and the railroads came into the region, the people here depended on the land and its flora and fauna for their food, shelter, and medicine. This knowledge has been handed down to succeeding generations. Nearly everyone knows of at least some plants that can be eaten or used for the purposes of healing. Morel mushrooms (also known as "dryland fish") are a seasonal favorite. Many people, including children, hunt ginseng, yellow root, blood root, and slippery elm in order to supplement their incomes.Farm families of past generations produced not only their own food and medicines, but also most of their own utensils, furniture, and toys from the natural materials they had at hand. Today there are woodcrafts for sale along the highways such as picnic tables, flowerpots, yard art, porch swings, and lawn chairs. This is evidence of a culture deeply rooted in woodcrafts.The Ashland Wood Carvers Club meets regularly in Boyd County, and numerous individual woodworkers throughout the region produce an amazing variety of handcrafted wood products. The majority make canes or walking sticks of different styles. Bud Poe, a coal miner from Floyd County, carves realistic "snake sticks" using a pocketknife and a leather tool. Garland Dixon of Paintsville uses a lathe to make his astounding wood-turned objects—bowls, urns, and other items from native and imported woods. Terry Ratliffe of Floyd County makes high quality chairs with hand-caned seats.
Elliott County has become a folk arts Mecca thanks to the efforts of local wood carver/folk artist Minnie Adkins. Minnie grew up on a farm and says she has been whittling "as far back as I can remember. I made slingshots and toys. My older brothers made sleds to ride in the snow." When Minnie was growing up, most people were concerned with making items that were useful, but from an early age, Minnie liked to carve things that were interesting to look at. When Minnie first started carving roosters as a young, married woman, she sold them for fifty cents each at flea markets. Now Minnie's roosters and other fanciful wood figures are displayed in museums and collected by celebrities. But success hasn't gone to her head. "What's important if you make it," Minnie says, "is to reach behind you and help other people make it, too." Every summer Minnie sponsors "Minnie's Day in the Country" and invites folk art collectors from all over the world. She does not market her own work at the festival but provides an opportunity for other budding folk artists to show their work to wealthy collectors. As a result, there is a thriving community of folk artists in Elliott County.Another common craft of the region also has its roots in the practicalities of an earlier era. Quilting is the classic example of art grown out of necessity. In homes that were often heated by a single source, the bedrooms were freezing cold in the winter. A good warm quilt was imperative. The only way to get quilts was to make them with whatever material could be found around the house, such as feed sacks and remnants from old clothing. Women, who were the main quilting artists, often worked on quilts together in quilting bees and shared patterns they created.
Today many people still quilt. In addition to the traditional patterns that they learn from family or neighbors, or those that they create themselves, they often get their patterns from books and usually do their quilting on a sewing machine. There are still groups of women who quilt together, such as those at the Carcassone Community Center in Letcher County.The Carcassone Quilting Club meets every Wednesday at the Carcassone Community Center. The center is symbolic of the heritage of the entire region, and once again the story must begin with the effects of geography on the development of a community. Located in a remote portion at the "lower end" of Letcher County, Carcassone is not an easy place to get to, winding up a long one-lane road from Blackey, across Jent Mountain to Bull Creek, and then up again. In the early 1920s Hendricks Caudill, a farmer, teacher, and Regular Baptist minister, was concerned that there was no school in the area that offered more than an eighth-grade education, so he decided to build a high school, using his own sawmill and volunteer labor. Other families in the community pitched in and eventually there was a school, a gymnasium, boys' and girls' dormitories, houses for teachers, and recreational activities.
Clifton Caudill is one of Hendricks' sons and a graduate of the Carcassone School. When the high school closed around 1940 and the elementary closed around 1972, Clifton considered it his duty to preserve the school structures as a symbol of his community and as his father's legacy. But he didn't want to preserve an empty structure. He wanted to preserve a sense of community, a way of life. So he and his wife Ruby organized a community group to plan activities for the center. Today, in addition to the quilting club, there are arts and crafts, recreational activities for children and teens, and a weekly square dance attended by all ages. Clifton and Ruby, who are in their eighties, are pleased that their granddaughter Beverley, an accomplished folk artist herself, has made a commitment to carrying on the square dance and the community center with her brother Greg.
There can be no such thing as a square dance without music, and Carcassone Community Center has the best, often featuring live performances by Lee Sexton. Lee Sexton is an old-time banjo and fiddle player who is well known in music circles and appeared here at the Kentucky Folklife Festival in 1997 and 1998. He and his uncle Morgan have appeared on the Appalshop's record label, and Morgan is a National Heritage Award winner. Lee lives within sight of his family homeplace in a trailer that is near the mouth of Linefork Creek. Lee learned to play music from his uncles and father, and his son Phil is carrying on the family traditions as a well-known old-time and gospel musician.Lee Sexton and his partners are excellent examples of the strong musical traditions of a region where music has been entertainment, ritual, dance, and, in recent years, an opportunity for fame and fortune.
Music is the heart and soul of the mountains, whether it's a "lined-out" Regular Baptist hymn or "country rock" gospel, a plaintive fiddle tune, or Dwight Yokum's Nashville style.Music is also an integral part of religion, and the music that has come out of the churches in this region is unique. A cappella singing is a common mountain tradition. People didn't have instruments and in some churches were not allowed to have instruments, so a unique style developed. The melody commonly "pops up" at the end of a line with a hint of a yodel. It is part of the "high lonesome" sound so often talked about in reference to Kentucky's music.
This region is well known not only for a cappella music, but for certain instruments as well. The instruments common to traditional music here are those that were brought in by the settlers. The fiddle came with the Scotch-Irish, the banjo came with the African Americans, the guitar came with Sears and Roebuck, and the mandolin came in with the Italians.Hylo Brown is one of the many musicians who calls the County Music Highway region his home. He lives part-time near River in Johnson County. Although he didn't reach "superstar" status, he was quite influential in the country music scene.
Herman Webb, though never reaching the heights his sisters—Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle—did, is a musician with quite a background in country music. He performed mainly on weekends and as a backup musician, playing bass guitar, guitar, and mandolin. Another member of this musical family, Peggy Sue Wright, is now a backup singer for Crystal Gale.
The Route 23 region claims both big name stars and locally famous musicians, and the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg and the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland regularly feature them both, as well as young musicians who will be tomorrow's stars. Music, however, is not confined to public performances. Informal "jam sessions" are frequent occurrences and some are even regularly scheduled. The Bluegrass America Music Club, for example, meets monthly in Ashland's Central Park to (as one member put it) "eat some chicken and pick some music.
"Fried chicken and bluegrass, quilts and carving, coal mining and farming are all elements of the unique culture that can be found along the "Country Music Highway." As the communities involved in the Route 23 Corridor Project consider how to integrate their heritage into cultural economic development, they are ever mindful that too much development could destroy the very heritage they wish to promote. Finding the balance between heritage tourism development and the preservation and evolution of traditional folkways is a challenge, but the process of finding that balance will only strengthen the region's commitment to both its past and its future.
