{"id":24136,"date":"2022-12-18T05:30:06","date_gmt":"2022-12-18T10:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24136"},"modified":"2022-11-16T16:06:25","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T21:06:25","slug":"the-bobby-mcmillon-legacy-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/18\/the-bobby-mcmillon-legacy-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bobby McMillon Legacy Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preserving Appalachian ballads and stories<\/strong>
\nLenoir, N.C.-based ballad singer, storyteller and folklorist Bobby McMillon passed away in November 2021, but thanks to a project at Mars Hill University and funding from South Arts, his work of preserving and sharing the unique ballads and oral traditions of his Southern Appalachian heritage will continue.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to preserving and continuing the lifelong work of Bobby McMillon, The Ramsey Center for Appalachian Studies established the Bobby McMillon Legacy Project. And thanks to an infusion of funds from South Arts, the Project is on track to continue its work. A centerpiece of the ongoing project is a Round Robin Ballad Circle. That event took place November 10 at the Broyhill Chapel on the Mars Hill University campus.<\/p>\n

South Arts is an organization founded with a goal of supporting the artists, arts organizations and communities that help the South thrive. South Arts hosts programs and conferences and provides fellowships for artists; the organization also providing funding via grants. Based at Mars Hill University, The Ramsey Center for Appalachian Studies is the recipient of a $10,000 \u201cIn These Mountains\u201d grant.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The grant provides funding to the Bobby McMillon Legacy Project. Components of the project include an accessible digitized collection of McMillon\u2019s notes and collaboration with Mars Hill students. The program also provides for artist residencies for ballad singer Sheila Kay Adams and folklorist, musician, farmer and longtime McMillon friend William Ritter. Adams, Ritter and dancer Rodney Sutton are taking on much of the labor involved in archiving, and Adams and Rotter are launching a podcast.<\/p>\n

The program also includes community performances like the one set for November 10. That event, says Leila Weinstein, Program Coordinator at the Ramsey Center, will be an informal gathering of ballad singers in a round robin setting. And while it\u2019s still in the planning stages, another event next spring \u201cwill feature Bobby, Sheila and William doing an evening program in tribute to Bobby,\u201d says Weinstein. \u201cIt\u2019ll also let people learn more about this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bobby McMillon\u2019s life and work<\/b>
\nMcMillon was more than a collector of songs and stories, says Weinstein. \u201cHe was a historian at heart, so he would research the histories. If there was a ballad that was about a real event, he would know all about it.\u201d Weinstein says that McMillon would read written accounts to supplement and add to his understanding of the oral accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was also very much a folklorist,\u201d Weinstein adds. \u201cHe would get songs and stories from people, find out where a person learned the song from, and write that down.\u201d McMillon\u2019s written notes make up a substantial portion of the archive being preserved at Mars Hill University.<\/p>\n

Weinstein says that ballads of the sort that McMillon collected are closely related to storytelling. \u201cYes, they have melodies,\u201d she acknowledges, \u201cbut [ballads] are really a vehicle for the characters to move through some kind of narrative arc.\u201d And McMillon loved those ballads, devoting a lifetime to collecting and sharing them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe collection that we now have here [includes] notebooks and notebooks and notebooks,\u201d Weinstein says. And those volumes often feature handwritten comments from McMillon. \u201cFor transcriptions of ballads and songs, he\u2019ll have a note about the person he got it from,\u201d Weinstein says. \u201cHe preserved lots of songs that way.\u201d The archive brings together an immense amount of cultural history and information.<\/p>\n

\u201cBobby left us a wealth of writings, recordings, and books that can serve as the seed for countless projects, albums, programs and presentations,\u201d says William Ritter. \u201cHe had a vast ocean of knowledge about Appalachia, and not just its old songs. He was eager to share what he knew, and just as eager to learn more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making sure that McMillon\u2019s materials are \u201ceasily found and accessible\u201d is a primary goal of Ritter\u2019s. \u201cThat\u2019s why we wanted his collection to go to Mars Hill University,\u201d he explains. \u201cMadison County is one of the very last places with a real living, breathing ballad singing tradition that stretches back centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ritter \u2013 who colorfully describes himself as a \u201cserious heirloom seed-saver\u201d \u2013 says that his own goal of preserving McMillon\u2019s writings and recordings has a special area of focus. He wants to complete an unfinished project that McMillon called \u201cI Remember Maw Maw.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaw Maw was Bobby\u2019s great aunt\u201d Mae Phillips, Ritter says. Maw Maw lived just over the State line in Cocke County, Tenn. Ritter says that McMillon \u201ccollected a beautiful and diverse repertoire from her,\u201d and notes that the late folklorist \u201cstopped and started a book about her and her songs and stories\u201d many times.<\/p>\n

As with many of McMillon\u2019s projects, that initiative took many forms. \u201cBetween his recordings of her in the \u201870s, his writings, and recordings of him singing her songs,\u201d Ritter says, \u201cthere’s enough for something very special.\u201d At present he\u2019s not sure what form the final project will take, but suggests it could include \u201can album with extensive liner notes or some other form of presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in keeping with McMillon\u2019s love of oral traditions, Ritter mentions that a great deal of the content of the ongoing \u201cI Remember Maw Maw\u201d project exists as \u201cthe songs from her that Bobby taught me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Awards and accolades<\/b>
\nIn 1995, Bobby McMillon received the North Carolina Folklore Society\u2019s Brown-Hudson Folklore Award. In 2000, McMillon was one of six individuals honored with the North Carolina Heritage Award, an annual presentation by the North Carolina Arts Council that recognizes artists \u201cfor their contributions to our state\u2019s cultural vitality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Author Daniel Patterson\u2019s 2000 book, A Tree Accurst: Bobby McMillon and Stories of Frankie Silver<\/i> weaves together a nearly 200-year-old murder mystery, McMillon\u2019s life story and the folk tales of the region. The book explores the roles that folklore, storytelling and ballads play in preserving the history of people and their communities.<\/p>\n

And the very existence of the Bobby McMillon Legacy Project makes plain the cultural importance of the humble man from Lenoir. But William Ritter believes that McMillon deserves even more recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly think Bobby had a sense of his importance in preserving or passing along Appalachian songs, stories, and folkways,\u201d Ritter concedes. \u201cBut I think those awards and accolades didn’t matter to him as much.\u201d He opines that in McMillon\u2019s twilight years, \u201che may have felt a little overlooked, a tad forgotten.\u201d The Legacy Project should go some way toward setting things right.<\/p>\n

Ritter also hopes that part of the Bobby McMillon Legacy Project will include preserving the singer-storyteller\u2019s \u201cBlue Books\u201d in a user-friendly format. \u201cBobby carefully wrote down lyrics, sayings and stories in these blue ruled-paper notebooks,\u201d Ritter explains. \u201cThey\u2019re an absolute treasure, the kind of thing that should be on a shelf next to Cecil Sharp’s classic English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians.\u201d <\/i>He emphasizes that at present, interested parties can only access McMillon\u2019s collection of Blue Books at Mars Hill University; photocopies of some of those books are stored in the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n

William Ritter believes that McMillon\u2019s body of work is of value for \u201canyone wanting to take a deep dive into Appalachia, or look for sayings for their Appalachian novel, or even just to find a very complete and beautiful version of a song from the 1600s to add to their repertoire.\u201d<\/p>\n

And thanks in part to McMillon\u2019s emphasis on continuing the oral tradition of songs and stories, there\u2019s a living legacy to his work that extends even beyond the archives at the Ramsey Center. \u201cBobby knew every song, and he knew ten variants<\/i> of every song,\u201d says Weinstein. She recalls reflecting on McMillon\u2019s enduring presence shortly after his passing. \u201cI remember thinking that felt like his stories and songs weren’t quite gone,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like they were floating around somewhere in the ether; you could have caught them. You just couldn’t imagine all of that information disappearing with somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ritter agrees, and he has more ideas about McMillon\u2019s legacy, too. \u201cI love the idea of getting a dedicated group of singers together to each learn a different song Bobby collected,\u201d he says, suggesting creation of an album organized around a \u201csong stewards\u201d theme. \u201cThat could be the springboard for getting these songs back out into the wild,\u201d Ritter enthuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cBobby had a completely disarming personality,\u201d says Weinstein. \u201cHe was very soft-spoken, but he had a dry wit. He could pull you in telling stories in his quiet, understated, slow way. And before you knew it, you were rapt with attention and in his spell.\u201d Weinstein says that in addition to McMillon\u2019s cultural importance as a guardian of songs and stories, he was \u201cpersonally important\u201d to a lot of people in the traditional music community. \u201cEverybody loved him,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a man who talked so much,\u201d Ritter says with a chuckle, \u201cBobby was one of the best listeners I have ever known. And he was deeply grateful for his roots and the culture he was a part of.\u201d And the Bobby McMillon Legacy Project will preserve key parts of that culture for future generations. \u201cAll in all, Bobby asked us to \u2018keep it a-going,\u2019\u201d Ritter says. \u201cAnd we aim to do that in any way we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

More information at songtoseed.com\/bobby-mcmillon-legacy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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