I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. While Vande Brake imparts a great deal of information, her style is quite conversational. Reading the book feels like sitting at a kitchen table in conversation with an old friend over a cup of coffee. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading a good book about books or anyone who seeks information about the Melungeon people.

So much of history and opinion about popular music is just congealed prejudice and wishful thinking. This is science and real life. The banjo is an African instrument, the traditional way of playing it is the African way of playing it. Not to speak of the non traditional post WWII guitar influenced Bluegrass way which simply adds as many blue and blues notes into the music as can be found.
What romanced me in this book is her interviews with African American banjo players from North Carolina and Virgina--some of whom have passed on since the book came out. The Photographs in there are great too.
Cece Also made a movie of these guys that was shown back when the book first came out. Is there any way to get it out on video for the world.
Buy this book, give this book away to your friends, make sure every library has this book, make sure this book is taught in the schools, This is it!

Cecelia Conway's AFRICAN BANJO ECHOES IN APPALACHIA fills this frankly embarassing void in banjo literature. Ms. Conway is a folklorist who, back in the 1970s, had done field work in the North Carolina Piedmont documenting some of the last bearers of the centuries-old African-American folk banjo tradition. In the beginning of the book, she introduces us to venerable African-American traditional musicians, whose music predates the blues and jazz, such as Dink Roberts, John Snipes and Joe and Odell Thompson (of all the aforementioned, fiddler Joe Thompson is the only one left to carry on the tradition, which he still does with great vigor and determination). From there, Ms. Conway launches into a fascinating, scholarly exploration of the history and evolution of the banjo.

This leads to the thorny issue of just how the banjo-- now considered, along with the fiddle and mountain dulcimer, to be the quintessential musical manifestation of white Appalachia-- was introduced and absorbed into the folk culture of the European-American communities of the Southern Mountains. Ms. Conway, in true scientific fashion, utilizes the historical record and empiric evidence to boldly challenge the conventional suppositions of her fellow scholars and folklorists, such as Robert Winans, Alan Lomax and Tony Russell, that the banjo entered the remote white southern mountain communities after the Civil War via traveling Minstrel shows and returning veterans. I'll leave you to read the book for Ms. Conway's theory on the subject.

All in all, AFRICAN BANJO ECHOES is well-researched, well-documented and well-written with loads of great illustrations. It would be a worthy addition to any library. I highly recommend it not just to devotees of the banjo and old-time music, but to anyone interested in the evolution of American folk culture and pop music.

Josh Spencer leaves Williamsburg after the birth of his son Jacob and the death of his wife Faith to find himself in the Appalachian Mountains. For the short time he is there alone, tragedy strikes and a Cherokee chief, Sequatchie, finds him and brings him some hope.

After Elizabeth and Patrick MacNeal were married they stayed with Elizabeth's parents, William and Anne Martin, in Boston. They had two children, Andrew who will be thirteen and Sarah who will be ten. Patrick MacNeal's dream was to own a house and have his own land for his family, his dream hasn't been able to come true yet. Then a conspiracy is put into action to take over Martin Shipping Company, which results in a broken engagement for William Martin Jr. After the conspiracy Elizabeth and Patrick decide to follow Patrick's dream by going over the Appalachian Mountains and get their own land.

They sail to Virginia and join a wagon train heading west. The leaders of the wagon train end up being Josh Spencer now called Hawk and Sequatchie. Hawk's long time friend Paul Anderson heads over the mountains with him to preach to the Cherokee. The journey is packed with broken wagon wheels, horrible storms, flooded creeks, and last but not least a renegade Indian attack. The Indian attack has some casualties, which result in broken families.

The Frontier brought them together but will God keep them apart?

The story was so captivating to me, I couldn't stand to put it down! I am sure the writers had as much fun writing these as I had reading them!

The descriptions of places and characters puts a vivid picture in one's mind, so the reader feels as though he is actually standing in the place that is being described and with the character being described. Each character has a unique personality, so the reader can decide what kind of person he is reading about immediately.

Upon completion of the first book, I began reading the second one almost immediatly. I am anxious to find out what Hawk's son is going to do now! God bless you! Keep up the good work!

Rylant doesn't shy away from the harder truths of Appalachian living. About coal mining, she writes, "Many [Appalachians] are coal miners because the mountains in Appalachia are full of coal which people want and if you are brave enough to travel two miles down into solid dark earth to get it, somebody will pay you money for your trouble." On the facing page from this plainspoken truth is a haunting Barry Moser watercolor of a green-clad coal miner, his eyes weary and his skin gritty with coal dust, his lunchpail resting beside him.

The beauties come through, too. Rylant writes, "Morning in these houses in Appalachia is quiet and full of light and the mountains out the window look new, like God just made them that day." Throughout the book is a sense of quiet and purpose and appreciation for a way of life most of us will never know. It's a moving and transfixing read.

Tired of the usual Appalachian stereotypes and prejudices?

Hankerin' for a book that'll whisk you away to the cool mountain air and down-home fun of Appalachia? Son, does Bob Sloan ever have a book for you! A "gen-you-wine", bona-fide paperback vacation that won't insult your intelligence or fail to satisfy your love of simple living and authentic humanity. And it's easy on the wallet, too!

Honest to god (totally secular and non-denominational)! Bob takes you around to a few of his choicest friends and includes you in on all the fun! You get so close to the action that when one of the characters tells a joke you'll almost smell the coffee breath right where you're sitting. ...and, when another character "passes on", you'll get that inward pinch and feel the swell of tears rising in your eyes.

BOTTOM LINE: If you don't love this book, you probably wouldn't like Appalachia or country livin', either. But if mountain mists and tree-carpeted hills bring a smile to your face...if the smell of coal smoke hangin' low in the valleys on a crisp fall evening is among your fondest aromas...if -- given a choice -- you'd just as soon take a "pass" on Heaven and spend eternity in Appalachia...then 'Bearskin to Holly Fork' will be among your most treasured possessions.

Don't let my name fool ya... This is one Malarkey that is tellin' it darn straight!

Tired of the usual Appalachian stereotypes and prejudices?

Hankerin' for a book that'll whisk you away to the cool mountain air and down-home fun of Appalachia? Son, does Bob Sloan ever have a book for you! A "gen-you-wine", bona-fide paperback vacation that won't insult your intelligence or fail to satisfy your love of simple living and authentic humanity. And it's easy on the wallet, too!

Honest to god (totally secular and non-denominational)! Bob takes you around to a few of his choicest friends and includes you in on all the fun! You get so close to the action that when one of the characters tells a joke you'll almost smell the coffee breath right where you're sitting. ...and, when another character "passes on", you'll get that inward pinch and feel the swell of tears rising in your eyes.

BOTTOM LINE: If you don't love this book, you probably wouldn't like Appalachia or country livin', either. But if mountain mists and tree-carpeted hills bring a smile to your face...if coal smoke hangin' low in the valleys on a crisp fall evening is among your fondest aromas...if -- given a choice -- you'd just as soon take a "pass" on Heaven and spend eternity in Appalachia...then 'Bearskin to Holly Fork' will be among your most treasured possessions.

Don't let my name fool ya... This is one Malarkey that is tellin' it darn straight!

(If you still have questions, drop me an email or post a message to the newsgroup alt.appalachian. And, no, I'm not related to Bob Sloan nor do I/will I receive any compensation for this endorsement. Never met the man but I do know good writing when I see it!)

One story that grabs me starts with a bunch of locals sentenced by a
judge to "anger management class," which the locals already call "mad class" (and which Lexingtonians already call "happy class."). The court-appointed out-of-state pshrink decides to have everybody role-play, as in a guy asking a girl to dance and getting turned down. Turns out the guy is a Fundie Christian who believes dancing is a sin. That particluar story doesn't continue in that vein, but it's not hard to imagine another that might.Could end up seriously anti-Beverly Hillbillies, but more likely hilarious.

Most, if not all Sloan's stories affected me that way: He got me thinking one way, then things turned out another way, and isn't that what often happens? It's not like he's making this stuff up. And if he is, then he'd be anticipating history, instead of only reprorting it. "Only reporting" my arse.

Bruce Williams
Lexington KY