Press release from event organizers:
You can still hear it in the hollers of Western North Carolina, that “high lonesome sound,” the mountain music with a long memory that’s been carried over the ocean and across the centuries. “It’s the music that America comes home to,” says Doug Orr. “And it’s what gave birth to folk, country, bluegrass and rock ‘n’ roll.”
Doug and Darcy Orr will discuss mountain music and sing old tunes from their landmark history, “Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia,” for readers of the Asheville Book Circle.
The Orrs will join Asheville Book Circle host Dale Neal for a conversation and house concert 5-8 p.m. Nov. 22 in the second floor boardroom of the Lenoir-Rhyne University Center for Graduate Studies of Asheville, at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, 36 Montford Ave. The event is free and free parking is available.
The Asheville Book Circle is sponsored by the Thomas Wolfe Center for Narrative at the Lenoir-Rhyne Graduate Center.
The Asheville Book Circle was founded by Neal, a novelist and veteran journalist who’s called Asheville home since 1983. “Whether you’re a native or a newcomer, there are essential books that tell us who we are in Western North Carolina, where we came from and where we may be going,” Neal said. “The Asheville Book Circle discusses our local must-reads.”
In the past year, the Book Circle has looked at novels, histories and memoirs by Ron Rash, John Ehle, Wilma Dykeman and Thomas Wolfe.
“To understand Appalachian music and how it arrived in our mountains, you need to read ‘Wayfaring Strangers,’ That high lonesome sound has influenced the American songbook from Woody Guthrie to Pete Seeger, from Bob Dylan to Elvis Presley, Doc Watson to Dolly Parton, and continuing with the Carolina Chocolate Drops,” Neal said.
Orr is the former president of Warren Wilson College and founder of the Swannanoa Gathering, an annual summer music festival. Orr co-wrote his landmark study with Fiona Ritchie, host of the “Thistle & Shamrock” public radio show. Darcy Orr provided illustrations for the book, which won the 2015 Thomas Wolfe Literary Award.
For information, click on https://www.facebook.com/AshevilleBookClub or contact dale.neal@gmail.com.
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