June 24 - 30 Marlinton, WV Heidi will be teaching dulcimer at one of WV’s favorite old-time music camps, and performing at the Pocahontas Opry House during the week. For more info, see www.alleghenyechoes.com.
Saturday, June 16, 8:00 pm Heidi & Bob in concert at the historic Fayette Theater in downtown Fayetteville, WV, just a stone’s throw from the New River Gorge bridge. For details, please see www.historicfayettetheater.com.
Thursday, June 14, 6:00-8:00 pm
Bob and I will be at Taylor Books on Capitol St. in Charleston for a reading, book signing and song performance of some of the 24 songs from the book. Some other folks who wrote for the book may be there to read as well.
The Patchwork Dreams book is over 200 pages long, has two teaching CDs in the back (with a full version and a ‘karaoke’ version of each song) and it’s chock full of interesting history and old photos of Big Ugly and Harts Creek, WV. Come join us in the back of the art gallery!
“Patchwork Dreams: Songs, Stories and History from Big Ugly Creek and Harts Creek, West Virginia” is now in print! With over 200 pages, including 24 songs and two song-teaching CDs (one complete version and one ‘karaoke’ version of each song), the book made its debut in beautiful Big Ugly and is finding its way into the world. I recorded and transcribed most of the oral histories in the Big Ugly area from 2004 to 2006. This past year, I collected over 150 family photos, combined them with oral history quotes, wrote and edited essays, and created sheet music of our songs, cobbling together a work with six chapters that documents the life and times of this small corner of the universe. It’s got mountains, miners, moonshine and mayhem alongside poems, recipes, and old newspaper articles. It has been an honor to gain the friendship of the people whose words are in these pages, and to take it into the schools to share it with their children and grandchildren.
Patchwork Dreams is a unique anthology of essays, oral history quotes, historic photos, quilt art and songs that weave together the stories of Appalachian mountain families in this remote part of West Virginia. Big Ugly Creek was once a bustling community with stores, post offices and schools. It is now a quiet, country road that extends 20 miles along the creek, with about 150 homes and no public buildings except a couple of churches and the Big Ugly Community Center. Over Greenshoal Mountain is the town of Harts, where the business and schools now are. Big Ugly is part of that extended community.
We had a great release party at Big Ugly last week, with all the local folks in attendance, and Lois Ferrell’s handstitched quilts hanging around the hall. The local bluegrass/gospel group Higher Ground came and played, as well as Elaine Purkey. Elaine is a nationally-known mountain singer who has been featured in Sing Out! magazine and at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. She lives in Harts and gave us two of her songs for the book. Bob and I also sang songs from the book including the very popular “Big Ugly Woman.” We were so pleased to have Colleen Anderson and Dr. Lynda Ann Ewen read parts of their essays for us, along with my right-hand assistant on the book, Dana Kuhnline, and our Step by Step organization director, Michael Tierney.
Now as summer arrives, I’m getting used to the project being finished. Draft pages are fluttering into the recycling box. Papers are being filed. Next thing is to get the book up here on the website and make it available to you all! Please drop me a line if you’re interested in having one. It’s great for history buffs, teaching artists, classroom teachers of music, Appalachian studies, history and social studies, and anyone who loves authentic stories of the way life used to be.
Saturday, June 2, 1:00-4:00, free food and music. The Patchwork Dreams book is done! With over 200 pages and more than 150 old photographs from Harts and Big Ugly, plus two teaching CDs for its 24 songs, this book is a unique anthology that all ages will love. There’ll be kids’ activities plus music by Higher Ground, Elaine Purkey and Heidi & Bob, and a potluck lunch starting at 1:00. Please come out and help us celebrate!
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