APPALACHIAN SONGBOOK II (2004-2008) voice and piano, 23 min.

The Cuckoo
Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
Wondrous Love
Wagoner’s Lad
Our Goodman
Spells
Sally Ann
Billy Boy

Appalachian Songbook II follows a similar set of songs written between 1989 and 2003. The eight songs in the second book draw upon traditional Blue Ridge ballads, fiddle tunes, folk remedies and sacred music. I have also borrowed verses and tunes from my maternal grandmother, Nina Shaw, and great uncle Leinster Farrior. These relatives are descendants from two centuries of settlers from the coast of North Carolina, a region which shares the same body of folk music as the Appalachians.

Two of the songs, “Sally Ann” and “Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss,.” are most often heard as fiddle tunes in the Blue Ridge. “The Cuckoo,” “Wagoner’s Lad,” and “Wondrous Love” are widely sung throughout the Southern mountains. Visitations to an old witch-woman are staged in “Spells.” The bawdy British classic “Our Goodman” comes from my grandmother, and the sweet version of “Billy Boy” is borrowed from my Uncle Leinster.

Appalachian Songbook II was written between 2004 and 2008. It was first performed by Marilyn Taylor with the composer at the piano at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts on March 28, 2008.

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