Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia

by Fiona Ritchie, Doug Orr, Dolly Parton (Foreword by)

Overview

From the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, a steady stream of Scots migrated to Ulster and eventually onward across the Atlantic to resettle in the United States. Many of these Scots-Irish immigrants made their way into the mountains of the southern Appalachian region. They brought with them a wealth of traditional ballads and tunes from the British Isles and Ireland, a carrying stream that merged with sounds and songs of English, German, Welsh, African American, French, and Cherokee origin. Their enduring legacy of music flows today from Appalachia back to Ireland and Scotland and around the globe. Ritchie and Orr guide readers on a musical voyage across oceans, linking people and songs through centuries of adaptation and change.

Enriched by the insights of key contributors to the living tradition on both sides of the Atlantic, accompanying this abundantly illustrated volume is an online Spotify playlist featuring over 20 songs by musicians profiled in the book, including Dolly Parton, Dougie MacLean, Cara Dillon, John Doyle, Pete Seeger, Sheila Kay Adams, Jean Ritchie, Doc Watson, David Holt, Anais Mitchell, Al Petteway, and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469664187
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/01/2021
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	255,219
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Fiona Ritchie MBE is the founder, producer, and host of National Public Radio's The Thistle & Shamrock. In 2018 she was inducted into the Folk DJ Hall of Fame. Douglas Orr is President Emeritus of Warren Wilson College, where he founded the Swannanoa Gathering music workshops.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The story of the Scots-Irish 'carrying stream' of music that found its way to Appalachia is also the story of the Cash family. William Cash emigrated from Scotland in the mid-seventeenth century, and the next generation drifted down to Virginia. The songs that went with them were captured, in part, a couple of centuries later by my stepmother's family, the Carter Family. My own musical DNA is bound with these songs—the narrative ballads, the melancholy rhymes, the ancient stories retold in melody again and again. Except for my family, there is nothing I love more than being a part of the 'living tradition' captured in this book.—Rosanne Cash, singer-songwriter and author

Editorial Reviews

"Essential. . . . A gorgeous gift book."—New York Times Book Review

“Ritchie and Orr strike all the right chords in this pleasantly tuneful survey.”—Publishers Weekly

"A story remarkable for its breadth and depth, conveying the drama of Scottish emigration via Ulster to Appalachia, by a people who clung to the music and song they held dear, and bequeathed it to America. It is for us to keep our eyes and ears open to see how this river carries on."—Scottish Life Magazine

"If you love Appalachian music; if you're Scots-Irish and wonder about your roots; if you're curious about the words and traditions of the music and how many miles and years the songs have traveled to get here, this handsome book is your most trusted servant, your indispensable encyclopedia and your entertaining Bible."—Charlotte Observer

From the Publisher

Fiona Ritchie…and Doug Orr…have put together a gorgeous holiday gift book, including a CD of various artists' renditions of the songs whose origins the authors so beautifully recount.

The New York Times Book Review - Ronald Radosh

07/21/2014
Ritchie, founder and producer of NPR’s the Thistle & Shamrock, and Orr, founder of the Swannanoa Gathering music workshops, strike all the right chords in this pleasantly tuneful survey of the history of the evolution of Scottish music in Appalachia. The authors allow musicians and storytellers—ranging from Appalachian singer and dulcimer player Jean Ritchie and North Carolina storyteller Sheila Kay Adams to Doc Watson and former Carolina Chocolate Drops member Dom Flemons—to chronicle the tales of this rich tradition in their own words; thus, Ritchie, known as “The Mother of Folk” shares her story of growing up in eastern Kentucky singing the ballads she learned from her community and her family and bringing insight into the centuries-old ballad tradition through her own insights into the music. Chock-full of photographs, 60 black and white and 64 color, Ritchie and Orr take us on a journey from the rich musical traditions in various regions of Scotland to the voyage of the music from Scotland to Ulster and then across the ocean, where music permeates the daily lives of the wayfarers, and finally to the migrations and settlement in a new land, where the immigrants’ music meets and mingles with other traditions. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly