Number 27, May 15, 2022

The Ritchie Family Ballads:  Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender

I’m excited to be preparing for my first summer on faculty of the Kentucky Music Week outside of Louisville, Kentucky next month.  This annual festival of Appalachian music and art was sidelined for the past two years because of the Covid pandemic, and this year it is returning to its in-person gathering.  I’m gratified to have been invited to teach and perform there this year.  You can read more information on Kentucky Music Week  At The Kentucky Music Week Website

In the time during the pandemic when KMW was not able to hold an in-person gathering, organizer Nancy Barker and her team developed an online resource for those searching for engagement in Appalachian music at Kentucky Music Institute.  At the KMI website, there is a vigorous array of course videos by instructors in dulcimer, hammered dulcimer, mandolin, guitar and many other instruments.  But there was no voice instruction, so Nancy asked me to record a few courses based around vocal production and the Appalachian songs of Jean Ritchie.  I was proud to take part, and thus my association began with the Kentucky Music Institute.  All the courses at KMI are available by subscription and can be viewed as many times as you want.  You can find all of this  At The Kentucky Music Institute Website

I’ve been working on four different courses for the week at KMW, and while working on them I thought to share in a blog post some of the unique and beautiful music of The Ritchie Family Ballads.

Jean Ritchie and her large family in the Cumberland Mountains of Eastern Kentucky were song catchers, and song collectors.  Arriving in the area in the 18^th century, Jean’s forebears brought the ancient ballads and songs with them as immigrants to America.  Her Uncle Jason Ritchie and her father, Balis Ritchie, kept the words, melodies and histories behind many of the songs and imparted them to Jean, who, among a large family of 14 children, was the most interested in the oldest songs.

Today I share with you Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender.  This song has a long and interesting history in the scholarship of the Appalachian ballads that had their origins in the British Isles.  Through the generations and centuries of handing down this tune, different aspects of the song would shift.  Above is an ancient illustration showing that the female character was at one time called “Annet,” and the scholarship of James Child’s balladry collections bear this out.  Jean referred to this song simply as “Fair Ellender,” and performed it for years during her career as a solo artist.  To me, it was the most striking of the ballads in that it contained so much poetry and an achingly beautiful melody.  In the audio recording below, my lead vocal is enhanced by the masterful accompaniment of Jean’s two sons, Peter Pickow on hammered dulcimer, Jon Pickow on Appalachian dulcimer, and Kenny Kosek on fiddle.

In her book Singing Family of the Cumberlands Jean writes about this ballad and its effect on her young heart as she learned it as a child:

“…then would come the time when my heavy eyelids began to droop, and my mind began to wander…and the people in the ballads would pass before me out there in the sparkly dusk…the people my…eyes saw were alive and beautiful…Then in some easy manner that never had to be explained, I became Fair Ellender, and the movement of the swing I sat in became the slow, graceful walking of the white horse…people lined the broad highway as I rode by, thinking I was some queen, as the song wound its way to the tragic ending.”

Audio:  “Fair Ellender” Ritchie Family Version, collected by Jean Ritchie.  Performance by Susie Glaze, lead vocal, Peter Pickow, Hammered Dulcimer, Jon Pickow, Appalachian Dulcimer, Kenny Kosek, Fiddle.  Recorded in 2005 at the Center Theatre, Penn State University.  Song can be found on the album “White Swan,” Susie Glaze & The Hilonesome Band, 2013.  Hear “Fair Ellender” on Soundcloud

Full lyrics can be supplied on request.  Email me here.  newfolkfusion@gmail.com

 

Here is Jean herself – the ultimate authority, and acapella!

See you next time for all things singing for Folk and Americana styles!  If you’ve been enjoying these blogs, let me know!

Email me here.  newfolkfusion@gmail.com  I’d love to hear from you!

                                  Susie

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Award-winning recording artist, Broadway singer, journalist, educator and critically-acclaimed powerhouse vocalist, Susie Glaze has been called “one of the most beautiful voices in bluegrass and folk music today” by Roz Larman of KPFK’s Folk Scene. LA Weekly voted her ensemble Best New Folk in their Best of LA Weekly for 2019, calling Susie “an incomparable vocalist.” “A flat out superb vocalist… Glaze delivers warm, amber-toned vocals that explore the psychic depth of a lyric with deft acuity and technical perfection.” As an educator, Susie has lectured at USC Thornton School of Music and Cal State Northridge on “Balladry to Bluegrass,” illuminating the historical path of ancient folk forms in the United Kingdom to the United States via immigration into the mountains of Appalachia. Susie has taught workshops since 2018 at California music camps RiverTunes and Vocáli Voice Camp. She is a current specialist in performance and historian on the work of American folk music icon, Jean Ritchie. Susie now offers private voice coaching online via the Zoom platform. Visit Susie’s Website HERE