Singing the Songs Home
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# Singing the Songs Home
Steve Woodbury and Ann Bauer share songs
sung by the people who lived on the lands that are now Umstead State Park
Saturday, November 1, 2:00 pm EDT
Sunday, November 2, 2:00 pm EST
Auditorium, Umstead State Park Visitors’ Center
In the 1930’s, Mercedes Steely collected songs from the people living near the Ebenezer Christian Church. These included old ballads from the British Isles and ‘new’ ballads about contemporary events; they included work songs, play songs, patriotic songs, and more. The collection became Steely’s Masters thesis at UNC in 1936, and it has been preserved in the University Archives. Last fall Ann shared a sampling of these songs at the 90th Birthday Celebration for Umstead Park. We’re excited that Ann and Steve are returning to share more of these songs with us. Many of these songs have not been heard since Steely collected them ninety years ago! We hope that you will walk out with some of these stories and tunes in your head.
Light refreshments served, concert at 2pm. Free event.
“I hope these songs live and are not relegated to the graveyard of songs.
They are too beautiful to die.” — Mercedes Steely
photo: Photo: Eugene and Becky “Mammy” Jones working at their outdoor fireplace, circa 1920s. Mammy Jones was well known for her folk singing. “The perfect sympathy and understanding that existed between these two old people was beautiful and touching,” folklorist Mercedes Steely writes in her thesis of collected folk songs.