(Cullowhee, NC) – Some recording artists strive to put a new spin on songs from the past, but singer-songwriter Susan Pepper thinks old-time, or traditional mountain music, is fine just the way it has been performed for generations. Her new album, Where the Islands Overflow: Traditional Song from Appalachia (Ballad Records), pays tribute to some of her favorites, with stripped-down performances of 16 ballads, some with minimal accompaniment of a gourd banjo, fretless mountain banjo or guitar. Other songs are performed without instrumentation, just Pepper’s pitch-perfect voice, reminiscent of how a young mother might have sung them as a means of entertaining her family a long time ago, before electronic media existed.
“A cappella is the most traditional style for a lot of these old songs,” Pepper said. “It’s funny, but some people in the mountains will say that a person doesn’t do music, they just sing. It’s an ancient tradition going back to Ireland, Scotland, and England.”
Though most songs on Where the Islands Overflow are old, some of them dating back centuries, Pepper was inspired to perform them by Southern Appalachian artists who recorded them in the 20th century, such as Jean Ritchie, Sheila Kay Adams, Ginny Hawker, Addie Graham, Frank Profitt, The Ward Family, Lee Monroe Presnell and Buna Hicks. Pepper’s sources carry longstanding community singing traditions that often go back hundreds of years to early settlers in the mountains. Over time, the musical and cultural influences of Europeans, African-Americans, Germans, Indigenous groups and others co-mingled in this country to give ballads and “old-time” music a distinctively American sound.
Many listeners will undoubtedly recognize “Man of Constant Sorrow,” which was performed for comedic effect in the movie O, Brother, Where Art Thou?, but Pepper’s rendition is more somber, as originally intended. That’s not to say her album lacks a sense of humor, as exhibited, for example, in “Rye Whiskey.” (“I went up yon mountain, I sat on a log, my liquor jug beside me, and sicker than a dog…”)
The album also includes a traditional song from Southern Louisiana, “Tout Un Beau Soir En Me Promenant,” which was collected by Alan and John Lomax in the 1930s from a young girl named Elite Hoffpauir. In this tale, a lumberjack is struck by the beauty of a young lady in the forest, who turns out to be a shepherdess. At the end of the song, which is sung in French, the shepherdess woos the lumberjack with bottles of wine, to save the forest and her sheep from the ax.
The sole contemporary ballad on the album, “O’Shaughnessy’s Lament,” was composed by the acclaimed Canadian troubadour Aengus Finnan. Based on the true story of a silver miner in Ontario who tragically lost his wife and infant twins at birth, this song came to Finnan as he visited their graveside.
“I don’t think it’s possible to write a true ballad,” Pepper said. “It’s the passing of a song through generations of singers in the oral tradition that gives a ballad its distinct shape and beauty, but ‘O’Shaughnessy’s Lament’ comes pretty close.”
A Cincinnati, Ohio native, Pepper became fascinated with old-time music while in college, later moving to North Carolina in her 20s to study with local artists who had grown up in the region and were passionate about carrying on the musical traditions of their ancestors. She has taught at venues including the Youth Traditional Song Weekend, the John C. Campbell Folk School, and the Junior Appalachian Musicians Program, and performs regularly throughout Appalachia. In a 2023 article about traditional music, Oxford American called Pepper a “possessor of a celestial upper range.” (Bianchi, M., Winter Issue, December 05, 2023. Orphan Girl. Oxford American.) Also notable is the fact that Pepper produced and appeared in the 2018 award-winning independent film The Mountain Minor, which follows an Appalachian family from the Great Depression into the late 20th century and features many performances of old-time music.
From 2005-2011 Pepper apprenticed under and recorded several traditional ballad singers from Western North Carolina who were raised in the 1920s and 1930s.Those field recordings were released on her first album, On the Threshold of a Dream: Unaccompanied Ballad Singing from the Blue Ridge Mountains, which was funded by the North Carolina Arts Council and the National Endowment of the Arts. She subsequently released the albums Hollerin’ Girl (2015) and The Prettiest Bird (2020). Where the Islands Overflow is her fourth album.
“This album is an artistic endeavor, but I also see it as educational,” Pepper said. “It’s the kind of music that I feel can transcend time and space in profound ways. Just playing and singing songs that have been passed on for hundreds of years is really special. I think it’s hard to beat these old songs, and it’s important to open this door to other people.”
Where the Islands Overflow: Traditional Song from Appalachia will be released on October 25 through most major streaming platforms and on CD at SusanPepper.com. Radio distribution is through AirPlay Direct.
Upcoming performances include:
Oct. 21, 2024 @12:00 P.M.
WDVX Blue Plate Special
Knoxville Visitor Center
301 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902
Oct. 26, 2024 @ 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Fall Music Symposium: Voice/ (Ballad Singing Workshop)
Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center
121 School House Rd., Robbinsville, NC 28771
Oct. 28, 2024 @7:00 p.m.
WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour
Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center
300 E Third St, Lexington, KY 40508
Nov. 22-24, 2024
Carter Family Songs Weekend-long Workshop
John C. Campbell Folk School
One Folk School Rd, Brasstown, NC 28902
Dec. 10, 2024 @6:00 p.m.
Jackson County Public Library
1310 Keener St. Sylva, NC 28779
Tracks:
1) Baby Dear
2) The Cuckoo
3) Rye Whiskey
4) Pretty Saro
5) Man of Constant Sorrow
6) Rattlin’ Bog
7) Tout Un Beau Soir En Me Promenant
8) O’Shaughnessy’s Lament
9) Two Sisters
10) Swing Low
11) God Bless Them Moonshiners
12) Silk Merchant’s Daughter
13) Sister Thou Art Mild and Lovely
14) Awake, Awake
15) William Reilly
16) Where the Sun Will Never Go Down
