1 Erica Smiley Name of interviewer: Erica Smiley Name of interviewee(s): Franklin Buchanan Interview length: 34:07 Location: Haywood County, NC

START OF INTERVIEW

Erica Smiley: Ok, this is the interview with frank Buchanan (born March 25, 1934 in Spruce Pine). My name is Erica Smiley and today is October 20th, 2004. The time is approximately 5:20 and we are doing this session Maggie Valley, NC. If you will please state your name. Franklin Buchanan: Franklin Buchanan. ES: And are you aware that you are being taped. FB: No ma’am. ES: No? *chuckles* I am taping you right here. FB: Ok. I’m aware I am being taped. ES: Ok. What is your age? FB: 70. ES: 70, and where are you from originally? FB: I am from Spruce pine, NC. ES: Spruce pine, and where do you live now? FB: I live here in Maggie Valley and in the summertime, about 6 months. And I live in Marion, North Carolina the other 6 months. I’ve been living in Marion for a long time. ES: Ok, so how long have you been living in Marion? FB: We moved from Spruce pine in the 50s. ES: Ok, so did you attend school in Spruce pine? FB: I did, I Harris high school- Harris elementary school. I didn’t get to high school. ES: You didn’t? What grade did you get to? FB: I think I maybe got to the 7th grade. ES: 7th grade? FB: Mmhmm. 2 Erica Smiley ES: How long have you played music. FB: Well, I started at an early age, I had a brother called Ray and we started playing guitar. I guess I was about 14, Ray was 5 years older than me. He was about 19 and we started playing on the local barn dash show. Cal-Calhoun’s Carolina barn dance show was held in the local theater in Spruce pine every Friday night. Spruce pine didn’t have a radio station at that time; they later go a radio station but they didn’t have one at that time. And Barn dash was taped and recorded and sent to Marion, NC, where I live; we got a radio station there now called WBRM. The Carolina barn dash was aired over WBRM Saturday morning and that show ran through 47-50, that’s where we got our first ever professional experience before an audience. ES: Really? At 14? FB: Yep, at 14. ES: You were pretty young? FB: I was playing the mandolin and my brother was playing the guitar and we had several fellas that approached us to make some recordings. But, you know in 1950 the Korean war started and my brother Ray had to go. He went into the air force. ES: All right. FB: Ok, my brother ray went into the air force and he had an accident in 1954, he was killed in a hunting accident. And, so I didn’t play any music for a long time. But I did eventually get back into playing music, and I went to Virginia and started to work on the- well, to start with, to back up a little bit I met some Wiseman brothers in Spruce Pine; Kent Wiseman, he played the banjo, and jimmy, he played the fiddle, Charlie played the guitar and I played the mandolin. I guess we were the first what you call blue grass to ever play around spruce pine. So we played around the Spruce pine for a long time until the Wiseman brothers went to Alaska sometime in the mid 50s. So I went to Virginia, and played on the barn dance in Richmond Virginia, a show similar to the one aired in Marion. And that’s where I met Bill Munroe, of course id met bill before when I was very young in SP, but I met him there again in Richmond; and this was about 58’. Long about that time Elvis Presley had hits with the rock n’ roll. And so Bill Munroe, the grand ole opera wasn’t touring all that much, but bill continued to tour through all that. He would come up and play at barn dance and sometimes me and my band would back him up. And I got to singing with him and he got to liking my singing and he asked me if I would like to go to the grand ole opera with him; and I thought he was kidding. He said “Michael, I like your singing. If you ever break up with this band give me a call.” So that was in about 58-59 and I came home from Christmas vacation in Marion and after Christmas in 60’ there was nothing going on so I gave him a call. He said come on down and I worked with him on 3 with him and helped him record 18 songs. I played all over which way through Canada and the United states. And this was back when bluegrass wasn’t as big as when Elvis made it big. The years past and the folk music 3 Erica Smiley boomed and come along they got along to recording flat scrubs in the colleges around new York and different places. And the folk music was calling the blue grass music folk music. They were calling over drive, because it was “fast”. ES: Oh? *laughter* FB: So that kind of gave blue grass a shot in the arm, you know? And then they got the big idea, im sure you’ve heard of the big fuss: Woodstock. So the blue grass people got together and started making outdoor festivals for blue grass. And so they tried some and they went good, so they tried some more and so did they. There are a lot of outdoor festivals in the United States and Canada. And I think someone told bluegrass is popular in Russia, Japan, they’ve started playing it in japan. Bill, before he died, he made several trips to japan, and England and all over. ES: Wow, that’s really interesting. Other than Bill, who is probably pretty influential in your life, did you have any other big influences in your life? FB: Yeah, I had, I guess other brother duets like the blue sky boys and the Munroe brothers, with Bill and Charlie. Before he went on his own he sang with his brother Charlie. My brother and I learned a lot of their songs. They were big influences on our style. ES: Ok, well other than you and your brother did anyone else play in your family? FB: No, just me and him…well I had some sisters that played the organ a little bit. My momma played a little bit, she played the guitar, she knew a few chords. I pretty much learned to play from my brother, we had 6 older sisters who had boyfriends who would come to the house, a lot of them would bring their guitars and banjos and play music. That’s where Ray and got started. ES: That’s where you picked it up? FB: Yeah, that’s where we picked it up. ES: Did they teach you how to play or did you just listen- FB: Yeah, I mean we just kind of listened and watched them, then just picked it up from there. ES: So you kind of just learned by ear? FB: By ear, and just watching. ES: So did you ever learn to read music? FB: Never did. ES: So you just played by ear everything? 4 Erica Smiley FB: Somebody asked me one time if I ever learned to read music and I said “not enough to hurt my playing”. *Telephone rings* and dialogue cuts out and back in. ES: Ok, other than the mandolin, you mentioned you played the mandolin and I think you mentioned you played the guitar as well? FB: Yeah, my brother and I started out with 2 guitars. We did that for a long time and sung songs from a lot brother acts in the 40s and 50s. Then Ray got a hold of mandolin, somehow, so we started playing it along with the guitar. So I started playing the Mandolin. ES: And you play the mandolin now? FB: Yeah, I play the mandolin now more than the guitar. ES: That’s great. And so have you always played professionally then, or did you have other jobs and played on the side? FB: I had other jobs and played on the side. The only time I played professionally was with Bill Munroe, we travelled all over the country. Later on I went to Detroit and stayed about 5-6 years. We played on the weekends in Detroit and worked a job during the week. ES: What kind of jobs have you worked throughout your life? FB: Well, I’ve worked in factories, the textile mill, and up in Detroit I worked with Pepsi. ES: But music was always your love? FB: That’s right. I always played music everywhere I went. ES: Would you say that its your love that continues you to want to play? FB: I guess so, I guess you could say that. I love to sing the old songs about the mountains and hymns we learned in church. I guess you could say it’s the love that drives me to do that. I guess if you’ve got the music talent its just got to come out. ES: That right, that right. So you said your sister’s friends coming over and playing music was your first experience with this type of music? FB: It was, my sisters boyfriends would play guitar. Ray and I picked it up young. My sisters had an old crank up music box. We had lamps and such but not a lot of power. So we would crank it up and listen to Grand ole Opry. My dad, back in the war years, things got scarce. Everything went to the soldiers. You couldn’t buy batteries so we had to make it work while we could. My dad used to let us listen to the radio but said we had to “save the battery, boys.” I was only about 5 or 6 years old. When pearl harbor was bombed I remembered it. 5 Erica Smiley ES: Do you think Western Carolina was your biggest influence? FB: At first it was western Carolina that got me into it, but then I got to Virginia and meeting new musicians. When I got with Bill Monroe I liked the style of music he played and my style on mandolin I played. So I guess he was the biggest influence on me, for my brother and I singing the blue grass style. ES: What role did tradition or your family play in, I know your brother and listening to music was a big influence, but do you think living in these mountains and western Carolina effect your influence? FB: It did, these songs, the ones about these mountains. One of the biggest songs I wrote about Bill was called “Blueridge Mountain Blues”. I was raised in the blue ridge mountains. They call me in Kentucky, Bills home, and they’ve done a lot to memorialize him and payed over $1,000,000 for his mandolin, rebuilt his old house where he was born. We went up there for a memorial day and had a bluegrass boys reunion and all over his boys, he had a lot bluegrass boys. ES: And you were bluegrass boy…. FB: 37, I was bluegrass boy 37. ES: Awesome! FB: If you look at my belt buckle; every bluegrass boy got a belt buckle. ES: That’s great. FB: You can read what it says on the back of it. ES: It says “since 1939, Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys set the standards for aspiring musicians around the globe. On this occasion of Bill’s 76 birthday, September 18th 1987, Bluegrass Unlimited and the Grand Ole opry proudly honor Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass boys for their contributions to the American way of life through music.” Wow, that is really interesting, hey, its got your name on it, too. FB: All the Bluegrass boys got one then. ES: Wow. FB: Im 37, I don’t know where that number came from; Whether I was 37th or what. I do know Bill got a belt buckle the same time they got theirs. His belt buckle was silver and said #1, ours were bronze. I think its in the museum now. ES: Bluegrass has taken different routes in todays music and goes by different names, but you would consider your style strictly bluegrass? FB: Yeah, there are these contemporary forms of blue grass now. But mine is traditional. 6 Erica Smiley ES: And do you write your own songs? FB: Yeah, ive written a few songs. I wrote one about where we are at now, Maggie Valley. Its called Maggie valley waltz. Its done quite well for us and sings about other songs about my home. In Detroit I wrote a song called “Blue ridge Mountains are Calling Me”. ES: What do you think inspired you to write those songs? You said one of them was home sickness. FB: Yeah, one of them was home sickness and I wrote a song about my old home, Spruce Pine. I went back there when I was travelling around with Bill, but I hadn’t been back in a long time. I went back and saw where I played as a kid and I remember my momma and put that in the song. I wrote the first verse right there. ES: So do you think you tend to write about good memories or bad ones. FB: Well, usually good ones; about growing up in Blue Ridge. ES: Right, and you record music and play live music? FB: That’s right, and we have a few CDs, 1 with Bill that had 18 songs. I remember making him proud. Worked the mandolin a lot all over the country. Im real proud I did. ES: You probably prefer to play live? FB: Yeah I prefer live. ES: You’ve been playing live almost all your life then, haven’t you? FB: Everywhere I’ve traveled I got into music somehow. ES: And you’ve never had trouble getting up in front of crowds? FB: I enjoy it, but I get a little nervous sometimes. ES: You still get nervous still? FB: Yeah, you still get butterflies. ES: Wow, that’s really interesting. Do you feel that your music has changed through your lifetime. FB: Well, bluegrass has changed with contemporary. All the scrub and duet bands have stuck with traditional. Bands like a third time out have their own style. ES: So you think that’s more contemporary? FB: Yeah, Alisson Krauss is a beautiful singer and great fiddle player, she had her own style. Some of her songs are traditional. ES: Do you see bluegrass going in a positive direction? 7 Erica Smiley FB: I think its in a good place. The festivals are getting bigger and its getting more commercialized. The IBMA show in Louisville is moving to Nashville. I heard a rumor they were going to move it to Nashville. It’s a big show with a lot of members with awards for biggest members. ES: So have you yourself won awards? FB: Yeah, I’ve won a few awards. I won the Kentucky colonel award. *Cuts to showing of award* I should have all ready had that out. ES: So you had an award from the commonwealth of Kentucky, and that makes you a conditioned Kentucky colonel. FB: That is right. Bill and Ralph Stanley had been colonels for a long time then. We went to play the BG boys reunion, the governor was there. I don’t remember who all else was there. The governor said that “all you BG boys are going to be Kentucky Colonels” and a few days later I got this in the mail. Then this is something I won down in Raleigh this past winter. *pulls up another award* It was this showdown, they gave me this award. ES: So this is that’s the “North Carolina and Virginia Bluegrass Alliance” award? FB: Yeah, I’m proud to get that. ES: Do you think that the instruments have changed over your life time, like the quality? FB: Well, they way they play today is different, but the instruments are still the same. They’re still making good instruments. The old instruments are the best. Once you break one it becomes better. ES: Has the cost changed any? FB: Oh yes, they’re very expensive now. ES: Do you think that effects the industry at all? FB: No, I don’t think so, because people are making more money now. Companies are making a lot money because they are making such good instruments. In the 30s and 40s the economy was so bad nobody could buy expensive instruments. Now, the Grand ole Opry people have the best instruments. But the economy is a lot better now so they are selling a lot more guitars now. ES: Where did you get your first guitar? FB: My oldest sister, May, bought me my first guitar when I was 5 years old. It was just a cheap guitar. My brother ray was about 12 when he learned to play the guitar, then he challenged me to play. I was kind of left handed when I grew up and still eat left handed. My brother ray was always right handed so he learned to play right handed, of course. I couldn’t really play it right handed so I told him I was going to change the strings around 8 Erica Smiley on it and he said “no, I don’t believe you will”. *laughter* “you need to learn to play right handed.” So that’s how I learned to play as a right handed musician. ES: So you’re a right handed musician, but left handed otherwise? FB: Yeah, I take after my daddy, he was left handed. I used to write left handed but my first-grade teacher didn’t like that. She fussed at me until I learned to write right handed. ES: That’s interesting. Do you play the mandolin now? FB: Yeah, I play the Gibson now, just like Bill Monroe. Its not as old as Bill but its like him. And I’ve had it since 1949. ES: That same Mandolin? FB: Same mandolin. ES: Wow, that’s really interesting. Since you traveled around so much, do you think the music here in western Carolina and the music that sprung from here, do you think that’s any different from the states around it? Or is it just 1 style? FB: Well, no. not exactly. Just about all of Bill’s BG boys came out of North Carolina and Kentucky and played the same. The later years they started coming down from the North, after the bluegrass got real popular in the 70s they started playing too. But now its all over. ES: Yes, it is. How do you feel about this younger generation of bluegrass singers that are coming up? Do you think they will take it to great lengths. FB: I do, they’re energetic, they’ve got a different style, a different beat. I think everything has to change, it cant stay the same forever. ES: What kind of advice would you give a new Bluegrass song writer and singer that wants to really get into it. FB: To keep practicing hard; I definitely think we nee people to write more songs. These old songs have been recorded over and over. We need more energetic people to write new songs for bluegrass and folk music too. ES: Is there anything else you want to add that maybe we haven’t covered? FB: I think we’ve covered it pretty good. I’m certainly proud that you’ve thought about me and bluegrass to come out and do this. ES: Definitely, definitely. We are so proud to come out here and do this. FB: I’m proud of what I have done and proud to have you here. ES: Well we are proud to have you around here, and were glad you spend your time and summers in Maggie valley. 9 Erica Smiley FB: Well thank you very much. I came here in 63’ and went to work in the cowboy town up the road, its closed now. ES: At ghost town? FB: Yeah at ghost town. That’s how I came to Maggie Valley; And I just fell in love with it here and the people here. I just knew I would come back here and live. I’ve been living here since I retired in 96’. ES: Well, this isn’t something I asked you to cover but ill ask you now. Are you married? FB: I’m divorced, I’ve been married before. ES: Did you find your wife to be supportive of your music? FB: Oh yeah, all the time. That was never a problem. There were other problems but not that. ES: Do you have any children? FB: No, we didn’t have any children. I’m glad. *Laughter* We didn’t stay together for that. ES: Well, I thank you so much. FB: Thank you! ES: You’ve been a great interview and I’ve learned so much. FB: Well if I can help you in anyway with bluegrass music I’d be glad to. ES: Well thank you. *Cuts to Frank Buchanan playing and singing “Maggie Valley Blues”.* ES: That’s great. FB: I wrote that. *Tape ends*