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Erica Smiley Name of Interviewee(S): Franklin Buchanan Interview Length: 34:07 Location: Haywood County, NC

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Erica Smiley Name of Interviewee(S): Franklin Buchanan Interview Length: 34:07 Location: Haywood County, NC 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.
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