A Production of Jubilee Community Arts Produced by Brent Cantrell Booklet notes by Bob Fulcher, Brent Cantrell, and Toby Koosman Recording by Brent Cantrell, Bob Fulcher, and Louis Gross Photos by Bob Fulcher, Robert Cogswell and the Hicks Family Graphic design by David Lynch, Lynch Graphics, Inc. Audio mastering by Michael St. Leon and Switchyard Studios Special thanks to Virgie Hicks, the Hicks Family and Tennessee State Parks.

Some performances presented on this recording previously appeared on Johnny Ray Hicks, Cumberland Mountain Ballad Singer, a cassette recording produced by Bob Fulcher and self published by Johnny Ray Hicks in 1986. That recording includes one song, “The Big Courtroom,” not included here due to space constraints.

Funded by the JCA-1004JCA-1004 Tennesseee Arts Commission

Funded by the Tennessee Arts Commission P & C 2007 with additional funding from Jubilee Community Arts the East Tennessee Foundation and the Knoxville, Tennessee National Endowment for the Arts ISBN 0-9710664-4-2 When I first met small group, catching each with his eyes in JOHNNY RAY HICKS turn as he talked and sang. Johnny Ray Hicks, This recording features songs and stories CROSSVILLE CRIMINAL from field tapes and formal concerts between and other songs and stories of the Cumberland Plateau I saw a fierce man. He had agreed December 1985 and August 2000. I am con- to come sing at a festival in the Copper vinced we have only a sampling of his reper- Basin in Southeast Tennessee. Johnny Ray got toire. Bob Fulcher’s long work with Johnny in about an hour before his time, walked up to Ray likely got at most of his oldest ballads, and me with his jaw set, stared at me probably brought out the majority of his Victo- in his fierce way and said, rian era songs, but I think we only have a por- “You didn’t tell me I had to tion of his sacred repertoire and very few of come all the way to North his mid-20th century songs. Carolina.” I stared back at The last field recording was made at his him, I suppose with my mouth home eighteen days before his death. It fea- open, not sure what to say. Then I saw a tures songs he had never before recorded and a crack in his poker face, a twinkling in the fine performance of the rarely heard English eyes. I said, “North Carolina’s another quarter ballad “Peggy Band.” At that last session much mile.” He let go with that great laugh of his. of Johnny Ray’s fierceness had slipped away, That was in the summer of 1995. For the and the singing had a different quality, more next five years I asked him to perform every contemplative. We knew he had little time left. chance I found. He sang the old ballads the At one point during that last day he turned to way they should be sung. He drew, from a me and said, “They ain’t none after me.” seemingly bottomless pool, his songs, stories, – Brent Cantrell, and tales. His audience was seldom large— Knoxville, May 2007 interest in these elder arts has waned—but that made it better. He was at his best before a

3 JOHNNY RAY HICKS to oblivion. The churches had it down for while, smack you in the face if you weren’t prepared The Hicks family of Fentress County, Ten- Cumberland Plateau Ballads, but it came back. for their brute strength. While he didn’t have nessee gained recognition in the 1970s and Songs and Stories In the final years of his life, Johnny Ray the infinite repertoire of “a mighty singer” by 1980s, as the remarkable story of Dee and You’ve got hold of a strong character here, Hicks may have been the last robust singer of Hicks family standards, he sustained the lives Delta Hicks became known through field Johnny Ray Hicks. He was fit and lean his the old style in Appalachia who had also lived of many fine songs. He was the last exponent recordings of their unmatched word-of-mouth whole life, trimmed to sally through a world of “the old way.” To the end of the 1990s, his of a manly ballad style, full of frontier bluster repertoire of British Isles and early American crosscut saws and copperheads. He spoke songs could carry you on broad shoulders, or as well as credibility. If a song was meant to ballads and songs. The Hicks family had come resolutely and looked at you squarely. His bold, be comic, he ended it with a great laugh, or, at to the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee, to In Crossville deep voice was on some super male wave- at a Tennessee least, that enormous and compelling smile. If it Jamestown around 1817, when the village was length, an evolutionary byproduct of sexual Bicentennnial was tragic, there was no cooing or closed-eye only a couple of houses. The Hicks family es- selection. He’d face you with flat, thin lips and Concert, 1986. Photo by business. Clear eyes and cutting tones. tablished an impressive reputation lasting into a glare, which reconciled to a huge smile, so Roby Cogswell. Cultural evolution, devolution, or metamor- the 1970s as backwoods hunters and charac- big and deep that you couldn’t possibly resist phosis aside, the bell tolled for a long era of ters, among the most “old-fashioned” people in its charm. Appalachian ballad singing when Johnny Ray this remote region. Confidence and charm—those qualities were Hicks died in August 2000. Dee Hicks 1906-1983 learned hundreds of unmistakable in his presence. They made him songs from his( father Daniel) Hicks 1868- one wonderful vessel for transporting the last Hicks Family 1948 , a lifelong hunter and stockman( on the of the old songs to the end of the 20th century. He usually called himself “Johnny Hicks.” open) range of the Cumberland Plateau. Born into one of the great ballad-bearing fam- Just about all of his family called him “Ray Daniel’s oldest brother was Johnny Hicks ilies in North America, and raised more like an Hicks.” Quite a few associates called him 1843-1935 , a veteran of Tinker Dave Beaty’s earlier Appalachian generation than his own, “Spade Hicks,” either for his love of gambling company( of) Independent Scouts, who fought Johnny Ray drank from a boiling spring of or because of his swarthy complexion. I often as guerrillas for the Union during the Civil traditional knowledge. Among a dozen-odd called him by his given name, “Johnny Ray War. They received no pay or uniforms, only brothers and sisters, though, only Johnny Ray Hicks.” After all, the name “Johnny Hicks” still ammunition, from the Union Army, but most internalized large pieces of the old musical cul- belonged to his grandfather in the memory of members, including John Hicks, received a ture. Born in 1925, nothing ever pushed the old so many neighbors and kin, and another wild Federal pension following the war. Johnny style out of him altogether. Jimmie Rodgers hillbilly storyteller from western North Car- Hicks married after the war, and raised nine couldn’t displace it, though he almost did. The olina had already claimed the title “Ray Hicks” children, including Johnny Ray’s father, Army and WWII and Roy Acuff didn’t send it among the aficionados of Appalachian culture. Mount Hicks. 4 5 Daniel and Sarah Hicks Mount and Evie Hicks

Dee Hicks. Photo by Bob Fulcher. “Uncle” Johnny Hicks

JOHNNY RAY Hicks “chalk-eye:” “If you knowed a man good, why arrangements, harvesting a few crops and location allowed the eldest son, Gene, to enroll In 1918, Mount Hicks 1881-1958 married he’d take you in, let you help load coal, get you timber from land “held in possession” for the in the Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the Evie Huling 1896-1975 ,( a 23-year-old) mother, used to the mines, show you what they done, Gernts. Though they had the opportunity to State Forest, and to be close by the family. fourteen years( his junior.) With two children of and pay you a little.” Two years later he helped acquire land for themselves, they refused it to Thompson Camp was established by Herb his own, Mount rented a house for his new fam- his father at a sawmill, “rollin’ down logs and pursue a less settled lifestyle, reducing their and Id Thompson in the early 1920s to cut tim- ily in Gernt, a lumber camp on White Oak Creek rollin’ dust out from under the edger and the obligations and expenses to a minimum. ber on Stearns Coal Company lands. The camp in Fentress County, and began hauling timber main saw.” Johnny Ray Hicks described life on Darrow included a boarding house, where loggers were to the sawmills. Johnny Ray Hicks was born While on Darrow Ridge, Mount Hicks lived Ridge with great enthusiasm for the freedoms fed, a small store, a few houses and barns. By October 21, 1925 in nearby Cumberland Valley. on property owned by Hugo Gernt, the son of a and wonders of the Wilderness. They eventu- the mid 1930s it had been deserted and reoccu- The family eventually took out to Darrow German immigrant who had moved south from ally left the area to try town life, near Uncle pied by opportunists who moved into the old Ridge, which they called “The Wilderness,” Michigan to establish the town of Allardt in Johnny Hicks and his new wife. When that buildings. During the next three years, Mount eighteen miles from the closest community. 1882, and to develop timber operations on the failed to satisfy them, Mount moved the family and Eva moved from one building to the next, At age eight, Ray got into Zenith for a northern Cumberland Plateau. Daniel Hicks to an abandoned log camp, inside the boundary as others vacated the old places. “They just small dose of coal mining experience as a and Dee Hicks had also worked with similar of newly established Pickett State Forest. The loved to move. Every time a house got empty, 6 7 they had to get in it,” sister Nora recalled. Ray ther, constructing a new log house for them in ous gambler at poker. Before Christmas, he Cooking, probably at Thompson Camp. put it this way, “they just moved from one about 1957. usually gathered “pineys” Lycopodium obscu- house to another, like a rabbit in the snow, just I first met Johnny Ray Hicks around 1980, rum , and, with his wife, Virgie,( built wreaths jumped here and yonder…” but our meeting was curt. He had been recom- for the) city markets, a cottage industry with a Indeed, they were squatting on State land – mended by Dee and Delta as the most likely hundred-year history in Appalachia. sandy, droughty, woodland that supported them repository of the Hicks family version of “The Virgie Hicks, their son Jason, and as much through the natural production of wild Turkish Factor,” a ballad known to the family Virgie’s children from her previous marriage fruits, fish, and meat as they gained from brow consistently as “The Turkey Factory.” Ray was were the family that surrounded Ray during sweat. The CCC boys never challenged their pleasant, but implied he didn’t sing much and most of his last 20 years of life, as they en- rights to this frontier. “I guess they knew it didn’t know the song. We talked through the couraged his singing, helped him through would be a death sentence to run us out,” Ray screen door. sickness, and dealt with his rambling ways. thought. Instead, they built a rock wall around a After Dee’s death in 1983, I looked him up Ray was a rambling man, not afraid to find spring for the squatter camp, and helped im- again, because Hicks family members insisted his way through a strange land. He proved he prove their old road. Best of all, they dropped off he was a great singer, and began recording his was unflappable as he accepted the serious dinnertime leftovers after a day’s work nearby. songs and stories and seeking venues for his news of his cancer. He approached and met In 1942 Johnny Ray left home to be singing. Through the rest of his life, Johnny death with clear-eyed dignity. a bulldozer operator and in 1944, with his Ray faithfully sang at Pickett State Park’s Old brother Gene, enlisted in the Army. He served Timer’s Day every Labor Day. He started singing and storytelling as a rifleman in France and Germany and singing at Fall Creek Falls State Park at least style saw action in the Ardennes Forest. once a year soon thereafter, and in the last three This album’s focus on Johnny Ray Hick’s Following the war, he was employed at a years of his life, became a regular at the Laurel unaccompanied singing betrays my own prej- shoe factory in Baltimore, Maryland, before Theater in Knoxville, where Brent Cantrell took udiced actions as a cultural interloper. When returning home to work in a brickyard near a strong interest in presenting and recording I first met Johnny Ray Hicks, he was a bit Rugby. Later, he worked in sawmills and his music. He reached many far-flung stages, suspicious of performing without the guitar dairies, trucked, and spread fertilizer for local including the National Folk Festival and the in his lap. As we sorted through his reper- farmers, made moonshine whiskey, and worked Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife. toire, he usually offered guitar accompani- a crew cleaning oil spills in the small Plateau As he so often proclaimed, Ray spent his ment to every song, aiming at Jimmie creek. During that time he moved back into days as he pleased. He was a flea market en- Rodgers’ approach, but, to my ears, it was “the Wilderness” to care for his mother and fa- trepreneur, an avid ginseng hunter, and seri- often unsuccessful—out of tempo and or out 8 / 9 of key with his vocal line. He could not mold Sometimes there was a full glottal choke, a He was never a regular preacher, but he the old songs to fit his guitar licks, though he note ending in a sharp upward pitch, but Ray had certainly preached in a few churches. must have experimented from time to time used this ornament less often than many older Encouraged by a little bit of alcohol and a during the previous forty years. I encouraged singers. His loud, penetrating voice cut pure stream of faith, he once gave a scrip- him to drop the guitar on many pieces and to through fog and darkness, in the woods or the turally based tirade against witches at a appreciate the simplicity and effectiveness of church house. When he turned it up, he could folk festival in Rugby, Tennessee. Ray de- his acapella singing. fill up a room like an opera singer. spised witches. It was harsh and scary to Ray never lost faith that the world wanted In the territory where he rambled, Johnny the mild-mannered festival visitors, alien- guitars, however, even as the outsider audi- Ray Hicks was better known for his “talk” ating many, no doubt usurping any pre- ences he encountered often responded with than his music. He could be outrageously en- conceptions of Appalachian quaintness and disproportionate favor to his “traditional” tertaining or just outrageous. He told jokes preciousness in favor of the savage moun- singing. He always kept one close by, and put and tall tales, and was a compelling narrator taineer stereotype. At a storytelling work- it into every program. Ray was smart enough of trivial events, having mastered the com- shop in a Cookeville library, he seamlessly to please his audience, though, and so thor- monplace verbal crafts—credible imperson- patched together his traditional tall tales oughly exposed to the unaccompanied style ations of his subjects and fluency in meta- and Irishman tales with some pretty that he couldn’t help but perform it beautifully. phoric expressions. He used great timing and rough jokes that shocked the Jack-Tale-fed It was almost too simple for him. feeling in all that he told. audience, and revoked his ticket to all fu- Johnny Ray liked to stand while singing, It would be fair to say that Johnny Ray also ture sanctioned storytelling events. Ray with hands or fists on his hips, elbows out, had the reputation for stretching the truth at never precisely learned those cultural flared out in a blunt display. It gave him a times. But he was so passionate, funny, believ- boundaries. larger presence, in body language terms. able, and childlike when he enhanced an Johnny Ray Hicks loved to laugh and When he sat to sing, he looked at ease, but cut episode from his past, he was given great lee- smile as much as anybody you ever saw. his unblinking eyes around the room. He never way by his peers and family. But he mixed those jolly expressions with a went very long without a cigarette. His remembrances were often homilies, and tough voice. He did not appear gentle, nor Even in his most relaxed position, his voice liberally spiced with stern statements, beliefs, did he seem extroverted. But he made him- carried a tension characteristic of Appalachian polemics, and laughter. At points, he came self welcome in every company. style. Long sustained notes poured straight close to breaking into Crockett-style pioneer — Bob Fulcher, Dancing at a Cumberland Music Tour out, usually with little flutter, just an unwaver- braggadocio, but he truly had more reserve Clinton, Tennessee performance in Scottsville, Kentucky in 1988. ing strain, occasionally dropping a few steps. than the Almanac characters. Photo by Roby Cogswell. 10 11 Crossville Criminal “In 1962 a young man, Johnnie R. Hicks, "Crossville Criminal” is an original compo- wrote a $40 bad check which was cashed at sition by Johnny Ray Hicks. Although he sang Gunter’s Grocery in Crossville. Mr. Gunter took it without embarrassment, a family member out a warrant against Johnnie.” Apparently Joe implied that the facts behind the case were Gunter launched his own investigation and disturbing, so I avoided prying into them. learned “that Johnnie was on a Greyhound bus When I finally asked him, he told me, with a headed for Chicago.” Ray was arrested on hard look, “What do you think they’re gonna March 22, 1962. “At trial Johnnie pleaded guilty do when you’ve got somebody sittin’ next to and was sentenced on the 10th day of June 1963 you in an old tavern with a knife in their to a year in the State Penitentiary with credit back?” He often introduced the song by claim- for time spent in jail awaiting trial. While in jail ing that he had sung it to a judge to get early he wrote the ballad ‘Crossville Criminal.’ John- release from prison. He suggested that he had nie is said to have become repentant while in done time in Brushy Mountain Penitentiary. I jail and to have told Ol’ Joe that he might use assumed that it was connected to the the song in any way he wanted to discourage Crossville incident. others from forgery.” Several years after Ray’s death, I stumbled Gunter printed over 250 copies of the ballad, across an unpublished manuscript, dated 1967, and found a local singer to perform the piece entitled “‘Crossville Criminal’ By Patricia B. on his weekly radio broadcast from his grocery Kirkeminde.” My mouth hung open. Mrs. store. Ms. Kirkeminde noted that requests for Kirkeminde had a very short but wonderfully the printed ballets came in from Ohio and productive spell as a “ballad hunter” from her Florida, Nashville and Murfreesboro. She Crossville home, uncovering the facts behind closed her story, “Mr. Gunter told me that after “The Hills of Roane County” and recording a the young man left jail he “got religion” and so rare example of the pioneer ballad “The Cum- his arrest had been a “good thing.” As she in- berland.” Though she never met Johnny Ray terviewed the Circuit Court Clerk, however, she Hicks, she encountered his song in Crossville, found the discouraging news that Johnny Ray and followed through with an article submis- Photos by Bob Fulcher. had passed a couple more bad checks, but the sion to Sing Out! magazine. court believed that “he has left the area.” 12 13 In her unpublished submission to Sing Out! handed it to me. And I drunk it. And I went time, apparently a pretty good feller—he LIFE STORIES she described the song as “not a ‘100 -dyed-in- on over there, and I sung that song, and, kept comin’ up with some money all the From tape and video recorded interviews the-wool' folk song because the writer% is uh, I was waitin’ on Long Chain then to time. I didn’t know where he was gettin’ it, known and as it is of recent origin, but it’s come after me, and he come on in there and but later I found out he was goin’ around Rich or Poor interesting and shows something of the just unlocked the door. I said, “What are you writing checks on people and cashin’ ‘em. Bob Fulcher: Were the Hicks in about the same mountain philosophy.” doin’?” He said, “The Judge just come over And I was with him so I was accomplice, situation as most people in Fentress County — Bob Fulcher here and told me there wasn’t anything you know, to that, and instead of denying it as far as what they owned in material pos- against you, just send you home – give you I just told the truth about it, what happened, session? Do you think they were less Johnny Ray Hicks on a full pardon.” and that’s what I was tried for. And it cost wealthy or more wealthy, or about the same, “Crossville Criminal” C: So that song got you a pardon? me 7 months and 13 days and liked to cost or what? From his last interview, August 4, 2000 H: Yeah, and I’m here today. I just told the me a year and a day in prison. Johnny Ray Hicks: Well, it depends on what truth about it, the way the whole thing C: So, did you ever end up at Brushy? you call wealth. Now the Hicks family was Brent Cantrell: Now you wrote “Crossville went, and some way or another it got to H: No, never did see Brushy. good providers for their family. That meant Criminal” didn’t you? him, I don’t know what happened. Johnny Ray Hicks: Yeah, well they say a C: Do you mind telling me what it was all about? drowning man will catch to a straw. That’s a H: No, I don’t mind a bit to tell you. I spent, uh, true song, what actually happened, just the I stayed in jail 7 months and 14 days with- way it happened. I sung it to the Judge here out a trial. The Judge started up there one in Crossville one time. He’d done give me a time to try me, but had a heart attack and year and a day in Brushy, and the jailor died. So, then I had to wait again, you know. come over there and said, “Johnny I have an And what it was about, I was over there old guitar there, said would you care to with a friend and me and him was out one come over there and sing the Judge that night, and he had a family, I didn’t have any, song, he wants you to.” I said, “Why no, I that was before I was ever married or had don’t care.” Went over there to sing it. When any children or anything like that, you we went down the stairs, he said “Would you know. And ever little bit—I knowed he wasn’t like to have a little drink afore you go?” I a working, I’d run over there to help him said, “I don’t care.” He reached into his little make a run of whiskey, back down in Short locked thing and got a half a pint and just Mountain and all, I knowed him for a long Johnny Ray Hicks, about 1940. 14 15 food, plenty to eat. The kind of stuff they with 10 or 12 pigs. And they eat hickory on the worries of the whole world, right in hands. Time to be at home with their family eat, old mountain food, and stuff like that. nuts and acorns and stuff and got fat. And our living room. And whether we know it or of a night, the winter nights and things. As to money, back then they wasn’t a whole we’d kill ‘em. not, subconsciously we worry about it, and And there wasn’t anything really else to do, lot of anybody that had money. You could of But as to bein’ wealthy in their way, they concerned about it. Well back then, we didn’t except shell corn or peas or something. And stood ten men up, and you couldn’t of found would have any of ‘em told you they was have it. We worried about whether the corn they’d have a dance or a music get together, fifty cents on ‘em. If you worked a day for wealthy. They had good health most of ‘em. was gonna come up, when the hogs was you know, and drag out their old fiddles and somebody, they paid you in potatoes, or a They was stout people. They had plenty of going to get fat, and if it was goin’ to get guitars and things and all of ‘em have music. hunk of meat out of the smokehouse, or ei- old rough grub to eat, and most of all, they cold enough at hog killin’ time that we Now they’ve got television to enjoy, they ther they’d come over and work for you, if enjoyed life. They didn’t count it as a threat would’t have to worry about our meat a got cars to ride. They got this that and the you had something to do to pay you back, or a dread, but it was an opportunity, spoilin’, worry about if the old hens’d laid other. The old Hicks generation of people, you know. But as fur as money, money was- you know. enough eggs to do us and if the fish was they had their music. And that was their en- n’t mentioned, because they didn’t have it. F: Do you think that was a common way of goin’ to bite, and that was about it. tertainment. That’s all they had. Most of ‘em Now my grandfather, that we’re talking looking at life back then? January 24, 1986 didn’t even have a radio. January 24, 1986 about, he was an old Civil War veteran, he H: Yeah. I’ve been to other families. Joe Hicks, ( ) ( ) drawed about $90 a month. Well, he was for instance, you know. If he had a good Hicks Family Music Singing and Song Writing considered a wealthy person. He could have mess of fish for super that night, and a Fulcher: Why do you think the Hicks more Fulcher: What about when you sing a love just about anything he wanted for that $90 piece of cornbread, and good strong cup of than other families kept the music and song, do you have – what is your feeling like a month. And of course he stayed at our coffee, he didn’t care if he sat up and played played the music? when you’re singing a love song? place. So that helped Dad out about buying music half the night. Maybe not having Hicks: Well, there’s several reasons that they Hicks: Well, some of ‘em, them old love ballads, his seed and this that and the other. If he nothing for tomorrow. But he was just tick- did. They had a lot of time on their hands. I sort of try to put myself in the perspective put out his potato patch, and garden and led to death with what he had tonight, you They wasn’t too well educated people in of the person that made the song. There’s other stuff, and Dad had cows, two or three know. I don’t guess they lusted after a lot of books. Now I’m not saying they was dumb got to be a feeling there. Yeah, a song back cows at a time. Three or four head of stuff, one thing. If you don’t see, if your people. They was very smart people in their then, it was either a song about a freight horses. I have seen Dad when he had a hun- eyes don’t see, your mind don’t want. So they way. Mountain smart. And at that time there train, or a good hobo, or a good bum, or dred head of hogs. All running loose in the had no television, no radio to hear about all wasn’t a lot of jobs to be got, so you mostly somebody that had had tragedy in love, or a woods. Now if he of had to of penned ‘em up this other stuff, and the reality – they lived raised your family on a little piece of ground death, or something like that. All you can do and fed ’em, Dad couldn’t of done that. But, in a little world of their own. And their mind around with what animals you could catch is try and put yourself in that person’s see, they had no fence law back then, and didn’t extend outside of that little world. So and kill and trap and fur, and stuff like that, place, you know. Then you have some feeling you turn an old sow loose and she’d come up they had no worries really. Today, we take so they had a right smart of time on their about, you know, about the song. 16 17 Now you understand, you can get up broke down wagon, and he’d make a song H: Well a pension don’t last many seasons here, you can have two people. One of ‘em about it. And they loved to make songs on And I know what I’m talking about. can read a book, and to you it’s just words. their neighbors, them old country people I had one and lived pretty easy The other one can read the same book and did, anyhow. That’s where Dad—Dad was But now they have left me without. you get a real understanding of that book, pretty bad for that his self. To make songs because they read it with an understanding on his neighbors. They didn’t care. Oh the old train she rocked and she tottered —a feeling. Other than just reading the F: Do you remember any of those? As we set down to break bread side by side words that’s wrote down there. And so that’s H: Yeah, that un I was telling you about, Elbert And the fish that I’d caught wasn’t seasoned the way you have to go with a song. Branum, you know. About “a pension don’t For I couldn’t get no lard, though I tried. F: The Hicks family has always been known last many seasons; I know what I’m talking for making up songs, and you make ‘em up, about.” I told Sara Ann I was going to preachin’ too. How do you make up a song? See Dad had heared Elbert talking about That I’d preach to the people or die. H: It’s just a feeling that comes on ye. And if that. He saw him in town. He said, “Mount,” She said they would pay me attention. you don’t have that feeling, you needn’t to said, “I was drawin’ a pension,” said, For I couldn’t be a preacher and lie. make a song, because you can’t make “They’ve cut it out,” said, “ I just don’t know one…See, if it was any problem to make what we’re gonna do,” said, “I told Sara Ann F: Did your Dad sing it for Elbert? one, I wouldn’t be able to make it. I’d come to town today and see if could get H: No he didn’t sing it for Elbert, he sang it F: What about the songs that Daniel Hicks a little lard.” Said, “We’re just right down on for us. I sang it one time, sung for Elbert. made? Why do you think that he got inter- it.” And was talking to Dad about it, you Dad liked to of killed me, when I was little. ested in making songs? know, and Dad come back to the house and He come over there one time, come ahuntin’. H: Well, Uncle Daniel wasn’t interested in noth- made a song about it. The old crane lived He was a queer kind of a feller anyhow. ing – only that. And hunting. So he had to right down on the old railroad, the old Walked in there and set down. I was have at least two interests. Huntin’ was the smoke log train run right by his house, you amessin’ around in there. I was always other one. He was sort of a jolly funny kind know. And they was a song back then some- doing something I had no business adoin’. of an old feller anyway. So that kind of a body sang about the old train, she rocks and And I said, “Uncle Elbert, have you heard person would kind of be different at making she tottles, you know, and Dad just used that new song Dad made?” “Noo,” Uncle El- a song than I am. But he was a jolly old that lyrics to make that un on Elbert. bert said, “I ain’t.” I said, “I’ll sing a little of feller, and he just made ‘em up. About F: Would you sing some of that one it for you.” I cut in on it. I sung it, until At a family gathering everything. He could see a person with a for me? Mom and Dad got in there and got ahold of on the Plateau, qbout 1950. 18 19 me. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to sing “Uncle” Johnny Hicks good jolly old feller, but I don’t remember F: Did you ever sing from a songbook during it. January 24, 1986 him singing but a one or two songs. that period? ( ) January. 24, 1986 H: No. Never did sing out of a songbook. Just Grandpa Johnny Hicks ( ) what the group singers done, was sung out and Singing Church Singing of a songbook. Then they called me, they Fulcher: What do you remember about your Fulcher: Have you stayed interested in music called, “Now we’re gonna have special grandfather John singing. When would through the years or have there been peri- singing by Johnny Hicks.” Then they’d he sing? ods when music hasn’t meant as much to have me to come up for “special singing,” Hicks: My grandfather wasn’t bad to sing at you? you know. all – he wanted to hear somebody sing. I Hicks: There was for about 12 years that I F: When you sang, did, uh, the congregation ain’t for sure that grandpa could sing. But didn’t sing the old hillbilly songs. I sung sa- join in if they knew the song? he dearly loved it. He’d tell my mother. He cred songs… They’d have me in all the H: No. Hardly ever on a special singing. Once called her Eva. He was about eighty-some- churches and sang sacred songs for ‘em. in a while they would, if I was singing a odd years old and wore a big ol’ black hat, Not that I was any preacher or anything. song that they all knowed. I’d asked ‘em “Eva! Come in here and sit down and sing But I knowed a lot of old sacred songs, and sometimes to join in and help me sing it, me a song.” She’d say, “Grandpa, I’ve got the they knowed that I could sing ‘em. And they and they would. dishes to wash, and these kids to take care wanted me there singing ‘em. .. But then I F: When you sing a religious song as com- of. I ain’t got time to sing a song.” “Alright! got out of that, and when I did, of course, pared to singing a love song is there any Ding it! You got the bigs on ye. Alright. I’m why there was the old mountain music difference in the way you put yourself agoin’ to the Burg” – he called going to again, I just commenced to playing that… into it? Jamestown “goin’ to the Burg.” “I’m agoin’ F: What were the songs that you sang most H: Oh yeah. There’s quite a bit of difference. to the Burg in a month. Ding my picture, I often during that period? You have to have a spiritual helping on sa- won’t get you nary big red handkerchief!” H: Oh, they was hundreds of ‘em. One of ‘em cred songs or, you know, it's just words. You And he liked for her to sing that old freight was that un, “Tears Will Never Enter the have to feel what you’re singing. That’s what train song about “ All around the water Kingdom,” “Streets of that City,” “Smile they call me – a spiritual singer – that’s what tank.” And when she’d get to the part where With Me, I’m Going to Rest,” “When I’m they call me. They said just as many in the he said “My pocketbook was empty,” Homesick for Heaven,” and that “Sunset and congregation could sing beautiful songs that Grandad’d say, “Heh! Ding it! I wonder what Evening Star,” “On the Other Side of Jor- was done properly and good, but just the he done with his ding money?!” He was a don.” They’s thousands of ‘em… minute I started singing, the tempo 20 21 changed, they could feel it, you know. here, and back of that run a little old In the woods with a rifle, probably in the 1960s. ing like that. There was whiskey there, but January 24, 1986 branch over there, and it was just full of wasn’t no alcoholics. Dad didn’t say nothing ( ) possum haws, and there never was a pos- after us boys got bigger if we wanted to Grandpa Jim Huling sum that got one of ‘em, we eat ‘em before take a drink of whiskey, we took a drink of Johnny Ray Hicks: “My other grandpa, he they got there. it. He told us what it’d do for us if we got was bedridden for fifteen years, he was a F: Did ya’ll ever have like a meat house to put drunk on it. So we just drunk it. I made it circuit ridin’ minister. He sung me a lot of your wild game in or would it go in the pot? all my life nearly. old songs. He’d keep a little candy, ya know, H: We put it in our belly when we got it. But Fulcher: You’ve made some good whiskey. and I’d go sit down by the bed. He’d sing we was ready for it. It got cooked and eat H: I’ve made some good. They’ve come from me those old songs like that "Sunset and right then. We’d even go out here, there was Michigan to get it. Take ever bit I had, but Evening Star." He’s the one I learnt that old sage fields back over here, all over in just as soon as they’d let me—find out I was one from. here, and we’d hunt patteridge nest and gonna have a run—there’d be a car setting Brent Cantrell: And what was his name? pheasants nests, and never thought that right there from Michigan and get it or H: Uncle Jim Huling. James Huling was his maybe they’d been a settin’ on ‘em or they Ohio or somewheres. It’s good stuff. name. August 4, 2000 wasn’t. We brought ‘em in and boiled ‘em August 14, 1993 ( ) and eat ‘em, buddy. Now you take when a ( ) Wild Food grown man with five children and his wife Thompson Camp Hicks: Well, boys that was what we eat. And we or six children and his wife works all day, Fulcher: Nobody was charging rent? eat chinkapins, and there was grapes ten hours, for a dollar, don’t think he won’t Hicks: Nobody was charging nothing. If they growed down there, them possum grapes, eat what he can get ahold of. Cause he sure wanted to go out to the barn and tear half you know. We eat them in the fall of the can’t buy it with it. And that’s what Dad of it off burn it for heating wood, there was year, eat every one of them. We lived about done. He’d dig one of these root cellars for a nothing said about it. It was just a wild like a bear. Now it’s the truth. We looked dollar. Dig it with a mattock and shovel. place down in there, and them houses hap- forward to gooseberry and chinkapins and August 14, 1993 pened to be there. And people lived in ‘em possum haws, you know, like I was talking ( ) and nobody paid any rent, there was noth- about. There is a little branch right over Whiskey ing heared about any rent. We didn’t even here, back of this over here... Hicks: Dad raised twelve children like that, know that people charged for rent back Fulcher: In back of the log house? back there on the ridge, was big, stout, well then. I guess the first rent that we ever H: Yeah, there was another big field back over people, none of ‘em was ever on dope, noth- paid in my life, let’s see where was it, we 22 23 moved to town a little while, paid a little wanted to do anything with, we wasn’t can.” “Well,” Dad said, “I’ve lived here a long you’re nerves are settled and you’re ready to rent on an old house up there. In pushed for nothing. Paid no house rent. The time, I can cut anything here I want to, and go to sleep. Jamestown. But other than that, we never Gernts come down there and told Dad, said, live here,” and he said, “if you’s to give me F: Now in Washington you are going to find a paid no rent nowheres. August 14, 1993 “Mount” – they called him “Mont [phonetic]” that, Hugo,” he said, “here I would be tied up lot of people interested in Tennessee and ( ) and they thought the world of him. And apayin’ taxes and stuff on that.” And he these things that you do. Why do you think Darrow Ridge these boys out here of Gernt’s thinks I’m said, “The way it is, I ain’t ahavin’ to pay that a million people are interested enough Hicks: They eat just natural stuff, they just their brother, they just treat me like a none.” “Well,” Hugo said, “Mont, I see your to come down and enjoy this? eat what they raised, they knowed what it brother, you know, cause they stayed there point.” Said, “No hard feelings done,” said, H: Well, it seems to me, after me talking to was, it didn’t hurt ‘em, they eat all they half the time at my place. And their daddy’d “just stay here as long as you want to if it’s these college kids and things, it seems to wanted, they eated all the fish they wanted. come down there, go hunting with Dad, you the rest of your life.” Dad said, “That’s what me like they already know they is some- They found out right here lately that this know, and stay there, fool around all the I figured on doin’.” August 14, 1993 thing else different from what they’ve got. hypertension that’s so bad, you know, kids time. And there was 50 acres of our old ( ) They’s a longing there, it’s just in all human hyped up that can’t be still at all...Wild home place down there that, you know, that Music and Old Ways beings, I think. Maybe some of ‘em way meat’ll cure that. Squirrels, just feed him all wasn’t a lot, one’s place, about 50 acre. And Fulcher: Why did you stay interested deeper than others. But I believe it’s all the squirrels and rabbits and pheasants, one day Mr. Gernt come down there and in it? there. I believe it’s a part of creation. stuff like that, he wants – it’ll take care of said, “Mont,” he said, uh, “We been friends a Hicks: I stayed interested in it because it was F: You say, “there is a longing.” What do you that. See, they eat all that they wanted all long time.” He said, “It wouldn’t make you part of my life. It was just as much a part mean? the time. That’s all they had. Now when we mad if I’s to do you a little favor would it?” of life as eatin’ was. And I liked it. And I H: A longing for something. Like you get edu- lived on the ridge, Dad had a hundred head Dad said, “Why not, I don’t reckon it would.” growed up with it, and it’s something you cation, you know, and you’ve got the city, of hogs loose in the woods. We had two reg- Said, “I never have been mad at ye.” Hugo don’t just shake off…. It can be very valu- you’ve got big new cars, all kinds of money, ular milk cows and Dad had six or seven said, “Well, what I want to do, Mont, is just, able. It’s as good for you as a good dose of but you wake up of a night and you think, more cows, horses. Mom had over a hundred measure this off,” said, “it’s fifty acres of it medicine. You set down of a night, you’re “Well there’s something missing. This ain’t head of chickens a year. And we had all the here,” and said, “I want to make you a pres- nervous, you’re tired, you don’t feel like goin’ all a satisfyin’ me.” You’ve got that longing eggs that we could do anything with, and ent of it, just give it to you.” Dad said, to sleep. You set there and tell a few of for it even though you’ve never heard it, milk and butter and taters of both kinds, “Hugo,” he said, uh,” I don’t believe I want these old stories, sing a few of them old maybe. But you know they’s something else. she canned up over 200 cans of stuff every it.” Hugo said, “Why don’t you want it, fashioned songs, and get your mind back on It’s satisfyin’, it’s soothin’. It’s something year and put in the root cellar. And we had Mont?” “Well,” he said, “The way it is, Hugo,” when this country was first formed , how that money won’t buy and you just can’t get apples put away, and we just lived like a he said, “I can live here as long as I want to, the people lived, how they done, and by the it that a way. June 22, 1986 king, you know, and had all the time we cain’t I?” “Why” Hugo said, “You know you time you get through, you’re rested, and ( ) 24 25 Song Notes 2. Little Wiley was composed by Mount Hicks, Johnny’s Ray father. Wiley was Mount’s Johnny Ray Hicks’ wide repertoire included first cousin. Recorded October 23, 2000 at the English ballads going back to least the 17th Laurel Theater, Knoxville, Tennessee. century, early American songs and ballads, 3. Barbara Allen Child 84 is one of the sentimental songs of the Victorian era, most widely collected( of the English) ballads. popular music of the early and mid-Twentieth Samuel Pepys mentioned it in a 1666 entry century, and compositions by Johnny Ray and in his diary. We consider this a near perfect other members of the Hicks family. This performance. October 23, 1998, at the Laurel production focuses on his older and his more Theater. traditional material and particularly on unac- companied songs and ballads. Johnny Ray al- 4. Crossville Criminal Johnny Ray ways performed some songs acapella, but more composed this in 1963. It is based on a often preferred to accompany himself with personal encounter with the justice system. guitar. In most cases we have chosen the unac- See the main text for more information. companied versions. August 4, 2000, at home. The original recordings vary considerable Pretty Polly in quality. They were recorded over a period of 5. is also known as “Across fifteen years on cassette, on reel tape and on the Blue Mountains” with versions collected digital audio tape. Although his voice some- in Virginia. March 25, 2000, at the Laurel times falters in recordings made just a few Theater. days before his death, in some cases these 6. Irishman's dog with a courting were the most complete recorded versions. tale story One of Johnny Ray’s large — Brent Cantrell and Toby Koosman stock( of Irishman) tales. October 23, 1998, at the Laurel Theater. 1. Little Rosewood Casket was pub- Long Chain Charlie lished in 1870 by Louis Goullaud and Charles 7. is a fragment of White. It’s been in wide circulation since, a prison blues. West Virginian Bill Cox with early recordings by George Reneau and made a popular recording in 1934. Sid Harkreader. Recorded August 4, 2000, at June 11, 1984, at home. In the late 1940s. Johnny Ray’s home, Clarkrange, Tennessee.

26 27 8. Wayfaring Stranger This popular 12. Willow Garden Laws F6 Also known 16. Sow Took the Measles and Died Kazee, Riley Puckett, Ernest Stoneman and and well known hymn was first published in as “Rose Conley” the( song was) first docu- in the Spring A fragment of a “tall Bradley Kincaid all recorded versions in the 1819 by Ananias Davisson in his shape note mented about 1917. G.B. Grayson recorded it tale” song with fairly wide distribution in 1920s. August 4, 2000, at home. collection, Kentucky Harmony. October 23, in 1927 and through him it entered the the South. It was identified by Harvey 21. Peggy Band appeared in several 18th 1998, at the Laurel Theater. bluegrass repertoire. The tune consistently Fuson Ballads of the Kentucky Highlands century printed collections in Ireland, but used was popular among Irish immigrant in Kentucky( in the 1930s and by Randolph) 9. Blind Girl's Plea is the Platonic Ideal has rarely been collected from oral sources. singers of the 1920s. August 4, 2000, at in Arkansas. June 11, 1984, at home. Form of the classic Victorian tragedy, dat- Another outstanding example was recorded home. ing from the last half of the 19th century— 17. Paul's Vision appears to date from the by Mike Yates in 1978 from Norfolk, some sources say 1860s. It achieved consid- 13. Dandoo Child 277 is also known as mid-twentieth century. It has been recorded England singer Walter Pardon. August 4, erable popularity and wide distribution in “The Wife Wrapt( in Wether's) Skin” and with various attributions as “Paul’s Min- 2000, at home. Tennessee with at least ten variants identi- dates from at least the first decade of the istry,” with the earliest being by Kitty Wells 22. Short Life in Trouble with guitar fied in the Boswell collection. The great 19th century. December 18, 1985, at home. and Early Upchurch. March 25, 2000, at the was first recorded by the Cumberland( ) Ozark ballad singer Almeda Riddle, whose Laurel Theater. 14. My Dad is Sleeping with guitar Plateau duo Dick Burnett and Leonard mother was from Middle Tennessee, said it Johnny Ray linked this song( in his mind) to 18. Chihuahua story About a failure of Rutherford in 1926 with G.B. Grayson and was the first song she learned. Early the late Victorian “Mother Old and Grey.” cross-cultural communication.( ) October 23, Henry Whitter recording it in 1928. The recorded versions include performances by October 23, 1998, at the Laurel Theater. 1998, at the Laurel Theater. song was found with considerable variation Riley Puckett and Knoxville’s Charlie Oaks. and wide distribution in Middle and East March 20, 1999, at the Laurel Theater. 15. Old Charlie Cecil Sharp English Folk- 19. Burglar Man Laws H23 A popular Tennessee in the 1930s. Charles Wolfe Folk Songs from the Southern Appalacians( , 1932 song from the 1880s,( everything) hangs on 10. Wild and Reckless Motorman Songs of Middle Tennessee presented a( ver- identified a version, “The Horse’s Com- ) the punch line. The song was quite popular with guitar Laws G11 Also known as sion titled “The First Thing) I Owned Was a plaint,” in Virginia in 1918. “The Drunk- during early recording sessions with Dave (“The True and)( Trembling) Brakeman” and Pistol” collected in Montgomery County ard’s Horse” was collected in the Ozarks by Macon and Riley Puckett both recording “The Dying Californian,” this song com- that he felt dated from a 1920 Cheatham Vance Randolph in the 1920s. A variant ti- the song in 1924 and Henry Whitter, memorates a 1915 mining death, reportedly County source. October 23, 1998, at the tled “Barefooted In Front And No Shoes On Ernest Stoneman, John Carson, and Frank composed by a worker named Jenks after Laurel Theater. Behind” was recorded by Warde Ford in Hutchison following before the decade was removing the brakeman’s body from the 1939 and is available at the Library of Con- out. March 20, 1999, at the Laurel Theater. 23. May I Sleep In Your Barn wreck. December 18, 1985, at home. gress web site. Luke Brandon, Jr. also sings Tonight Mister makes its first appear- 20. Pretty Mohee Laws H8 This story of 11. Grandpa and Foxhound story “Old Charlie” – he learned it from his ance in recordings by George Reneau and exotic love is found( in many versions) This one is about Uncle Johnny Hicks,( ) grandfather in Rockwood, at the foot of the Charlie Poole both made in 1925. Ernest throughout the United States. The first Johnny Ray’s paternal grandfather. October Plateau. December 18, 1985, at home. Stoneman recorded it a few months later. documentation dates from the 1840s. Buell 23, 1998, at the Laurel Theater. August 4, 2000, at home.

28 29 24. Bill Staples Laws H1 Also known as old Wild Bill Jones or some of these other is a particularly good vehicle for Johnny the 1680s as “Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing in “The State of Arkansas,”( and) “Bill ones.” August 4, 2000, at home. Ray’s deadpan “fierceness.” The song is the Low-Lands.” Edwin Kirkland recorded Stafford.” Kelly Harrell recorded it as “My also known as “Wild Hog in the Woods” and seven versions in the Knoxville area during 27. Way Out on the River Laws O17 name is John Johanna” in 1927. The song “Sir Lionel.” September 10, 1999, at the the 1930s. The song is also known as “The with guitar A much naturalized( American) shows up in Edwin C. Kirkland’s Knoxville Laurel Theater. Golden Vanity.” March 20, 1999, at the (variant of the) widely distributed “Sixteen Collection, got from Columbus Popejay in Laurel Theater. or Seventeen Come Sunday” documented 31. Hills of Roane County was probably 1937. His version had an Irish protagonist. (since the 1790s.) December 18, 1985, at home. written by the protagonist, Willis Mayberry, 35. Sunset and Evening Star draws on A related family of songs in Ireland de- about 1915. Mr. Mayberry was a section a number of previously published sources. scribe comically a miserable farm laborer’s 28. Knoxville Girl Laws P35 A British hand in Kingston, Tennessee and appar- The first couplet comes from Alfred Lord life forced “to plough the Rocks of Bawn.” ballad in origin, the( unfortunate) girl has ently killed his brother-in-law who had Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar” published in Johnny Ray’s cousin Dee sang it. It first been thrown into the rivers of Wexford, stabbed him for some unknown reason. He 1889. The second stanza is from Charles shows up in print in 1906 from Missouri. Oxford, Linsborough, and Lexington, but was condemned to prison and sentenced to Wesley’s “A Charge to Keep I Have” dating October 23, 1998, at the Laurel Theater. today is best known even in Britain from the State Penitentiary in Nashville on the from 1792 and is traditionally sung in East the 1959 recording of the Louvin Brothers 25. Arkansas Boys Why are there so banks of Cumberland. See Patricia Kirke- Tennessee as an additional verse to the sometime based in the eponymous town. many songs that make fun of Arkansas? minde’s article in the Tennessee Folklore New Harp Of Columbia 188 bottom, Earlier recordings include unissued sides We don’t know. This one shows up with sev- Society Bulletin March 1964 for more “Boylston.” The third and# fourth stanzas by Riley Puckett in 1924 and Gid and eral titles including “West Virginia Gals” – information. December( 18, 1985,) at home. are from “There’ll be no Sorrow There,” by Arthur Tanner in 1925. Doc Roberts it was recorded under that title by Al Hop- Mary S.B. Dana, which was published as recorded it in 1928 and the Blue Sky Boys 32. Groundhog is a fragment of this exu- kins in 1928. Clayton McMichen and Riley early as 1859 and achieved widespread in 1937. By way of exculpating his hosts, berant and well distributed discourse on the Puckett also recorded it that year as “The popularity during the Civil War. All the Johnny Ray explained to a Laurel Theater culinary delights of groundhog. It was first Arkansas Sheik.” A version appears to have stanzas have been changed slightly, and audience that the murder took place in recorded in 1924 by Land Norris. December been on the minstrel stage as early as 1841. the whole is certainly greater than the Knoxville, England. August 4, 2000, 18, 1985, at home. December 18, 1985, at home. parts. “Sunset and Evening Star” is one of at home. 33. Muddy France appears to have been the most powerful songs in Johnny Ray’s 26. Wild Bill Jones Laws E10 Johnny 29. Mule and Sweet Taters, story brought to the Plateau by Bill Cromwell, a repertoire. He learned it from his grandfa- Ray said, “That one happened( to) be one of About the misadventures of the family’s( ) brother-in-law of Dee Hicks. Mr. Cromwell ther Jim Huling. March 20, 1999, at the my old favorites you know – I liked to sing mule. March 20, 1999, at the Laurel Theater. served in Europe during the First World War Laurel Theater. it. Back then, I drunk quite a bit. I never let and told Bob Fulcher that he got the song it knock me outta work or anything like 30. Old Bangham Child 18 Found in the from his sergeant. August 4, 2000, at home. Recorded by Brent Cantrell – tracks 1-4, 6, 8, 11, 12, that, but always had me a bottle some- repertoire of the Hicks( family) and many 14, 18, 20-24, 26, 28, 30, 33; Bob Fulcher - tracks 7, wheres. And I’d get to drinkin’ and I’d sing other Appalachian ballad singers, this song 34. Golden Willow Tree Child 286 10, 13, 15, 16, 25, 27, 31, 32; and Louis Gross - tracks first shows up on a broadside( in England) in 5, 9, 17, 19, 29, 34, 35. 30 31