Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in the Floyd Press on December 26, 2024.

The “Nest of Singing Birds” ballad singers lost their town and their monthly Appalachian Ballad Swap venue when the historic town of Marshall in Madison County, NC, floated away with the flood of Hurricane Helene, and the Old Marshall Jail Hotel & Restaurant filled with 10 ½ feet of muddy water. So, they took their show on the road.

Hosted by the Floyd Country Store, the December 14th Ballad Swap was the group’s first post-Helene touring gig outside of NC and a homecoming for Josh Copus, the OMJ owner/host and Swap emcee who was raised in Floyd County. Hanna Traynham, a musician/potter who grew up in Floyd and has experienced an OMJ Ballad Swap, gave a brief introduction on the living musical traditions carried on both in Floyd and Marshall before Copus took to stage and addressed the audience.

“Probably everyone in this room knows that I was raised here in Floyd. My 5th grade teacher is sitting right there, Ms. Alice Slusher,” Copus pointed out. “This community nurtured me and a lot of who I am as an adult today is because of this place. So, thank you Floyd,” he continued.

Before turning the stage over to the eight generational ballad singers of Madison County, Copus spoke of the devastation that the flood caused to his “two-stoplight, one-street, mile-long adopted town,” and of the vision that led to the Ballad Swap Tour, a fundraiser for the Helene impacted musical community and a way to share the Marshall story, which is as uplifting as it is tragic.

“One day on September 27th we had an unheard of 27 feet of water in our town,” Copus said. The flood waters from the cresting of the French Broad River broke the record on The Great Flood of 1916, which the people of Marshall thought, or hoped, would never happen again.”

Copus said the pictures and videos of the devastation didn’t convey the reality of the destruction, and he shared how the people of the town pulled together for the shared clean-up. “We showed up. No one waited for anyone to save us. We showed up with our own equipment.”

He spoke of how his friend, the award-winning 7th generation ballad singer Sheila Kay Adams, came to the OMJ after the flood had receded and sang on the sidewalk, “next to a pile of garbage that used to be my restaurant.” The song communicated what words could not, Copus said. With Marshall businesses closed down, he and Adams promised each other that they would pull off an October Ballad Swap on the Jail’s outside patio, which they did.

“I saw how powerful that was for me and for our whole town, and I thought, we’ve got to share this with the world,” Copus said. A November Ballad Swap was held in Asheville. A January Swap is scheduled to be held in South Carolina, followed by a February one in Montreal, Canada.

Singing to a full house at the Floyd Country Store, the eight ballad singers swapped song stories that touched emotions and brought reflection and laughter from the audience. William Ritter performed a classic murder ballad and a song about the Great Marshall Flood of 1916. Judy Rhodes sang “Now our Meeting is Over,” with the fitting chorus line of “We will land on shore / And be safe forever more.”

Sheila Kay, who was not new to the Floyd Country Store stage, was joined by her daughter Melanie Rice and cousin Donna Ray Norton, both 8th generation ballad singers, along with others from the “Nest of Singing Birds,” a term coined by folklorist Cecil Sharp when he traveled in 1916 to record ballads and discovered a treasure trove of traditional English and Scotch-Irish ballads that were passed down and preserved in Madison County.

The range of song storytelling was wide, and the singers informal banter and merriment on stage added to the entertainment. Their unaccompanied voices rang through the building with resonance. Sarah Songbird Burkey sang a riveting “Joseph and Mary: The Cherry Tree Carol,” fitting for the season. Another singer sang “Brightest and Best,” a Christmas Hymn about the Nativity that was written in 1811 (HERE).

Melanie Rice performed “I Will Never Marry,” a tragic love song, and Donna Ray Norton sang a rebuttal, titled “I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again” HERE. Humor was played to the hilt. Sheila Kay sang a bawdy song about an old farmer who lived by the sea. Branson Raines sang about a rooster in the yard that caught the other animals off guard.

Even Copus, who is not a singer, got into the act, performing a “ballad” that included a bible, an unfaithful woman and a shooting, Rocky Racoon by the Beatles, which everyone sang along to.

After Sheila Kay sang in the street by the OMJ in Marshall, other singers followed. Copus wrote on his Facebook page at the time: “Shortly after the French Broad floodwaters receded we started singing in the hollowed shell of the Old Jail. It wasn’t planned. It just felt like the thing to do. Artists from Western North Carolina came together and recorded a triple vinyl live album. When words can’t tell the story, music helps to heal our souls.”

That album, The Resonance Sessions, was released digitally on Bandcamp (resonancesessions.bandcamp.com), where the vinyl album can be pre-ordered. All sale proceeds will go directly to the recovery of the Madison County musical community.

The day after the Floyd Swap, Madison County ballad singer Judy Rhodes shared a Facebook post about the Appalachian heritage exchange. It was directed to Floyd, Virginia: “You certainly captured our hearts with our little trip up your way this weekend. Floyd is Josh Copus’ hometown. So, his high school English teacher (Janet Keith) grabbed hold of me during the break and just wanted to connect. She said she felt drawn to me and I told her maybe it was the fact that my people have all been educators. We had such a lovely visit. She and her husband went to Mars Hill College, NC. I tell you what, those people up there are our people. They care about us. It was wonderful to be there and sing for them. Thank you, thank you everyone.” ___Colleen Redman  Note: Check out THIS post on the June Ballad Swap in Marshall pre- Helene.