I know Sophia and I talk a lot about her Ukrainian roots, but our trip with Nancy Capel to Blowing Rock, N.C. last month made me want to speak about my roots and musical heritage from western North Carolina. My family tradition extends back to the early 1700's when my ancestors immigrated from England to a tiny mountain community in the southern Appalachian region they named Shelton Laurel. As a matter of fact one of my middle names is Shelton, and many of my relatives on both my mother and father's side have the name Shelton.

My family has always had a keen interest in music, and when they settled in the mountains they brought the English tradition of folk song and dance from their homeland, and because of the isolation in the rugged mountain terrain, the music was passed down in the form of ballads and tunes from generation to generation.

From 1916-1918 a dedicated Englishman and musician by the name of Cecil Sharp visited the southern Appalachian region (from England) recording and writing down the words and music of all the old English tunes he could find. He has been popularized in recent years as "The Songcatcher". One of the first communities where he spent time in 1916 was indeed...Shelton Laurel!

Cecil Sharp's Diary reads as follows:
29 July, 1916.  ‘I call on Mrs Noah Shelton who sang me 2 or 3 beautiful songs, including ‘On Friday Night’ (‘The Lover’s Lament’), a lovely dorian tune....after a picnic lunch we call on Mr & Mrs Sol Shelton & family - a most delightful lot of people.  Here I got 3 or 4 more songs... walked home beaming with pleasure after so successful a day’.

9 August, 1916.  ‘Called on Sol Shelton’s in the afternoon and had a long talk there taking down one song from Donna’.

Donna Shelton was my great grandmother. The song she sand was 'Sweet William'. I remember sitting on her lap when I was a preschooler and she sang that song to me! The picture of the beautiful young woman you see is her, taken by Cecil Sharp and his assistant during the visit in 1916. I have also included other pictures of my family recorded in the Sharp library in London. I have never visited the house there, but I hope someday Sophia and I will visit and maybe listen to the recordings of my family singing the original tunes!

Diary entry and picture credit given to "Cecil Sharp Diaries" Vaughn Williams Memorial Library, London England.