I have recently been digging into research about two specific people: Carlton Haney and Hazel Dickens. The projects are separate, but the work overlaps in unexpected ways. Carlton Haney’s business cards I found scattered on the floor of his office read: “Carlton Haney: ‘Nuff Said'”… but there is so much to this man and what those initial festivals mean to listeners and fans today. And Hazel Dickens… I have to separate myself from listening and researching her. At times it becomes consuming and overwhelming.  Her songwriting is just a facet of who this woman was– strong, aware, unafraid and constantly searching and creating. In both Dickens and Haney I see pieces of those I love and glimpses into who I would like to be.

These are a few images from my fieldwork regarding Carlton Haney. His collection will (to the best of my knowledge) be debuted at Appalachian State University in the near future.

–with Charles Haney…

By Arthur Menius (from The Spectator Magazine of the Triad – April 5- April 11, 1984):

Outside the auditorium of Morehead High School in Eden, the night air chills. Inside, the mostly middle –aged audience is warm and friendly. They have gathered to share their rich heritage of old-time music, one that has survived in the Eden area for almost a century.

The current embodiment of that sound provides back-porch music. The Rockingham County Sheriff executes a clog dance while the band plays rhythmically along. One of the three fiddles usually takes the lead; the banjo, guitars, mandolin, and piano surge forward in unison. No jazzy bluegrass solos, no smooth Nashville pop, no honky-tonk songs about cheating husbands.

`This is the sound of country music’s earliest commercial period, the 1920’s and 1930’s. Then it was called hillbilly music, and it was made by rural…

Join us at the Carrboro Town Common on Wednesday, October 15, from 6 to 8 PM for the kickoff of Carrboro’s “Think Local” campaign. Enjoy free hot dogs and popcorn and a screening of the powerful local film “Real Value: What’s the Real Cost of Cheap.”