Trevor Mckenzie Courtesy of Appalachian State University
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Join App State’s Trevor McKenzie to learn more about Appalachia’s music traditions as a form of creative place-keeping within the region. Place-keeping is the active care and maintenance of a place and its social fabric by the people who live and work there.
Traditional music is a place-keeping tool essential to sustaining regional communities — ballads are a form of community memory, instrumental techniques are a continuum of thoughts and movements from elder members of communities, and tunes bearing the names of mountains or streams lead to a heightened appreciation of regional ecology. Through these examples and more, this program will highlight music’s role in keeping and continuing cultural memories connected to locales across Appalachia.
Appalachia is known worldwide as a wellspring for musical traditions. The appearance of a fiddle or a banjo in a contemporary song often prompts listeners to point to “Appalachian sounds” or artists to cite an “Appalachian flavor” as present within their music. Old-time string bands, ballads, bluegrass, and blues are all directly linked to the region’s vast musical landscape.
These vibrant cultural traditions are often overshadowed by the popular perception that they are relics of Appalachia’s past. While deeply connected to Appalachia’s diverse and expansive history, these music styles are still a functional part of regional communities and are constantly being reimagined in the 21st century
About the Speaker:
Trevor Mckenzie performing live for the Trash Trout Picture Show Closing Reception at BRAHM
McKenzie is the Director of the Center for Appalachian Studies at App State. He performs traditional music from along the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and Virginia, both as a solo artist and with regional string bands.
He has been an instructor for the Junior Appalachian Musician’s program and taught workshops at gatherings such as Augusta Heritage Center’s Old-Time Week and the Floyd Old Time Music Get-Together. His first book, Otto Wood the Bandit: The Freighthopping Thief, Bootlegger, and Convicted Murderer behind the Appalachian Ballads, was published in 2021.