CD will feature recordings made in 1939 of people living in, around Smokies [The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.]

Aug. 31--In 1937 a young graduate student from California named Joseph S. Hall was hired by the National Park Service to document the speech of the residents still living in the newly formed Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

That first summer, Hall, a linguist by training, recorded his findings in notebooks. When he returned to the Smokies two years later to continue his fieldwork, his equipment included two recording machines -- one that ran on a truck battery, the other powered by a portable battery pack.

In addition to mountain speech, Hall also documented music made by people living in and around the park. The year was 1939. Old-time music had not yet evolved into bluegrass, and the Smoky Mountains were still fertile ground for self-made music, everything from ballads to blues.

In October the Great Smoky Mountains Association and the National Park Service will release a CD of Hall's field recordings. Titled "Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music," the CD will include 34 songs and instrumentals, as well as essays and detailed liner notes by Michael Montgomery, distinguished professor emeritus of English and Linguistics at the University of South Carolina, and Ted Olson, professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University.

Proceeds from the sale of "Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music" will benefit park projects related to history, education and scientific research.

Because a number of the singers and musicans who appear on the CD were young in 1939, park officials are hopeful that some of these men and women are still living.

Steve Kemp, interpretive products and services director of the Great Smoky Mountains Association, said his organization is trying to contact as many of these surviving musicians, or their relatives, as possible.

"We've asked around a bit and sent out news releases, but we haven't had a lot of strong leads yet," said Kemp. "We think they'd be excited about the project. We'd like to give them a couple of free CDs."

The park was five years old when Hall made his field recordings. Much of the park's roads, campgrounds and trails were being built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which employed 4,000 men in the Smokies during the late 1930s.

According to the CD's liner notes, Hall used the CCC camps as home base while he searched the hollows for stories, conversation and music.

The musicians and storytellers he recorded in the park had leases to remain after the government had purchased their land.

"The government wanted Hall to document traditional mountain culture before it was erased by the park," said Kemp. "He traveled around the Smokies and recorded anybody who wanted to pick up an instrument and play, both in Tennessee and North Carolina."

Hall's documentary field recordings have been preserved by the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service and Hall's family.

To make the CD, the recordings were cleaned up and digitized at East Tennessee State University.

Kemp said he wouldn't be surprised if the CD garners high accolades from folklorists and old-time music lovers around the world.

"It might even get a Grammy under the historical music category," he said. "It's neat that these recordings made by one guy in a truck even survived."

Morgan Simmons may be reached at 865-342-6321.

<p>Do you know these musicians?

Below is a list of the names of the musicians and their residences at the time Hall's field recordings were made in 1939. Those on the list, or their relatives, are asked to contact Steve Kemp, Great Smoky Mountains Association, at 115 Park Headquarters Road, Gatlinburg, TN, 37738, or phone 865-436-7318, ext. 227, or email [email protected].

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John Hannah, Little Cataloochee community, Haywood County, N.C.

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Bessie Rabb, Allens Creek, Haywood County, N.C.

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Myrtle Conner, Gatlinburg, TN.

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Jack Johnson, Tuckaleechee Cove, Bounty County, TN.

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Cataloochee Trio (Wayne Wright, Slick Wilson, David Proffitt), Cataloochee, Haywood County, N.C.

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Bill Moore and Vic Peterson, Waynesville, N.C.

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John Davis and Shorty Smith, Cataloochee, CCC Camp, Cataloochee community, N.C.

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Bill Moore's Quartet, Waynesville, Haywood County, N.C.

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Carl Messer, Cove Creek, Haywood County, N.C.

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The Leatherman Brothers, Bryson City, N.C.

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Bill Moore, Paul Buchanan, Hardy Crisp, Haywood County, N.C.

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Clarence Sutton, Del Rio, Cocke County, TN.

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Herman Smith and David Proffitt, Cataloochee CCC Camp, Cataloochee, N.C.

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Jim Sutton, Cataloochee, Haywood County, N.C.

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Helen Gunter, Mount Sterling, Haywood County, N.C.

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Willis and Dexter Bumgarner, Allens Creek, Haywood County, N.C.

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Zeb and Winfred Hannah, Cove Creek, TN.

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Chub Karns, Francis Lum, Cataloochee CCC Camp, Cataloochee, N.C.

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Boyd Strickland, Joe, Madison County, N.C.

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Robert Ray, Jefferson County, TN.

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Betty Messer, White Oak, Cove Creek, N.C.

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