Arts Across NC

Children and parents learn together at the Haliwa-Saponi Traditional Arts Program for Students (TAPS). Gathering families and intergenerational groups for tribal culture and tradition classes is important in a rural place like Hollister, N.C. where the program is based. We learn why in this new episode of Arts Across NC. The North Carolina Arts Council created TAPS, a statewide network of after school programs, in response to community requests for traditional arts education taught locally, knee-to-knee, and across generations. TAPS is an intergenerational story. It's a story about community and pride in place. It’s a story about the role the N.C. Arts Council plays in helping North Carolinians use their artistic traditions to thrive as individuals and as communities. From pottery to bluegrass to the arts and crafts of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe, TAPS programs across the state represent the diversity of North Carolina’s cultural life and heritage. Each program is uniquely shaped by the community, but all share three core values: Programs are affordable, and often free. Students learn the traditional arts of their own region, from teachers within their community. Music is taught by ear, and crafts are taught by hand. Through field recordings and interviews collected by N.C. Arts Council staff, this episode is the first of three in a new season of Arts Across NC that highlights the diverse TAPS programs across the state. This episode featured field recordings from Haliwa-Saponi TAPS class and Pow wows. Learn more about the program at www.ncarts.org. _____ Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council. Facebook: @ncarts Twitter: @ncartscouncil Instagram: @ncartscouncil | @ncartsfolklife

Call and Response chronicles the origin story of TAPS, the Traditional Arts Program for Students. The North Carolina Arts Council created TAPS, a statewide network of after school programs, in response to community requests for traditional arts education taught locally, knee-to-knee, and across generations. TAPS is an intergenerational story. It's a story about community and pride in place. It’s a story about the role the N.C. Arts Council plays in helping North Carolinians use their artistic traditions to thrive as individuals and as communities. From pottery to bluegrass to the arts and crafts of the Haliwa Saponi tribe, TAPS programs across the state represent the diversity of North Carolina’s cultural life and heritage. Each program is uniquely shaped by the community, but all share three core values: Programs are affordable, and often free. Students learn the traditional arts of their own region, from teachers within their community. Music is taught by ear, and crafts are taught by hand. Through field recordings and interviews collected by N.C. Arts Council staff, this episode is the first of three in a new season of Arts Across NC that highlights the diverse TAPS programs across the state. This episode featured music from Phil Cook, the Camp Creek Boys and Madison Shepard. Learn more about the program at www.ncarts.org. _____ Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council. Facebook: @ncarts Twitter: @ncartscouncil Instagram: @ncartscouncil | @ncartsfolklife

Etta Baker is one of North Carolina’s most famous Piedmont blues guitarist. Born in Caldwell County, she started learning guitar from her father when she was three. Her masterful, emotive pickin’ first appeared in 1956 on the album Instrumental Music from the Southern Appalachians, but it took 35 years before her next recording and first solo record One Dime Blues appeared. That album arose from many years of recording sessions produced by Wayne Martin, our host of “Director’s Cut.” “I felt like she was one of the most extraordinary expressive musicians who I had ever met,” says Wayne Martin. “I remember hearing her play John Henry with a slide and I can remember my thought: I’m in the presence of a musical genius.” Etta Baker’s sound and style influenced the likes of Bob Dylan and Taj Mahal. In this episode of Director's Cut, Wayne Martin shares "Broken Hearted Blues,” a rare recording that features Baker both playing guitar and singing. “Most of the time she would let the guitar do the talking for her,” says Wayne. “But just very occasionally she would sing.” ______ Director's Cut is a special music themed season of Arts Across NC, curated in celebration of Come Hear North Carolina, a campaign for the 2019 North Carolina Year of Music. In each episode NC Arts Council Director Wayne Martin will unearth a field recording from the archive he built during his 30+ year tenure with our agency. Each song represents a different region of North Carolina. "These pieces that I've chosen are part of the fabric of who we are as a people," says Wayne. "They are pieces that tell the story of North Carolina. Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council.

One hundred years ago famed folk-song collectors Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles visited North Carolina and documented hundreds of ballads and folk songs that had their roots in the British Isles. The epicenter of our state's ballad singing tradition is Madison County, NC. In the second installment of Director's Cut, a special mini-season of Arts Across NC, Wayne Martin shares a "Jack-A-Roe," a ballad performed by Doug Wallin. Doug lived far up a holler in Madison County, and he learned how to sing ballads from his mother Berzilla. He once told Wayne Martin he sung all the time...even when he was falling asleep at night. "Doug himself was an extraordinary ballad singer for two reasons. The texts of his tunes were very full and well developed...plus he was very musical and he was able to put beautiful tunes to the songs themselves," says Wayne. The National Endowment or the Arts awarded Wallin the National Heritage Award in 1990. He passed away in 2000. _____ Director's Cut is a special music themed season of Arts Across NC, curated in celebration of Come Hear North Carolina, a campaign for the 2019 North Carolina Year of Music. In each episode NC Arts Council Director Wayne Martin will unearth a field recording from the archive he built during his 30+ year tenure with our agency. Each song represents a different region of North Carolina. "These pieces that I've chosen are part of the fabric of who we are as a people," says Wayne. "They are pieces that tell the story of North Carolina. Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council. The featured image is of Doug Wallin with his brother Jack Wallin made by Rob Amberg.

In celebration of Come Hear North Carolina, a campaign for the 2019 North Carolina Year of Music, we're back with a new music themed season of Arts Across NC called "Director's Cut." Over the next four episodes, NC Arts Council Director Wayne Martin will unearth a field recording from the archive he built during his 30+ year tenure with our agency. Each song represents a different region of North Carolina. "These pieces that I've chosen are part of the fabric of who we are as a people," says Wayne. "They are pieces that tell the story of North Carolina. Up first is the song "Going Back to Weldon," performed by the Menhaden Chanteymen in 1988. There was a time when a stinky, oily fish ruled eastern North Carolina. From the late 1800s through much of the 20th century, menhaden sat at the economic epicenter of Beaufort, North Carolina. Year in and year out, generations of working class men and women caught, processed, packaged and shipped menhaden, also known in North Carolina's Core Sound region as shad. As the town grew alongside the burgeoning industry, so to did a new style of work song developed by African American men who often handled the back-breaking work of hauling in thousands of pounds of fish. These songs, called chanteys, have outlived the industry itself and today we share the story of and a song by the Menhaden Chanteymen. Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council. The featured image for this episode is from the State Archives of North Carolina.