Last year I had the incredible opportunity and experience of moving from Cardiff to live in Washington DC for a year. The reason for this move was to take an internship at the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives at the Smithsonian Institution. My job there was to assist their audio digitisation specialist in an ongoing project to help digitise old and fragile audio materials, and to help store and preserve them within the archive. Having wanted to travel to America for many years, I knew it was going to be a great experience that I had to take full advantage of, and to get to work in one the Smithsonian’s archives was a dream come true. Aside from this archival internship, and as a musician who has played and studied American old-time and bluegrass music for the last 10 years, one of my other intentions with my time in America was to go out to the rural area’s of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, and the Appalachian regions of West Virginia. Out there in these less visited areas for most people who visit the States are where you find the origins and ongoing tradition bearers of this music, where it still thrives to this day.
Having met a few musicians in DC who often drove out to West Virginia to attend local jams and sessions, I started regularly getting lifts to Romney, WV to get involved too. It was during these drives that took us out of DC, through the town of Front Royal on the edge of Virginia, and into the Shenandoah Valley to eventually reach Romney, that I started noticing similarities between Wales and West Virginia. At first it was the visible landscape that we drove through. Miles upon miles of rolling hills, forests, fields and mountains, some of which would ascend and get lost in amongst the clouds. It was these features, especially the thick canopies and foliage of the tree tops and the vast rolling valleys that reminded me of mid-Wales, particularly areas like Machynlleth, Llanidloes and eastern Ceredigion. It really was a fascinating and beautiful commute to take. Along the way we also drove through small towns and villages, some of which were visibly poor due to the ongoing decline in employment and work around there. The further West or South I went into the proper rural areas of West Virginia, the more proof I saw that backs up its official title as America’s poorest state, due to the mass deindustrialisation that has and continues to occur there.
West Virginia was once, like Wales, one of the leading producers of coal in the country, and a major contributor to its economy. Its coal industry was well known far and wide, even attracting Welshmen themselves to take their skills in mining and seek out a new life here across the pond, easily finding work in these rapidly expanding industrial areas of America. Because of these Welsh troubadours, there is also visible written evidence everywhere of their impact in West Virginia. One town that stuck out in particular was way down in the south in McDowell County called Jenkinjones. A once pivotal coal mining area named after a Welsh coal baron of the same name who was born in Neath, south Wales. I often came across many folk who had blatant Welsh last names too, including Morgan, Davis and Griffiths. It was towns like these that reminded me of some of the South Wales Valleys towns that suffered a similar fate due to the decline in the coal industry at the beginning of the 20th century. Areas like the Rhondda Valley, with its surrounding towns like Pontypridd, as well as Merthyr and Aberdare all came to mind.
Even though a lot of West Virginia is struggling in this sense, their traditions in strong family life, music and community still stand strong. It really was one of the best experiences to be immersed into this culture. The people were some of the kindest, funniest, hard working and genuine folk that I’ve ever met. Many times I was invited to family gatherings, community events, barbecues and music sessions, and always met with huge hearts and open arms. These unique experiences most likely occurred to me due to the fact that I play and have studied their music for so long, and was also interested in their communities and traditions, but none the less they really were lovely and generous people. One quote that especially sticks out was from a man I met at a county fair near Elkins. After talking with him about my interests in the similarities between Wales and West Virginia he said “Ya’ll got a big coal community there too right? Well in that case ya’ll like kin! Anywhur that has coal is West Virginia, you too are West Virginian now!” It was one of the nicest things I’d heard during my time there, ultimately showing the bridge that can be formed between two different but very similar cultures.
If you’d like to know more about my time in America visit my site at www.benmcmanus.org where you can find pictures, videos, audio recordings and further writing about my travels and adventures. There are also photos and audio recordings from some of my trips into West Virginia too. You can also email me at [email protected] if you have any questions.
A gallery of Ben’s travels through West Virginia is also available here on the Buzz site.
words BEN MCMANUS
www.youtube.com/user/benmcmanus338