- Title
- Our State
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-
- Date
- June 2000
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
Our State
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NorthCnrolinaMusic: NothingCouldBeFiner
HavelTokftbu
With their three decades of songs,
Scotty and Lulu Belle Wiseman brought their love
of A ppalach ia 1 1 folk
/
ife
into mainstream American culture.
by Susan Van Horn
him a nmi pig lo raise as a money-making project. I le earned
SHI and sjkmh it on a gnilar from Seals.
Willi die new guitar, Wiseman's training look oil. lie learned
die scales, stairs, and keys. and older musicians Ix-gan inviting
him m play with them at local dance's. The arrival of the lust
radio in the area and his mothers purchase of a Silverton
phonograph hi ought new music lo the boy. and he enthusiasti¬
cally learned lo play those songs on his guitar and harmonica.
Great leap forward
Wiseman's litst big break occurred while a student at
Fairmont Suite College in West Virginia, when die owner ol the
l(K-.il radio station offered him a job after hearing him sing at a
Rotary Club luncheon. While 1929 saw only a handful of radio
broadcasting suitions.
Л.М.
"Shad" Roe liked Wiseman's style
and offered him his fiistjob broadcasting a program of his
songs on WMMN for die princely sum of SIT» a week.
The next leap in Wisemans musical destiny occurred when
he met his brother's rex miniate at Berea College, Bradley
Kincaid, who became a star at Wl .S in < Chicago singing nioun-
lain songs and playing die guitar. Wiseman admired Kincaid s
\oice and stage presence. Not only did he begin to emulate his
style, bin he also wrote songs for him. hi 1932. Kincaid repaid
his friend by helping him gel an audition with WLS.
Wl-S's broadcast of die "National Bant Dance" was die most
|x*pular country music program on radio at die time, listeners
tuned in every Saturday night until midnight or attended |x-r-
fomianccs ai the Highlit Street Tlteatcr in Chicago. For
Wiseman, it was the beginning of a careei that would bring
Appalac hian folk life and music to the entire country.
Ironically, die "National Bam Dance." in a circuitous fashion.
54 Our State June 2000
North < amlina's musical heritage is quite diveise, eiicoin*
| Kissing old Scoltish ballads, die inounl.iin music of Doc
Watson, the pop rock of Janies Taylor, and the classic jazz of
loonis Mc( ilohon. I
л
well-known. |M‘riiapS. but immensely
|xtpular in their day, are the* country/ldlk songs written by
Scotty Wiseman and |x rfomicd with his wile, l.ulu Belle, from
the early 1930s to the mid-1950s.
Wiseman wrote more than 70 songs and ballads in his life¬
time. his most famous lx-ing "I lave I fold You l.uely That I
love You." It was recorded by more than 100 artists, inc luding
Hlvis Presley. Willie Nelson. Gene Autry, and Bing Crosliy.
Tlie Wiseman family has lx-en a fixture in the North
Carolina mountains since the 1700s, when Scott's great-great¬
grandfather William stowed away with two friends to sail from
Kngiaucl to Boston. After working as an indentured sen-ant. be¬
came to western North ( arolina and settled in the Tex- River
Valley. Wisemans have remained on the- family land ever since.
Scott C. Wiseman was loin in 1909 on a farm in Ingalls. and
in his autobiography.
И ЪтптЛ
Ytruu he describes growing up
in an isolated culture akin to that of colonial America. Roads in
the rural mountain area wen* primitive, and communication
from the outside was slow to arrive. I lis lOmembcr family
spent the majority of their time producing food for themselves.
Music, and Southern Appalac hian culture in general, played
a central pail of Wiseman's life from early childhcxxl. I lis
mother sing hymns and encouraged her children lo sing and
play musical instruments when they were just toddlers.
Banjo, fiddle, and the French harp — as the harmonica was
called — wen- played at frolic s or square dances in private
homes. Scott was desperate to own a guitar, an instrument little
used Irt mountain musicians at the time, so his pan-ills gave
