Last week, 150 people, from age 4 to 84, came from across the country to gather at Cowan Community Center in Letcher County, Kentucky, for the 18th annual Cowan Creek Mountain Music School.
Every summer since 2002 the Center has hosted this school, which features a week of traditional mountain music classes taught by experts from around the hills of Eastern Kentucky and beyond.
Mountain music has traditionally been passed down through the generations by young people listening to their families and neighbors and joining in to learn. Classes at Cowan are no different – taught in call and response, rather than written studies. This also helps musicians improve their ear for music and have more fun from the start.
Lessons in the following instruments are offered during each day of the school:
- Banjo
- Fiddle
- Guitar
- Dulcimer
- Songs and Ballads
- Old Time String Band
Every afternoon, masters of traditional music join the students. This year featured Harlan County’s a cappella gospel singers, the Mt. Sinai Spirituals, Lewis County fiddler Roger Cooper and the 2019 Master-in-Residence banjoist, Sue Massek.
Students can choose between playing in jams or participating in more workshops each afternoon. Workshops include beginning flat foot dancing, singing at the Big Cowan Old Regular Baptist Church, fiddle, banjo and ukulele from scratch, shape-note singing and more. This year, African singing was also offered. In the evenings, students, instructors and neighbors gather for square dances, community theater performances, and faculty concerts.
The school offers several scholarships and apprenticeships for students to continue their studies outside the summer school. For example, Larah Helayne, age 16, a songwriter and musician from Montgomery County, received the Charlie Whitaker apprenticeship to study banjo with Randy Wilson.
“The school has been one of the best weeks of my life. Imagine a world where your heroes know your name, and you get to learn from them. I’ve learned dozens of tunes and heard some wonderful stories. I have grown in my understanding of what it means to be a good human being and a good musician,” Helayne said of her time at Cowan. “Kentucky mountain music is the call of my people; it’s what the inside of my heart sounds like.”
Participants and instructors cause a boon to local lodging options, typically booking all the rooms at the Parkway Inn, as well as the local Airbnbs. A total of 8 states were represented between the 150 attendees, including California, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina. While breakfast and lunch were provided by CANE Kitchen, many from the school visited local restaurants in between meals. One of the owners of Heritage Kitchen said they stayed open just for a group of students and staff one night.
The week culminated in performances by Music School instructors at that Thursday night’s Levitt Amp, a 10-week summer concert series held in downtown Whitesburg in its second year.
Celebrating local traditions in an intentional way, such as Cowan Creek Mountain Music School is doing, is helping more people outside our region learn and spread the news about Appalachia’s New Day.
About: Appalachia’s New Day is a new storytelling effort offered by MACED to eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy in eastern Kentucky. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.
