 |
| The Storied South |
William Ferris has a new book out titled, The
Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists. It is his early interviews with noted
movers and shakers in the late 60s through to early 90s, and not all were
Southern. The book includes his original recordings of the interviews on CD and
his Super 8 videos on DVD.
Readers will hear familiar voices like Eudora Welty,
Alice Walker, Bobby Rush, Walker Evans, William Eggleston, Carroll Cloar, and William
Dunlap. They will also find some surprises with Charles and Pete Seeger,
Sterling Brown, and Dr. John Dollard.
Take some time to revisit the Agrarian Movement with
the voices of one leader Robert Penn Warren, one follower Cleanth Brooks, and one
detractor John Blassingame. In Robert Penn Warren’s interview I read that
Faulkner was loved by the Agrarians and Warren cited Fletcher, Ransom and
Owsley. In college, I learned they hated Faulkner thus my distaste for them.
As a resident
of Como, MS, I also like Warren’s comment, “During my time as a student and teaching
in the South, parties were almost always either playing charades or poker or
tale-telling. Andrew Lytle was a great actor and a great improviser of tales.
He was one of the best raconteurs and conversationalists I have ever known.
There are only a few people who can even touch him. Stark Young could and Lyle
Saxon in New Orleans could.”
Pete Seeger’s interview was eye opening probably
because I am more familiar with his children’s book, “Abiyoyo,” than his
activism. His father who is also interviewed taught him the importance of folk
music and Alan Lomax hired him—for $15 a week—to listen to “old commercial
records of the twenties.”
Seeger wanted to improve his banjo playing and what
better place than the South. He “learned to hitchhike” in 1940 and hit the road
with a little trick from friend, Woody Guthrie. Sit at a bar nursing one beer with
your banjo slung over your shoulder. After a while, someone is bound to ask if
you can play. Woody said hang back and be reluctant. “Well maybe a little,” and
keep on drinking your beer. “Finally, somebody is going to say, ‘Kid, I got a
quarter. Play me a tune.’ Now you start playing.”
Seeger crossed the great Suwannee River in the sky
this past January, but this interview feels like he is talking directly to us
today. William Ferris’s rapport with all his subjects emits a back porch, talk
amongst friends, feeling and we have access to rare and fun Southern stories.
