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Ray and Orville Hicks, Storytellers of North Carolina and Other Storytellers from the Hicks-Harmon Family
Bibliography compiled by Tina L. Hanlon
Audio & Video Storytelling - Orville Hicks Audio & Video Storytelling - Ray Hicks Print & Online Resources
Ray Hicks (left in photo) and Orville Hicks tell stories at Blue Ridge Institute Folklife Festival, Ferrum College, VA, October 1995
At right, Jerry Harmon, Ray Hicks's second cousin, on the same stage, Oct. 2007
Photos by Tina L. Hanlon and Lana A. Whited
Appalachian Folktale Bibliography Index
Appalachian Folktales in Film, Drama,
and Storytelling Recordings
Ray Hicks passed away Easter Sunday, April 20, 2003, at age 80. See Appalshop's In Memoriam page with obituary, photos and audio and video links. For information on the Ray and Rosa Hicks fund (established to assist the Hicks family during Ray's illness), as well as past and upcoming Jack Tales Festivals held in their honor in NC, see the page The Latest Tale by Dianne Hackworth in Dianne's Storytelling Site.
Audio and Video Storytelling - Orville Hicks
Hicks, Orville. Carryin’ On: Jack Tales for Children of All Ages. 1 Audio cassette. Whitesburg, KY: June Appal Recordings, 1990. Includes "Born and Raised" (1:05) --" Jack and the Three Sillies" (9:20) -- "Wicked John" (7:23) -- "Present Need, Hereafter, and By and By" (11:51) -- "Jack and the Heifer's Hide" (11:52) -- "The Man in the Moon" (3:37) -- "Fill Bowl, Fill" (7:18). Background folk music performed by Don Mussell, fiddle; D.G. White, banjo and guitar; Morgan Sexton, banjo. Recorded at Appalshop--Feb. 6/7 1990. "Fill, Bowl, Fill" is transcribed in McCarthy, William Bernard, ed. Cinderella in America: A Book of Folk and Fairy Tales. Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2007. pp. 352-56, with notes on the teller and variants of this tale. McCarthy discusses Richard Chase's influence on this version, after Chase learned it from a Hicks relative, Marshall Ward. In chapter 13 on The Hicks-Harmon Beech Mountain Tradition, one of two chapters in this book focusing on tales from the Southern mountains. See tales listed at Folktale Collections Indexed in AppLit.
Hicks, Orville. Mule Egg Seller and Appalachian Storyteller. Compact Disc. Boone, NC: Orville Hicks, 1998. Contains A. A Tale-telling Session -- 1. Orville's Introduction (0:37) -- 2. Mama's Storytelling (0:55) -- 3. Mule Eggs (4:23) -- 4. Hardest Whipping (2:01) -- 5. Jack and the Varmints (15:15) -- 6. Declaration of Independence (0:54) -- 7. Red Devil Suit (1:26) -- 8. Dividing the Congregation (1:14) -- 9. Daddy's Strictness and Religion (0:45) -- 10. Little Boy and his Pet Duck (3:51) -- 11. Two Uncles and their Horses (1:33) -- 12. Momma's Tales and Singing (1:01) -- 13. Orville's Tales and his Tape (0:29) -- B. Selected Tales, Jokes, and Anecdotes -- 14. Growing Up in the Mountains (4:58) -- Jack and the Heifer Hide (20:35) -- Lie-Hew Yonce and Storytelling (3:22) -- Orville and Hunting (0:34) -- Uglied Them to Death (1:18) -- Bear Hunt (1:29) -- Storytelling and the Future (1:56). Liner notes (17 pp.) by Thomas McGowan and bibliography inserted into container. Project supported by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council and administered by Appalachian State University.
See "Appalachian Faculty Work with Noted Local Storyteller." Appalachian State University News, 31 Aug. 2004, on English professors working with Hicks to revise this CD, adding material on Ray Hicks, including "The Ballad of Ray Hicks," which Orville wrote for Ray's funeral.
"Jack and the Doctor's Girl." The Jack Tales Festival. 2002. Also includes "Big Jack & Little Jack" by Connie Regan-Blake, "Jack's First House" by David Joe Miller, Jack & the Frogs by Dianne Hackworth, and Mutsmag by Charlotte Ross. Videotape from the 4th annual festival to benefit the Ray and Rosa Hicks fund, August 17, 2002, at Bolick Pottery and Traditions Pottery, near Blowing Rock, NC. For more information, see page The Latest Tale. . . . by Dianne Hackworth in Dianne's Storytelling Site, or call 336-877-4110.
Mountain Tales. Watauga County Library and High Country Yarnspinners Storytelling Guild, 1998. "This video includes 2 hours of tales from the Appalachian Region." Hicks tells "Red Devil Suit," Jack and the Varmints," "Two Uncles and Their Horses," "Jack and the Three Sillies." Dianne Hackworth tells "Here's To Cheshire," "The Hoe Handle, Snake, and Barn," "Old Dry Frye," "Chipper." Charlotte Ross tells "Catherine Sherrill" and "The Cabin." Info. with photos at Hackworth's web site.
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Audio and Video Storytelling and Music - Ray Hicks
Appalachian Journey. Film by Alan Lomax, Association for Cultural Equity, 1991. 56 min. Available as free streaming video at Folkstreams.Net. Performances by Ray and Stanley Hicks and other southern Appalachians. For more detail on the film in AppLit, see bibliography of Storytelling Films and Recordings.
Appalachian Storyteller Series. Derry, NH: Chip Taylor Communications, n.d. Five Ray Hicks films produced by Luke Barrow, available in different formats. DVD 2007.
A Film About Ray Hicks, Beech Mountain, NC. 16mm Film (19 min.). Produced by Dr. Thomas G. Burton and Jack Schrader. Johnson City, Tenn: East Tenn. State Univ., 1974. "Portrays a mountain man, Ray Hicks of Beech Mountain, North Carolina, his close ties to the land, and his heritage. Shows Hicks and his family gathering herbs, reaping buckwheat, and living a century-old way of life, while at the same time, modern influences begin to affect his children" (WorldCat). Opening narration by Ralph Crass.
Digital Library of Appalachia. Appalachian College Association. A collection of digital reproductions of print, visual, audio and video items from archives in colleges affiliated with ACA. Includes audio of storytellers such as Ray Hicks and Loyal Jones telling Jack Tales, and tales collected in 1949 and published by Leonard Roberts.
Fixin' to Tell About Jack. Dir. Elizabeth Barrett. Whitesburg, KY: Appalshop, 1974. 25 minutes. A film depicting Ray talking and working at his home, with a retelling of Whickety-Whack, Into my Sack. See details in Appalshop catalog and Appalshop links to video clips of Ray discussing life and Jack Tales, with clip of "Whickety-Whack."
Hicks, Ray. "Hardy Hardhead." Brief audio clip in Remembering Ray Hicks. April 21, 2003. All Things Considered. NPR.org. With eloquent comments on listening to Hicks by Bill Harley.
Hicks, Ray. Jack Alive! 1 Audio Cassette. Also Compact Disc (56 minutes). Whitesburg, KY: June Appal Recordings, 1989. "Presents Ray Hicks recorded live from his home on Beech Mountain in North Carolina telling his personal stories, jokes, anecdotes, and philosophical insights woven together in a unique conversational skein. Includes a portrait of rural life of special interest to literary scholars, linguists, oral historians, folklorists, and social scientists" (WorldCat). Contents: The Witch on Stone Mountain (26:17) -- The Hen Cackle (harmonica, 1:20) -- The Sign was in the Knees (4:53) -- The Vision of the Automobile Engine (5:16) -- Short Life in Trouble (song, 1:31) -- The Mountain Fortuneteller, Callie Brown (10:46) -- Meeting the Devil (5:00). Program notes (16 pp., ill.) included in container. Recorded on Beech Mountain, N.C. between July 1987 and Jan. 1989. Links on titles here are to audio clips on Appalshop's Ray Hicks memorial page. "Meeting the Devil" is personal testimony about being spoken to by the devil and the Lord.
Hicks, Ray. Jack Tales. 1 Audio cassette. Sharon, Conn: Folk-Legacy Records, 1963. Includes Jack and the Three Steers (hear audio clip at Folk-Legacy web site)-- Big Man Jack, Killed Seven at a Whack -- Jack and the Old Fire Dragon -- Whickety-Whack, into my Sack.
Hicks, Ray. The Jack Tales. Illus. Owen Smith. New York: Calloway, 2000. Picture book (see below) is sold with CD of Hicks telling "Jack and the North-West Wind," "Jack and the Bean Tree," and "Jack and the Robbers." Book includes glossary of mountain terms and background on Ray Hicks as North Carolina storyteller, a master of the native oral tradition. Hicks' oral tellings are not identical to the written text in every detail, inviting interesting comparison of oral and written versions of the same tale.
Hicks, Ray. Ray Hicks Telling Four Traditional Jack Tales. LP. Sharon, Conn: Folk-Legacy Records, 1964. CD. 2002. Jack and the Three Steers -- Big Man Jack, Killed Seven at a Whack -- Jack and Old Fire Dragon -- Whickety-Whack, into my Sack. Biographical notes by Sandy Paton on container; notes concerning the recording by Paton, transcriptions of the texts by Lee B. Haggerty, and "A Note on Ray Hicks' Speech, by Cratis Williams" (17 pp.) inserted.
Hicks, Ray and Luke Borrow. Cat and Mouse. Vidocassette (30 minutes). Appalachian Storyteller Ray Hicks Series. Part 2. Derry, NH: Chip Taylor Communications, 1997. DVD 2003. Produced by Luke Barrow, Fandangle Films. "Here Jack has to do all he can to help a young girl overcome the magic spell a wicked witch placed on her by turning her into a cat" (WorldCat). Based on Richard Chase's The Jack Tales. See Appalachian Storyteller Series above to purchase from Chip Taylor Communications.
Hicks, Ray and Luke Borrow. Jack and the Fire Dragon. Vidocassette (20 minutes). Appalachian Storyteller Ray Hicks Series. Part 3. Derry, NH: Chip Taylor Communications, 1997. DVD 2003. Produced by Luke Barrow, Fandangle Films.Based on Richard Chase's The Jack Tales. See Appalachian Storyteller Series above to purchase from Chip Taylor Communications.
Hicks, Ray and Luke Borrow. Jack and the Robbers. Vidocassette (20 minutes). Appalachian Storyteller Ray Hicks Series. Part 4. Derry, NH: Chip Taylor Communications, 1997. DVD 2003. Produced by Luke Barrow, Fandangle Films. Based on Richard Chase's The Jack Tales. See Appalachian Storyteller Series above to purchase from Chip Taylor Communications.
Hicks, Ray and Luke Borrow. Music. Vidocassette (20 minutes). Appalachian Storyteller Ray Hicks Series. Part 5. Derry, NH: Chip Taylor Communications, 1997. Produced by Luke Barrow, Fandangle Films. "Some people call it mountain music, others describe it as hillbilly music. No matter what name it goes by, true Blue Ridge Mountain music is hearing Ray Hicks when he sings (with and without his harmonica) legendary American folk songs, such as Casey Jones, John Henry and Reuben Train" (WorldCat).
Hicks, Ray and Luke Borrow. My Life I've Traveled the Mountains. Vidocassette (28 minutes). Derry, NH: Chip Taylor Communications, 1997. "A biography of the famed storyteller, including scenes of where and how he lives, and a performance at the National Storytelling Festival" (WorldCat). See Appalachian Storyteller Series above to purchase from Chip Taylor Communications.
Hicks, Ray, and Mike Abernathy. A Visit with Ray Hicks, Appalachian Storyteller. VHS tape. [North Carolina]: Cathead Biscuit Productions, 1999.
Mountain Talk. Dir. Neal Hutcheson. Executive Producers Walt Wolfram and James W. Clark. Narrated by Gary Carden. North Carolina Language and Life Project and NC State Humanities Extension Publications, 2003. Contains hundreds of interviews on language and life of Appalachia, including storytellers such as Orville Hicks.
Ray & Rosa Hicks: The Last of the Old-Time Storytellers. Videocassette & DVD (56 min.). Produced by Charles & Jane Hadley, Queens College, Charlotte, NC, 2000. Narrator, Ed Grady; Writer, Jim Kelton; Editor, Austin Walker. "Presents one year in the lives of Ray Hicks, the patriarch of American storytellers, and his wife, Rosa. Ray Hicks is renowned for telling Jack Tales, episodic narratives that were brought to America by immigrants from the British Isles" (WorldCat). This link at Queens College Dept. of English goes to photos from the filming (link not functioning 4/12/09). Storytellers such as Jay O'Callahan, Connie Regan-Blake, Willa Brigham, and Kathy Coleman, and scholars such as Glenn Hinson, William E. Lightfoot, and Rex Ellis discuss storytelling and the Hicks' family history, lifestyle, folklore, and many hardships they overcame. Hinson discusses storytelling as performance vs. storytelling for one's family and friends, making everyday life sparkle like the artistry of Rosa's cooking. The video says their life is more interesting than a Jack tale. "Ray projects the hardships of his own life into his tales about Jack"—for example, memories of his mother crying because they had no food. He talks about his mother instilling will power, perseverance and resourcefulness into him. He is a good talker, not just a storyteller. He is sophisticated because he is at home in his own culture and is always himself. He is moved and amused by the Jack tales because he knows they are real. He grew up in the woods and learned about nature from his "Indian background" (he had a Cherokee great-grandmother). He and Rosa explain names and uses of plants. Lightfoot discusses the Harmons from Germany and the Hickses from England. The Harmons most likely knew similar German tales like the ones brought from England. Ray's cousin Frank Proffitt, Jr. is mentioned. A fortuneteller predicted Ray's marriage to Rosa and the beginning of his public storytelling in his 40s. He began at an elementary school in the 1960s, then appeared at the first National Storytelling Festival in 1972. Regan-Blake describes how his stiffness melted his first time behind a Jonesborough microphone as soon as he began talking, and he became Jack. The interest of outsiders in Appalachia brought resources that allowed people to pay their property taxes. The Hicks family's annual trip to the Jonesborough festival is depicted, including their selling of objects they made, such as a dancing doll, and Ray and Rosa together on stage. At an Old Christmas service in a Presbyterian church, Ray tells about childhood experiences in hard times that he can still feel. Nearby high school students visit them on their 50th anniversary. Songs in the video are listed at the end.
Ray Hicks. Vidocassette (1 hour 30 min.) Will Rogers, 1975. Black and white.
Regan-Blake, Connie. "Ray's Amazing Grace." 9:40 mins. In Dive-Into Stories: A Telling Performance. Audio CD. Asheville, NC: Storywindow Productions, 2006. Regan-Blake tells of her close friendship with the Hicks family after she met Ray at the first National Storytelling Festival in 1973. She emphasizes his nonstop talking and storytelling whenever she visited his home. She also tells of his final illness and the "amazing grace" of his miraculous ability to fix machines in times of urgent need. Alan Weinstein of the Kandkinsky Trio plays solo cello during this selection. This CD also includes "The Foolish Bet," a fishing tall tale, and several heart-warming stories.
Sobol, Joseph. See Sobol, Joseph. "'Whistlin’ Towards the Devil’s House,'" below, which gives an audio recording of Ray Hicks telling "Wicked John and the Devil."
Storytelling the National Festival. 2 LPs (c. 95 min.). Also in 2 Audio cassettes (116 min.), Jonesborough, Tenn.: National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, 1983. Includes "Great Splash" by Ray Hicks (1 min., 7 sec.).
Tall Tales of the Blue Ridge Mountains: Stories From the Heart of Appalachia. Ray Hicks, Donald Davis, Sparky Rucker. Dir. Phillip Williams. Videocassette. Asheville, NC: Eastern National Park and Monument Association, 1992. c. 42 min. Music by Sparky and Rhonda Rucker. Jean Haskell Speer of E. Tenn. State Univ. introduces Appalachian storytelling and the three NC storytellers. She calls Hicks a "repository of ancient tales, local lore, and distinctive mountain speech." Hicks was filmed at his mountain home with his wife and others around the kitchen table, telling two first-person tall tales. First is a hunting story in which he jokes about the prey making the mistake of landing on his shoulder. The second is about gathering apples during the long walks of his youth. He claims the apple tree acted as if it was trying to get its apples back, like a dying person who doesn't want others to get his property.
Voices of Memory. Authors John Morgan and Richard Smith. Performers Greg Jowasis, Jim Slone, Stanley Hicks, Ray Hicks, Bob Hutchison. Videocassette (60 min.). Lexington, KY: The Kentucky Network, 1989. Summary: "Focuses on the importance of the oral tradition as the only voice of a people's memory, specifically the Cherokee Indians."
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Print and Online Resources
See also Appalachian Folktales: Background Resources
Allen, Lucy. Review of Mule Egg Seller and Appalachian Storyteller by Orville Hicks. North Carolina Folklore Journal, vol. 45, no. 2 (Summer-Fall 1998).
"Appalachian Faculty Work with Noted Local Storyteller." Appalachian State University News, 31 Aug. 2004. Discusses English professors working with Orville Hicks to revise his CD, Mule Egg Seller and Appalachian Storyteller, adding material on Ray Hicks, including "The Ballad of Ray Hicks," which Orville wrote for Ray's funeral.
"Appalachian Influence Reaches Mainstream America." Mast Store Ledger: A Rural Publication of the Mast General Store. Valle Crucis, NC.Oct. 2003.Article contains several paragraphs on Jack Tales and good picture of Ray Hicks telling tales.
Appalachian-Scottish and Irish Studies Collection. Archival materials (8 boxes). Archives of Appalachia, East Tenn. State University, 1957, 1997. Includes material on Ray Hicks and Jack Tales. "Collection focuses on the history and culture of Appalachia, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and interrelationships among the 3 regions regarding their histories and cultures. . . . Organized into 5 series: I, Course Materials, 1976-97; II, Student Papers & Projects, 1988-95; III, Photographs, 1988-97; IV, Audio Recordings, 1957-97; and V, Video Recordings, 1987-94./ Arrangement varies, but chronologically follows year of each program. Materials within a series may predate beginning of program. . . .Unpublished finding aid available in repository" (WorldCat). Copying and borrowing of materials is restricted.
Appalachian Studies Challenge Grant Awarded by NEH. Includes photo of Orville Hicks with crowd of children, representing programs of Appalachian Cultural Museum, Appalachian State Univ.
Baldwin, Lisa. Jack, Alive and Well on Beech Mountain in Western North Carolina: The Cultural Traditions of Ted Hicks. M.A. thesis. Boone, NC: Appalachian State University, 2010.
Barbara McDermitt Collection. Archives of Appalachia, East Tenn. State University, 1982. "Includes 28 audiotapes of storytellers telling folktales. Recorded the summer of 1982 during field trips to Beech Mountain, N.C. File folder with reports on the field trips stored with the tapes. The 14 photographs are mainly of the storytellers, who include Frank Proffitt, Jr., Stanley Hicks, Ray Hicks, and Hattie Presnell. . . . Barbara Rice Damron McDermitt . . . Educator, folklorist, and author of articles on storytelling, drama, and children's literature. Ph. D. (1968) from School of Scottish Studies, Edinburgh, Scotland" (WorldCat).
Berea College Sound Archives. Hutchins Library, Berea, KY. "Appalachian writing and scholarship is represented in interviews and lectures by such figures as Wendell Berry, Harry Caudill, Muriel Dressler, Wilma Dykeman, Helen Lewis, Jim Wayne Miller, Artus Moser, Gurney Norman, Leonard Roberts, Henry Scalf, James Still, Jesse Stuart, Don West, Cratis Williams, and Jess Wilson. . . . Storytelling and humor is represented by such able practitioners as Richard Chase, Loyal Jones, Ray Hicks, Maude Long, Patrick Napier, Leonard Roberts, Beverly Sexton, Jackie Torrence, and Marshall Long. The collection also includes recordings of the Appalachian Humor Festival held at Berea in 1983, 1987, and 1990." Eastern Kentucky Folklore includes recordings by Leonard Roberts. Some items available online through Digital Library of Appalachia.
Best-Loved Stories Told at the National Storytelling Festival. Jonesborough, TN: National Storytelling Press and Little Rock, AK: August House, 1991. 223 pp. Has 37 tales, including "The Day the Cow Ate my Britches" by Ray Hicks.
Brown-Hudson Folklore Awards. Information on the awards established 1970 by the NC Folklore Society, with list of recipients, including Ray Hicks, 1985, and Orville Hicks, 1997.
Chase, Nan. "Ray Hicks: The Mysterious Healer." Appalachian Heritage, vol. 32: 2 (Spring 2004): 38-45. MLA Bibliography subject headings: folk belief systems; folk medicine; faith healing; role of Hicks, Ray (1922-2003).
Childers, Brent. "Mountain Tales Spellbind Burke." Hickory Daily Record 26 Feb. 1985. (no page no.) With photos by Margaret Moore of Stanley Hicks spinning "his yarns "while children hand spellbound on every word at WPCC." Article describes Stanley Hicks's performance of tale, songs, dance and instrumental music at age 73, before a large crowd at Western Piedmont Community College on Monday. Mentions Richard Chase visiting Beech Mt. in early 1940s after listening to R. M. Ward. Stanley telling for audiences around the country since 1973, says he's getting too old to do much but needs the money and loves the people. Visting artist Frank Proffitt, nephew, played the dulcimer. He tells of scaring a lady with "The Big Toe." although she said she wouldn't scare. Smithsonian searching the tellers and honoring them. In Oxford collection.
Deparle, Jason. "Mountain Voices Share Ageless, Magic Tales." The New York Times 22 June, 1982. See The New York Times Archives online (or perhaps Lexis-Nexus) if you have trouble with this link. Profile of Ray Hicks, including description of Hicks telling a long story about courting his wife and Hicks telling "Fill, Bowl, Fill." Quotes Bill Lightfoot, Appalachian State Univ. folklorist, and Bess Lomax Hawes, a folklorist retired from the National Endowment for the Arts. The article stresses that Hicks saw the stories as full of love, not excessive deception, and that they should be told for joy and wisdom, to help with living, not for money. One of the article's statements about the Grimm Brothers collecting Jack tales in 1812 seems a little misleading, although many Appalachian Jack tales have antecedents and parallels in German folktales.
Digital Library of Appalachia. Appalachian College Association. A collection of digital reproductions of print, visual, audio and video items from archives in colleges affiliated with ACA. Includes audio of storytellers such as Ray Hicks and Loyal Jones telling Jack Tales, audio versions of tales collected in 1949 and published by Leonard Roberts.
Doon, Bonny. "Ray Hicks at his home on Beech Mountain, North Carolina May 1990." Personal photos and reminiscences. Broadcasting Engineering Services web site.
Do You Speak American? Episode 2. Transcript of PBS series, with linguist Walt Wolfram, includes clip with Ray Hicks and his wife from earlier PBS series The Story of English. MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, 2005.
Ebel, Julia Taylor. Orville Hicks: Mountain Stories, Mountain Roots. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, 2006. "A biography for ages 8 to adult," based on extensive conversations with members of the Hicks family. Short chapters on different topics in Orville's life and career, with many photographs, a map of Beech Mountain, and a linoleum print by Gail E. Haley of "Jack and his Maw." Includes text of "My Old Mountain Home," a poem about his childhood and the making of this book (p. v), and "The Ballad of Ray Hicks" by Orville (June 23, 2001, pp. 100-101). Discusses tales told by Orville's mother Sarah Hicks and material on Ray and Rosa Hicks. Also includes a short tale about his uncle's very foolish treatment of their horses. See page on this book and study guide in Julia Taylor Ebel's web site.
Fine, Elizabeth C. Review of Mule Egg Seller and Appalachian Storyteller by Orville Hicks and Thomas McGowan. Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine, vol. 17, no. 2 (Summer 2000).
Grizzle, Ralph Edward. "Orville Hicks." In Ralph Grizzle's Online Portfolio. A short sketch on Orville Hicks, including a brief tale about two foolish uncles. In web site Ralph Edward Grizzle: Free-lance Writer, Author.
Haase, Donald, ed. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales. 3 vols. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2008. See entries "Beech Mountain Jack Tale" by Thomas McGowan, "Jack Tales" and "North American Tales" by William Bernard McCarthy, and "Storytelling" by Joseph Daniel Sobol.
Harmon, Jerry. See Jerry Harmon, below, and McCandless and Manheim entries below.
Harvey, Todd. "Jack Tales and Their Tellers in the Archive of Folk Culture." Folklife Center News (Library of Congress) 25, No. 4 (Fall 2003): 7-10. Other articles in this newsletter refer to Appalachian storytelling also. The print and pdf. versions of this newsletter contain photos of Ray Hicks at the National Storytelling Festival and at his home.
Hepler, Susan. Review of The Jack Tales by Ray Hicks and Lynn Salsi. School Library Journal, vol. 46 (Nov 2000): p. 142. Short review available online through library services such as Academic Index ASAP.
Hicks, Orville. "Fill, Bowl, Fill" (from recording Carryin' On, see above) is transcribed in McCarthy, William Bernard, ed. Cinderella in America: A Book of Folk and Fairy Tales. Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2007. pp. 352-56, with notes on the teller and variants of this tale. McCarthy discusses Richard Chase's influence on this version, after Chase learned it from a Hicks relative, Marshall Ward. In chapter 13 on The Hicks-Harmon Beech Mountain Tradition, one of two chapters in this book focusing on tales from the Southern mountains. See tales listed at Folktale Collections Indexed in AppLit.
Hicks, Orville. Orville Hicks Official Website. Contains photos, short biography, list of awards, and full text of "Jack and the Robbers" and some jokes.
Hicks, Orville. Internet Underground Music Archive. Biography, pictures of Orville Hicks, comments sent in by readers, and an audio telling of "Two Uncles and their Horses."
Hicks, Orville. Page with photo at The North Carolina Touring Artists Directory web site, with booking info.
Hicks, Orville, and Julia Taylor Ebel. Jack Tales and Mountain Yarns, As Told By Orville Hicks. Illus. Sherry Jenkins Jensen. Boone, NC: Parkway Publishers, 2009. Afterword by Thomas McGowan. 189 pp. More than twenty tales transcribed by Ebel during her extensive association with Hicks, as well as tributes and biographical material on the popular Beech Mountain storyteller. Includes photographs and many pencil drawings by Jensen. Texts of folk songs and riddles also appear, as well as stories written by Hicks that had not been told publicly, including one in his own handwriting. Some of the tales are about people and folkways in his own family history. Hicks discusses Jack and inserts comments on his favorites and his family's responses to different tales. Contains a glossary with notes on Orville's words and grammar, a study guide section with discussion questions and activities, and bibliographic material. See illustration and background at Ebel's web site. See also AppLit's list of Folktale Collections Indexed in AppLit.
Hicks, Ray. "The Day the Cow Ate my Britches." Best-Loved Stories Told at the National Storytelling Festival. Jonesborough, TN: National Storytelling Press and Little Rock: August House, 1991.
Hicks, Ray. “Jack and Old Fire Dragon.” In McCarthy, William Bernard, ed. Cinderella in America: A Book of Folk and Fairy Tales. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007. pp. 346-52, with notes on the teller and tale types. From a 1985 recording in the Thomas G. Burton Collection at East Tennessee State University. In chapter 13 on The Hicks-Harmon Beech Mountain Tradition, one of two chapters in this book focusing on tales from the Southern mountains. McCarthy notes that the plot with an underground journey and three princesses is common in both English-speaking American and Hispanic traditions. The book demonstrates that American folktales, from Revolutionary times to the present, should not be viewed as watered-down versions of tales from older cultures. See tales listed at Folktale Collections Indexed in AppLit.
Hicks, Ray. "Jack and the Three Steers." In Jack Tales: A Project of the Media Working Group. The Media Working Group web site was produced by a multi-media urban oral history project in the Covington, KY-Cincinnati area.
Hicks, Ray. "Jack and the Three Steers" (1963) and "Whickity Whack" (composite of tellings from 1973 and 1974). In McGowan, Thomas, ed. "Four Beech Mountain Jack Tales." North Carolina Folklore Journal 49.2 (Fall/Winter 2002): 69-115. Reprinted in honor of Thomas McGowan from vol. 26.2 (1978). Also includes Marshall Ward's "Jack and the Heifer Hide," with a long introduction by Ward about his family's storytelling traditions (both collected 1977) and "Cat 'n Mouse" (1944). McGowan gives notes on parallel versions and sources.
Hicks, Ray. "Jack and the Three Steers" More Best-Loved Stories Told at the National Storytelling Festival. Jonesborough, TN: National Storytelling Press, 1992. Contents of the book listed at Story-Lovers web site.
Hicks, Ray. The Jack Tales. As told to Lynn Salsi. Illus. Owen Smith. New York: Calloway, 2000. Picture book is sold with CD of Hicks telling "Jack and the North-West Wind," "Jack and the Bean Tree," and "Jack and the Robbers." Book includes glossary of mountain terms and background on Ray Hicks, a master of the native oral tradition. Hicks' oral tellings are not identical to the written text in every detail, inviting interesting comparison of oral and written versions of the same tale. Both full-page color illustrations and smaller black and white drawings are somewhat reminiscent of the style of Thomas Hart Benton. Available as a printable, digital e-book, 2003. See also page on this book by a Louisiana State University Librarian (link not available 11/5/05).
Hicks, Ronda L, and Thomas G. Burton. Beech Mountain Man: The Memoirs of Ronda Lee Hicks. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2009. Story of the often violent life and storytelling talents of one member of the Hicks family, a cousin of Ray and Orville Hicks.
Higgs, Robert J., Ambrose N. Manning, and Jim Wayne Miller, eds. Appalachia Inside Out: A Sequel to Voices from the Hills. 2 vols. Knoxville: U of TN Pr, 1995. Essays, stories, and poems on all aspects of Appalachian studies, including folklore, humor, and education. Vol. 2 chap. 4, Dialect and Language, contains two essays on storyteller Ray Hicks and a copy of "Whickety Whack: Death in a Sack" as told by Hicks.
Holt, David. "Ray Hicks at Home." Photos by David Holt in Holt's web site.
Isbell, Robert. Ray Hicks: Master Storyteller of the Blue Ridge. Foreword by Wilma Dykeman. Chapel Hill: University of NC Press, 2001. Originally published: The Last Chivaree: The Hicks family of Beech Mountain, 1996. Includes the text of "Jack and the North-West Wind" and "Jack and the Three Sillies" by Ray, "The Good Man and the Bad Man" by Orville, a family tree and bibliography. 175 pp. Reviewed by Bill Ellis in Appalachian Journal, vol. 24 (Winter 1997).
Jack and Grandfather Tales, page with photo and blurb on Orville Hicks. Old Handed Down Tales has picture of Ray Hicks with information on Chase and Jack Tales. Web pages of Appalachian Cultural Museum, Appalachian State Univ., 2001. In the museum is "a video of Ray and Stanley Hicks, award-winning story-tellers from Banner Elk, talking about story-telling in general, and Jack Tales in particular."
Jerry Harmon: "Smoky Mountain Rambler." Web site of a son of Benjamin Harmon and great-great grandson of Council Harmon, who brought the Jack Tales from England in the early nineteenth century. Includes information on his influences, songs, stories, and performances; reviews; photos; and audio files of a couple songs and two tales: "Jack and the Kings' Daughters" and "Jack in the Giants' New Ground." (At right, Jerry Harmon at Ferrum College Folklife Festival, Oct. 2007, photo by Lana A. Whited)
Kelsey, Paul. The Jack Tales. Web page by a Reference Librarian, Louisiana State University, with background on Ray Hicks's 2001 picture book and some suggestions for teachers.
Kinkead, Gwen. "An Overgrown Jack." The New Yorker. 18 July 1988: 33-41. A profile of Ray Hicks. (Only abstract available in the magazine's online archive in May 2008.)
Leonard, Phillip Randolph. Mystics, Dreamers and Fancies: Ray Hicks and the Jack Tale Traditions on Beech Mountain. M. A. Thesis. Radford University, 1992.
Lindahl, Carl, ed. American Folktales: From the Collections of the Library of Congress. Vol.1 Armonk NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2004. Includes Jack tales, magic tales, legends, jokes, tall tales, "stories for children," and personal narratives transcribed from recordings. The tales by Ray Hicks are "Jack and the Robbers," "The Unicorn and the Wild Boar," "The Witch Woman on the Stone Mountain on the Tennessee Side," "Grinding at the Mill," and "Mule Eggs." Other storytellers, some related to the Hicks family, include Samuel Harmon, Maud Long, Jane Muncy Fugate, Aunt Molly Jackson, and others. See Table of Contents at this link to publisher's page.
MacCandless, Colin. "A Family Tradition: Entertainer Helps Preserve Appalachian Storytelling Heritage." The Franklin Press Online [Macon County, NC] 10/05/07. Article on Jerry Harmon and his family tradition of storytelling and singing.
McCarthy, William Bernard. Jack in Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales & Their Tellers. Chapel Hill: U of NC Press, 1994. Contains tales edited by McCarthy, Cheryl Oxford, and Joseph Daniel Sobol, as well as discussions by folklore experts Carl Lindahl, Bill Ellis, Joseph Daniel Sobol, and others. Part I, "The Hicks-Harmon (Beech Mountain) Jack Tale Tradition," gives background and tales from Ray Hicks, Frank Proffitt, Jr., Marshall Ward, Maud Gentry Long, and W. F. H. Nicolaisen. Part 2, "Jack in the Storytelling Revival," includes Leonard Roberts, Donald Davis, Bonely Lugg Kyofski, (PA), and Stewart Cameron (Toronto).
McDermitt, Barbara Rice Damron. A Comparison of a Scottish and American Storyteller and their Märchen Repertoires. Ph. D. Dissertation. School of Scottish Studies, Univ. of Edinburgh, 1986. 523 pp. 14 plates.
McDermitt, Barbara. "Stanley Robertson and Ray Hicks: The 2 Jacks." Now & Then 9 (Summer 1992): 34ff. In issue devoted to The Scottish-Appalachian Connection.
McGowan, Thomas. "'But, Lady, I'm Originally From Florida': Storyteller Orville Hicks and the Performance of Appalachian Masculinity." Program of the Appalachian Studies Association 2001 Conference, panel on Manhood and Appalachian Masculinity in Appalachia's Poetry and Verbal Art. April 1, 2001.
McGowan, Thomas. "Orville Hicks: Appalachian Storyteller." North Carolina Folklore Journal, vol. 45 (Summer-Fall 1998): 105-108.
McGowan, Thomas. "'Sort of like an Appalachian Journal Editor': Presenting and Playing with Identity in the Storytelling of Orville Hicks." Appalachian Journal, vol. 29, nos. 1-2. Fall 2001-Winter 2002.
McGowan, Thomas. "Tales and Grice's Cooperative Principle." Study page for Appalachian State University Principles of Language course describes linguistic principles illustrated in Orville Hicks' storytelling. Glossary page for English 3050, Studies in Folklore, uses Hicks' "The Hardest Whipping" to illustrate Elaboration, Jack Tales to illustrate Emic, and other Hicks references to illustrate terms Dialect, Folktale, Genre, Jack Tale, Märchen, Oral Formula, Oral Transmission, Repertory, Reported Speech, and Texture.
Manheim, James M. "Jerry Harmon." Arbor Web: Ann Arbor's Home on the Web.
Miller, Marcianne. "Storytellers Gather to Salute a Legend." MountainXpress ("weekly independent news, arts & events for Asheville & Western North Carolina"). Mountainx.com. 2001 article describes Ray Hicks and storytellers who follow in his footsteps.
Neufeld, Rob. "WNC Literature Surging Forward." Citizen Times.com. Voice of the Mountains. Asheville, NC. July 12, 2002 5:51 p.m. Online archive article on western North Carolina authors with a paragraph on Ray Hicks.
North Carolina Folk Heritage Award: Bertie Dickens, Emma Dupree, the Five Royales, Leonard Glenn, Ray Hicks, Algia Mae Hinton, A. C. Overton, Laughlin Shaw. Raleigh: North Carolina Arts Council, 1992. 16 pp.
Olson, Ted. "Appalachian Occupational Music." Festival of American Folklife, (2003), p. 24.
Orville Hicks at the Library. Page with photo of visit to Gaston County Public Library, NC (10/01?)
"Orville Hicks Keeps Alive Rich Tradition of Mountain Storytelling." The Mountain Times, "Summer Times 2001." Boone, NC. Short article with a profile and photo of Orville Hicks. Also a page on Jack Tales in this web site.
Oxford, Cheryl. "The Storyteller as Craftsman: Stanley Hicks Telling 'Jack and the Bull."' NC Folklore Journal, vol. 36 (1989): 73-120.
Oxford, Cheryl. "The Storyteller as Shaman: Ray Hicks Telling his Jack Tales." NC Folklore Journal, vol. 38 (1991): 75-186. Includes photos, quotations, and transcriptions of "Jack and Ray's Hunting Trip," "Hardyhardhead," "The Heifer Hide," and "Jack and the Varmints" with analysis. This is chapter V of Oxford's 1987 dissertation on Ray and Stanley Hicks and Marshall Ward, Watauga County storytellers (see Background Resources bibliography).
Oxford, Cheryl Collection 1981-88. Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Inventory gives background on Oxford and "materials that Cheryl Oxford collected and produced in conjunction with her Ph.D. dissertation, 'They Call Him Lucky Jack: 3 Performance-Centered Case Studies of Storytelling in Watauga County, N.C.' The focus of this research was the stories and performance paradigms of three traditional Appalachian Jack tale storytellers from North Carolina: Ray Hicks, Stanley Hicks, and Marshall Ward. Other regional tellers of Jack tales, both traditional and revival, including ... Richard Chase, ... were also documented as part of her research. The bulk of the materials are audio and video recordings of public performances and interviews, which include storytelling. Also included are story transcripts, published articles by Cheryl Oxford, and a copy of her dissertation." "Old Fire Dragaman" and other tales are old by Stanley Hicks, 1985, on field tapes.
Pavesic, Christine. Ray Hicks and the Jack Tales: A Study of Appalachian History, Culture, and Philosophy. Available as a printable, digital e-book and paperback by iUniverse, 2005. Excerpts at this link to Pavesic's web site. Northern Illinois U. diss. 2002. Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 63:9 (2003 Mar), 3196.
Peters, John. Review of The Jack Tales by Ray Hicks and Lynn Salsi. Booklist, vol. 97 (Nov 15, 2000): p. 638. This short review calls the book "a rare link between the modern storytelling movement and an older tradition." Full text available online if your library subscribes to Academic Index ASAP.
Petro, Pamela. Sitting Up with the Dead: A Storied Journey Through the American South. New York: Arcade, 2001. Petro, a Massachusetts author, describes her four trips through the South and visits with storytellers, recording conversations and tales from each one. Appalachian storytellers discussed include Orville Hicks telling "Jack and the Varmints," Ray Hicks, and David Holt.
"Ray Hicks at his home, Banner Elk, Beech Mountain, North Carolina, 1983." Short video of Ray singing and playing harmonica. ACE Video Gallery. Association for Cultural Equity, New York City's Hunter College.
RAY HICKS.COM. International Storytelling Center, 2004. Web site with background on Ray and Rosa Hicks, photographs, information on fund-raising to assist the Hicks family..
Ray Hicks: In Memoriam. Appalshop. 2003. With obituary, photos and audio and video links.
"Ray Hicks." American Folktales: From the Collections of the Library of Congress. Ed. Carl Lindahl. Vol. 1. Armonk NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2004, pp. 141-58. With photographs. "Jack and the Robbers," "The Unicorn and the Wild Boar," "The Witch Woman on the Stone Mountain on the Tennessee Side," "Grinding at the Mill" (a Jack tale also called "Sop Doll"), "Mule Eggs."
Regan-Blake, Connie. "From Another Time: The Legacy of Ray Hicks." Storytelling Magazine Sept.-Oct. 2002.
Regan-Blake, Connie. "Update on Ray Hicks." Web page with photos and May 23, 2001 letter about Ray Hicks' serious illness and the Ray and Rosa Hicks Fund. See also "Ray's Amazing Grace" on Regan-Blake's CD Dive-Into Stories (in section above).
Remembering Ray Hicks. April 21, 2003. All Things Considered. NPR.org. Report the day after Hicks' death by commentator Bill Harley, who knew Hicks, with audio of Hicks telling part of Hardy Hardhead.
Renner, Craig J. "America's Jack: The Trickster Hero of Our Shy Tradition." The World & I: The Magazine for Lifelong Learning. Sept. 1998: 224-31. Contains brief history of Jack tales in Europe and America, citing mainly Lindahl and Perdue, with brief mention of traditional storytellers Ray Hicks and Frank Proffitt Jr. Full text available online if your library subscribes to Academic Index ASAP.
Salsi, Lynn. The Life and Times of Ray Hicks: Keeper of the Jack Tales. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2008. This biography is based on Salsi's extensive interviews and visits with Ray Hicks and his family late in his life. Includes photographs by Salsi and some older family photos. The introduction explains why Salsi chose to compile her interviews with Ray into a first-person narrative that retains many features of his dialect. One of many topics discussed involves tensions between the church's disapproval of secular storytelling at different phases of family history and the earthy tales the Hicks men loved to tell. Ray describes songs, hymns, riddles and stories that were always part of his everyday life, as well as the family's struggles with subsistence farming and other jobs. He tells abut his affinity for his grandfather's tales from the age of four and his identification with the folk hero Jack.
Salsi, Lynn. "Ray Hicks–Voice of Appalachia." Capturing the Spirit of the Carolinas Summer 2001. Essay in online archives of "a quarterly lifestyle magazine," on Hicks with photo of him in his living room and cover of Jack Tales book by Hicks and Salsi.
Salsi, Lynn. Young Ray Hicks Learns the Jack Tales. Illus. James Young. Brown Summit, NC: Forza Renea, 2005. "A biographical novel about the childhood of America's master storyteller, Ray Hicks" (title page). Audience ages 9-12.
Salsi, Lynn. A collection of Jack tales by Ray Hicks is forthcoming. Illus. James Young. See also Hicks' The Jack Tales above.
Sobol, Joseph. "Ray Hicks and the Doctors." Storytelling Magazine Sept.-Oct. 2002. Also reprinted at web site of The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine.
Sobol, Joseph. "'Whistlin’ Towards the Devil’s House': Poetic Transformations and Natural Metaphysics in an Appalachian Folktale Performance." Oral Tradition, vol. 21, no. 1 (2006). Downloadable at Oral Tradition web site. Center for Studies in Oral Tradition. Columbia, MO. With audio recordings made at Ray Hicks's home in 1985. "This study centers on a performance of one of Hicks’s signature tales, 'Wicked John and the Devil.'" Discussing the relationship between Richard Chase's research and books and the Hicks-Harmon tradition of oral storytelling, Sobol argues that Chase may have introduced the tale to the Hicks family while Ray was young. Fascinating discussion of of how the tale reflects Ray Hicks' personal philosophy and aesthetic, and his identification with the blacksmith who is not a simplistically wicked folklore character. Hicks' "poetic transformation," told without laughter, produces "a tragic elegy" in contrast to "the typical jocular tale" (p. 19). At the end Hicks says associates the Brown Mountain Lights with the starting place of John's return to earth with fire the devil gives him.
Stadter, Philip (U of NC, Chapel Hill). "Herodotus and the North Carolina Oral Narrative Tradition." Histos, vol. 1 (1997). Detailed scholarly article in an electronic journal of ancient historiography, comparing oral storytelling of Herodotus and Beech Mountain Hicks-Harmon family. Contains full transcript of "Jack and the Three Steers" from recording Ray Hicks Telling Four Traditional "Jack Tales." Comments by John Marincola, includes comparison of Jack with Odysseus.
"Stephen Gordon Produces Video on Appalachian Oral Tradition for 2005 National History Day Project." Three articles reprinted in AppLit. Orville Hicks appears in Gordon's award-winning video "Telling Tales: The Appalachian Oral Tradition," along with photos and background on other members of the Hicks-Harmon family of storytellers.
"Storyteller Coming to WPCC." The Focus 4 Oct. 1984: 22. Photo by Tanya Walker shows Frank Profitt, Jr. chatting with his uncle Ray Hicks. Includes quote by Ruth Sawyer about storytellers "letting a single stream of light pass through us as through one facet of the gem or prism that there may be revealed some aspect of the spirit, some beauty and truth that lies hidden within the world and humankind." Proffitt was Visiting Artist at Western Piedmont Community College and Ray Hicks's storytelling is described in anticipation of his visit sponsored by the Drama Club, on Oct. 15. The article stresses that Hicks takes his time with telling, as he waits for seasons to change and nature to produce crops and ginseng roots. His "tales are told 'to ease the heart' of both storyteller and listeners alike."
Thompson, J. W. "The Origin of the Hicks Family Tradition." NC Folklore Journal, vol. 34 (1987): 18-28.
Thompson, Jim. "Mountain Masters." The Mountain Times, "Summer Times 2001." Boone, NC. Short article on Ray Hicks, with photo of Ray and wife Rosa, and several other masters of mountain crafts.
Wood, Jesse. "Orville Hicks—The Last Beech Mountain Storyteller." Appalachian Voice Archive. Appalachian Voices. Oct. 2006.
See also Ferrum Performers Keep Jack Tales Alive - article on Ferrum Jack Tale Players with reference to visit by Ray and Orville Hicks.
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In Memoriam: Ray Hicks: A Man who Became a Name
By THOMAS BURTON
Appalachian Journal, Vol. 31, No. 2 (WINTER 2004), pp. 138-143
In Memoriam THOMAS BURTON Ray Hicks: A Man Who Became a Name Folklorist and scholar Thomas Burton is retired from the English Department at East Tennessee State University. He is the author of a number of books on Appalachian culture, including The Serpent and the Spirit (University of Tennessee Press, 2004). He is also one of the principal contributors to the Burton-Manning Collection in ETSU's Archives of Appalachia, which holds archival materials collected in East Tennessee and western North Carolina from 1960 to 1989. In 1974, he and Jack Schrader produced A Film About Ray Hicks. He has been a friend of the Hicks family for 35 years. Ray Hicks (1922-2003) is likely known as a traditional storyteller by more people than is any other person in the world. You may know him personally from the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, where he appeared at the initial gathering in 1972 and was invited subsequently every year until his death. You may have seen him at the Festival of American Folklife on the Mall in Washington, D.C., when he received a 1983 National Heritage Fellowship, or in Raleigh when he received the 1992 North Carolina Folk Heritage Award, or in Cullowhee when he received the 2003 Western Carolina University Mountain Heritage Award. Maybe you have read of him in one of a number of books or in one of the countless features in newspapers and magazines, such as the New Yorker, U.S. News & World Report, and National Geographic. You may have seen him in a 1970 documentary film by Burton and Schrader or in later ones by Appalshop and by Alan Lomax-or you may have heard him on his 1963 Folk-Legacy recording of Jack Tales or on one of the many other audio/video tapes. Perhaps you have studied his craft in academic theses, dissertations, or in various archives, including the Library of Congress. Possibly you own one of several commercial portraits of him or of his house. You may have been one of the privileged to hear him on his porch at his home near the pinnacle of Beech Mountain. You might even be one of the children who were members of Jenny Love's class in the 1960s at Bethel Elementary School in Sugar Grove, where Ray told his first story publicly. Maybe you had the privilege of being his friend and listening to him repeatedly for hours. Or perchance you only noticed his obituary in the New York Times. As with Tennyson's Ulysses, Ray Hicks has "become a name." He has become the prototype of the mountain storyteller in appearance and speech-but Ray was more. He was a flesh-and-blood human being with "much music, excellent voice," though he is not easily sounded out. Ray was renowned, but, as he explained to me over 30 years ago, his life had been hard, and it continued to be. But my old way of livin', it was hard. But still, it's hard yet to live. I can't tell much difference as the change come on. Just one thing gets better and the other worser. I've worked hard, but always enjoyed it. And one thing I really had to. As the old people said, "Old Pete was on the table." And they said when he was under it, you'd better be a-doin' somethin'. That meant your eatin' was gone.
Ray Hicks sitting on the porch of his house. Photograph by Jack Schrader, 1968
The best thing is keep, if
you can, with a willin' mind and say, "I'm here, and I didn't put myself here, and it hain't nothin' I can do about it." Only I'm here and just I've got to work or somethin' and keep at it. You'll just have bad with the good in anything you go at in this life-is the way mine's been. As the old people said, "Bitter with the sweet." That's what they'd say, you had to take the bitter with the sweet. Well, my father, he was a farmer from his dad there, my grandfather Ben. Now, my mother was always a woman that had a great will power-wouldn't give up. She read her Bible and kept the faith with it, which I get down in the dumps. Just the other day I was down in it, and she'd say: "You got to cheery on, but you can't die as easy as you think you can." I quit school at 14. 1 hit then on the farm with a reaper, which we call it a cradle, a-reapin' grain. The first work 'at I done-as I can remember in any money way-was a-pullin' teaberry, mountain tea. And then it hit from that till one herb to another. And herbs is gone, and galax is gone, fer as makin' anything out of 'em. People live in dwellin' houses where I used to gather herbs. Gathering herbs in the woods for Ray was something of a spiritual experience, and his description of it is poetic. Why I enjoy in the woods, I couldn't tell ye. They's somethin' there- it's a, it's a tone in the air or somethin'. It's somethin' that makes you feel good, is in the woods. And then another thing is-seems like always with me-in a pine, in a thick piney, big timber thicket of good timber, and hit in a patch in the woods, and that wind a-goin' "bzis, bzrrr," whizzin' through them limbs-seem like it says words a lot of times if you listen at it, a-tollin', tellin' you what to do. Ray's work and heritage were important to him. They were subjects he often talked about, as well as the changes that had occurred-many of which he regretted. Well, the Hickses, I think the way they tell me, come from England, was the old Hickses, come from England. Now my first related people lived down what they call Valle Crucis today, in North Carolina. And they swapped that big bottom land at that time for a hog rifle and a hound dog and a sheep hide. And then my great grandpa Sam come in here what they call Spice Creek today and entered 500 acres at that time. My grandfather Ben told me the Jack Tales. And I'd go there of a nights when I was just a little. Get down on my breast and crook my head up as he told that interestin' tale-me a-believin' it. And some nights we'd get started, and me tired, and tell tales up maybe nine or ten, eleven o'clock in the night. And they told a lot of ghost tales at that day and time. You don't hear that no more. People don't believe it no more. The television, they watch their stories on hit, you see, and used to it. It took the place of it. When Ray was 25, he married Rosa Violet Harmon, who was to be his lifetime helpmeet. She was 17 and indeed a bouquet of flowers. She had raven- black hair and lots of spunk. Ray visited her house a number of times, and as she recalls: "Ray'd talk. Grandpa Harmon knew he was some kin to Ray. He asked questions about so-and-so, and Ray'd answer, and Grandpa would laugh." During one of Ray's visits, he spent all day cutting wood for Rosa's Grandma Harmon. After Ray and Rosa started courting, it didn't take long for them to make up their minds to get married. Rosa states, "We got goin' together in December around Christmas, and we got married in March." During one evening in February of that period, Rosa put in Ray's pocket a valentine, which was signed "to Shorty from Blackie." Six-foot- seven "Shorty" ordered a pie filling, which he gave to "Blackie" with the words, "I got that for you. You'll have to bake me a pie." And Rosa baked Ray pies, biscuits, and cornbread for 55 years. Once Ray was married, he took his bride home to his mother Rena-it was the first time Rosa had even seen Rena. Ray and Rosa settled in the house, and the next year started raising a family. Leonard was first; then approximately two years apart came Jean, Ted, Kathy, and Juanita. Leonard and Ted feel that they were the closest to Ray of the children "on account of bein' the boys in the family- out workin' and with him all the time except on weekends." And being the boys, they were sometimes with him then as well: "Some weekends he'd take off to be with his friends down on the mountain here. We'd end up goin' with him on that, and then, gosh, five or six o'clock in the mornin' the rooster'd be a-crowin'." There were other fun times, but most of the boys' memories of their dad involve work and talk. In Leonard's words, He trained us in the herbs. He trained us in a lot of ways that no one else could train you-I mean it's all the old that Dad'd remembered. His mind was like a big, dadburn wheel. It just kept turnin', and more it turned, the more momentum it gained, and he just couldn't stop. You'd have to interrupt to leave.
[Ray Hicks standing with his cradle reaper. Photograph courtsey of the B. Carroll Reece Museum, East Tennessee State University, 1969]
He was kinda like he wanted to be a teacher, a-passin' down of the old. He lived the old, and he wanted to teach people to understand that way of life. And a roundabout way of doin' it was weavin' a story around it or just livin' it hisself. Ray's daughters also reminisce about the work and Ray's talking. Jean and Nita recount: "When we'd be out in the field, he usually told his life story-Jack Tales, he'd sit at night and tell them. Neighbors'd come-we'd have a whole yard full of people. And hoeing, he'd stop and tell stories if anybody'd stop by. He constantly talked. Grandma who lived with us was about the only one who could make him stop. She wouldn't argue with him, she would just express her opinion. And he would listen." Kathy, who according to Jean is "more natured" like her daddy than the rest, is pretty outspoken about her dad. This is a typical day: Dad'd get up-he's talkin'. Mom be in there cookin' breakfast. He'd come to the breakfast table, talk, talk, talkin'. We'd all sit around and eat. He sort of was in his own little world most of the time, in his head. He had so much stuff in his head. He'd close his eyes, and he'd just sit back and talk, and there would be just reams and reams. He never ran out of stuff to talk about. And my only beef was with Dad droning on and on. He told us lots of stories and the Jack Tales. And he never told one quite the same. I think it was new to him each time he told it 'cause he never got tired of tellin' the same old story. In some ways, Kathy is more sharply analytical than the others about her dad. I like to read, and my favorite characters are the ones that's got everything-humor, anger, resentment-can throw a fit. All of that was Dad. He had it all. Daddy had his sweet side, he had his angry side, his woe-is-me side. I'm sure he looked back at his childhood as a misery 'cause I think he had horrors and sadness and worry. He was raised in the Depression, and he found his daddy hangin' dead, and then later on his little brother Jack got drowned. By the time he met Mom, he had already raised a family, his brothers and sisters that were at home when his daddy died. Grandma said he did do a lot more of the work because he was more conscientious, that he worried more, he had pain about his sisters and brothers going hungry. He would get out and work all day long for a quarter or somethin' a day. This strong ethical character is a quality of Ray the whole family agrees upon. Rosa comments, "I never know Ray to told no lie or nothin'. What he said-he promise you somethin'-he try to fulfill it." Nita adds, "He didn't want to owe nobody nothin'-worry himself to death till he got it paid off, if it was just a dollar. If he borrowed anything, it was like it was priceless, and he'd warn us not to get around it, 'fraid we were goin' tear it up 'cause it didn't belong to us. Like if it was a hoe, sometimes he'd send it back better than what he borrowed." The family's anecdotes about Ray are numerous. One of Rosa's I particularly like occurred before she and Ray began courting, when Ray "gave up on girls," got him some wine, and she "just ran from him." Perhaps the best one told me comes from Jean. It happened during one of those hard winters on the Beech. The school bus couldn't get through the snowdrifts, and all aboard were marooned. Ray went out looking for his kids-the only dad out searching. "Here he come walkin'," says Jean. "His face was frostbitten over, but I thought, 'Oh, God, Dad, are you dead?' We was still in the bus. The little kids hollered, 'Ray,' and just settled right down, 'cause everybody was scared to death. And if it hadn't been for Dad, that bus driver was drivin' off a bank. And Daddy said, 'Hoi', hoi', hoi',' and the bus driver stopped right suddenly. Dad calmed him down, and we backed up, turned around, and went on." Ray stayed on the bus until they reached the house of a neighbor, who took the kids in for the night. Then Ray walked home. Just as Ray didn't give up looking for his kids that day, he never gave up on his life, even toward the end when he said, "I've about had it-cancer's got me." Ray Hicks has truly "become a name," but he was so much more. And to me, he evokes still other images of the traditional hero Ulysses: I will drink Life to the lees. All times I have enjoyed Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone.
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Review: The Last Chivaree: The Hicks Family of Beech Mountain
By BILL ELLIS
Source: Appalachian Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2 (WINTER 1997), pp. 216-219
The Last Chivaree: The Hicks Family of Beech Mountain. By Robert Isbell. Foreword by Wilma Dykeman (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996) $19.95, cloth. The Last Chivaree records a journalist's introduction to the world of living Appalachian ballads and folktales. He intends to construct a living portrait of the culture and the personalities that preserved the Appalachian folklore that regional writers and promoters like Richard Chase appropriated and commodified. As interesting as the old songs and stories are, Isbell finds that the spare, hardscrabble life histories of those who preserve them are equally interesting, though the "tourist ethnographer" frequently does not record them and often does not even listen to them. While touching on a wide variety of Beech Mountain personalities, in- cluding members of the Ward, Harmon, and Presnell families, the book fo- cuses on instrument-maker Stanley Hicks and tale-teller Ray Hicks. Based on a series of visits and taped interviews, Isbell attempts to place their per- formances in a broader context of life experience and worldview. The section devoted to Stanley Hicks is the weakest part of the work: slim on biography and long on Isbell's romantic discovery of the mountains. It is built around a sad but familiar story of "hit and run" fieldwork: author Isbell attends an outdoor spectacle-drama geared to tourist traffic in Boone, North Carolina. To spur slow attendance, Richard Chase has imported a number of picturesque mountaineers to perform the British ritual folk dances that he and other revivalists have taught them. The author, snapping pictures of the "Elizabethan" rituals and perfor- mances, is struck by the "man-child" grinning face of Stanley Hicks, a mem- ber of the family Chase used as his primary informants. When Hicks com- ments wistfully that he'd never had a photograph taken of just himself, Isbell is impressed by his trust in humanity and has an assistant take the portrait Thirty years later, Isbell comes across the photograph in a trunk and realizes that he had never sent the mountaineer a copy; in fact, he'd never taken his name or address. Stung by regret, he contacts an Appalachian instrument-maker and asks whether he would help identify the "lost banjo- ist" in the photo. The man, "gaunt, broken, and colorless," looks at it briefly before telling Isbell, "That's me .... A real nice picture. I'd love to have one" (P. 5).
Delighted, Isbell tapes an afternoon of Stanley Hicks's songs and conversation. The essay that follows in this book is (I think by intent) filled with embarrassing instances of IsbelFs effort to treat Stanley as a CD, not as a person. Even the mountaineer "seems embarrassed" when Isbell tells him that his dulcimer version of "Skip to My Lou" makes him "hear ancient bagpipes, their notes skirling along the long halls of an old Scottish Castle" (pp. 8-9). Isbell comments that evidently for Hicks tourists are "not substi- tutes for foot-tapping, roisterous, Saturday-night hootenanny audiences" (pp. 11-12). Then he takes the portrait away with him so he can keep the origi- nal and make a copy for Stanley. Several months later he returns with the duplicate, but Stanley is now dead. The rest of the book gains urgency from Isbell's need to atone for vio- lating Stanley Hicks's trust But this urban guilt wears thin, especially since it is combined with IsbelFs practical realization that in his conversations with Stanley and his son David, "there seems enough material for a book." Most readers will be more interested in the Hicks family and their achievements than whether Isbell gains mountain salvation in the end. Altogether stronger is the detailed life history of Stanley's cousin, the eminent tale-teller Ray Hicks. Ray's more extensive experience with journal- ists allows him to size up Isbell more quickly and provide him with what was needed to make a book. Even at his first introduction to Isbell, in fact, Ray notes shrewdly, "I figgered he looked like somebody 'ud be writing some- thing." A gifted raconteur used to many levels of audience, he spins out for Isbell a wide range of narratives, from family anecdotes to vivid accounts of local natural disasters. Happily, Isbell casts this portion of the book as Ray Hicks's autobiography and removes his quest for the hills to the back- ground. The vocabulary and style of Ray Hicks's storytelling is distinctively ar- chaic, as many folklorists and linguists have testified. He is fond of unusual pronunciations and verb forms and punctuates his narratives with pictur- esque images and exclamations. Wisely, Isbell opts for a conservative ap- proach to transcribing this style, using standard spelling so far as possible and admitting that Ray's accent and intonation are perhaps impossible to represent in print. Twice Isbell represents unusually expressive moments as free verse rather than prose. And even the "prose" often contains striking images. Describing how to use tree bark as a compass, Hicks concludes: "I've seen tree stumps with cracks going all four ways of the compass, but for hugging a live tree to get directions you've got to find it on a frozen mountaintop, up PAGE 217 -APPALJ
high..." (p. 141). Hugging a live tree on a high, frozen mountaintop would in itself make a fine metaphor for Ray's intense faith in the divinity of nature, a current often seen in his tale performances and well developed in this book. But most times Ray Hicks impresses less through verbal artistry than through direct, shrewd observation. Asked why mountaineers sang so many murder ballads, he comments: I think they wasn't so many murders in the mountains. It's just that there's a lot of people and a lot of years gone by. And so these songs are sad and pretty, and people remember bad things better than good things. It might be that a lot of good things didn't make it through the years, but the bad ones got through, (p. 135) A valuable reminder that tradition isn't always something good that's passed down through the generations! An especially effective section details Ray Hicks's courtship of Rena Harmon, a saga that manages to combine mystical, pragmatic, and farcical elements. As with much in Ray's world, magic intrudes: a fortune-teller describes his predestined bride, and a mysterious voice points her out But the narrative is more than a real-life fairy tale. It incorporates many of the often unrecorded cultural expectations of suitor and eligible bride. Ray's account of how he managed to overcome family and community objections to his choice is often astute, never more so than when he explains that when he came courting he had to bring two sacks of treats, one to overcome the suspicions of Rena's family and another, filled with chewing tobacco, for the young teens who "rocked" outsiders who travelled into their settlement Often Ray's archaisms are taken as tokens of an authentic "Elizabe- than" narrative tradition that he represents. Isbell points out that his style of speaking is seen as distinctive even within the Hicks family tradition. None of them can explain Ray's strange way of speaking, though they too find it compelling. He thus emerges as an artist, not a "natural," a person who has actively sought out and created a presentation style that fits what cultural tourists want to learn about the "real" mountains. That he has done this without sentimentalizing or patronizing his culture makes his artistic achievement the more wonderful. But this is where the reader will need to read against Isbell's romantic image of Ray Hicks as reflecting a dying age. Even though he is a good listener, as an appreciative foreword notes, he is not an especially good reader. None of the copious scholarship on the Hicks-Harmon family tradi- tions is reflected, and his knowledge of folklore extends only to Chase, Carl Carmer, and Frank and Anne Warner. Isbell could have glanced at other works in UNC Press's own catalog - such as David Whisnant's All That Is Native and Fine (1983) and William Bernard McCarthy's Jack in Two Worlds (1994), with fine essays on Ray Hicks and several other tale-tellers mentioned in Isbell's book.
In particular, Ray Hicks could have been seen as playing the same role for the outside media as did Jane Hicks Gentry (another of the family) 75 years before. Having moved to the resort town of Hot Springs, North Caro- lina, Jane Gentry became a community star for her distinctive story-telling style, which she used to good effect at the local settlement school. She thus came to the attention of regional writer Irving Bachelier. Impressed by her old-fashioned vocabulary, the writer took extensive notes on her life history, even before she came to the attention of professional folklorists like Cecil Sharp. Bachelières accounts of Jane Gentry are somewhat skewed by his patron- izing romanticism, but he undoubtedly recognized and respected her as a fellow artist, a portrait painter in oral language. He even invited her to his Connecticut home for several weeks so that a stenographer could take down her stories verbatim. One might wish that Isbell were less a Bachelier and more a Hicks. His journalistic effusions surface jarringly when he provides transitions between Ray's stories: "Now spring was coming .... The mountain world would stir and shake off the ravages of winter. Happy sounds would bound off ancient rocks, and there would be beauty so awesome that even the most jaded and wearied would smile" (p. 131). We sense real narrative matter in Ray's more pragmatic way of seeing the seasons: in the dead of winter his feet "so often became cold that he lost his toenails" (p. 73). And spring brought the mixed blessing of casting aside shoes: "My feet would get callused and horny. But that didn't keep them from getting cut and bruised. See, the worst part of developing calluses is that they make stone bruises quicker than if the skin wasn't so tough" (p. 70). Admirers of Ray Hicks will be grateful for The Last Chivaree, a previ- ously unrecorded side of the tale-teller's repertory. Through this work, we can see the modern role of Ray Hicks not as a dying art but another in a series of creative artists born from Appalachian oral culture. Both Ray Hicks and Jane Gentry, in their own ways, distilled a self-consciously artistic style out of language choices made available in their culture. Recognizing the Hicks and Gentry styles as unique, even within their communities, lets us appreciate both as actively creative artists, not passive conservators of a dying way of life. In the end we have sharper images of what Ray means when he says of his Jack tales, "Just listen. They's a lot that's not true, but a lot that is."
BILL ELLIS Bill Ellis is associate professor of English and American studies at Penn State's Hazelton campus. He is convener of the American Folklore Society's Folk Narrative Section and a contributor to Jack in Two Worlds (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1994).
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