Overview

...revisit the people and places and deepen your enjoyment of the sublime BBC tv series “Wayfaring Stranger” ...in these pages revisit people and places you loved in the BBC tv series “Wayfaring Stranger” ... by the authors as featured in the acclaimed BBC tv series “Wayfaring Stranger” Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a steady stream of Scots migrated to Ulster and eventually onward across the Atlantic to resettle in the United States. Many of these Scots-Irish immigrants made their way into the mountains of the southern Appalachian region. They brought with them a wealth of traditional ballads and tunes from the British Isles and Ireland, a carrying stream that merged with sounds and songs of English, German, Welsh, African American, French, and Cherokee origin. Their enduring legacy of music flows today from Appalachia back to Ireland and Scotland and around the globe. In Wayfaring Strangers, Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr guide readers on a musical voyage across oceans, linking people and songs through centuries of adaptation and change. From ancient ballads at the heart of the tradition to instruments that express this dynamic music, Ritchie and Orr chronicle the details of an epic journey.

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9781469664187

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Reviews

[Doug] Orr, along with friend Fiona Ritchie, host of the Thistle & Shamrock radio show, has set out the history and lore of the music that came with the Scots-Irish immigrants in a landmark book Wayfaring Strangers. --Asheville Citizen-Times If you love Appalachian music; if you're Scots-Irish and wonder about your roots; if you're curious about the words and traditions of the music and how many miles and years the songs have traveled to get here, this handsome book is your most trusted servant, your indispensable encyclopedia and your entertaining Bible. --Charlotte Observer Once in a while, a book comes along whose authors are uniquely fitted to create it. And once in a while a book comes along whose creation not only brings together but actually preserves important details of history that might otherwise be lost. Wayfaring Strangers does it all. --Elizabeth Kostova, author of The Historian Traces the evolution of Appalachian music. . . . Intrigued readers can use the information as a jumping-off point for their own research. --Mountain Xpress Will be especially helpful for those with a general interest in American folk, old-time, bluegrass, and country music but who wish to gain a fuller understanding of where this music began and why it sounds the way it sounds. --Goldenseal Wayfaring Strangers offers a useful general introduction to the relationships between Irish, Scottish, and Appalachian traditional musics.--Notes [A] beautiful book. . . . Excellent for research as well as a pleasure to read for personal enjoyment.--Tennessee Libraries [Ritchie and Orr] strike all the right chords in this pleasantly tuneful survey of the history of the evolution of Scottish music in Appalachia.--Publishers Weekly A beautiful testament to the roots of Celtic music and the journeys of the people who brought it to these mountains.--Lady Banks' Commonplace Book A must to any fan of folk or bluegrass.--Wilmington Star-News A readable and epic tale tracing the flow of Scottish music. . . . [Ritchie and Orr] tell a story remarkable for its breadth and depth, conveying the drama of Scottish emigration via Ulster to Appalachia, by a people who clung to the music and song they held dear, and bequeathed it to America. It is for us to keep our eyes and ears open to see how this river carries on.--Scottish Life Magazine An accessible yet scholarly tale of cultural transplantation and transformation as it played out on two continents.--Southern Historian An enjoyable and informative read for any reader. . . . Shines new light on the development of American music.--Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians Essential. . . . A gorgeous holiday gift book, including a CD of various artists' renditions of the songs whose origins the authors so beautifully recount.--New York Times Book Review Filled with maps, woodcuts, paintings, and photographs of impossibly picturesque Scottish and Irish locales, the book is a treasure trove of imagery and information. Music lovers, prepare to be transported.--BookPage Likely to encourage those with a liking for Appalachian music to listen more and learn further.--Folklore Nonmusicians will have no trouble appreciating this work's context, and even those well versed in the subject will find new insights here.--Library Journal Represents an extraordinary feat of research, together with copious interview material. . . . a joy to read from cover to cover, it also rewards just dipping in and out.--fRoots Ritchie and Orr have created a beautiful book filled with poetic prose, stunning images, and anecdotal gems from some of the most revered figures in Celtic and American music.--West Virginia History There is a foreword by Dolly Parton who, glitz and glam aside, is steeped in Appalachian music--'close to my heart and part of my DNA.' The 20-track CD of performances from artists on either side of the Atlantic which comes with the book opens with Parton joining Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh in a fine rendition of 'Barbara Allen, ' a song which, referred to as far back as Samuel Pepys, lilts its winsome way through this whole odyssey.--Jim Gilchrist, Scotland on Sunday This book couldn't have been written by anyone without a lifetime of experience and love of the subject and has set a new standard for projects of this nature. They have certainly hit the mark.--The Living Tradition This handsome volume is both a story of a musical evolution and a time capsule that preserves a nearly forgotten era of mountain life.--WNC Magazine

Author Information

Fiona Ritchie MBE is the founder, producer, and host of National Public Radio's The Thistle & Shamrock. In 2018 she was inducted into the Folk DJ Hall of Fame. Doug Orr is president emeritus of Warren Wilson College, where he founded the Swannanoa Gathering music workshops. His books include The North Carolina Atlas: Portrait for a New Century and Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia.

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