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Read Thread: Say goodbye to the Queen of Mountain Music

Say goodbye to the Queen of Mountain Music
Board: State: North Carolina
Jun 30, 2007 8:46pm
Thread (disabled) Board
One of my most favorite people in the world left us yesterday :-(
this world is now a bit poorer without her smiling face!
Mary Jane Queen was born, raised and now passed on...
in the same little house on Caney Fork Creek... in these mountains she loved.

No one... no one...
can possibly have the words to paint a picture of Mary Jane and her trueness,
beauty within and her colorful heart of love.
She was a true appalachian mother of the land and of her music.

I am not sure yet...
how I will do any justice to her ways of touching so many lives...
but I do feel i need to immortalize her memory in a letterbox.
If anyone has stories or things to contribute... please let me know!

I can't stop the laughs and the tears when my mind hears her 83 year old voice singing
"I wish I was a single girl again" while plucking the tune on her banjo. when she finished...she would always throw her head back and have a good laugh!

We have lost part of this place...
your song and smile will always part of me

love ya...dixie
Re: Say goodbye to the Queen of Mountain Music
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105206 by Dixie
Jun 30, 2007 11:14pm
Thread (disabled) Board
We mourn her passing her in Baghdad also, since her Son In Law was on my team also...SFC Dean Schrock is on his way home to the mtn's that he so desperately misses. Rest In Peace Mary Jane Queen...
Be Safe...
BR1
Re: Say goodbye to the Queen of Mountain Music
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105206 by Dixie
Jun 30, 2007 11:29pm
Thread (disabled) Board
I did not know Mary Jane Queen, nor had I ever heard of her. I thought I would look and see what this woman whom you are speaking of so thoughtfully was about. I found several articles on her and I see why she will be missed. She looks like she would have been one of those people who drew you in, you heard her words and music and actually listened to what she had to say. Sounds like she had it "rough" growing up but she and her family made the best of what they had and learned from the experiences and loved life. Something we should all learn some aspect of. I never knew her or heard her sing but I wish now I had. Now she is singing with the angels :o)
Hugs and my sincere heartfelt love to all of her friends and family.

cannonball
Re: Say goodbye to the Queen of Mountain Music
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105206 by Dixie
Jul 1, 2007 3:21am
Thread (disabled) Board
I am so sorry. I never met her - but you spoke of her and through your words I felt like she was a part of us all....

xx
Lucy
Re: Say goodbye to the Queen of Mountain Music
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105206 by Dixie
Jul 1, 2007 8:21am
Thread (disabled) Board
Oh Dixie! I just read your message and am now typing through tear-filled eyes. What a loss! The world will definitely be a much less colorful place without Mary Jane. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to visit with her again last year, and for giving Emily the chance to meet a loving legend. She was most loved and will be sorely missed.

Our prayers are with her family.

Hope
SEE the Queen of Mountain Music
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105206 by Dixie
Jul 1, 2007 10:44am
Thread (disabled) Board
first...I made a mistake in my post about Mary Jane...
she was in her 90's (not 80's)

watch this little video clip
http://www.talkingnc.com/newpages/queenfamily_qt.htm
this is my Mary Jane
Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105206 by Dixie
Jul 1, 2007 4:28pm
Thread (disabled) Board
here is an article about Mary Jane and the movie Songcatcher
She was the inspiration for this wonderful film
http://www.thesylvaherald.com/ruralite091301.htm
Re: Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105336 by Dixie
Jul 2, 2007 9:50am
Thread (disabled) Board
Sad:

Quote "If some of the younger generation don't learn the ballads, why they'll just die out," she said. "There's very few who still sing them."


Did you learn them? Are you passing them on? Then again, perhaps the movie has now helped to preserve them?
Re: Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105555 by The Wolf Family
Jul 2, 2007 10:20am
Thread (disabled) Board
I actually have a CD from the Mtn. Heritage festival with the Queen family performing, including a cut of Mary Jane singing "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again". Mountain ballad singing is an art form, no doubt. I grew up with a mamaw that sang those songs to me. It was wonderful. There are some attempts at preservation being undertaken, but I don't think it will ever be the same. It's more than just learning the words. It's a dialect that few still speak (although Dixie is a prime example). And to be honest, the mountain ballads are just better when you're hearing them sittin' on the porch on a summer night with the whole family playing and singing (which is how all of the Queen family learned them).
Re: SEE the Queen of Mountain Music
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105300 by Dixie
Jul 2, 2007 2:30pm
Thread (disabled) Board
they talked about her on NPR today. that she had won an award. didn't hear all the details tho.
Re: SEE the Queen of Mountain Music
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105674 by the pink dragon
Jul 2, 2007 2:38pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Mary Jane was family...but also a much admired friend!

dixie

ps
She can be found in many places through a google search.
Re: Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105599 by The Wolf Family
Jul 2, 2007 7:31pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Ironic.....

I was raised on folk music (granted, the stuff popularized by the Weavers, Kingston Trio, etc. in the 50s and 60s.

I started the Songcatcher letterbox series long before I met Dixie, who told me about the Queen family - and I wrote lyrics in the logbooks just in case they struck a chord with someone. Saturday night after the 2nd Annual SH Gathering I was sitting near the fire in SEArchers yard and noted with some degree of sadness that no one was actually singing around the fire, but there were faces lit instead by cell phones and other doo-dads....

=sigh=

.....I am becoming my father.....

:/

Lucy
Re: Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105739 by MountainScorpia
Jul 2, 2007 8:26pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote Saturday night after the 2nd Annual SH Gathering I was sitting near the fire in SEArchers yard and noted with some degree of sadness that no one was actually singing around the fire, but there were faces lit instead by cell phones and other doo-dads


There was some singing (recall CDQ singing with the cubs), some of the people with headlamps trying to sing with the letterboxing song lyrics, "This Land is Your Land", and "You are my sunshine". Granted you had to move close to the musicians to hear over some of the distractions, and the voices were few, but they were there. The amount of music was also increased by a guitar and a singer (CDQ) and adding some songs which was more than last year. :)
Re: Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105757 by The Wolf Family
Jul 3, 2007 4:14am
Thread (disabled) Board
That is true; I was tired and it was late....thanks for reminding me about the good stuff!
Re: Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105757 by The Wolf Family
Jul 3, 2007 5:26am
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote Saturday night after the 2nd Annual SH Gathering I was sitting near the fire in SEArchers yard and noted with some degree of sadness that no one was actually singing around the fire, but there were faces lit instead by cell phones and other doo-dads


The music at the gathering was great, and I did enjoy the singing that I heard. But I think part of the issue (and what this thread actually begins to address) is that music isn't known like it once was. Folks know the popular tunes that everyone hears on the radio, but the old songs, songs with a heritage, just aren't as well known anymore. We live in a society where only half the citizens actually know the words to the national anthem, much less any other songs from our heritage. We just don't pass them down like generations before us did. Scorpia is so right about cell phones and doodads. Granted to today's kids, playing video games or listening to MP3s is much more fun than sitting on the porch listening to Grandpaw pick, but what have we lost in the technological advancement? I guess it is sort of a tangent of mine (and I apologize for that) but I hate the fact that we don't ever just slow down and be together as a larger family, passing on the traditions, values, and yes the songs of our past.
Re: Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105817 by hopeinnc
Jul 3, 2007 6:46am
Thread (disabled) Board
I agree in essence with this thread but you also have to remember that the songs that we consider old and traditional were at one time the hits of the day. Something about them stuck in people's memories and they got passed down, being changed along the way a bit but essentially the same.

One of my boys' favorite songs actually fooled a bunch of folk song scholars into thinking it was much older than it was. Check out Billy Joel's "Downeaster Alexa". It has everything that makes it a "traditional" sea chanty about the destruction of the fishing industry in the Northeast.

I grew up without the tradition of music on the porch but I contacted the ballads in college. I know some now from recordings so I'll keep them going as I can. My kids like them but, sensitive souls that they are, I hesitate to sing the more bloodthirsty ones ("Knoxville Girl" for example). They'd get too upset. :-)

Knit Wit
Re: Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105817 by hopeinnc
Jul 3, 2007 8:45am
Thread (disabled) Board
the fire saturday night at the event...
I didn't even get there until almost everyone was leaving. Mojo probably did have her phone in her face...it's a brand new toy to her...but i think the trampoline was more of a distraction or fun time for her than anything. She doesn't sing publicly either...just like I don't. We can't carry a tune for the most part. MountainScorpia, when I arrived, I sensed you were deep in thought or less than thrilled with something. I even asked what was wrong. Sorry!

I didn't grow up with back porch music either...
my daddy's family grew up with music, but it died out as everyone moved away.
my mom's family didn't and doesn't have a musically inclined hair on their heads.
since most of my time was with Momma... we didn't do music at home much...except to blare the stereo :-) I had alot of influences from momma's teenaged brother and sister in the 70's

what I did grow up with (after about age 8) was clogging to bluegrass and country by Delbert Queen (Mary jane's son, my uncle) and his band in Cherokee almost nightly in the summer time. Then occassionally I'd get to see Mary Jane and I'd get a touch of the old music she sang.

as I got older and had kids of my own I'd see Mary Jane more often and of course began to appreciate her stories and music even more than i did as a kid. When you grew up like Mary jane and her family, high up on John's Creek (Caney Fork) with nothing for miles but neighbors and mountains... and with musical talent...then that back porch music becomes the center of everything. Much different than how i grew up.

dixie
Re: Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105831 by knit wit
Jul 3, 2007 10:01am
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote I hesitate to sing the more bloodthirsty ones ("Knoxville Girl" for example).


That's one of the things that I always remember about the ballads mamaw sang to us, the fact that the girl was apt to die. I think it was a matter of "the moral of the story" songs... if you take up with some man and go against the values you were raised with, you are bound to die a horrible death at his hands and be thrown in the river. Ah, what pleasant memories.
Re: Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105870 by hopeinnc
Jul 3, 2007 12:33pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote Ah, what pleasant memories.


*spewing coffee on the screen* Exactly!!! "He picked a stick up off the ground and knocked that fair girl down." It doesn't get much better than that.

Unless it's those lovely Scottish ones where the woman has an out-of-wedlock child in the woods, kills it, and gets greeted by its ghost on the way to church.

Fun, fun, fun!

Knit Wit
Re: Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105935 by knit wit
Jul 3, 2007 12:36pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote "He picked a stick up off the ground and knocked that fair girl down." It doesn't get much better than that.


I don't know. The girl thrown in the mill pond who is then found as a skeleton and her bones are made into a fiddle is pretty good as well. And you always have the man who is going to be sent to jail for the death which obviously wasn't his fault becasue she goaded him into murdering her.
Re: Songcatcher
Board: State: North Carolina
Reply to: #105336 by Dixie
Jul 3, 2007 1:12pm
Thread (disabled) Board
This is one of my favorite alltime movies. I have seen it over and over again.

DEF