Everyone in the town of Marshall was displaced after Hurricane Helene ravaged our sweet town. We took the ballad swap on tour during the following months to remind people our region is still recovering and encourage people to visit our towns. After 7 months of traveling the swap and rebuilding in Marshall, we are SO excited to share that our beloved ballad swap is finally getting to come back home to the Old Marshall Jail Hotel and Zadies restaurant! We will be having a ballad swap “homecoming” celebration and there may even be a King and Queen crowned.
Please join us on Wednesday, May 14 at 6:00 PM to celebrate!
The Old Marshall Jail Ballad Swap is an incredible opportunity to immerse yourself in our Appalachian Heritage. This unique event, hosted by Josh Copus, Donna Ray Norton and Sheila Kay Adams celebrates the rich tradition of ballads in Southern Appalachia. Ballads are hauntingly beautiful stories and narrative poems passed down through oral tradition and are told in song. This is a very casual event that we like to think of as a front porch experience, where ballad singers from across the region tell stories, sing songs, talk about our history, and have a great time!
While ballads have been sung throughout Southern Appalachia, Madison County in particular is known for its rich treasure trove of ballads and ballad singers. When English folk song collector Cecil Sharp visited Madison County in 1916, he said he had found a “nest of singing birds.” The ballad tradition in Madison County alone goes back at least 9 generations, making it one of the oldest unbroken non-indigenous oral traditions in the United States.
Some of our regular Ballad Singers:
- Sheila Kay Adams
- Donna Ray Norton
- William Ritter
- Hilary Rose
- Branson Raines
- Leila Weinstein
- Darci DeWulf
- Sarah Songbird Burkey
- Ian Kirkpatrick
- Susan Pepper
- John Analo Phillips
- Judy Rhodes
- and more (you can never tell who might show up!)
Come early to get a table, order yourself some supper and a few dri
