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["Appalachian Acres in Tallmansville, West Virginia, is owned and operated by Donnie Tenney and Lorelie Nicolas-Tenney. On September 28, 2017, they gathered with family and friends, including Nicolas-Tenney's mother Liz Villegas, seedsaver and farmer Charlie Radabaugh (of Radabaugh Farm in Buckhannon, WV), and seedsaver, farmer, and chef Mike Costello (of Lost Creek Farm in Lost Creek, WV), to harvest, process and boil sorghum into syrup."]%

1. Liz Villegas feeds sorghum cane through press

Identifier:
4224.AppalachianAcresSorghum.Video.001.9.28.17
Title:
Liz Villegas feeds sorghum cane through press
Date:
2017-09-28
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Farms--West Virginia, Food habits, Sorghum syrup, foodways, Sorghum as food
Location:
Upshur County (W. Va.)
["Appalachian Acres in Tallmansville, West Virginia, is owned and operated by Donnie Tenney and Lorelie Nicolas-Tenney. On September 28, 2017, they gathered with family and friends, including Nicolas-Tenney's mother Liz Villegas, seedsaver and farmer Charlie Radabaugh (of Radabaugh Farm in Buckhannon, WV), and seedsaver, farmer, and chef Mike Costello (of Lost Creek Farm in Lost Creek, WV), to harvest, process and boil sorghum into syrup."]%

2. Liz Villegas feeds sorghum cane through sorghum press powered by a tractor engine

Identifier:
4224.AppalachianAcresSorghum.Video.002.9.28.17
Title:
Liz Villegas feeds sorghum cane through sorghum press powered by a tractor engine
Date:
2017-09-28
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Sorghum syrup, Food habits, foodways, Sorghum as food, Farms--West Virginia
Location:
Upshur County (W. Va.)
["On the evening of Wednesday, January 16, 2019, The West Virginia Folklife Program hosted a showcase of their Folklife Apprenticeship Program, featuring master gospel and blues musician Doris Fields (aka Lady D) with apprentice Xavier Oglesby, and master old-time fiddler John D. Morris with apprentice Jen Iskow. The free event was held from 5:30-7:30pm at the historic MacFarland-Hubbard House, headquarters of the West Virginia Humanities Council (1310 Kanawha Blvd. E), in Charleston. The evening included musical performances by the two pairs and a question-answer session, followed by a reception.Doris Fields, who performs as Lady D, is known as West Virginias First Lady of Soul. A West Virginia native, she began singing in church choir as a child and has performed original and traditional blues, gospel, R&B, and soul across the state and country, including for the Obama for Change Inaugural Ball. Xavier Oglesby grew up singing in the black Pentecostal church and has performed in local a capella and theatre groups. He recently recorded voiceovers for the New River Gorge African American Heritage Auto Tour. Both Fields and Oglesby reside in Beckley.John D. Morris, of Ivydale, is an acclaimed West Virginia fiddler and tradition bearer who has been honored by the Augusta Heritage Center, the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, the West Virginia Fiddler Award, and a National Heritage Fellowship for his role in sustaining the tradition. Jen Iskow, of Thomas, is a West Virginia University alumni, community organizer, artist, and designer at Beartown Design Studio. She has studied with numerous masters of Appalachian old-time fiddle.The West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program offers a stipend to West Virginia master traditional artists or tradition bearers working with qualified apprentices on a year-long in-depth apprenticeship in their cultural expression or traditional art form. These apprenticeships aim to facilitate the transmission of techniques and artistry of the forms, as well as their histories and traditions. 2018 was the first year of the biennial Folklife Apprenticeship Program.Read more about the apprenticeship pairs on the West Virginia Folklife blog:https://wvfolklife.org/2018/12/03/2018-master-artist-apprentice-feature-doris-fields-aka-lady-d-xavier-oglesby-blues-black-gospel/https://wvfolklife.org/2018/11/09/2018-master-artist-apprentice-feature-john-morris-jen-iskow-old-time-fiddling-and-stories-of-clay-county/"]%

3. Clip of Jen Iskow playing "Yew Piney Mountain" at an Apprenticeship Showcase at the West Virginia Humanities Council

Identifier:
4224.ApprenticeshipShowcase.Video.001.1.16.19
Title:
Clip of Jen Iskow playing "Yew Piney Mountain" at an Apprenticeship Showcase at the West Virginia Humanities Council
Date:
2019-01-16
Creator:
Keller, Mike
Subject:
Concerts, Old-time music, Folk music--West Virginia, Fiddle tunes, Fiddling, Apprenticeship programs
Location:
Charleston (W. Va.)
["Diane Betler was born in Pendleton County, West Virginia and came to Helvetia as a child to live with her adopted mother Margaret Koerner, an immigrant from Germany. Ms. Koerner was a skilled home cook from her Ms. Betler learned many traditional recipes. She married Kevin Betler, nephew of Eleanor Betler, and they live in the Koerner home in Helvetias Metzner Hollow where Ms. Betler was raised. She served as the principal of Pickens Elementary/High School, the public school serving children from Pickens and Helvetia. Ms. Betler makes the yeast-raised doughnuts for Helvetias Fasnacht celebration every year using Margaret Koerners recipe.This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted with foodways practitioners in Helvetia, West Virginia, as part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]%

4. Audio slideshow of Diane Betler talking about making doughnuts for Fasnacht

Identifier:
4224.BetlerDiane.Video.001.2.6.16
Title:
Audio slideshow of Diane Betler talking about making doughnuts for Fasnacht
Date:
2016-02-06
Creator:
Betler, Diane
Contributor:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Doughnuts, Cooking, Swiss, Swiss American women, Festivals, Carnival, foodways, Helvetia (W. Va.), Cooking, German, Food habits
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["Eleanor Betler was born in Buckhannon, West Virginia in 1940 and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. She spent her summers in Helvetia at the farm of her maternal grandparents, James and Anna Merkli McNeal. She married Howard Bud Betler in 1961. The couple moved to a hilltop farm in Helvetia and raised four children. All the good cooks, many of them relatives of Mr. Betler taught Mrs. Betler about canning, preserving, cooking and baking. She was especially interested to learn the skills of butchering and preserving meat, and making sausage. Mrs. Betler loves the Swiss traditional baking but also Appalachian ways of some neighbors. She grinds her own flour for baking bread. At Fasnacht time she invites neighbors and friends to make the hosablatz and rosettes just to keep the tradition alive. She also preserves this history by collecting stories, music, and photographs for The Helvetia Archives.This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted with foodways practitioners in Helvetia, West Virginia, as part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]%

5. Audio slideshow of Eleanor Betler talking about making rosettes and hozablatz for Fasnacht in Helvetia

Identifier:
4224.BetlerEleanor.Video.001.2.5.16
Title:
Audio slideshow of Eleanor Betler talking about making rosettes and hozablatz for Fasnacht in Helvetia
Date:
2016-02-05
Creator:
Betler, Eleanor
Contributor:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Folk dancing, Swiss, Doughnuts, Swiss American women, Food habits, foodways, Bakers, Square dance music--United States, Farms--West Virginia, Cooking, Swiss, Helvetia (W. Va.), Carnival masks, Carnival
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["Dave Bing is a fiddler and fiddle maker from Melissa, West Virginia, outside of Huntington. He now lives in Harmony in Roane County, West Virginia with his wife. As a young man, he spent time learning from many elder fiddlers in West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, including the Hammons Family of Pocahontas County. Dave Bing has been a member of numerous old-time bands such as The Bing Brothers with his brothers Tim Bing and Mike Bing, Gandydancer with Gerry Milnes, and The High Ridge Ramblers with Mark Payne and Andrew Dunlap."]%

6. Dave Bing plays the fiddle tune "Waynesboro"

Identifier:
4224.BingDave.Video.001.6.21.17
Title:
Dave Bing plays the fiddle tune "Waynesboro"
Date:
2017-06-21
Creator:
Bing, Dave, 1955-
Contributor:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Fiddle tunes, Hammons (Family : W. Va.), Bing, Dave, 1955-, Fiddling, Old-time music, Folk music--West Virginia
Location:
Roane County (W. Va.)
["Vernon John Burky was born to a Swiss family in Helvetia, West Virginia in 1925. He grew up speaking Swiss on his family farm, where his parents raised animals and managed a sawmill, and his grandparents operated a cheese house. They made Helvetia cheese, a type of Swiss cheese, similar to Emental, that was made throughout the Helvetia community and a staple in the diet of residents. As a child, Burky raised chickens and tapped maple trees on his family farm. As an adult, he was an active winemaker, a common pursuit in the Helvetia community. During his working years, Burky worked as a truck driver for a saw mill and a coal company. He learned to play fiddle as a child and started playing in the Helvetia Star Band, the local dance band for generations and the namesake of one of the villages two dance halls. He still plays in the group, which performs regularly for Helvetia square dances and events. This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted with foodways practitioners in Helvetia, West Virginia, as part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]%

7. Vernon Burky and friends play the fiddle tune "Ragtime Annie" at the Helvetia Community Fair

Identifier:
4224.BurkyVernon.Video.001.9.10.16
Title:
Vernon Burky and friends play the fiddle tune "Ragtime Annie" at the Helvetia Community Fair
Date:
2016-09-10
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Old-time music, Fiddling, Fiddle tunes, Helvetia (W. Va.)
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["Cecelia Coleman Smith was born in Buckhannon, West Virginia in 1949. Originally from Pickens, West Virginia, her family moved away from the Helvetia/Pickens community when she was seven so her father could take a coal mining job. She moved back to Pickens in 2005. Mrs. Smith served in the military and is a member of the local American Legion chapter. She is also part of the Pickens Improvement and Historical Society, the Farm Womens Club, and occasionally volunteers at the Hutte Restaurant.This audio slideshow is part of a series of interviews conducted with foodways practitioners in Helvetia, West Virginia, as part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]%

8. Audio slideshow of Cecelia Smith talking about foodways in Helvetia

Identifier:
4224.CeceliaSmith.Video.001.4.30.16
Title:
Audio slideshow of Cecelia Smith talking about foodways in Helvetia
Date:
2016-04-30
Creator:
Smith, Cecelia
Contributor:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Bakers, Food habits, Helvetia (W. Va.), Pickling, Swiss American women, Cooking (Sauerkraut), Wild leek, Canning and preserving, foodways
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.), Randolph County (W. Va.)
["\"I want to sing an old song my grandmother used to sing when I was a kid... if I can remember-- I haven't thought of this for a long time. It was called \"The Two Little Orphans\" and she died when I was 12 years old and my sisters, they all, both remember her singing this. She'd sing us to make us kids cry, I guess! But let me see if I can remember it, it's been a long time. I was trying to think of it coming up here on the road today.\"West Virginia old-time musician, local historian, and collector Jim Costa sings \"The Two Little Orphans\" at the West Virginia Humanities Council MacFarland-Hubbard House, January 25, 2017.Jim Costa is a native of Summers County, and an accomplished traditional musician, storyteller, and local historian. He is also an avid collector and expert of 18th and 19th century farm tools and objects of rural life, including Hammons family fiddles, spinning wheels, cast iron cookware, and blacksmith tools. Costa has been building this collection throughout his life, and he restores many of the old tools and instruments himself. In addition to his public presentations on music and material culture, Costa appeared in the 1987 John Sayles film Matewan. Listen to the full tape of the concert here: https://soundcloud.com/user-521885027/west-virginia-folklife-presents-jim-costa-with-zoe-van-buren-12517Concert poster by Ratbee Press: http://www.ratbeepress.com/"]%

9. Jim Costa performs "Two Little Orphans" at a concert at the West Virginia Humanities Council

Identifier:
4224.CostaJim.Video.001.1.25.17
Title:
Jim Costa performs "Two Little Orphans" at a concert at the West Virginia Humanities Council
Date:
2017-01-25
Creator:
Costa, Jim (Banjoist)
Contributor:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Folk music--West Virginia, Folklore, Concerts
Location:
Charleston (W. Va.)
["West Virginia old-time musician, local historian, and collector Jim Costa plays the Italian song \"La Spagnola\" on his grandfather's accordion at the West Virginia Humanities Council MacFarland-Hubbard House, January 25, 2017.Jim Costa is a native of Summers County, and an accomplished traditional musician, storyteller, and local historian. He is also an avid collector and expert of 18th and 19th century farm tools and objects of rural life, including Hammons family fiddles, spinning wheels, cast iron cookware, and blacksmith tools. Costa has been building this collection throughout his life, and he restores many of the old tools and instruments himself. In addition to his public presentations on music and material culture, Costa appeared in the 1987 John Sayles film Matewan. Listen to the full tape of the concert here: https://soundcloud.com/user-521885027/west-virginia-folklife-presents-jim-costa-with-zoe-van-buren-12517Concert poster by Ratbee Press: http://www.ratbeepress.com/"]%

10. Jim Costa performs "La Spagnola" on accordion at a concert at the West Virginia Humanities Council

Identifier:
4224.CostaJim.Video.002.1.25.17
Title:
Jim Costa performs "La Spagnola" on accordion at a concert at the West Virginia Humanities Council
Date:
2017-01-25
Creator:
Costa, Jim (Banjoist)
Contributor:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Concerts, Italian American families, Accordion, Folk music--West Virginia
Location:
Charleston (W. Va.)
["\"I'm gonna try an old tune here that Jenes Cottrell used to play-- an old fella from Deadfall Run up in Clay County.\" West Virginia old-time musician, local historian, and collector Jim Costa performs \"Cherry River Line\" on banjo at the West Virginia Humanities Council MacFarland-Hubbard House, January 25, 2017.Jim Costa is a native of Summers County, and an accomplished traditional musician, storyteller, and local historian. He is also an avid collector and expert of 18th and 19th century farm tools and objects of rural life, including Hammons family fiddles, spinning wheels, cast iron cookware, and blacksmith tools. Costa has been building this collection throughout his life, and he restores many of the old tools and instruments himself. In addition to his public presentations on music and material culture, Costa appeared in the 1987 John Sayles film Matewan. Listen to the full tape of the concert here: https://soundcloud.com/user-521885027/west-virginia-folklife-presents-jim-costa-with-zoe-van-buren-12517Concert poster by Ratbee Press: http://www.ratbeepress.com/"]%

11. Jim Costa performs "Cherry River Line" on banjo at a concert at the West Virginia Humanities Council

Identifier:
4224.CostaJim.Video.003.1.25.17
Title:
Jim Costa performs "Cherry River Line" on banjo at a concert at the West Virginia Humanities Council
Date:
2017-01-25
Creator:
Costa, Jim (Banjoist)
Contributor:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Folk music--West Virginia, Banjo, Fiddle tunes, Cottrell, Jenes
Location:
Charleston (W. Va.)
["Dave Bing is a fiddler and fiddle maker from Melissa, West Virginia, outside of Huntington. He now lives in Harmony in Roane County, West Virginia with his wife. As a young man, he spent time learning from many elder fiddlers in West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, including the Hammons Family of Pocahontas County. Dave Bing has been a member of numerous old-time bands such as The Bing Brothers with his brothers Tim Bing and Mike Bing, Gandydancer with Gerry Milnes, and The High Ridge Ramblers with Mark Payne and Andrew Dunlap."]%

12. Dave Bing plays the fiddle tune "Golden Star Hornpipe"

Identifier:
4224.DaveBing.Video.002.6.21.17
Title:
Dave Bing plays the fiddle tune "Golden Star Hornpipe"
Date:
2017-06-21
Creator:
Bing, Dave, 1955-
Contributor:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Hammons (Family : W. Va.), Old-time music, Bing, Dave, 1955-, Fiddle tunes, Fiddling, Folk music--West Virginia
Location:
Roane County (W. Va.)