Jean Ruth Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) was an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player, called by some the "Mother of Folk". In her youth she learned hundreds of folk songs in the traditional way (orally, from her family and community), many of which were Appalachian variants of centuries-old British, Scottish and Irish songs, including dozens of Child Ballads. In adulthood, she shared these songs with wide audiences, as well as writing some of her own songs using traditional foundations. in order to research the origins of her family songs and help preserve traditional music.

Out of Kentucky

Family

Jean Ritchie was born to Abigail (née Hall) Ritchie (1877–1972) and Balis Wilmar Ritchie (1869–1958) of Viper, an unincorporated community in Perry County in the Cumberland Mountains of southeastern Kentucky. Jean's father Balis had printed up a book of old songs entitled Lovers' Melodies in 1910 or 1911, which contained the most popular songs in Hindman at that time, including "Jackaro", "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender", "False Sir John and May Colvin" and "The Lyttle Musgrave". However, Balis preferred playing the Appalachian dulcimer to singing, often singing entire ballads in his head along with his dulcimer playing. In 1917, the folk music collector Cecil Sharp collected songs from Jean's older sisters May (1896–1982) and Una (1900–1989), whilst her sister Edna (1910–1997) also learnt the old ballads, much later releasing her own album of traditional songs with dulcimer accompaniment. Most of the Ritchie siblings seemed dedicated to performing and preserving traditional music. Many of the Ritchies attended the Hindman Settlement School, a folk school where students were encouraged to cherish their own backgrounds and where Sharp found many of his songs. It is possible that many of the Ritchies' songs were absorbed from neighbors, relatives, friends, school mates and even books, as well as being passed through the family. and his son James Ritchie Sr. (1757–1818) of Stewarton, East Ayrshire, Scotland, emigrated to the United States. James Ritchie Sr. fought in the Revolutionary War in 1776 (including at the Siege of Yorktown), and lived in Virginia before settling on Carr Creek in what is now Knott County, Kentucky, with his family. When he drowned in 1818,

Most of the Ritchies later fought on the Confederate side in the Civil War, including Jean's paternal grandfather Justice Austin Ritchie (1834–1899), who was 2nd Lieutenant of Company C of the 13th Kentucky Confederate Cavalry.

Alan Lomax wrote that:<blockquote>They were quiet, thoughtful folks, who went in for ballads, big families and educating their children. Jean's grandmother was a prime mover in the Old Regular Baptist Church, and all the traditional hymn tunes came from her. Jean's Uncle Jason was a lawyer, who remembers the big ballads like "Lord Barnard". Jean's father taught school, printed a newspaper, fitted specs, farmed and sent ten of his fourteen children to college.</blockquote>Her "uncle" Jason (1860–1959), who was actually her father's cousin,

Ritchie graduated from high school in Viper and enrolled in Cumberland Junior College (now a four-year University of the Cumberlands) in Williamsburg, Kentucky, and from there graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in social work from the University of Kentucky in Lexington in 1946. According to Ritchie, Maud Karpeles later said "[Ritchie] cannot be termed a folksinger, because she has been to college," which she took as a compliment.

During World War II, she taught in an elementary school. Meanwhile, in 1946, whilst still in Kentucky, Ritchie was recorded performing traditional songs with her sisters Edna, Kitty, and Pauline by Mary Elizabeth Barnicle and by Artus Moser.

New York

thumb|219x219px|[[Alan Lomax]]

After graduating she got a job as a social worker at the Henry Street Settlement in New York, where she taught her Appalachian songs and traditions to local children. By October 1949, she was a regular guest on Oscar Brand's Folksong Festival radio show on WNYC. All of Lomax's recordings of Ritchie are available online courtesy of the Lomax Digital Archive. She was recorded extensively for the Library of Congress in 1951.

By 1951, Ritchie became a full-time singer, folksong collector, and songwriter. As a song-collector, she began by setting down the 300 songs that she already knew from her mother's knee. In 1954, Ritchie released some of the British and Irish recordings on the album Field Trip, side by side with Ritchie family versions of the same songs. On one occasion, Maud Karpeles took Ritchie and Pickow to visit Ralph Vaughan Williams and his wife Ursula, for whom she sang "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies"; Pickow photographed the four of them together.

Musical achievements

In 1955, Ritchie wrote a book about her family called Singing Family of the Cumberlands. The book documented the role of the family songs in everyday life, such as accompanying everyday tasks on the farm and in the home, or being sung when gathered on the porch in the evening to "sing the moon up." Singing Family of the Cumberlands is widely regarded as an American classic, and continues to be used in American schools. These were sung as "lining out" songs, in a lingering soulful way, including the song "Amazing Grace," which she helped popularize.

Ritchie directed and sang at the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959,

Her traditional version of "My Dear Companion" (Roud 411) appeared on the album Trio recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris. Judy Collins recorded some of Ritchie's traditional songs, "Tender Ladies" and "Pretty Saro," and also used a photograph by George Pickow on the front of her album "Golden Apples of the Sun" (1962).

In 1963, Ritchie recorded an album with Doc Watson entitled Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson Live at Folk City (1963).

As folk music became more popular in the 1960s, new political songs overshadowed the traditional ballads. Whilst Ritchie largely stuck to the traditional songs, she wrote and recorded Kentucky-themed songs with wider implications, such as the destruction of the environment by loggers and the strip-mining techniques of coal firms. These songs included "Blue Diamond Mines," "Black Waters," and "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore," which Johnny Cash covered Ritchie had written numerous songs about mining under the pseudonym "'Than Hall," to avoid troubling her non-political mother, and believing they might be better received if attributed to a man.

"Nottamun Town" (which Ritchie had learned from her uncle Jason and performed in 1954 on Kentucky Mountains Songs and in 1965 on A Time For Singin) was covered by Shirley Collins (1964), Bert Jansch (1966), and Fairport Convention (1969). Bob Dylan used the tune for his 1963 song "Masters of War" on the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

From her "uncle" Jason,

Ritchie was the subject of the 1996 documentary Mountain Born: The Jean Ritchie Story, which was produced by Kentucky Educational Television. The Ritchies strummed their dulcimers with a goose-feather quill. the couple decided there might be a potential market for them. Morris Pickow, Pickow's uncle, set up an instrument workshop for them under the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn. which included the dulcimer on every song.

Personal life and death

thumb|Ritchie in 2004

Ritchie was married to photographer George Pickow from 1950 until his death in 2010, with whom she had two sons, Peter (1954–) and Jonathan (1958–2020). She lived in Baxter Estates, New York, and was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

In early December 2009, Ritchie was hospitalized after suffering a stroke which impaired her ability to communicate. She recovered to some degree then returned to her home in Berea, Kentucky. She died at home in Berea on June 1, 2015, aged 92.

Discography

  • Singing the Traditional Songs of Her Kentucky Mountain Family (1952)
  • Appalachian Folk Songs: Black-eyed Susie, Goin' to Boston, Lovin' Hanna (195–)
  • Kentucky Mountains Songs (1954)
  • Field Trip (1954)
  • Courting Songs (1954) (with Oscar Brand)
  • Shivaree (1955)
  • Songs from Kentucky (1956)
  • American Folk Tales and Songs (1956)
  • Saturday Night and Sunday Too (1956)
  • Children's Songs & Games from the Southern Mountains (1957)
  • Singing Family of the Cumberlands (1957)
  • The Ritchie Family of Kentucky (1959)
  • Riddle Me This (1959) (with Oscar Brand)
  • Carols for All Seasons (1959)
  • Field Trip – England (1959)
  • British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Vol. 1 Folkways (1960) (Child ballads)
  • British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Vol. 2 Folkways FA 2302 (1960) (Child ballads)
  • As I Roved Out (Field Trip-Ireland) (1960)
  • Ballads from Her Appalachian Family Tradition (1961)
  • Precious Memories (1962)
  • The Appalachian Dulcimer: An Instructional Record (1964)
  • Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson Live at Folk City (1963)
  • A Time For Singing (1965)
  • Marching Across the Green Grass & Other American Children's Game Songs (1968)
  • Clear Waters Remembered (1974) Geordie 101
  • Jean Ritchie At Home (1974) Pacific Cascade Records LPL 7026
  • O Love Is Teasin (1985)
  • Kentucky Christmas, Old and New (1987)
  • Childhood Songs (1991)
  • Mountain Born (1995)
  • Legends of Old Time Music (2002, DVD)
  • Ballads (2003; vol. 1 and 2 above, issued on a single CD)

With others

  • Roger Nicholson and Lorraine Hammond: An Exultation of Dulcimers (tracks 5, 11, and 13) (1980)
  • Mike Seeger: Third Annual Farewell Reunion (track 11) (1994)

Published works

  • Ritchie, Jean (1965/1997) Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians . The original 1965 edition was issued by Oak Publications, the 1997 expanded version by University Press of Kentucky. The task of transcribing Ritchie's sung music into musical notation was carried out (1965) by Melinda Zacuto and Jerry Silverman.
  • Jean Ritchie's Swapping Song Book
  • Jean Ritchie's Dulcimer People (1975)

Awards and honors

  • Rolling Stone Critics Award in (1977) for her album None But One
  • Folk Alliance's Lifetime Achievement (1998)

See also

  • List of the Child Ballads

Notes

References

  • Live 1976 recording of Ritchie performing "Nottamun Town" from the Florida Folklife Collection (made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida)
  • Photographs of Jean Ritchie while artist in residence at UC Santa Cruz in 1978, from the UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections
  • Videos on Woodsongs Archive
  • 159: She sang and played her dulcimer as sole guest in 2000; 84 minutes.
  • 450: Was as one of 3 guests in "Celebration of the Mountain Dulcimer" July 7, 2007; 94 minutes.