Foggy Morning Breakdown*

I live in the valley between the Cumberland and Smoky Mountains in Southeast Tennessee. It is a place of dreaminess…and music. A certain kind of music, of the earth and the people who revere these magnificent hills and ravines. Blood stirring music. Click to listen, if you so desire, while you read on…

When the conditions are just so, the fog hangs around as the sun rises high enough in the sky to provide just enough illumination for the snapping of a few images. Just such a morning occurred recently and out we dashed, still pajama clad and loving every minute of it.

There is birdsong always during daylight hours and the sound of waterfalls rushing downward if you head upwards towards where the rocks are high and craggy.

We were born flatlanders, in dusty Oklahoma, but Tennessee blood runs through my veins, as my grandmother was born near here, around these here parts.

She was as proud to be from these hills as if she had descended directly from royal bluebloods across the pond. Living here now, I understand how, and why she felt as she did.

There is magic here.

Just thought I’d share a little of the enchantment with you, dear readers. And a little mornin’ music to go along with the purty pickin’ pick-tures. So clickity-click and looky-look and tap your toe, my friends. It jus’ doesn’t get any better.

*”Foggy Mountain Breakdown” was written by Earl Scruggs and recorded in 1949 by Lester Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, with Scruggs playing a Gibson Granada five-string banjo. Many five-string banjo players consider “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” one of the instrument’s fastest and most rhythmically challenging pieces. Only very skilled five-string banjo players can play it at the same speed and beat that Scruggs can.

Frances

~ by fairegarden on February 8, 2012.