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Volume 3: No. 4, October 2006
About This Image
The cover image for this issue of Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) juxtaposes two images of the Appalachian region that appear incongruous: a country fiddler in a pastoral setting with a power plant in the background. These images are stylized from photographs of folk musician Henry Reed (1884�1968) who worked at the Appalachian Power plant for many years and could see the plant from the windows of his family home in rural Glen Lyn, Va. Although Reed�s passion was music, one anecdote ― echoed in an article in this issue ― reflects his impassioned response to
the stereotype of poverty to which he and other Appalachian residents were subjected. Reed recalls that when Appalachian Power management pressured workers against organizing a union, one official remarked, �Now remember boys, when we came here you didn�t have any shoes on your feet� (1). Indignant, Henry Reed refused the demands of management; although the confrontation cost Reed his job and later his farm, he found a new career with a manufacturing plant and continued to play music at home and at local dances. Reed never made a commercial recording or left
the Appalachian region in which he was born, but his talent as a fiddler eventually brought him to the attention of folklorist Alan Jabbour, who is responsible for recording 184 of Reed�s tunes now archived in the Library of Congress and for extending Reed�s influence into the wider folk and instrumental music communities. Jabbour describes not only Reed�s encyclopedic repertoire of tunes but also the variety of genres the music encompasses, �genres that carry with them the flavor of the ballroom as much as the back porch� (1). Jabbour claims that Reed�s repertoire
�abandon[s] forever the notion that the Appalachian region was culturally isolated� (1). This issue of PCD highlights this perspective of Appalachia and the continuing issues of cultural identity, history, and myth that characterize this unique region.
Reference
- Jabbour A. Henry Reed: his life, influence, and art. In: Fiddle tunes of the old frontier: the Henry Reed Collection. Washington (DC): American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Available from: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/reed/hrpres01.html
Cover artist: Kristen Immoor
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