I discovered the music of Ola Belle Reed about 6 months ago. How I missed her all my life-I'll never know. One afternoon when I picked the girls up…
Added by Tipper on August 16, 2011 at 1:30pm —
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Over yonder in the graveyard Where the wild wild flowers grow Oh there laid my own true lover He's gone from me forever…
Added by Tipper on August 16, 2011 at 1:30pm —
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I'm excited to share a new feature of the Blind Pig & The Acorn with you today! We have developed an email newsletter for our readers. The newsletter is free and will consist of:
Upcoming posts-make sure to drop by for the posts that interest you or forward the info to someone you know would enjoy it.
The comments folks…
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Added by Tipper on April 9, 2009 at 3:30pm —
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I was born upon a hillside
Where the pines sing in the wind
Where my Daddy lived before me
and my Grandpa before him
We believe in simple living
It's the only life… Continue
Added by Tipper on April 4, 2009 at 5:00pm —
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Back in the day-quilts were a necessity of life-actually they still are to a degree. Quilts offer warmth for our bodies-a way to protect ourselves from the cold. Yet, when you look back to the days of living in an uninsulated house with only a fireplace or cookstove to supply heat, you realize what an important role quilts played in the days of old.
The ability to quilt stretched across all social classes-you needed warmth from the cold…
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Added by Tipper on February 6, 2009 at 3:30pm —
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This week's Pickin' & Grinnin' In The Kitchen Spot at the
Blind Pig & The Acorn features a song of old Mary Of The Wild Moor. Like most songs-this one has a neat history. The song tells the sad lonesome story of a mother and child freezing to death because her father couldn't hear her cries for help-doesn't get much sadder than that.
It's hard to imagine a world where information…
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Added by Tipper on January 10, 2009 at 1:35pm —
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Just in time for Christmas-Paul and Pap's first Christmas CD is available NOW! For the past few weeks you've been listening to a few of the songs on the player-the CD has additional songs (you can see the titles below). All music and vocals are performed by Paul and Pap with the exception of The Little Drummer Boy an instrumental performed by Henry Wilson, Pap's baby brother. Henry has been playing guitar-mostly Chet Atkins style-since he was a…
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Added by Tipper on December 11, 2008 at 2:40pm —
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Pork was the primary source of meat for folks in Appalachia up until the 1950s-60s. Most every family had 2 or 3 hogs and usually in late November or early December when the weather had turned off cold the hogs were readied for slaughter.
Pap's father, Wade, was known as a "good hog butcher" around our area. He was called to various homes and farms throughout the hog killing season. For…
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Added by Tipper on December 3, 2008 at 1:00pm —
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Over the weekend I experienced total paralyzing fear simultaneously with uncontainable excitement and joy.
Carolina Crafting contacted me several months ago-they were interested in doing a pod-cast show casing my folkart and featuring Paul's music. After months of planning it all came together this weekend.…
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Added by Tipper on November 18, 2008 at 11:38am —
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O Danny Boy is one of the most well known and beloved Irish Songs. It's what folks refer to as an "old standard". O Danny Boy is popular world wide-sung by famous vocalists as well as around the family piano-or guitar in my case.
As I researched the old song I discovered some interesting facts:
* While the tune is indeed Irish-the words were written in England
* There are varying opinions about the origin of the…
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Added by Tipper on November 9, 2008 at 11:30am —
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Pap's father, Wade, was an old time Baptist Preacher (thats him above with Paul).
Pap heard him tell a story about a lad who made a small boat during one of his sermons.
The lad placed the boat in a rushing stream to see if it would float. As the wind began to blow, the boat was taken from his reach. He frantically tried to rescue…
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Added by Tipper on October 12, 2008 at 5:00pm —
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Have you ever seen the countryside
when leaves were turning red
the fields of grass the shades of brown
the trees look like their dead
the chilling winds come closer as
the sun is… Continue
Added by Tipper on October 7, 2008 at 12:11pm —
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Pap and Granny showered my bothers and me with unconditional love and were always there to lend a helping hand-truly the best parents ever. However, I must admit, there were times I thought my parents were so old fashioned that they truly didn't understand the world-like I did.
I recently read a poem about parents and the jist of it was: as a child you idolize your parents, as an adolescent you think your parents are clueless, as an…
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Added by Tipper on September 24, 2008 at 3:00pm —
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Paul and Pap's repertoire includes many songs written by the The Delmore Brothers. The Brothers are among Pap's all time favorite groups. He enjoys their playing and singing-but as a songwriter himself-he is totally blown away by their song writing skills.
The Delmore Brothers were farm boys from Alabama. Their heyday was in the 1930s and 40s but their songs are still popular today-especially in…
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Added by Tipper on September 14, 2008 at 4:30pm —
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Back in the day, Pap and a friend walked to see 2 brothers,who were musicians-in the hopes of hearing some good pickin and grinnin. Soon after arriving, they started asking the brothers to play them a song-but the boys kept putting them off. Even the boys' Mother encouraged them to play a tune-all to no avail. Just as Pap and his friend were about to leave, one of the brothers said "Mommy blow the lamp out and we'll sing one." Seems the brothers were so…
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Added by Tipper on September 11, 2008 at 11:00am —
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We all go back, in our minds, to different moments of time. Happy times, sorrowful times, bittersweet times-doesn't matter which-at some point they all call us back to them.
Lately my mind has fallen back to the days when Chatter and Chitter were smaller. Back to the days of wearing pantyhose on their head with their friends.
When I was an overwhelmed stay at home mom of 2 rambunctious girls who never for one moment…
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Added by Tipper on August 21, 2008 at 7:30am —
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I only used an outhouse one time. I was about 4 or 5 years old. Pap and I were at the local country store-Doris Jeans. Pap was taking forever talking to someone-I wanted to go home because I had to go to the bathroom. I kept on and on until Pap sent me to the store's facilities-which was an outhouse. I remember it was creepy-with spiderwebs. I also remember wishing I hadn't pestered Pap about having to go to the bathroom.
To read more…
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Added by Tipper on August 15, 2008 at 1:12pm —
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Sue Diehl posted an event
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Malaprop's Bookstore Cafe posted events
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