“A new carrier of local singing traditions” -Thomas McGowan, North Carolina Folklorist
“Susan Pepper is an authentic tradition-bearer, a cultural broker bridging the gap between generations of musicians past and present.” -Brad Farthing, Town of Boone, Cultural Resources
~BIO~
Steeped in the musical traditions of western North Carolina, Susan Pepper, a ballad singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, has been performing concerts and teaching workshops for over two decades. Oxford American notes her “celestial upper range.” A featured artist in the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area’s Traditional Artist Directory, she is honored to share and teach some of the songs that were given to her.
Pepper has produced five albums, including three solo albums, a collection of her field recordings of women ballad singers from the Blue Ridge as well as a collection of young musicians and instructors for the Alleghany Junior Appalachian Musicians program. Her most recent project, Where the Islands Overflow: Traditional Song from Appalachia, is her love letter to the Appalachian region and features her own renditions of traditional ballads from Appalachia.
Pepper co-produced the award-winning feature length Appalachian music film The Mountain Minor with writer and director, Dale Farmer. Her music is also featured in the film. She and her husband wrote a short play, A Singer Needs a Song, inspired by the life of near-forgotten Jackson County ballad singer Ethel Brown. This short was produced by Calliope Stage and performed at the Mountain Heritage Festival at Western Carolina University and as part of Calliope Shorts in Sylva, NC. Pepper holds a Master of Arts degree in Appalachian Studies with a concentration in music. Her thesis, entitled “A Whistlin' Girl and A Crowin' Hen Always Come to Some Bad End” documents the lives and music of three singers from Western North Carolina: Hazel Rhymer, Zora Walker and Pearl Hicks.
She teaches for Junior Appalachian Musicians and has worked in a number of capacities for that program as well as instructs at the John C. Campbell Folk School, the Swannanoa Gathering, Western Carolina University and other venues. She has performed in venues across the Eastern United States.
Pepper makes her home on a small homestead in Western North Carolina with her husband, two children, numerous pets and small farm animals. In her freetime, she enjoys playing with her family, walking/hiking, volunteering, and visiting with friends and elders in her community.
~Musical Beginnings in Appalachian Music~
by Susan Pepper
In 2001, while performing a solo of Hazel Dickens' “Working Girl's Blues” for MUSE: Cincinnati Women's Choir, I found my voice resonated in a special way with folk song and specifically, songs from the Southern Appalachians. I picked up the guitar and as soon as I had learned my first chords from books and Happy Traum videos checked out from the Cincinnati Public Library, I began writing songs and performing at open mics, art openings, small festivals and nursing homes. I became more and more immersed in Appalachian music, dance and culture in Southwestern Ohio. At the Appalachian Festival in Cincinnati, Hazel Dickens was epic in her performance with Ginny Hawker and Elizabeth Jones, and their record Heart of A Singer helped me learn a lot about harmony singing. Jean Ritchie's performances at a couple of area venues and her books introduced me to a whole world of Appalachian ballad singing and storytelling.
In 2003, I traveled six hours down I-75 (often called the Hillbilly highway) to take some music workshops at the Swannanoa Gathering at Warren Wilson College. Six months later, around the age of 27, I moved to Asheville for a variety of reasons. As my Mom tells it, “Susan packed the car one day, and I said, ‘I’m moving to North Carolina.'” Not all of my motivations were well-founded, but my inclination that Western North Carolina had a lot to teach me about Appalachian ballads and culture was correct. In fact, the mountains had a lot to teach me about life, and continue to.
The stories and songs of seventh-generation ballad singer Sheila Kay Adams were an initial draw to the area. I loved her singing and her songs, and I still do. She was one of the “modern-day” ballad singers along with Jean Ritchie, Hazel Dickens and Ginny Hawker who helped make the old songs and culture more accessible to me through their performances and recordings.
I started out living in Asheville but a desire to connect with folks who had grown up with the music in more rural areas drew me to Boone. While looking at Music Therapy Programs on Appalachian State University's website, I stumbled upon the Master of Arts Program in Appalachian Studies. In 2005, I began that program, and the coursework was an impetus for me to go deeper into the work I had already begun. It was, in many ways, a lonely time. I didn't know anybody when I moved to Boone. But, I had the time to listen to recordings, learn ballads, go on walks in the countryside where I was renting an apartment and geek out reading Appalachian Literature for class.
I spent this time in my late 20s visiting and recording older women in Western North Carolina, primarily Hazel Rhymer of Leicester and Arden, Pearl Hicks and Rosa Hicks of Beech Mountain, and Zora Walker of Bryson City. These experiences shaped not only my repertoire but also my perspective on Blue Ridge music traditions and of course, life. I also spent time learning songs at jams and dance halls as well listening to a lot of old recordings.
I apprenticed fretless mountain banjo and folk music from Rick Ward, a traditional musician and singer from Beech Mountain. One of my most cherished experiences was the time I spent at Presnell’s Chapel Primitive Baptist Church on Beech Mountain, where I first went to meet singer Pearl Hicks. The singing led by Elder John Jackson and with the church members was indescribably sweet and beautiful. My appreciation for the music and cultural traditions of Beech Mountain, NC runs deep, and the songs and hymns from that area are some of the one's I most like to sing and teach.