Darby Funeral Home

After reaching an agreement with the county, the agency had fundraisers, got some grants, and received in-kind donations from Cloud Landscaping and Cowart Mulch to get the project going.

“It took everyone to get us where we are, including a Home Depot grant,” Josh offers. “The Boy Scouts have been great. Trent Daniel, an Eagle Scout, helped raise funds and got raised beds built. Apple and pear trees have already been planted in the orchard. Eventually it will have figs, a trellis for muscadines, and probably some blackberries and blueberries, all things that will be easy for people to grow in their own landscape.” Eventually the produce grown will be donated to those in need through MUST Ministries.

Master Gardener applications are available from the UGA Extension Office in Cherokee County. With limited spots, applications in Cherokee are currently being accepted only every other year. A new class will start in 2023. Once accepted into the program, volunteers will be required to attend training as prescribed by the UGA State Master Gardener Program. During the training, participants have the opportunity to learn about every aspect of gardening. After passing the final exam, volunteers become interns in the local program, where they work with a mentor to guide them through their first year. Interns are required to complete fifty hours of service in a variety of approved programs and events. Upon completion of all the requirements, the participant becomes a certified Master Gardener.

For information visit CherokeeMasterGardeners.com or Extension.uga.edu.

Veronica Steffensmeier, a Master Gardener from Canton, leads Plant Clinics that are offered at the Farmers Markets in Canton and Woodstock throughout the spring and summer months. STaTeMenT CT iMP The Cherokee Master Gardeners program influences the lives of more than 260,000 Cherokee residents by providing information about horticultural practices and techniques. as trained representatives of the University of Georgia, Master Gardeners provide the public with the latest research-based information using a variety of programs and projects. Many times Cherokee County residents make their first connection to UGa when they seek out the expertise of a Master Gardener.

remembering A LIFE WELL LIVED...

By Michael Mullet, Ball Ground Resident

Although its upbeat reverberations may be recognized as distinctly American, bluegrass is actually an amalgamation of musical traditions, song styles, and instruments brought to the Americas from Europe and Africa. The joyful interplay of acoustic string instruments—banjo, mandolin, guitar, fiddle, and bass— evolved over generations in the Eastern U.S. region of Appalachia, and the music continues to be celebrated at bluegrass festivals all over the U.S. and right here in Cherokee County.

AS much as Appalachia is recognized as the birthplace of bluegrass music, it also continues to be stigmatized by negative myths and stereotypes of hillbillies, moonshine, and feuding family clans. That’s one reason many people are surprised to learn that Cherokee County, a generally affluent county with a diverse and growing population, is part of Appalachia.

“Not only do you have a lot of people moving into Cherokee County who don’t know that history, but people who grew up here also don’t identify themselves as Appalachian,” says Dr. Mark Roberts, president of Reinhardt University in Waleska and an expert on Appalachian history and culture. “People don’t want to be stigmatized and associated with the Appalachian stereotypes, even though most of the stereotypes are not accurate.”

Look at a map of Appalachia, perhaps on the website of the Appalachian Regional Commission, and you will find that Cherokee County is one of thirty-seven counties in North Georgia considered part of the Appalachian region.

Mark offers one other fact most people don’t know: “Bluegrass music, as it was popularized, was a commercial venture, but because it is an older music form from a region that already has its own mythos, we tend to romanticize it.”

It is true that bluegrass has long and deep roots—roots that extend across the Atlantic and back to the pub songs, traditional dance songs, and ballads of Scotland, Ireland, and England. As immigrants from these regions settled in the U.S., often in the Appalachian region, these old songs embraced local traditions and were passed down through generations of family members, comingled with old-time music.

It became the music that community members played for events such as weddings, dinners, and dances.

“In the early 1920s a man named Ralph Peer, who was a talent scout and record producer, traveled the Appalachian region and began recording many types of music,” says Mark. Ralph Peer pioneered field recording with a series of sessions in Atlanta in 1923. “In 1927 Peer organized another series of recording sessions in Bristol, Virginia, which have become known as the Bristol Sessions or as the Big Bang of Country Music. It was one of the first times the Carter Family was ever recorded.”

Mark continues, “It was during these times that the Carter family patriarch, A. P. Carter, took many of these traditional songs—some of which were really quite long—and worked to shorten them to about three minutes so they could be played on the radio. In my onion, A. P. Carter created country music.” uuu

The sounds of acoustic guitars, fiddles, and banjos radiate across the grounds during this outdoor event.

Members of the band Kings Highway brought traditional bluegrass tunes to the reinhardt campus during the 2021 festival.

a distinguished lineup of professional bluegrass bands is planned for 2022. You don't want to miss these talented acts.

Bring folding chairs or blankets for an afternoon spent on the green listening to terrific music. Food trucks and other vendors will also be there to enjoy.

Reinhardt University Bluegrass Festival

On May 14, 2022 Reinhardt will host its second annual Bluegrass Festival. The event will kick off with a jam session at 10:00 a.m., followed by the schedule of professional performers starting at noon. The festival will feature performances by Mountain Heart, Jakobs Ferry Stragglers, Kings Highway, Dirty Grass Players, and Deeper Shade of Blue. The AF7 Barbeque Food Truck will be serving up delicious lunches and kids can play in the kids’ activity area while parents enjoy the shows. Tickets for this event are $50 for adults, $45 for seniors, and free for children under fifteen. Purchase your tickets at Reinhardt.edu/Falany. What Mark makes clear is that Peer’s uuu recordings were done to make records that could be played on the radio and earn money.

“He believed there was a market for this type of music, and he was right.”

Planning the Hootenanny

Dr. Wayne Glowka, a professor of English and dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at Reinhardt University until his retirement in 2020, knows a great deal about music, and like Mark Roberts, he is a musician himself. He can tell you about the instruments used in bluegrass music. “You’ve got to have a banjo for bluegrass,” he says. “You can go without a fiddle or a mandolin, but you have to have a guitar and a banjo, and if you can afford it, a bass.”

Wayne continues, “Banjos started out as a gourd instrument brought over from Africa. In the 1800s banjos started being used in minstrel shows and in jazz in the 1920s. But those are four-string banjos. In bluegrass it’s always a five-string banjo and either the clawhammer strum or the Scruggs style of finger picking.” Banjo is one of the instruments Wayne plays, along with guitar, mandolin, fiddle, upright bass, and keyboard. He can also tell you the difference between a violin and a fiddle, even though they are the same instrument. “If you’re a classically trained violinist, you’re taught to add vibrato to almost everything you do,” he explains, “but when you play fiddle, you ‘saw’ on it with the bow. If it starts to sound too sweet, you’re doing something wrong.”

One thing Wayne does right is plan what he calls a hootenanny—an informal gathering of musicians who play together for fun, dances, or entertainment. He planned his first hootenanny while he was in graduate school in Delaware and has continued to do so at each college that employed him. “When I got to Georgia College in Milledgeville, the Women’s Club used to plan one, but eventually that club went away as the times changed,” Wayne recalls. “I kept on and played for student orientation in the summer. When I became an acting co-chair of my department, the other co-chair and I decided to put together another hootenanny. We did three of those down there.”