The Stories of “I’ve Endured: Women in Old-Time Music”

Voice Magazine for Women is proud to partner with the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, VA-TN, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, to take you inside the special exhibit “I’ve Endured: Women in Old-Time Music,” on display at the museum through Dec. 31. Each month through the duration of the exhibit we’ll feature impactful stories of the hidden heroines, activists, and commercial success stories of the women who laid the foundation for country music. Inspiring, insightful, and Dolly approved, you may just find a piece of yourselves, or a loved one, in the stories of some of these hidden figures in American music.

By Guest Contributor Charlene Tipton Baker

Ladies: regardless of your personal music preferences or what’s currently in rotation on your Spotify playlist, go see the new special exhibit “I’ve Endured: Women in Old-Time Music” at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum—and bring your mamaws, mommas, sisters, daughters, and BFFs. Whatever preconceived notions you may have of the old-time, or “hillbilly” music in general, they will be challenged when you get to know the players in this exhibit and learn what many of them had to go through just to play.

“I’ve worked for the rich, I’ve lived with the poor / I’ve seen many a heartache, There’ll be many more / I’ve lived luck and sorrow, Been to success and stone / I’ve endured, I’ve endured. / How long can one endure?”

— Ola Belle Reed

The predecessor to bluegrass and country music, old-time has been passed down through generations and laid the foundation for everything that came after. Women’s place in that history was often overshadowed by the accomplishments of their male counterparts, though their contributions were just as significant.

“We’ve been working on ‘Women in Old-Time’ for more than two years,” said Dr. René Rodgers, head curator at the museum. “It’s giving a voice to the past, present, and future…coming together to make a real impact.”

The proverb “A woman’s place is in the home” had its origins as far back as ancient Greece. Though we’ve come a long way in today’s society, that patriarchal ideology remained for centuries. Married women traditionally remained tied to domestic responsibilities and child rearing up until the 1950s.

Women musicians were often discouraged or even forbidden by their husbands to keep their music going at home, or to play in public. Some women were influenced by their church leaders to stay away from dancing and the “devil’s” music that surrounded it.

In many cases women had fewer opportunities than men to make a viable career from their music. Nonetheless, several found ways to work within these challenges — and move beyond them — in order to pass on old-time music, and the related genres of country and bluegrass, as performing musicians or in other roles in music.

Created by a women-led content team at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, “I’ve Endured: Women in Old-Time Music” spotlights commercial success stories and iconic musicians like Mother Maybelle and Sara Carter, Ola Belle Reed, Lily May Ledford, Hazel Dickens, Etta Baker, and Alice Gerrard. It also includes women who have impacted the genre in other ways, such as Audrey Hash Ham, Florence Reece, Helen White, Anne Romaine, and Bernice Johnson Reagon. By showcasing today’s torchbearers and innovators, the exhibit also illuminates the ways that women are carrying the oldtime genre forward and the work still to be done to open it up to other underrepresented communities. Women like Rhiannon Giddens, Martha Spencer, Carla Gover, Suzy Thompson, and

Amythyst Kiah are but a few examples of students of oldtime who are blazing new trails.

Stay tuned! Next month we’ll shine the spotlight on Alice Gerrard and Hazel Dickens, two folk musicians who earned the respect of artists like Bob Dylan, David Grisman, and Peter Siegel. Dickens once said that she “didn’t have to work in a factory to see how badly women were treated. Playing in bluegrass, a male-dominated form of music, was enough.”

Meet the Herbalist: Lori Briscoe

By Allison Chudina

For Appalachian Teas & Botanicals owner Lori Briscoe, life is all about experiencing the richness of the landscape we live in so that we can “get elevated.”

Briscoe grew up in Washington County, Va., just outside of Abingdon, which is where she first became interested in “the connections between plants, people, and place,” as her business tagline states.

“I spent loads of time with my maternal grandparents in Bristol, who raised much of their own food until they were quite old,” Briscoe said. “They were mountain people of a generation gone now. Their influence on me and my cousins was simple, but profound.”

Briscoe’s father is also from a long line of farmers, a tradition he continued until a few years ago. “It is his passion, working with the land and the animals,” Briscoe said. “So, I guess the origin of the tagline began from this legacy. This place, its people, the plants . . . they are in my bones.”

Briscoe says that, from an early age, she was intrigued by other cultures around the world, particularly indigenous peoples who seemed to live fully integrated lives. “Their entire way of life, their belief systems and cultures, aligned with the ecology of place,” Briscoe said.

Briscoe went on to study anthropology, but after “knocking about in the world” in her 20s, she came home to a realization of just how very special the Appalachian region is for the same reasons she sought out others.

“I believe we should all grow up rooted in the richness of the landscape we live in so that we can experience the rest of the world with both wonder and understanding. It is the differences that make life beautiful. And beauty is medicine,”Briscoe said.

Appalachian Teas & Botanicals offers many different experiences aside from just tea, although the tea is a main component. According to Briscoe, ATB teas are, in essence, a “vehicle” — a means to a more layered experience.

“They are a vehicle for a direct connection to the natural world that sustains us, the human culture that arises from place, and the individual and collective well-being that are, in turn, enabled by these fundamental forces,” Briscoe explained. “ATB is a collection of stories, and also its own story. We are rooted in Southern Appalachia, so the continued on next page story begins here, with our farms and farmers, our wilderness and wild plants, our history, and the present and future of this diverse landscape and its people.”

Briscoe says, aside from crafting teas, she works with clients looking for a holistic and herbal approach to wellness. “As a certified herbalist, working one-on-one with clients on their journey to reclaiming health and wellness is incredibly special and rewarding,” she said. “It, too, is a learning journey and is actually a process of telling your story and then rewriting it. It is the journey back to wholeness.”

For those interested in this holistic approach to wellness, Briscoe offers a variety of ways to learn: sharing plant medicine and herb workshops; leading plant walks, which Briscoe calls “Field and Forest Excursions;” and facilitating a group of little “wildlings,” ages 6–10, one day a week in “nature school.”

“We are outside in all weather, all day, observing, exploring, creating, and learning,” Briscoe says of the nature school. “Children live in the present moment, in a state of wonder, and it is pure magic to explore the outdoors with them.”

One of Briscoe’s business (and life) mottos is “Get Elevated,” which she sees as a reference to both the mountains themselves — experiencing the high elevations — and also to the process of constantly growing, healing, evolving, and getting to the “next level.”

Getting elevated also applies to the teas. She says that ATB’s Blue Ridge Breakfast Blend tea is a traditional black tea blend, but also contains Southwest Virginia-grown nettle, an incredibly nutrient-dense plant, and Appalachian forest-farmed ginseng leaf, a powerful adaptogenic plant and the one most synonymous with this region.

“You get a blend truly from the heart of Appalachia and beyond,” Briscoe said. “It’s the black tea you’re familiar with but elevated with the gifts of this landscape to nourish you.”

When asked what Briscoe’s favorite tea blend at ATB is, she said it’s hard for her to choose, because each blend “has its own origin story,” and she’s attached to them all.

“They are all made to some degree of place, from the very soil and from the heart,” Briscoe said. “Tea is nothing more than water infused with plants, but it is also the intention and the ritual that separates the ordinary from the extraordinary.”

For those wanting to start their own local business one day, Briscoe had the following to say: “I generally don’t give advice as a personal rule. Starting a business is a wild ride. It’s like hiking a mountain trail — you climb and climb, legs burning, straining, feeling like you might swallow your lungs, and then you reach a ridge line, get a grand view for a moment, and feel a sense of elation, like it was all worth it. Then you climb some more.”

Briscoe stresses that, if this sort of adventure in entrepreneurship sounds like the right fit for you, then “go for it!”

“But if you need more of a steady paced stroll, keep your day job,” she advised.

Regarding future events people can expect to see from ATB, Briscoe said she plans to lead a few scheduled Field and Forest Excursions at local farms, as well as plant walks in Damascus, for which Briscoe accepts private bookings. She said herbal classes and workshops will be forthcoming, which can be found on ATB’s website, www.appalachianteasandbotanicals.com.

Tea Blends, regional herbs, and other merch are also available on the website, and Briscoe encourages folks to sign up for her monthly newsletter called “Field Notes” to get access to herbal recipes and information, stories, videos, discounts, and other musings delivered to their inbox for free.

“Collaborating with other small businesses is paramount to my mission, so I partner on a variety of events and projects as they come up,” Briscoe added. “I hope to do more writing this year and to create space for more one-on-one clients, because these are vital to my life’s task.”

If you want to try ATB’s tea blends for yourself, they are currently available in the region at Integrated Health Concepts, Bristol, Tenn.; Gypsy Healing Arts, Knoxville, Tenn.; Southern Threads, Damascus, Va.; Hickory Fine Dining, Bristol, Va.; Blue Hills Market, Abingdon, Va.; and Wolf Hills Coffee, Abingdon, Va.

Follow ATB on social media to learn more!

@appalachianteasandbotanicals