Listen | Keeping mountain music alive with JAM

Bobbie Willard: I always ask you know randomly, ‘What is it you like about JAM?’ And honestly, this kid she will never be on the Grand Ole Opry by any means, but she absolutely loves it. She might be a half step flat, but she gives it all she’s got. And I asked her what is it you like about JAM? And she goes, “I get to use all of me.” And I just almost cried. It was just such a beautiful, and buddy she does, when she starts playing or singing she, she puts everything she’s got into it.

My name is Bobbie Willard and I currently am one of the JAM instructors in Avery County, North Carolina. Its population of about 17,000 people. 

I was classically trained, but I just love the mountain music and the whole premise behind JAM is to keep the mountain music alive. That’s my whole goal in teaching these youth, you know, their roots, where they come from.

Caroline Parker: This is Caroline Parker with EducationNC. We cover all the stories happening in our state’s classroom and involving our state’s students. For this story, we traveled down the Blue Ridge Parkway to the first ever JAM Sessions,Traditional Music Education Summit held at the Wild Acres retreat in Little Switzerland North Carolina.  

JAM stands for Junior Appalachian Musicians, and there are currently 21 different JAM chapters in North Carolina – more than any other state. JAM is an after school program that introduces music through small group instruction on traditional Appalachian instruments such as the fiddle, banjo, and guitar. 

For these three days, instructors from 30 different JAM programs gathered to trade best practices, hear about regional resources, learn from experts and of course – play music together. 

Jim Lloyd: We really don’t have a standard of teaching with JAM ‘cause it’s very regional, you know, so each location kind of does their own way of thinking, and we want to preserve the regional styles, but there was also a need to let’s exchange ideas. You know, let me see what they’re doing over there. I might be able to improve my teaching by watching them and, and vice versa. So it’s just a big exchange of ideas.

Caroline Parker: This is Jim Lloyd. He is JAM’s part-time program director and has been strumming on some kind of instrument since he was five years old. 

Jim Lloyd: I didn’t really have a teacher. My whole family played, both my grandfathers were medicine show guys, ‘20s and ‘30s. And the music was always there. But I was forbidden to play, I couldn’t touch it, they wouldn’t let me near it. So my grandmother had an old guitar in the corner of the bedroom. And when I could, I would sneak in there and kind of strum on it. And I would watch ‘ em when they played. And I would go in that room and try to figure out what they were doing, I would try to move my fingers. And I was probably five, something like that. And when they finally caught me, and I could actually kind of do something. So from then on, I was allowed to sit in play, but they never said anything to me about it. It was kind of funny, but you know, you sit and watch people. And some people, you could ask them, you know, how do you do that? And they would show you. Some people didn’t know how to teach. I think it’s, you know, psychologists probably have a good time with me for more than one reason, but I think that made me analyze what was going on better too. And it made me a better teacher, I think, way I learned.

Jim Lloyd: JAM was started about roughly 20 years ago in Allegheny County, North Carolina by a friend of mine named Helen White. And Helen saw a tremendous need, for kids that kind of are in danger or in need of something you know, not all of us are math majors or play chess or stuff like that. So there was also a need to preserve our music and our heritage. So she felt that this could all walk hand in hand. And it certainly did. We’ve now spread from the one chapter, we’ve got 60 chapters in six states now – South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Caroline Parker: At its core, JAM believes children who are actively engaged in traditional mountain music are more connected and better prepared to strengthen their communities for future generations. 

Jim Lloyd: Not only my grandparents, I was playing with my grandmother’s brothers who were much older. They were these guys were born late 1890s, 1900. So a lot of their repertoire got in me from you know, sitting around playing with them. And there was no age gap. You go hang out this you know, here I was, even by the time I was 15, 16, I was hanging out with you know, 80, 90 year olds, and there were there was no age gap in music.

Caroline Parker: Instructors aren’t the only attendees of this first JAM summit, a handful of students, three you can listen to here playing the fiddle, banjo, and guitar, have come up or down the parkway to participate with their chapter. 

Student: Julie asked us to get some songs together to get workshopped on so we are going to look up some songs and then we are going to play it for him, and he is going to tell us how to do better. Scary but fun.

Emily Spencer: My name is Emily Spencer, and I live in Virginia, but I serve Ashe and Allegheny counties, North Carolina. I teach fiddle in Ashe County, and I teach dulcimer clawhammer, banjo, and string band in Allegheny.

Oh, JAM is just a wonderful opportunity for teachers for kids to share their knowledge of music and to keep our traditions alive. It’s vital. We’ve lost a lot of things in these days and we don’t want to lose our you know, our traditions.

Caroline Parker: At first glance, JAM is a program offering instruments at no cost with musical instruction, and a place for students to go after school. But it’s more than that. A by-product of JAM is community and the intergenerational transfer of knowledge. It is ensuring the survival of stories and sounds of a resilient people, who’s history of challenges never got the best of them. Music and storytelling are one-in-the-same and JAM is the handing off of this cultural baton. 

Here is Bobbie Willard again.

Bobbie Willard: Like I said, I’m getting old but I still can be so moved. Like I said, when you see the light bulb go off in a kid, it just is like, it moves you like it did yesterday. You know? It’s just a cool thing. And especially when you know the kid’s backstory and you realize that that don’t matter anymore. The backstory don’t matter. And you get to where you could tell where they are, but you can see where they can go. If they’re given the chance.

Caroline Parker: This was a production of EducationNC. Our organization was established to be an independent source of news – providing data, and analysis about education for the people of North Carolina. You can find all of our coverage at EdNC.org. To find out more about the Junior Appalachian Musicians program visit jamkids.org