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Folk singer brings youthful voice, old ballads to Boone |
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Tuesday, 04 March 2008 |
by ASHLEY BENNERS
Intern Lifestyle Reporter
Members of Appalachian State University and Boone community are invited to the experience a taste of Appalachian heritage with a folk singer who breathes new life into old music.
Elizabeth LaPrelle will perform Thursday in Whitewater Café in Plemmons Student Union. The event is free.
“I’ve never seen her perform live, but I heard her one afternoon WNCW 88.7, a program called ‘This Old Porch,’ and I asked her to send me a CD,” said Patrick D. Heavner, a senior community and regional planning major and chairman of the Appalachian Heritage Council. “I shared it with the council and the council agreed to bring her to campus.”
According
to her Web site, Elizabeth LaPrelle has been performing Appalachian
ballads and old-time songs, as well as winning prizes for singing at
fiddler’s conventions, since she was 11.
She has been featured as a ballad singer at the West Virginia State
Folk Festival in Glenville, W. Va., and the Friends of Old-Time Music
and Dance Fall Fling in Fayetteville, W. Va.
Raised in Rural Retreat, Va., LaPrelle learned from singing with her
family, who taught her various singing styles and encouraged her to
sing her own favorite American folk music, according to her Web site.
“By the time they were recorded, most folks singing the old songs in
the traditional way were very old, and the voices that could reputedly
sing to be heard from ridge to ridge had lost some of their power,”
LaPrelle said on her Web site. “I try to sing ballads the way these
folks and their ancestors might have sung when they were my age. I also
try to sing with the emotion that I feel when I listen to the stories
and poetry in the songs.”
“I’ve heard a lot about Appalachian State second-hand,” LaPrelle said.
“I’ve even visited the campus, though ironically it was Spring Break
and nothing was open! But what I’ve heard, especially about the
Appalachian Studies program and the traditions around Boone, sounded
really cool.”
LaPrelle said she has been meaning to come to Boone to meet people and check out the resources for a long time.
“I corresponded a little bit with CeCe Conway about a research project
I was doing last summer, so really this visit is a great opportunity -
plus a chance to do a concert, which is great.”
The concert itself will feature LaPrelle and her mother, Sandy LaPrelle, performing traditional mountain songs a cappella.
“I do a lot of solo Appalachian ballads, and the two of us love to work
out harmonies to old time and gospel songs to sing together. I’ve been
into ballads from a very young age, so depending on what the audience
is interested in on Thursday, I can answer questions about the songs
and talk a bit about the ballad tradition, or we can just keep singing
‘til we run out of time.”
Though she won’t perform any original music, LaPrelle said she doesn’t rule out writing her own music in the future.
“I’ve never written any songs, and there are so many incredible songs
already written and waiting to be sung that I’ve never felt pressed
to,” she said.
LaPrelle didn’t think she would be able to pick one favorite folk song because she has about a hundred favorites.
“You could say the same thing about musicians that I admire, but here’s
a few that really impacted my singing in a big way: my mom, Sandy
LaPrelle, Jean Ritchie, Doc Watson, Joan Baez, Betsy Rutherford, Sheila
Kay Adams, Ginny Hawker, Odetta, Dillard Chandler, Texas Gladden, and
Roscoe Holcomb,” she said.
LaPrelle is currently a student at the College of William and Mary.
“In the future I’d really like to keep performing, though it’s not the most dependable career,” LaPrelle said.
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