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Lee Sexton grins at the audience after he finishes playing a tune. Sexton’s right hand was maimed by large piece of coal when he was young, leaving the middle finger inoperable. So, he developed a unique style of playing the banjo. (Jennifer Brummet

Centre students, faculty and staff listened to banjoist Lee Sexton, right, as he interspersed storytelling with performing. (Jennifer Brummett photo)

Tuesday January 23, 2007

Renowned musician Lee Sexton plays for Centre class

By JENNIFER BRUMMETT
jenb@amnews.com

Lee Sexton's fingers caress the strings of his banjo on the sweeter tunes he plays. On faster songs, they fly nimbly as he performs traditional old-time banjo music for a rapt audience.

Clad in overalls, a navy shirt and boots, 79-year-old Sexton focuses on his playing as he performs. Tunes such as "Linefork," "John Henry" and "Battle of New Orleans" are played for the assemblage.

At the end of a number, he looks up, grinning, eyes twinkling merrily, and relates a page from his life. Sometimes it is a tragic moment, such as giving up playing for a while after his son died, but more often it is a humorous anecdote he tells the assembled Centre students, faculty and staff.

Letcher Countian Sexton is the guest of Nathan Link's folk music of Kentucky class. Link says the class, comprised of freshmen, is introducing the students to the rich musical culture of Kentucky. He is pleased Centre is supporting courses such as this one while it is in the midst of a campaign to expand awareness of cultures around the globe. Instrument and Lab Technician Gary Crase, a former neighbor of Sexton, was helpful in getting Sexton lined up for the class.

Other performers included Carla Gover of Zoe Speaks; Link's father, Jack, a fiddler, who flew in from Seattle; Centre alumnus John Harrod, another fiddler; and Associate Professor of Chemistry Conrad Shiba, a musician in his own right who plays guitar, banjo, hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer and autoharp.

"He's been very enthusiastic," Link says of Shiba. "He's been a great resource about the banjo and dulcimer."

He adds his stepdad also is a fiddler and his mom plays upright bass. "I grew up hearing this."

Half the Kentucky music traditions class is from the commonwealth; the other eight are from out-of-state. "They are not aware of the old-time music tradition," Link says.

Studied bluegrass for a time

Old-time music is the focus of the second week of the winter-term class. Fiddle, banjo and string bands are features of old-time music. In its tradition, there a synthesis of the British Isles on one hand, with the fiddling, Link explains, and African-American music, with the banjo, an African instrument originally.

"The first documented banjo player in Kentucky was black," he notes, adding that musician was in Louisville.

Many of them are new to ballad singing, too, which was studied the first week of the three-week term. Its roots are in the British Isles, and ballad singing has been better-preserved in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia than in the British Isles.

Bluegrass music was studied the third week of the term. Bluegrass, which draws alot on Appalachian music, Link says, comes more from the central part of Kentucky, while Appalachian music comes from the mountains.

Student Holly Overcash says there is "a lot of in-depth analysis of songs and what they mean to us and what other people thought they meant back then" in the class. She adds she's learned how folk music is the basis for country music as well as bluegrass.

Molly Jernigan says she doesn't have any folk music experience, but as a viola player since fourth grade, she's been around strings a long time. "Where I'm from Tennessee, outside of Knoxville, there's kind of a strong influence of folk music there," Jernigan explains. "There's a little place called the Museum of Appalachia, and a lot of people have wedding reception there and you can rent it out, I guess. But you can go and listen to people play folk music stuff."

Cincinnatian Annie Guju opted into the class because she thought it would be interesting. She doesn't have a music background, doesn't play any instruments, "and I just wanted to kinda find out about folk music and the folk music tradition."

Mary Brieschke of Michigan, on the other hand, has an extensive background in music. She plays the piano and guitar, and took violin lessons.

"I wanted to learn the culture of Kentucky," Brieschke explains. "Music is a good place to start."

Sexton, though, lives 40 or 50 feet from the place where he grew up, according to Link. The nearest city is Cornettsville.

Famous in his circle

Sexton is kind of famous in his circles, Link says - he's featured in history books and has been on a number of "Kentucky Mountain Music" compilation recordings. Sexton also is emblematic of Appalachian people for his perseverance, he notes.

Sexton reinforces this as he performs. He developed a unique banjo-playing technique out of necessity: When he was fairly young, a block of coal fell on his right hand, rendering the middle finger inoperable. And a few years ago, he was bitten by a raccoon, which further damaged his hand.

Sexton has black lung from 34 years as a coal miner. He tells his audience he can't do a lot of singing because of it. He doesn't hear as well as he used to, and statements often must be repeated to him. But he points out to the class what he can hear: "I can hear this banjo."

Link says he wants the students to leave the class wanting with folk music as part of their lives, whether through attending folk life festivals or folk musician performances or performing themselves. "I have two students who want to take up the fiddle," Link notes. "I'm helping them find teachers."

Another goal of the class is to increase respect for Appalachian people, who are portrayed as stupid often. "People from that region are strong, good-natured, wise and resilient," he adds.