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978-0-89587-180-0
0-89587-180-7
$16.95 paperback
7 1/2" x 8 1/2"
129 pages black-and-white photographs, index
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Wayne Henderson, renowned
luthier and guitar picker, was at the White House accepting a National
Heritage Award when he encountered Bea Hensley, equally noted
blacksmith. They quickly discovered they had much in common. The irony
was that they had lived their lives barely seventy miles apart yet had
to travel to the nation's capital to meet.
The mountainous border area
shared by Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee is rich in old-time
masters like Henderson and Hensley, artisans who follow techniques
passed down over hundreds of years.
The Keepers introduces
a cross-section of such people. Primitive artist Arlee Mains makes
cornhusk dolls, dreamcatchers, and oil paintings that sell faster than
she can produce them. The Spencers perform traditional music and show
their dancing skills somewhere in the mountains every week. Orville
Hicks tells Jack Tales passed down by famous relation Ray Hicks and
generations of the Hicks clan.
In a time when the arts and
crafts of the pioneers are often practiced in imitation, the men and
women in these pages--keepers of the old ways--honor the teachings of
their forebears. This is a glimpse into their lives.
about the author and
photographer
Former newspaperman and bank executive Robert Isbell is the author
of The Last Chivaree, which won the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award
and the Willie Parker Peace History Book Award.
The recipient of numerous
photography awards, Arthur Tilley has worked on assignment for national
and international corporations and advertising agencies for over
twenty-five years.
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