‘Culture of Honor: The Appalachian Murder Ballad’ is a discourse about violence and the ‘culture of honor’ in the American South. The traditional folksong of the Appalachians is close to my heart. I inherited an enthusiasm for such music from my father, and my descendants hailed from the Scottish Borders. With its Celtic origins, Appalachian music has provided my connection to the Southern landscape since my arrival here in 1988.
‘One is occasionally tempted to abandon the role of historian and to frame what social scientists call a theory. Whenever a culture exists for many generations in chronic insecurity, it develops an ethic that exalts war above work, force above reason, and men above women. This pattern developed on the borders of North Britain, and was carried to the American backcountry, where it was reinforced by a hostile environment and tempered by evangelical Christianity. The result was a distinctive system of gender roles that continues to flourish even in our own times.’
From ‘Albion’s Seed’ by David Hackett Fischer
The songs of this region have given me an old, familiar narrative and a human history that connects to my own background. Some artists are happy to record every alien vista and strange culture travel can provide, but I have found this old tie important in placing me in this new land. For many years I painted scenes; landscapes and urban views, old buildings and interiors, with not a figure in sight. Despite this, they were often described as being haunted by a human presence, and as places that somehow told a story. In these new works the figure has entered the scene.
The stories in these ballads are old, but one only has to pick up a newspaper to see they remain fully contemporary. Lovers still fall prey to despair and suicide, or end up in the crime report. These are paintings are set very much in the present, but nothing taking place in them is new.
A slideshow with music is available on youtube at:
