Although she is not a musician, Louise Price grew up listening to the music of Charlie Poole. “My father loved Charlie Poole’s music,” she says. A native of Spray, North Carolina, Charlie Poole was an old-time banjo player who was the leader of the North Carolina Ramblers, a string band that recorded popular hillbilly songs between 1925 and 1930. Considered a pioneer of bluegrass, country, and folk music, Poole has a strong legacy in the Piedmont region of North Carolina and beyond.
Louise is the president of Piedmont Folk Legacies, a non-profit organization whose mission, according to its website, “is to promote and preserve the musical and cultural legacy of the Piedmont region and to celebrate its influence on the development of American vernacular music, as exemplified by Charlie Poole.” Louise and Marianne Aiken founded the Charlie Poole Music Festival in 1996.
She may have majored in art in college, but through her encounters with people in traditional music, like Wayne Henderson and the late Helen White (founder of Junior Appalachian Musicians—), Louise began to realize the importance of passing down the unique music history of her region to children growing up in the area.
The idea really hit home with Louise when a contest component was added to the Charlie Poole Music Festival. “The first ten years of the festival, it was music only. In the 11th year, we added the contest, and that brought kids to the festival. “It was really impactful.”
Based loosely on that idea and the already-successful JAM program, Louise founded the Piedmont Instrument Classes for Kids, known locally as P.I.C.K., in 2019. The after-school program provides lessons in stringed instruments, including banjo, fiddle, and guitar, for students in grades three through five. The non-profit organization is made possible by a community effort to empower students by teaching them the region’s musical heritage and playing the instruments that helped to form a music culture that still thrives today. Supporters include the Rockingham County Education Foundation, Rockingham County Arts Council, Reidsville Area Foundation, and private companies in the area.
“I donate 100 percent of my time, as do the community supporters and parents who work so hard each week to make sure their children have access to this terrific program,” says Louise. “All of the instruments are donated, and we provide instruments to put into the hands of kids from families who may not be able to afford them. We even have autistic kids in the program, and it is exciting to see how well they are doing. It’s the power of music in action.”
Now in its sixth year, the program has had a few bumps in the road, which has changed the program's course a bit. “We started the program in one elementary school as an after-school program,” says Louise. “When Covid hit, we had to back up a truck to the school and load up all the instruments.” Arrangements were made to get instruments in the hands of students and to provide instruction via Zoom for an entire year. “We survived that,” laughs Louise. “And it led us to improve the program.”
The Zoom experience helped instructors realize that when teaching a class of 25 kids and one kid is playing, the other 24 get bored quickly. “We went to individual lessons, and that solved the problem. Zoom also provided us with a broader reach.”
When it was time to get back to doing live lessons, Louise’s church offered space every Monday and Tuesday from 3:30 to 8 pm. “We have kids taking 30-minute lessons in banjo, fiddle, and guitar.” That’s 27 kids every evening, two days a week.
The program has many talented local musicians who work with the students, including Bob Kogut (who we reported on in our September issue). He is passionate about young musicians and does adjustments and set-ups for the program.
The legendary Charlie Poole influenced musicians like John Mellencamp, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan and jam bands such as Hot Tuna and The Grateful Dead. Louise hopes that Poole’s legend lives on in the students participating in the P.I.C.K. program well into the future. “We want to keep his legacy alive through their music and storytelling.”
Using traditional music to positively impact the lives of the children of Rockingham County has been Louise's biggest motivation, and she says she believes she is seeing musicians being born.
“It’s a joy for me. We had 46 kids in the program last year and are continuing to grow. We do all we can to enhance our students' learning experience and continue our rich cultural traditions for generations to come.”
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