GUEST: JOE SAM QUEEN
In this episode of Gateway to the Smokies Podcast featuring Joe Sam Queen, he discusses the cultural and historical side of his career and other aspects of his life that folks might not be aware of. You will learn from him about the responsibility of preserving our past to make room for our future.
Joe Sam Queen is a renowned Architect, Historian, Dancer, Dance caller, and Politician – having served in both N.C. Senate and the N.C. House of Representatives –and is on the Traditional Artists Roster of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Association.
He has been director of the Smoky Mountain Folk Festival for over 30 years and has served on the Board of Directors for Folkmoot and the Shelton House, as well as playing an active role as an officer in the local Sons of the American Revolution chapter along with many other regional charities, clubs, and historical groups.
Joe Sam's experiences growing up in Western North Carolina epitomize the cultural expression and deep-rooted tradition of the Smoky Mountains. Relive the past and learn about the future.
Don't miss this incredible conversation with a great man!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-sam-queen-7b66a376/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joesam.queen
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joesamqueennc/?hl=en
Tune in for this fun conversation at TalkRadio.nyc or watch the Facebook Livestream by Clicking Here.
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SHOW NOTES
SEGMENT 1
Joseph talks about some upcoming events in Maggie Valley. On April 19th through May 1st there is a motorcycle rally called the Thunder in the Smokies. A new event will happen called Boho Hippie Fest with live music, vendors, bounce houses, food trucks, and more. At the Meadowlark Motel, there will be an event called Mom’s Moving Mountains and Mother Nature’s Natural Garden. There will also be an event featuring a wildcraft expert. Joseph also introduces his guest for today’s show, Joe Sam Queen. Joe Sam is a renowned Architect, Historian, Dancer, Dance caller, and Politician. Joe Sam talks about where his name comes from and his passion for dance and following in his grandfather’s footsteps in continuing the legacy and culture that is popular in the Great Smoky Mountains.
SEGMENT 2
Joseph talks with Joe Sam about his family being some of the earliest settlers in Haywood County. His family settled close to Dellwood in Maggie Valley. He talks about his grandfather who put together a square dance team around a time when radio was emerging. Joe Sam also discusses the meaning of the different kinds of folk dance. Clogging, he says, comes from Scott-Irish-German ancestors. Flat footing, he says is a kind of dance that everyone does a little differently, and you can be very creative with it. Buck Dancing is an African American term. They discuss a little about the history of these dances and music. His grandfather created the group called the Soco Gap Cloggers. Joe Sam says that President Roosevelt made his grandfather famous and was beloved in the mountains. He tells a story of how Roosevelt invited the king and queen of England to the White House. Roosevelt changed the traditions and instead brought a square dance team to perform, which was Joe Sam’s grandfather’s dance group.
SEGMENT 3
Joe Sam talks about sociability being the whole point of the Appalachian dance. He describes it as joining hands together, socializing and hospitality. Joseph makes a point that it can teach young people about manners, society, and of course, culture. Joe Sam mentions more different dances and music that tell a story about life and society. He also talks about what is in a square dance band. He says that square dance is very sociable and includes the banjo, bass, fiddle, and guitar. Joe Sam talks about being a dance caller as well. You're instructing, watching a certain dance, and calling it on the beat. There are also times when the caller may be dancing themselves. Joseph describes it as a man who is a dynamic composer.
SEGMENT 4
Joe Sam talks about square dancing and fiddling in today’s day in age. He says that he doesn't think square dance is dying out which is one of the reasons why he does the Smoky Mountain Folk Festival. He is also involved in Folkmoot, something else that he is trying to be involved in this coming summer. Joe Sam passionately talks about the positivity of these kinds of events as well as the beauty of nature in North Carolina. He also mentions being a part of building the HART theater in Haywood County as well as a charitable foundation that he has with his wife called The Queen Family Foundation. They support things like Sons of the American Revolution and the Arts Council in Haywood County. From the traditions of mountain music and the stories behind them to the general passion for North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains, Joseph thanks Joe Sam Queen for joining him for today’s episode!
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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:19.980 –> 00:00:22.140 Joseph McElroy: Howdy! Welcome to the gateway to the.
00:00:22.140 –> 00:00:31.860 Joseph McElroy: smokies podcast this podcast is about America’s most visited National Park, the great smoky mountains National Park in the surrounding towns.
00:00:32.640 –> 00:00:41.400 Joseph McElroy: This area is filled with ancient natural beauty a deep storied history and rich mountain cultures that we explore with the weekly episode.
00:00:42.060 –> 00:00:54.690 Joseph McElroy: I am Joseph Franklyn McElroy amount of the world, but also deep roots in these mountains my family is living the great smokies for over 200 years my businesses and travel, but my heart is a culture.
00:00:55.410 –> 00:01:05.040 Joseph McElroy: Today we’re going to be talking about preserving and perpetuating our culture and the great smoky mountains, but first a sponsor message or two, and the first sponsor is me.
00:01:06.120 –> 00:01:17.670 Joseph McElroy: Imagine a place evocative of motor courts of the past, you had a modern environment with chic Appalachian and feel a place for adventure and for relaxation.
00:01:18.330 –> 00:01:27.540 Joseph McElroy: Imagine a place where you can fish in a mountain heritage trout stream grill a catch on fire and eat accompanied by fine wine or craft beer.
00:01:28.410 –> 00:01:41.460 Joseph McElroy: Imagine a place with old-time music and world cultural sale, there is no other place like the metal art motel and Maggie valley North Carolina your smoky mountain adventure starts with where you stay.
00:01:43.020 –> 00:01:49.020 Joseph McElroy: and other sponsors smokies adventure.com at smokies plural adventure singular calm.
00:01:49.440 –> 00:02:02.010 Joseph McElroy: The smoky mountains and the surrounding area is a vacation destination for all seasons, some of the nation’s best hiking trails waterfalls outdoor adventures, and family entertainment be found, right here.
00:02:02.790 –> 00:02:13.890 Joseph McElroy: start your adventure by using smokies adventure calm to explore all the wonderful features of the great smoky mountain National Park trails and waterfalls kids code and more.
00:02:14.520 –> 00:02:19.710 Joseph McElroy: than you know right now check out the spring flowers that are coming in and crazy beauty.
00:02:20.280 –> 00:02:36.240 Joseph McElroy: And then check out all the awesome family attractions, entertainment and things you can do in the surrounding area with you and your family The goal is smokies adventures to become the leading information portal for adventure and ventures experiences and the great smoky mountain.
00:02:38.100 –> 00:02:44.970 Joseph McElroy: So, as you know, we’d like to publicize some events are coming up and Maggie valley happens to have a lot of festivals coming up.
00:02:46.530 –> 00:02:51.270 Joseph McElroy: April 19 through May 1 we have thunder and the smoky spring motorcycle rally.
00:02:51.810 –> 00:03:03.090 Joseph McElroy: You know the rides in the mountains of the Smokies are some of the best in the world we’re doing motorcycle rides or you know bicycle rides or any kind so a lot of people come here to celebrate.
00:03:03.900 –> 00:03:13.380 Joseph McElroy: Their passions and the thunder and the smokies is one of the oldest our rallies and Maggie valley and even the surrounding areas and it happens on.
00:03:14.070 –> 00:03:23.700 Joseph McElroy: Friday Saturday and Sunday and it has tour rides lots of vendors selling crafts includes and as bike shows and games and prizes and concerts.
00:03:24.060 –> 00:03:37.140 Joseph McElroy: Fire dancers and you know people jumping up and down and having a good time so come out and check out thunder in the smokies calm or call 828-246-2101 to find out more about it.
00:03:38.580 –> 00:03:47.430 Joseph McElroy: Now, this is a new event no not even sure what it’s about but it sounds interesting then on May 7 or have something called boho hippie fest.
00:03:48.270 –> 00:03:56.970 Joseph McElroy: Now I’m a man what I’m imagining is people and tie dye dancing and things like that, but they say it’s gonna be live music performance arts.
00:03:57.330 –> 00:04:10.530 Joseph McElroy: demonstration vendors bounce houses games food trucks so for more information call contact hothead events, a 28246 1978, which is a really good year.
00:04:11.340 –> 00:04:31.410 Joseph McElroy: or email hothead events@gmail.com and then another traditional one here in the mountains, is the kk O icons of hot rodding festival and that’s a May 13 and 14th, and this is 1950s and 1960s hot rods and custom cars trucks and vans.
00:04:32.550 –> 00:04:45.300 Joseph McElroy: with lots of 50s and 60s music vintage venter’s pinstripes food and vendors and every judging with awards and trophies reach out to H to custom camp of america.com.
00:04:46.530 –> 00:04:49.890 Joseph McElroy: With case, in place of the seas accepted America.
00:04:51.690 –> 00:05:01.470 Joseph McElroy: And then we have our own event the middle are coming out and that’s a mom is moving mountains and mother nature’s natural garden program with Nancy Eastern Iowa had her.
00:05:01.890 –> 00:05:11.880 Joseph McElroy: Some of you might remember Nancy East did a wilderness survival course here a few weeks back that was well attended and very popular she showed us how to survive.
00:05:12.300 –> 00:05:15.900 Joseph McElroy: The 10 things that you needed to go out in the wilderness how to build a fire how to build.
00:05:16.290 –> 00:05:27.030 Joseph McElroy: A camp, how do you know, save yourself would be broke your leg and stuck in the bottom of it somewhere and she’s just really knowledgeable she’s on the.
00:05:27.900 –> 00:05:34.590 Joseph McElroy: The rescue team here the search and rescue team here in a wood county and the smoky mountains and she goes on lots of.
00:05:36.930 –> 00:05:44.820 Joseph McElroy: search and rescue missions every season so she’s going to do on Friday night a whole presentation with pictures and everything of some of the more.
00:05:46.230 –> 00:05:53.130 Joseph McElroy: compelling stories that she has from those search and rescues and then on Saturday, May 7.
00:05:54.120 –> 00:06:03.570 Joseph McElroy: there’s a legendary wildcrafting expert here and she’s a renowned author filmmaker instructor and tour guide for the great smoky mountains National Park.
00:06:04.080 –> 00:06:13.290 Joseph McElroy: DSM field school is I had her and she’s an expert on edible plants medicinal herbs anything pertaining to wildcraft forward to.
00:06:13.800 –> 00:06:20.100 Joseph McElroy: Appalachian plants trees and flowers and she’s been on TV shows videos books.
00:06:21.090 –> 00:06:30.330 Joseph McElroy: And and she’s just really well known, on the subject and so she is going to present a program and tell mother nature’s natural garden.
00:06:30.720 –> 00:06:40.320 Joseph McElroy: And leading actually a tour of the grounds and area around here to find out what is the nature’s bounty that you can eat right in our own backyards.
00:06:40.830 –> 00:06:49.800 Joseph McElroy: And then we’ll have that and I will culminate with a free Barbecue supper maybe a few of the dishes from what we find in the music by Mike Ogletree.
00:06:50.250 –> 00:06:54.810 Joseph McElroy: And some of his friends on Saturday, you can reach out to the metal log motel.
00:06:55.500 –> 00:07:07.470 Joseph McElroy: at eight to 89261717 to reserve rooms day or if you’re just a local monochrome its $20 per person, and you can reach out to reserve your space, but call me to 89261717.
00:07:07.800 –> 00:07:14.970 Joseph McElroy: And then, a mother’s day we’re going to have a cake and cookies and cake and champagne in the lounge along with our traditional breakfast.
00:07:15.750 –> 00:07:22.530 Joseph McElroy: So today we have a great yes he’s a legend in these mountain Parts I think the whole state, maybe even the name.
00:07:23.250 –> 00:07:30.990 Joseph McElroy: His name is Joe Sam Queen and he has deep family roots in Haywood county dating back to the revolutionary war born in Waynesville.
00:07:31.920 –> 00:07:40.020 Joseph McElroy: And he’s a graduate of nc state and architecture and he’s a renowned architect historian dancer collar and politician.
00:07:40.500 –> 00:07:50.070 Joseph McElroy: having served in both the nc state Senate and the nc House of Representatives and he’s on the traditional artist’s rosters of the blue Ridge and national heritage.
00:07:50.820 –> 00:08:00.030 Joseph McElroy: heritage association has been the director of the folk’s smoky mountain folk festival for over 50 years and has served on the board of directors, for the folk.
00:08:01.650 –> 00:08:08.910 Joseph McElroy: folk route and the Shell, the House as well wills played an active role as an officer in the local songs of the American Revolution chapter.
00:08:10.560 –> 00:08:27.630 Joseph McElroy: When he isn’t working in this business or these other organizations he enjoys calling dances dancing spending time as a family, working with his wife herself or an accomplished woman Dr. K queen on their own terrible foundation, how you doing Sam Joe Joe Sam.
00:08:29.130 –> 00:08:31.020 Joe Sam Queen: Sam queen a little dough rain me.
00:08:31.140 –> 00:08:31.980 Joseph McElroy: yeah there you.
00:08:32.340 –> 00:08:41.940 Joe Sam Queen: I’m doing great it’s great to be on your show it’s great to promote all the good heritage and culture of Western North Carolina We really are.
00:08:43.110 –> 00:08:44.130 Joe Sam Queen: A hotspot.
00:08:45.180 –> 00:08:48.030 Joe Sam Queen: Welcoming the world so come and see us cool.
00:08:48.420 –> 00:08:52.290 Joseph McElroy: Well we’re so glad to have you to tell me, you know how did you get the name, Joe Sam.
00:08:53.460 –> 00:08:54.600 Joseph McElroy: that’s an interesting name.
00:08:54.900 –> 00:08:58.260 Joe Sam Queen: Well, just my grandfather was Sam Sam.
00:08:58.980 –> 00:09:11.310 Joe Sam Queen: A great name, my father was saying, love doing your he didn’t like being a junior and his best GI but he was demon marine my father is his best buddy was.
00:09:12.990 –> 00:09:32.460 Joe Sam Queen: Terry jump Johnson Cherokee friend over cross so go gap and so I’m named after his best buddy Terry Joe Johnson, and it just call me Joe and my and Sarah went down to the Clerk of the Court and said that’s not enough name for a boy, we got to add a Sam in there.
00:09:32.850 –> 00:09:45.510 Joe Sam Queen: So they gave me a little del Rey me Joe Sam Queen and the homeland as an architect, I think a Frank Lloyd Wright and it just a great name, so I can.
00:09:45.750 –> 00:09:49.470 Joseph McElroy: read it does have a rhythm to it it’s like it’s a song when you.
00:09:49.470 –> 00:09:50.250 Joe Sam Queen: Say his.
00:09:50.400 –> 00:09:52.050 Joe Sam Queen: Name you’re young and with a little poem.
00:09:52.080 –> 00:10:04.230 Joseph McElroy: that’s a good beer, so you know we we we have a lot of common and having a deep heritage and Haywood county and we both you know the different ways, I mean I think you’re more accomplished at it, but in.
00:10:05.520 –> 00:10:24.540 Joseph McElroy: sharing a passion for preserving and perpetuating our culture, but making people aware of the cultural history by encouraging them to create our own smoky mountain experiences and you have you do a lot of educating folks in the area right yeah well.
00:10:24.570 –> 00:10:36.090 Joe Sam Queen: You know my passion is that our region dance with you it’s often referred to as the big brown but it’s a southern Appalachian square dance.
00:10:36.750 –> 00:10:51.540 Joe Sam Queen: it’s an American dance it’s a melting pot bands, it has Scotch Irish it has Cherokee it has African American roots, but it’s an American dance and its hotspot is right here, and they would camp.
00:10:52.230 –> 00:11:03.930 Joe Sam Queen: Oh, and I follow a sword in my grandfather’s footsteps because he made famous a Maggie valley square dance team, called the soco gap cloggers which.
00:11:05.010 –> 00:11:11.700 Joe Sam Queen: You know he was part of the cultural revival that radio started.
00:11:12.960 –> 00:11:24.690 Joe Sam Queen: With the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers and the early roots of country music and the radio and dancing you didn’t have.
00:11:25.710 –> 00:11:36.240 Joe Sam Queen: Music unless you had dance that the musicians follow the dancers, that it was a social event and the dance was so important, and this is a.
00:11:37.200 –> 00:11:51.840 Joe Sam Queen: Social dances we call it on the streets of Wayne’s when we come out it’s our institution of hospitality, that the let’s all join hands and one big circle that’s our motto up here in Western North Carolina.
00:11:52.380 –> 00:12:01.920 Joseph McElroy: Well, I think it’s great and it’s interesting talking about radio introducing that I was reading I think it was in today’s papers how back in 1870 some people came up from.
00:12:02.550 –> 00:12:11.520 Joseph McElroy: You know from the North and wrote deep stories and about the mountains and one of them was Waynesville really painted us as a violent.
00:12:11.850 –> 00:12:20.370 Joseph McElroy: painter crowd, and so it took a while, for it to penetrate back into the the the whole United States and hey maybe there’s more going on here.
00:12:20.790 –> 00:12:29.790 Joseph McElroy: You know the great smoky mountains, opening up and you know the great things coming out and then people find it out there’s wonderful this dance and everything else.
00:12:30.390 –> 00:12:37.170 Joseph McElroy: When we come back you have a story about Roosevelt and your grandfather that I think people will be interesting to hear about.
00:14:54.180 –> 00:15:14.490 Joseph McElroy: howdy this is Joseph Franklin McElroy back with my guest Joe Sam queen on the gateway to the smokies podcast so Joe Sam you know talking about you know history your family, the Queen family, but some of the early settlers here in our regions right we.
00:15:14.550 –> 00:15:30.420 Joe Sam Queen: We followed referred I’ve been known representative for the Cherokee and Haywood county so I don’t call myself a native there the natives but we wrote in 1776 and we haven’t left.
00:15:31.230 –> 00:15:38.130 Joseph McElroy: 1776 and they haven’t left wow so I knew where did they first settling the account.
00:15:38.880 –> 00:15:49.590 Joe Sam Queen: Well, they settled in what they call raccoon co out by that well known as the test farm area that was my first settling family yeah.
00:15:49.890 –> 00:16:03.120 Joe Sam Queen: They settled down and finds creek and then crabtree and finally got to do, and which is head and Maggie Valley, as you know, and so we’re known as deal with Queens in the last couple of generations.
00:16:03.600 –> 00:16:10.410 Joseph McElroy: yeah queen family sort of became famous for dancing and really popularized the whole thing.
00:16:10.620 –> 00:16:15.990 Joe Sam Queen: yeah my grandfather was the great leader there I sort of fell I hit him, and he was the.
00:16:16.080 –> 00:16:17.040 Joe Sam Queen: He was the legend.
00:16:17.460 –> 00:16:19.590 Joe Sam Queen: But he was born in 1888 and.
00:16:20.280 –> 00:16:27.690 Joe Sam Queen: grew up in a time when square dancing was really the most important social institution of the Community.
00:16:28.440 –> 00:16:42.210 Joe Sam Queen: that’s how people gather together that’s how they courted that’s how they educated their children, at the square dance moves are a pre-literate institution to train the young people.
00:16:42.540 –> 00:16:52.200 Joe Sam Queen: How to import how to have manners how to join the Community has how to how to be a man and a woman in the Community and.
00:16:52.980 –> 00:17:00.150 Joe Sam Queen: And of course, it was all about the fiddle and then banjo and the music that went with it and the good times and.
00:17:01.050 –> 00:17:15.240 Joe Sam Queen: And in the early days, you know there were no big square dance halls that the big fan square dance halls followed the railroad they didn’t get here to you know at the 1910s or something get up over the mountain if they were late.
00:17:15.660 –> 00:17:28.320 Joe Sam Queen: So they developed some hotels and have big fan rooms, that you can have a big square dancing but prior to that you, you answer a little on your porch in front of your fireplace is to the fiddled in the banjo and.
00:17:29.370 –> 00:17:38.820 Joe Sam Queen: and learn the clock and do the little step but, but my grandfather came along, you know, in the 20s and 30s like I said, with the radio and.
00:17:39.210 –> 00:17:52.890 Joe Sam Queen: In the advent of these fun hotels and they develop the dance ethic, and he put together a square dance team, and they can all dance and they all but dance together in a.
00:17:52.920 –> 00:18:07.050 Joe Sam Queen: district-wide open to the music, he said he never gave a lesson you got went with him took me around advance some just pay attention you dance with your partner in the circle and the music that’s all you need to know.
00:18:08.070 –> 00:18:08.550 Joe Sam Queen: Well, let me.
00:18:08.610 –> 00:18:19.650 Joseph McElroy: Let me just clarify some things you know, because you know I know what it means, but a lot of people don’t you have clogging book dancing square dancing flat-footing now what are all those.
00:18:19.740 –> 00:18:20.760 Joe Sam Queen: Well they’re all.
00:18:21.810 –> 00:18:22.650 Joe Sam Queen: Community of.
00:18:23.940 –> 00:18:33.510 Joe Sam Queen: Terms clogging comes from the sort of our Scotch Irish German ancestors, and again they had would choose and they call.
00:18:34.680 –> 00:18:44.220 Joe Sam Queen: A bit you know they danced but their shoes weren’t good leather shoes and they’re there and they were on a small porch or a little cobblestone street.
00:18:44.700 –> 00:18:48.690 Joe Sam Queen: Now we didn’t have any streets out in western North Carolina we were yard dancers.
00:18:49.230 –> 00:19:00.840 Joe Sam Queen: Yet a fine sheared sheep cheered pastor the dancing before we had wood floors so we had a big dance and we took from the Cherokee the big circle.
00:19:01.350 –> 00:19:11.250 Joe Sam Queen: The big circle is a Cherokee contribution and there are plenty of moves like that the big black snake, which we call when the clock, a lot of time, but.
00:19:11.610 –> 00:19:20.760 Joe Sam Queen: They call up the Cherokee friendship dance but it’s the same thing we integrated into the American square dance the Appalachian square dance and.
00:19:22.050 –> 00:19:41.370 Joe Sam Queen: But then there’s flat-footing, which is a little softer version, a little more musical jazzy version of flat-footing it’s quite creative everybody does it a little differently, you as a flat footer you develop your style you develop your few little steps you’re a little lip, as they say.
00:19:41.790 –> 00:19:42.180 and
00:19:44.160 –> 00:20:00.660 Joe Sam Queen: And and and if you’re in a circle nobody’s the some of the modern teams all dance precision, but that’s very contemporary that traditional teams every dancer dance to the music his own way, have, as he heard it in.
00:20:01.590 –> 00:20:03.030 Joseph McElroy: A book dancing was.
00:20:03.690 –> 00:20:11.610 Joe Sam Queen: dancing is another term again it’s an African American term the African American was the buck, where the buck wouldn’t allow in.
00:20:12.630 –> 00:20:22.020 Joe Sam Queen: You know before integration to enter the circle, but they were often the musicians and they were often great dancers, so they danced.
00:20:22.440 –> 00:20:30.930 Joe Sam Queen: And even on Main Street, they would you go to them when I was a little boy we go to Wayne’s world to get a haircut and in the barbershop then be a.
00:20:31.350 –> 00:20:47.850 Joe Sam Queen: lad China and choose with can slap the rhythm with his rag on the shoe or he can play the harmonica and my grandfather gets up and dance and in the African American to shatter get up and try it out dancing and they would that’s what to call but dancing.
00:20:48.420 –> 00:20:48.870 Joe Sam Queen: So I.
00:20:49.200 –> 00:21:01.230 Joseph McElroy: used to I used to tell people, you know that you know, in the mountains, yeah you know you know you don’t America lot of times ago there was a reputation that white men don’t dance right or old good.
00:21:02.040 –> 00:21:07.680 Joseph McElroy: we’ll get up and dance by themselves, I said hey listen, I was born and raised bantam by myself doing some God book this.
00:21:09.270 –> 00:21:16.710 Joe Sam Queen: Money comes from there, the African American tradition because they often my grandfather was taught how to call by.
00:21:17.190 –> 00:21:21.090 Joe Sam Queen: An African American fiddler and blacksmith when he would just a little more.
00:21:21.600 –> 00:21:33.600 Joe Sam Queen: He never got to join the circle, but he was a fiddler so is often the musician on the side of the dance, and so we knew the dance he knew the call so he gave my grandfather some lessons.
00:21:34.170 –> 00:21:47.970 Joe Sam Queen: And my grandmother, my grandfather’s mother, my great grandmother his mother taught him to do the flat-footed and to follow the step in the barn off because that is the only wooden floor the head is much counter dancing.
00:21:49.410 –> 00:21:51.030 Joe Sam Queen: And we had dances in the barn law.
00:21:52.290 –> 00:21:54.300 Joe Sam Queen: Today in tobacco we’d have a dance.
00:21:55.080 –> 00:22:07.050 Joseph McElroy: But you know it’s interesting that so many people don’t really know that there’s a lot of West African tradition in mountain culture, you know, like bluegrass itself the banjo was from West Africa.
00:22:07.110 –> 00:22:07.500 Joe Sam Queen: that’s why.
00:22:07.530 –> 00:22:17.100 Joseph McElroy: And, you know it really took Scottish Irish ballad music and added a beat to it rhythm right and that’s whole new music, this is a crazy all over the nation.
00:22:17.130 –> 00:22:25.680 Joe Sam Queen: c are real and we don’t have a drum we have the foot, we have the clock step and then the banjo had the banjo head, so you could wrap it with your finger.
00:22:26.430 –> 00:22:40.350 Joe Sam Queen: And slap it if you want it to and, but it was African and in origin, and it really took off in the civil war, what when soldiers could carry it in 42 around hmm.
00:22:40.950 –> 00:22:48.900 Joseph McElroy: So your grandfather just sort of put all this together, and really started you create The SOFA gap cloggers so.
00:22:49.950 –> 00:22:51.780 Joseph McElroy: sort of became sort of famous right.
00:22:51.840 –> 00:23:01.770 Joe Sam Queen: They were awesome they could dance like nobody else everybody’s trying to be what those guys could gown and the fellows they could just dance-like.
00:23:02.250 –> 00:23:10.860 Joe Sam Queen: or wins will they my grandfather put this team together and they and Roosevelt made him famous quote Franklin.
00:23:11.610 –> 00:23:23.610 Joe Sam Queen: Roosevelt was beloved in the mountains, he brought us out of the Great Depression my father and uncle Richard de la they were G is a love Roosevelt well Roosevelt and 39 was.
00:23:24.120 –> 00:23:40.920 Joe Sam Queen: Was was trying to get the Congress, which was pacifist and an obstructionist, and then it’s time he was trying to get them to pass the land lease provision, so I could help Great Britain survive and they were being very.
00:23:42.210 –> 00:23:52.350 Joe Sam Queen: reluctant, so he invited Roseville I did the King Queen of England, for the only Royal visit in history in 1939 and part of Roosevelt’s.
00:23:52.980 –> 00:24:01.110 Joe Sam Queen: Cultural diplomacy was that, instead of having a black tarball for the King and Queen of England, which would be kind of traditional.
00:24:01.830 –> 00:24:06.690 Joe Sam Queen: He decided to have an American square dance in the White House for the kings and Queens.
00:24:07.530 –> 00:24:18.120 Joe Sam Queen: So he could show that that the people of the British Isles and the American people will one people that’s what that was part of Roosevelt’s political genius and.
00:24:18.660 –> 00:24:25.530 Joe Sam Queen: His cultural diplomacy, so my grandfather went up there with the soco gap Congress and their and their band was the.
00:24:26.370 –> 00:24:35.340 Joe Sam Queen: The concrete sisters of an all-women’s string band out of Kentucky and they they’re famous number is how many biscuits can eat.
00:24:35.850 –> 00:24:46.140 Joe Sam Queen: You know, a half a dozen and a half of me, you know they were great, and that was the primary entertainment for the King Queen of England, for their.
00:24:46.980 –> 00:24:58.170 Joe Sam Queen: What would have been a black tie ball and he went on the Newsreels and all over the world and laugh and post, and it was a big deal, so the circle gap Congress became.
00:24:59.460 –> 00:25:04.950 Joe Sam Queen: The rave of the nation and my grandfather was there that was their leader.
00:25:05.730 –> 00:25:10.530 Joseph McElroy: that’s fantastic I heard that your grandmother was also quite a dancer to she was dancing 96.
00:25:11.550 –> 00:25:14.310 Joe Sam Queen: Well, my his mother.
00:25:15.060 –> 00:25:15.870 Joseph McElroy: His mother.
00:25:16.470 –> 00:25:26.220 Joe Sam Queen: Clean she was the famous dancer and my grandmother would dance little but she pretty much let Sam carry on and he’s on the way I say it was a.
00:25:28.500 –> 00:25:46.860 Joe Sam Queen: force of nature they’ll we call him the old man Sam but he handsome Sam locally because my father was Sam I’m a Sam we’re the same queen brand so you got to kind of distinguish one generation from the other but Sally was a great dancer too.
00:25:47.910 –> 00:25:48.780 Joseph McElroy: cool it and.
00:25:48.960 –> 00:26:03.540 Joseph McElroy: She was dancing till 9696 wow so yeah there’s a lot of dance styles that are sort of in a way, considered indigenous the United States, even though that’s very debatable, which have Western square dance.
00:26:04.050 –> 00:26:13.080 Joseph McElroy: And you have, and then you have you know things that people claim or you know similar, which is the Irish dancing how are these all different from what we know is square dance.
00:26:13.140 –> 00:26:23.490 Joe Sam Queen: Well, again, our dance the the the people here settled in Maggie valiant Haywood county and Western were Scotch Irish we came in with rutherford on.
00:26:24.570 –> 00:26:40.380 Joe Sam Queen: Scotch Irish trail we settle early they lack the isolation and that and the fertility of the mountains it’s Monday to their homeland and a lot of Germans that we had cloggers from German we had Scotch I never.
00:26:40.920 –> 00:26:46.860 Joe Sam Queen: The Scottish and Irish were not very URBAN, particularly the Scots they were rural.
00:26:47.280 –> 00:26:52.950 Joe Sam Queen: So they were yard dancers, I said they dance in the pasture and they were big circle dancers.
00:26:54.750 –> 00:27:12.870 Joe Sam Queen: A lot of the Germans in anybody came from town they would dance in an on a cobblestone street with things like the real of Virginia real is a linear that but our dance is not linear and it’s not defined by size it’s not an eight couple bands it’s it can be 200 couples.
00:27:13.170 –> 00:27:26.340 Joe Sam Queen: We have the big circle dance, and we really got that from the Cherokee the cherokee friendship dance and in their large circle dance around their fire and their social celebrations so.
00:27:26.370 –> 00:27:27.240 Joseph McElroy: I think that’s good.
00:27:27.330 –> 00:27:33.600 Joe Sam Queen: African Americans brought a ton of steps along with the Irish, along with the German.
00:27:34.710 –> 00:27:45.510 Joe Sam Queen: Along with even the English and well chanda certain amount of fiddling and step dance, and that they did any sort of it melted in the milk great American.
00:27:46.140 –> 00:27:50.820 Joe Sam Queen: Part of American and the reason we have a color is the color.
00:27:51.300 –> 00:28:00.120 Joe Sam Queen: decides what you’re going to dance if you were coming from a German village you knew your dance nobody had to call it, you have started and you went through it to the end.
00:28:00.420 –> 00:28:13.050 Joe Sam Queen: By the time you were old enough to dance you you you learn to dance, but in America, they share little pieces from everybody’s cultural little German little stocks little Irish little African American little Cherokee.
00:28:13.980 –> 00:28:19.290 Joe Sam Queen: And they mixed it all together, so you always had a caller that that managed the mix.
00:28:19.770 –> 00:28:25.200 Joseph McElroy: cool, but we have to take another break and we’ll call it will come back we’ll talk more about call it a square there.
00:28:25.740 –> 00:28:26.220 Joe Sam Queen: Thank you.
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00:29:58.140 –> 00:30:06.870 :30:31.650 –> 00:30:40.860 Joseph McElroy: Howdy this is Joseph Franklin mcilroy back with the gateway to the smokies podcast and I guess job Sam queen a musical note.
00:30:42.390 –> 00:30:47.460 Joseph McElroy: So you know I read on the blue Ridge heritage, you know the cultural site.
00:30:48.690 –> 00:30:52.320 Joseph McElroy: You have an entry about being you know, an area.
00:30:53.940 –> 00:31:11.670 Joseph McElroy: craftsman and I’m an entertainer and everything else, and you said social sociability is the whole point of the Appalachian dance is that really the essence of it is getting together to be sociable and bring people in.
00:31:12.930 –> 00:31:22.320 Joe Sam Queen: that’s right, it is a, it is our social institution of hospitality it’s an institution of hospitality but I’ll just give you an example.
00:31:23.310 –> 00:31:38.790 Joe Sam Queen: The opening line is let’s all join hands in one big circle Community let’s join hands together it’s sort of like tabor fellow table fellowship and then you then the women wrote a lot of the dance calls they help them and, like.
00:31:39.870 –> 00:31:42.480 Joe Sam Queen: You go right hands across and halfway back.
00:31:43.620 –> 00:31:57.840 Joe Sam Queen: Well halfway back is the first lesson in life, you can change your mind and then then it’s ladies in front and Jim’s spine, but the next lesson laughing gentlemen, you need to learn to follow you latency you know you’re not always the one out front and then.
00:31:59.310 –> 00:32:17.790 Joe Sam Queen: it’s honor your partner honor your opposite around hands across with a, how do you do I left pans back with a fine Thank you that’s a little low a little lesson in in in hospitality and manners so it’s socializing country bumpkins you know.
00:32:18.120 –> 00:32:18.360 I.
00:32:19.440 –> 00:32:19.980 Joe Sam Queen: learned that.
00:32:20.160 –> 00:32:31.560 Joe Sam Queen: They got to learn to come and Courtney and not getting a fistfight over the girl next door, you know they gotta be I got to share in the dance Oh, my goodness well that’s one lesson and laugh or an Appalachian mail.
00:32:32.370 –> 00:32:41.850 Joseph McElroy: that’s I mean that’s interesting that’s like the teaching the youth and especially teenagers, you know how to be more civilized.
00:32:42.150 –> 00:32:44.070 Joseph
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