The Last Chivaree: The Hicks Family of Beech Mountain

By Robert Isbell

Book Overview

The Last Chivaree creates a vivid and unsparing portrait of Appalachian mountain life in the first half of the twentieth century, before power lines and paved roads opened the way to widespread change. Robert Isbell's profile of the remarkable Hicks family of Beech Mountain, North Carolina, pays tribute to the longstanding mountain traditions of music making and storytelling. It is based largely on the reminiscences of Ray Hicks, a master teller of Jack Tales and a central figure in the current revival of traditional storytelling. Among the Hickses, family history is part of the taletelling tradition. We learn of Hicks ancestors who arrived in the southern mountains in the late eighteenth century; of Ray's parents, Rena and Nathan, who struggled to raise ten children; and of the whole extended Hicks circle and their attempts to scratch out a living in an unforgiving environment. The book itself reads like a well-told tale, but all the characters are real, although the names of a few, now dead, have been changed in deference to survivors. Based on hundreds of hours of listening and many years of friendship, The Last Chivaree captures the wisdom, humor, and dignity of the family it chronicles.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807822663
• ISBN13: 9780807822661
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr
• Length: 174 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

the last chivaree

This book reminds me of Laura Ingalls Wilder, specifically "Little House in the Big Woods". It takes place more recently, but has a lot of that feeling of pioneering and making a living from scratch. It has so much detail that the time and place came alive for me. The story would be of special interest to folk music fans, herbalists and botanists.

Look into hardship and come away uplifted and humbled.

As a lover of the NC mountains, this book speaks of people and places of my childhood. The story of this family is one of music, heritage, honor, humor and heartache. The isolation of the rugged mountains in the early part of this century makes me, who sometimes longs for a simpler way of life, want to experience it, but at the same time, I am humbled that I would probably never survive it. Having sat on Mr. Hick's porch as a child, and listened to his Jack Tales, I have a new admiration for him and his family. If I ever have the nerve to complain about my circumstances, I always think of this story and count my blessings. Not for those who want to pity those with fewer possessions or dollars than the average US family, for these people possess much more than so many of us!