Dear readers and listeners,
I promised a link to that beautiful Christmas song I feature each year, "Brightest and Best," this time a version sung by Jean Ritchie herself along with family members. It is in the archive at Berea College near where Jean Ritchie now lives. http://sandbox.berea.edu/specialcollections/ac-vr-001-007-13/
The Ritchie family, from Perry County, Kentucky, in the Cumberland Mountains, preserved a large number of songs and ballads and Jean Ritchie became a nationally recognized folk singer and performer in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, noted for her accompaniments on the mountain (lap) dulcimer.
You can look her up in the usual on-line places, but if you want her own view of her roots, read her book, The Singing Family of the Cumberlands.
I hope you enjoy the Ritchie family Christmas song, and find more of their music to enjoy.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. My next radio program, on New Years' Day itself at 7 p.m. on WIOX Radio 91.3 FM and on the internet at WIOX radio.org, will talk a little about New Year's traditions in the Northeast U.S. See you then!
Ginny Scheer, Folklorist, Catskills Folk conection.
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