1. Jean Ruth Ritchie was an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player, called by some the "Mother of Folk".
26 Facts About Jean Ritchie
1. 2.
Jean Ritchie is ultimately responsible for the revival of the Appalachian dulcimer, the traditional instrument of her community, which she popularized by playing the instrument on her albums and writing tutorial books.
3.
Jean Ritchie spent time collecting folk music in the United States and in Britain and Ireland, in order to research the origins of her family songs and help preserve traditional music.
4.
Jean Ritchie inspired a wide array of musicians, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Shirley Collins, Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris and Judy Collins.
5.
Jean Ritchie's grandmother was a prime mover in the Old Regular Baptist Church, and all the traditional hymn tunes came from her.
6.
Jean Ritchie's Uncle Jason was a lawyer, who remembers the big ballads like "Lord Barnard".
7.
Jean Ritchie's father taught school, printed a newspaper, fitted specs, farmed and sent ten of his fourteen children to college.
8.
Jean Ritchie was the source of several of Jean Ritchie's songs and Cecil Sharp narrowly missed meeting him in 1917, stating in his diary that "they couldn't get hold of him".
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Meanwhile, in 1946, whilst still in Kentucky, Jean Ritchie was recorded performing traditional songs with her sisters Edna, Kitty, and Pauline by Mary Elizabeth Barnicle and by Artus Moser.
10.
In 1948, Jean Ritchie shared a stage with The Weavers, Woody Guthrie, and Betty Sanders at the Spring Fever Hootenanny.
11.
All of Lomax's recordings of Jean Ritchie are available online courtesy of the Lomax Digital Archive.
12.
Jean Ritchie was recorded extensively for the Library of Congress in 1951.
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In 1952, Jean Ritchie was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to trace the links between American ballads and the songs from England, Scotland, and Ireland.
14.
In 1954, Jean Ritchie released some of the British and Irish recordings on the album Field Trip, side by side with Jean Ritchie family versions of the same songs.
15.
In 1955, Jean Ritchie wrote a book about her family called Singing Family of the Cumberlands.
16.
Jean Ritchie directed and sang at the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959, and served on the first folklore panel for the National Endowment for the Arts.
17.
Whilst Jean Ritchie largely stuck to the traditional songs, she wrote and recorded Kentucky-themed songs with wider implications, such as the destruction of the environment by loggers and the strip-mining techniques of coal firms.
18.
Jean Ritchie had written numerous songs about mining under the pseudonym "'Than Hall," to avoid troubling her non-political mother, and believing they might be better received if attributed to a man.
19.
From her "uncle" Jason, Jean Ritchie had learned to alter tunes and lyrics from verse to verse and performance to performance, viewing elements of improvisation and variation as a natural part of traditional music.
20.
Jean Ritchie's 50th anniversary album was Mountain Born, which features her sons Peter and Jonathan.
21.
At age five or six, Jean Ritchie defied this prohibition and covertly played the instrument.
22.
George placed a finish and Jean Ritchie tuned the dulcimers, and soon they had sold 300 dulcimers.
23.
Jean Ritchie was married to photographer George Pickow from 1950 until his death in 2010, with whom she had two sons, Peter and Jonathan.
24.
Jean Ritchie lived in Baxter Estates, New York, and was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
25.
In early December 2009, Jean Ritchie was hospitalized after suffering a stroke which impaired her ability to communicate.
26.
Jean Ritchie recovered to some degree then returned to her home in Berea, Kentucky.