Hands in Harmony: Traditional Crafts and Music in Appalachia

by Tim Barnwell, Jan Davidson (Foreword)

A celebration of Appalachian artistic traditions from Nashville to Raleigh, with an accompanying CD of music. Tim Barnwell’s photography has documented the people of Appalachia for over three decades, capturing a way of life and work that has changed little in the past hundred years. Now with sensitivity and grace he honors the music and handcrafts of the region, showing musicians and craftspeople in their homes, studios, shops, or in concert.

As in his previous books, striking duotone portraits of these artisans and musicians are accompanied by biographies and oral histories. Here we become acquainted with banjo players, wood carvers, basket weavers, fiddlers, blacksmiths, and many more. A music CD with twenty songs from musicians featured in the book rounds out this rich collection.
80 duotone photographs

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 28, 2009

Reviews

[Grady Ormsby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hands in Harmony: Traditional Crafts and Music in Appalachia is a wonderful collection of photographs by Tim Barnwell, an Asheville, NC, resident, professional photographer and teacher for more than thirty years. One of Barnwell’s pursuits has been the photographing of musicians and craftspeople throughout the Appalachian region of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. He has documented musicians, luthiers, basket weavers, potters, fabric artists, storytellers, furniture builders, wood carvers, stone carvers, toy makers and coopers. Barnwell’s work is not simply a series of photo ops. He has spent extended periods of time with each of the artists hoping to capture the spirit of their creativity rather than simple their images in silver nitrate. The first half of the book is a simple presentation of the photographs with a one line caption. The second part contains biographies of the artists many with excerpts of the interviews conducted by Barnwell. This book captures memory and history of these artists set in the simplicity, remoteness and isolation of Appalachia. A travelling exhibition of Barnwell’s photographic prints is available to galleries, museums and universities. The Down East Folk Arts Society will feature a Barnwell exhibit of photographs at the Down East Folk Festival, March 18-20, 2016, in New Bern, NC. Make plans now to see thirty of Barnwell’s photographs and listen to three days of terrific acoustic music.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A small, but very important piece of American History, This compilation of "oral histories" is a patchwork of some of the finest producers of traditional Appalachian crafts and music.

The people in this book are from the heartland of Appalachia -- Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

All of the stories were extremely interesting, but the most extraordinary were from those who inherited their talent from family. It's almost like the stories that have been passed down through the generations.

At the end of the book is a music CD -- wonderful!