Standard Banner Staff Writer

It’s the final countdown – ticking off the last few days left until the Fourth Annual Scots-Irish Festival in Historic Downtown Dandridge.

Saturday, September 25, is the big day, and what a day it will be. It begins bright and early with a piping competition and a highland dance competition, then by 10 a.m. all the vendors offering their wonderful Celtic treasures and delectable goodies will open for business, along with the kids’ playground and activities, the gathering of the clans and heritage organizations, and an exhibition of some handsome Scottish blackface sheep and highland coos to add their own traditional Scots-Irish flavor to the day.

The first entertainers are the Thistledown Tinkers, the musical duo of Trip Rogers and Tom Eure, seasoned music veterans from North Carolina who weave traditional Scottish and Irish music with original creations, and add a touch of southern swagger that sets the stage on fire. The two have mastered such instruments as guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, dulcimer, and concertina, and their stage presence creates a rebel-rousing party that draws fans in and makes them feel like a part of the show. And not only are they first up on the entertainment roster, but Trip Rogers of the Thistledown Tinkers will be one of the roving reporters for BBC, conducting interviews and collecting music and stories for the folks in Ireland.

At noon, the opening parade and ceremonies are highlighted by the Knoxville Pipe and Drum corps, a marching band whose mission it is to broaden the knowledge of Scottish heritage in East Tennessee and surrounding regions through music.

The origin of bagpipes in Scotland is uncertain, but it’s sure the lowland and highland clans developed and perfected the instrument to its highest level. The great pipes of the highlands were without equal anywhere, and not only did bagpipe music enliven feasts and festivals across the mountains and verdant glens, but their melodic strains also summoned loyalist armies to battle. That was why in the 1700’s, following the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie, kilts and bagpipes were outlawed – the pipes being classified as instruments of war.

The chanter and drone of Knoxville Pipes and Drums will stir souls and restore Gaelic pride in the hearts of all who hear and remember forefathers whose souls pined for a homeland across the sea, even as they tamed our own green hills of Appalachia.

Next, festival-goers will be entertained by Colin Grant-Adams, a musically-gifted balladeer who was born and raised in Winchester, England in a predominantly Scottish community. He gives an inspiring stage performance with fine guitar work and moving lyrics that make him one of the most popular and versatile Celtic musicians in America. His repertoire ranges from the traditional music of Scotland, Ireland and American bluegrass, to his own highly-acclaimed original compositions.

No one will want to miss the Martin Family Band from Pennsylvania. This group brings new gusto to Celtic music and dance, featuring Irish and American fiddle tunes, along with numerous Irish step dance routines. The musical ability of five of the Martin children, ranging in age from 9 to 18, is extraordinary, and is accompanied by their parents on guitar and bass. Although the fiddle is the dominant instrument in the Martins’ performances, their shows also include other instruments such as the Irish whistles, concertina, mandolin, bagpipes, and percussion.

Hold onto your hats when Cutthroat Shamrock takes the stage. They are rowdy. They are rambunctious. This multi-talented Sevier County group hails from the land of blue smoke and white lightening, and they somehow manage to meld the traditions of Ireland, the rhythms of Appalachia and the driving energy of punk rock into every song they play and sing. Five talented acoustic musicians rife with a raw passion for music and mischief, Cutthroat Shamrock is blazing a trail in Appalachian Celtic Punk. Metropulse calls them a ‘regional phenomenon’ and anyone who hears them will call them unforgettable.

Also in the entertainment lineup are award-winning champion highland dancer , young Claire Macmillan, as well as Irish Step Dancer Katie Carver. To close out a day of exciting music and dance is Celtic harpist and bagpiper Kelly Shipe.

"The distinctive styles of many modern-day American country, bluegrass and folk music performers can be traced directly back to the 18th century Ulster-Scots or Scots-Irish settlers. And the dance tradition of the Appalachian region in the south eastern part of the United States has also very strong Ulster-Scots roots." (from Our Most Priceless Heritage, The Legacy of the Scots-Irish in America, by Billy Kennedy)

The entire Scots-Irish festival is presented to the community free of charge thanks to a host of wonderful sponsors and patrons, for which a debt of gratitude is certainly owed, as well as to the organizers and hosts, the Dandridge Main Street Program (Dandridge Community Trust Corp) an IRS Sec. 501 (c)(3) Non-Profit Charitable organization.

Following is a schedule of events and entertainment:

n 8:00 a.m. - Registration of Individual Piping Competition, with competition beginning at 8:30 a.m. at Shepard’s Inn

n 9:30 a.m. - Registration of Highland Dance competitors, with competition beginning at 10 a.m. on Lowland Stage

n 10:00 a.m. - Festival on Main Street opens for business & play – all activities vendors, clans, heritage organizations, kids playground, Highland Coo & Black faced sheep

n 11:00 a.m. - Thistledown Tinkers - Highland (Main) Stage behind Town Hall

n 12:00 Noon - Opening Parade & Ceremonies with Knoxville Pipes & Drums - Main Street; Jefferson County High School Choral Group will perform National Anthems; Pipers will play on the Lowland Stage after opening ceremony

n 12:20 p.m. - Colin Grant-Adams - Highland Stage

n 1:00 p.m. - Martin Family Band - Highland Stage; Celtic Dance Demonstration - Lowland Stage

n 1:45 p.m. - Cutthroat Shamrock - Highland Stage; Piping & Highland Dance Awards Presentations - Lowland Stage

n 2:30 p.m. - Thistledown Tinkers - Highland Stage; Celtic Dance Demonstrations - Lowland Stage

n 3:15 p.m. - Pipers On The Dike - On the top of the Dike behind the Highland Stage

n 4:00 p.m. - Martin Family Band - Highland Stage; Dog Show (non sanctioned, just for fun, bring your pet) - Lowland Stage area

n 4:45 p.m. - Colin Grant-Adams - Highland Stage

n 5:30 p.m. - Cutthroat Shamrock - Highland Stage

6:30 p.m. - Knoxville Pipes and Drums, Thistledown Tinkers, Claire Macmillan, Highland Dancer & Katie Carver, Irish Step Dancer, Colin Grant-Adams, Claire & Katie, part 2, The Martin Family Band, and finally at 9 p.m. there will be a Special Closing with the Lone Piper On The Dike, Kelly Shipe.

Standard Banner Staff Writer

It’s almost here. The Fourth Annual Scots-Irish Festival – organized and hosted by Main Street Dandridge Community Trust – will be here before you know it. This old-time music festival takes place in Historic Downtown Dandridge, September 25, and usually draws visitors from all over the East Tennessee region and farther afield.

There will be plenty of great food, including Scottish meat pies and pastries; old-time fun and games in a special kids section; and several merchandise and craft vendors, along with clan societies and heritage organizations that will help guide folks to find their own Celtic roots. But mostly, the street festival focuses on the dances, songs and sounds handed down to us from our Scotch-Irish ancestors.

Traditional Appalachian music is primarily derived from Anglo-Celtic folk ballads and instrumental dance tunes played typically on fiddles. The poignant ballads were almost always sung unaccompanied by women whose roles were keepers of the family’s cultural heritage through storied songs, and in an effort to rise above the drudgery of their hard work. Appalachian folk music is a distinctive genre of folk music believed to have developed from traditional Scottish, English and Irish music brought to the United States by immigrants from those countries, as well as from the Northern Ireland Ulster-Scots whose stubbornly independent contributions left lasting impressions on the East Tennessee landscape, including customs, music and folklore.

America’s modern country music relies heavily on harmony and a jig-type tempo that is a direct channel of Scots-Irish music settlers brought with them to America. Bluegrass music is similarly Scots-Irish, as well, and those plaintive strains can still be heard emanating from the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee today.

Along with the use of pipes and fiddles, dancing in the form of clogging is very common in the region, and it points toward an obvious link to the Scots-Irish heritage of the area. Square dancing is also a merged style of Scots-Irish dance. It has a nimbleness not found in other dances originating in Europe. Additionally both of these dances rely on spirited musical accompaniment, primarily fiddle playing – a prominent role both historically and currently – as well as the lively Appalachian style that has its foundation in the Irish and Scottish reels. The fiddle and dance often helped to bring communities together in times past.

In terms of cultural influences from the Scots-Irish, it was likely they who gave Appalachia the roots of its colorful language and magical folktales. Throughout America the Scots-Irish left an enduring influence on the importance of family, of individualism and public service.

The Scots-Irish Festival of 2010 will present an excellent lineup of musical talent and various Celtic/Gaelic styles ranging from the tender ballads of Colin Grant-Adams, who brings Scotland to life in song; the Thistledown Tinkers, a Celtic guitar and fiddle duo presenting traditional Scottish and Irish music; Cutthroat Shamrock, who play and sing an unforgettable acoustic Celtic rock style; the Martin Family Band from Pennsylvania that plays traditional Celtic music and performs Irish step dancing; the Knoxville Pipe & Drum Corps, a bagpipe and drum marching band decked out in Mackenzie tartans and kilts and playing a medley of Scottish tunes; and, last but never least, Jefferson County High School’s own Kelly Shipe, who performs on both bagpipes and the Celtic harp.

Organizers of the Dandridge Scots-Irish Festival received word on August 27 that BBC Northern Ireland will be there taping for its radio show called "A Kist o Wurds" at our 2010 music festival. The Dandridge Scots-Irish Festival is surely becoming world renowned, so there is no good reason for anyone in this community to miss out on it.

The Fourth Annual Scots-Irish Festival takes place in Historic Downtown Dandridge on September 25. The festival usually draws visitors from all over the East Tennessee region and farther afield.

Events planned September 25 in Dandridge

Standard Banner Staff Writer

It’s nearly time – sure n’ ye can almost hear the pipes and drums now – for the fourth annual Scots-Irish Festival.

The Scots-Irish Festival is an old-time Main Street Music Festival held each year in Historic Downtown Dandridge on the banks of Loch Douglas. It honors the town’s earliest settlers, many of them Ulster Presbyterians who came to North America in the 18th Century and contributed to the development of this nation and this county. Mark your calendars for Saturday, September 25 because you don’t want miss this jubilant Scots-Irish celebration whose music, dance and Celtic cultural ties draws visitors from places near and far.

It may interest people around here to know that distinct segments of their regional speech derived and evolved from dialects and colloquialisms brought to Appalachia by émigrés from Ulster, or Northern Ireland. The Scottish Presbyterians who settled Northern Ireland in the 1600’s became known as Ulster-Scots. Those Ulster-Scots left the north of Ireland to settle America a century later and became known as the Scots-Irish. Some of the same migrated from Pennsylvania and Virginia to the Appalachian highlands of North Carolina and East Tennessee, then continued to branch out and establish towns like Dandridge.

The origin of ‘hillbilly,’ the American nickname for mountain folk in Appalachia comes from Ulster. Ulster-Scots settlers in the hill-country of Appalachia brought their traditional music with them to the new world, and many of their songs and ballads dealt with William, Prince of Orange, who defeated the Catholic King James II of the Stuart family at the Battle of the Boyne, Ireland in 1690. Supporters of King William were known as ‘Orangemen’ and ‘Billy Boys’ and their North American counterparts were soon referred to as ‘hillbillies.’

The origins of the term ‘Redneck’ are Scottish and refer to supporters of the National Covenant and The Solemn League and Covenant, or ‘Covenanters,’ largely Lowland Presbyterians, many of whom fled Scotland for Ulster during persecutions by the British Crown. The Covenanters of 1638 and 1641 signed the documents that stated that Scotland desired the Presbyterian form of church government and would not accept the Church of England as its official state church. Many Covenanters signed those documents in their own blood and wore red pieces of cloth around their necks as a distinctive insignia – hence, the term ‘Redneck’ or rednecks, which became slang for a Scottish dissenters.

Another Ulster-Scot term, a ‘cracker’ was a person who talked and boasted, and ‘craic’ (crack) is an idiom still used in Scotland and Ireland to describe ‘talking,’ chat or conversation in a social sense For example: "Let’s go down to the pub and have a craic." The term, first used to describe a southerner of Ulster-Scottish background, later became a nickname for any white southerner, especially those who were uneducated. (Information taken from Scottish History Online, Todd J. Wilkinson, FSA, Scot)

So, the next time someone calls you a ‘hillbilly’ or a ‘redneck’ or a ‘cracker,’ don’t get mad – get proud. Proud of the heritage of strength and endurance on which this country was founded.

In the 200 United States Census, 4.3 million Americans (1.5% of the U.S. population) claimed Scotch-Irish ancestry. Don’t ever forget that it was that proud ancestry that shaped this region. Many American presidents have ancestral links to Ulster, including three whose parents were born in Ulster. In the 1820s and 1830s, supporters of Andrew Jackson emphasized his Irish background, as did James Knox Polk, but since the 1840s it has been uncommon for a Protestant politician in America to be identified as Irish, but rather as ‘Scotch-Irish’. More than one-third of all U.S. Presidents had substantial ancestral origins in the northern province of Ireland. President Bill Clinton spoke proudly of that fact, and his own ancestral links with the province, during his two visits to Ulster. Like most U.S. citizens, most U.S. presidents are the result of a ‘melting pot’ of ancestral origins. Clinton is one of at least seventeen Chief Executives descended from emigrants to the United States from the north of Ireland. While many of the Presidents have typically Ulster-Scots surnames – Jackson, Johnson, McKinley, Wilson – others, such as Roosevelt and Cleveland, have links that are less obvious. Here is a list:

n Andrew Jackson, 7th President, 1829-37: He was born in the predominantly Ulster-Scots Waxhaws area of South Carolina two years after his parents left Boneybefore, near Carrickfergus in County Antrim. A heritage centre in the village pays tribute to the legacy of ‘Old Hickory’, the People’s President.

n James Knox Polk, 11th President, 1845-49: His ancestors were among the first Ulster-Scots settlers, emigrating from Coleraine in 1680 to become a powerful political family in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He moved to Tennessee and became its governor before winning the presidency.

n James Buchanan, 15th President, 1857-61: Born in a log cabin (which has been relocated to his old school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania), ‘Old Buck’ cherished his origins: "My Ulster blood is a priceless heritage". The Buchanans were originally from Deroran, near Omagh in County Tyrone where the ancestral home still stands.

n Andrew Johnson, 17th President, 1865-69: His grandfather left Mounthill, near Larne in County Antrim around 1750 and settled in North Carolina. Andrew worked there as a tailor and ran a successful business in Greeneville, Tennessee, before being elected Vice-President. He became President following Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

n Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President, 1869-77: The home of his maternal great-grandfather, John Simpson, at Dergenagh, County Tyrone, is the location for an exhibition on the eventful life of the victorious Civil War commander who served two terms as President. Grant visited his ancestral homeland in 1878.

n Chester A. Arthur, 21st President, 1881-85: His election was the start of a quarter-century in which the White House was occupied by men of Ulster-Scots origins. His family left Dreen, near Cullybackey, County Antrim, in 1815. There is now an interpretive centre, alongside the Arthur Ancestral Home, devoted to his life and times.

n Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President, 1885-89 and 1893-97: Born in New Jersey, he was the maternal grandson of merchant Abner Neal, who emigrated from County Antrim in the 1790s. He is the only president to have served non-consecutive terms.

n Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President, 1889-93: His mother, Elizabeth Irwin, had Ulster-Scots roots through her two great-grandfathers, James Irwin and William McDowell. Harrison was born in Ohio and served as a brigadier general in the Union Army before embarking on a career in Indiana politics which led to the White House.

n William McKinley, 25th President, 1897-1901: Born in Ohio, the descendant of a farmer from Conagher, near Ballymoney, County Antrim, he was proud of his ancestry and addressed one of the national Scotch-Irish congresses held in the late 19th century. His second term as president was cut short by an assassin’s bullet.

n Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President, 1901-09: His mother, Mittie Bulloch, had Ulster Scots ancestors who emigrated from Glenoe, County Antrim, in May 1729. Roosevelt praised "Irish Presbyterians" as "a bold and hardy race."

n Woodrow Wilson, 28th President, 1913-21: Of Ulster-Scot descent on both sides of the family, his roots were very strong and dear to him. He was grandson of a printer from Dergalt, near Strabane, County Tyrone, whose former home is open to visitors. Throughout his career he reflected on the influence of his ancestral values on his constant quest for knowledge and fulfillment.

n Richard Nixon, 37th President, 1969-74: The Nixon ancestors left Ulster in the mid-18th century; the Quaker Milhous family ties were with County Antrim and County Kildare. (Scotch-Irish American: Wikipedia)

For more information, email info@scots-irish.org, or call the Main Street Executive Director at 397-7420. Be sure to check out the festival’s website wwjmw.mainstreetdandridge.com/festival

The sounds of bagpipes and drums will fill the streets of Dandridge on September 25, during the fourth annual Scots-Irish Festival. (Photo submitted)