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Mountian came Alive with Adam Booth

By Staff | Sep 20, 2013

Shepherd University professor and renowned Appalachian storyteller, Adam Booth guided an audience of fans through the process he used to create his newest project, “The Mountain Came Alive, last Tuesday evening.

A project spawned from Booth’s desire to open up the issue of Mountain Top Removal to a younger generation of future environmental stewards, Booth’s new CD is a mix of his well known folklore storytelling, and old-time traditional mountain inspired music.

As Booth explained, he took a “Charlottes Web” approach to narrative writing, centering his story around a mountain a named, “home.”

This mountain literally comes alive as the CD follows “home,” through an year of activities in Appalachian West Virginia.

Booth, who began telling stories professionally eight years ago, said he was inspired by the common “ecological awareness,” theme he found while traveling to different competitions and storytelling events throughout Appalachia.

Following the success of his last storytelling album, “The Mingo Black,” Booth said he wanted to go in a new direction, creating something educational and innovative.

“The Mountain Came Alive,” is a CD and a “web presence.”

“It came to me. This is it,” he said.

Booth said he’s created the beginnings of an informative web site to accompany the album, that features more in-depth information about the issue of Mountain Top Removal and traditional Appalachian culture and music.

He said his goal was to provide tools for change, and create something that both reflected on the past and looked forward to the future.

The CD features two songs and stories for each season that we follow, “home.”

Each piece of music was composed to represent Appalachian roots music and combines elements of folk, playground rhyme, balladry and religious music, among other elements.

Booth said the whole piece focuses on Appalachian themes like farming, foraging, crafting, spirituality and the passage of time.

Collaborating with local musicians and artists from around the state, and even children from local school, Morgan Academy, Booth created an album of what he described as “real sounds.”

Recorded over five days, Booth performed many of the CD’s traditonal instrument parts himself.

Booth said he wanted to create something traditional yet contemporary, giving young people a more sophisticated educational and musical experience.

“In this project, young people come first,” he said.

To purchase the CD and find out more about this project visit www.themountaincamealive.com or follow mtncamealive on Twitter.