TED2004
David Holt: The joyful tradition of mountain music
Filmed:
Readability: 2.7
603,049 views
Folk musician and storyteller David Holt plays the banjo and shares photographs and old wisdom from the Appalachian Mountains. He also demonstrates some unusual instruments like the mouth bow -- and a surprising electric drum kit he calls "thunderwear."
David Holt - Folk musician
Four-time Grammy Award-winning folk musician David Holt is a born troubadour. Behind his energizing musicianship (often featuring unusual instruments like "the paper bag") is a deep love of hidden Appalachian wisdom and storytelling that shines on every stage he takes. Full bio
Four-time Grammy Award-winning folk musician David Holt is a born troubadour. Behind his energizing musicianship (often featuring unusual instruments like "the paper bag") is a deep love of hidden Appalachian wisdom and storytelling that shines on every stage he takes. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:19
This is Aunt Zip from Sodom, North Carolina.
0
1000
4000
00:23
She was 105 years old when I took this picture.
1
5000
2000
00:25
She was always saying things that made me stop and think, like,
2
7000
4000
00:29
"Time may be a great healer, but it ain't no beauty specialist."
3
11000
4000
00:33
(Laughter)
4
15000
3000
00:36
She said, "Be good to your friends.
5
18000
3000
00:39
Why, without them, you'd be a total stranger."
6
21000
3000
00:42
(Laughter)
7
24000
1000
00:43
This is one of her songs.
8
25000
2000
00:45
Let's see if we can get into the flow here and all do this one together.
9
27000
3000
00:48
And I'm going to have Michael Manring play bass with me.
10
30000
2000
00:50
Give him a big old hand.
11
32000
2000
00:52
(Applause)
12
34000
3000
00:58
One, two, three, four.
13
40000
2000
01:00
(Music)
14
42000
14000
01:14
Well, my true love's a black-eyed daisy;
15
56000
2000
01:16
if I don't see her, I go crazy.
16
58000
2000
01:18
My true love lives up the river;
17
60000
2000
01:20
a few more jumps and I'll be with her.
18
62000
2000
01:22
Hey, hey, black-eyed Susie! Hey, hey, black-eyed Susie!
19
64000
3000
01:25
Hey, hey black-eyed Susie, hey.
20
67000
3000
01:28
Now you've got to picture Aunt Zip at 105 years old in Sodom, North Carolina.
21
70000
4000
01:32
I'd go up and learn these old songs from her.
22
74000
3000
01:35
She couldn't sing much, couldn't play anymore.
23
77000
2000
01:37
And I'd pull her out on the front porch.
24
79000
3000
01:40
Down below, there was her grandson plowing the tobacco field with a mule.
25
82000
4000
01:44
A double outhouse over here on the side.
26
86000
3000
01:47
And we'd sing this old song. She didn't have a whole lot of energy,
27
89000
2000
01:49
so I'd sing, "Hey, hey!" and she'd just answer back with, "Black-eyed Susie."
28
91000
3000
01:52
Oh, hey, hey, black-eyed Susie! Hey, hey, black-eyed Susie!
29
94000
4000
01:56
Hey, hey, black-eyed Susie, hey.
30
98000
3000
01:59
Well, she and I went blackberry picking.
31
101000
2000
02:01
She got mad; I took a licking.
32
103000
2000
02:03
Ducks on the millpond, geese in the ocean,
33
105000
2000
02:05
Devil in the pretty girl when she takes a notion.
34
107000
2000
02:07
Hey, hey, black-eyed Susie! Hey, hey, black-eyed Susie!
35
109000
3000
02:10
Hey, hey black-eyed Susie, hey.
36
112000
3000
02:13
Let's have the banjo.
37
115000
2000
02:29
Well, we'll get married next Thanksgiving.
38
131000
2000
02:31
I'll lay around; she'll make a living.
39
133000
2000
02:33
She'll cook blackjacks, I'll cook gravy;
40
135000
2000
02:35
we'll have chicken someday, maybe.
41
137000
2000
02:37
Hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, black-eyed Susie, hey!
42
139000
6000
02:43
One more time now.
43
145000
1000
02:44
Oh, hey, hey, black-eyed Susie! Hey, hey, black-eyed Susie!
44
146000
4000
02:48
Hey, hey, black-eyed Susie, hey.
45
150000
3000
03:00
(Applause)
46
162000
3000
03:03
Thank you, Michael.
47
165000
2000
03:07
This is Ralph Stanley.
48
169000
2000
03:09
When I was going to college at University of California
49
171000
3000
03:12
at Santa Barbara in the College of Creative Studies,
50
174000
2000
03:14
taking majors in biology and art, he came to the campus.
51
176000
5000
03:19
This was in 1968, I guess it was.
52
181000
3000
03:22
And he played his bluegrass style of music,
53
184000
2000
03:24
but near the end of the concert, he played the old timing style of banjo picking
54
186000
4000
03:28
that came from Africa, along with the banjo.
55
190000
2000
03:30
It's called claw-hammer style, that he had learned from his mother and grandmother.
56
192000
3000
03:33
I fell in love with that.
57
195000
2000
03:35
I went up to him and said, how can I learn that?
58
197000
2000
03:37
He said, well, you can go back to Clinch Mountain, where I'm from,
59
199000
3000
03:40
or Asheville or Mount Airy, North Carolina --
60
202000
2000
03:42
some place that has a lot of music.
61
204000
2000
03:44
Because there's a lot of old people still living that play that old style.
62
206000
3000
03:47
So I went back that very summer.
63
209000
3000
03:50
I just fell in love with the culture and the people.
64
212000
3000
03:53
And you know, I came back to school, I finished my degrees
65
215000
4000
03:57
and told my parents I wanted to be a banjo player.
66
219000
3000
04:00
You can imagine how excited they were.
67
222000
3000
04:03
So I thought I would just like to show you some of the pictures
68
225000
3000
04:06
I've taken of some of my mentors.
69
228000
2000
04:08
Just a few of them, but maybe you'll get just a little hint of some of these folks.
70
230000
5000
04:13
And play a little banjo. Let's do a little medley.
71
235000
4000
04:18
(Music)
72
240000
94000
05:53
(Applause)
73
335000
8000
06:01
Those last few pictures were of Ray Hicks, who just passed away last year.
74
343000
3000
06:04
He was one of the great American folk tale-tellers.
75
346000
4000
06:08
The Old Jack tales that he had learned -- he talked like this,
76
350000
3000
06:11
you could hardly understand him. But it was really wonderful.
77
353000
3000
06:14
And he lived in that house that his great-grandfather had built.
78
356000
4000
06:18
No running water, no electricity. A wonderful, wonderful guy.
79
360000
4000
06:22
And you can look at more pictures.
80
364000
2000
06:24
I've actually got a website that's got a bunch of photos that I've done
81
366000
3000
06:27
of some of the other folks I didn't get a chance to show you.
82
369000
3000
06:30
This instrument came up in those pictures. It's called the mouth bow.
83
372000
3000
06:33
It is definitely the first stringed instrument ever in the world,
84
375000
3000
06:36
and still played in the Southern mountains.
85
378000
4000
06:40
Now, the old timers didn't take a fancy guitar string and make anything like this.
86
382000
5000
06:45
They would just take a stick and a catgut and string it up.
87
387000
5000
06:50
It was hard on the cats, but it made a great little instrument.
88
392000
3000
06:53
It sounds something like this.
89
395000
2000
06:55
(Music)
90
397000
13000
07:08
Well, have you heard the many stories told by young and old with joy
91
410000
4000
07:12
about the many deeds of daring that were done by the Johnson boys?
92
414000
4000
07:16
You take Kate, I'll take Sal; we'll both have a Johnson gal.
93
418000
4000
07:20
You take Kate, I'll take Sal; we'll both have a Johnson gal.
94
422000
4000
07:38
Now, they were scouts in the rebels' army,
95
440000
2000
07:40
they were known both far and wide.
96
442000
2000
07:42
When the Yankees saw them coming, they'd lay down their guns and hide.
97
444000
3000
07:45
You take Kate, I'll take Sal; we'll both have a Johnson gal.
98
447000
4000
07:49
You take Kate, I'll take Sal; we'll both have a Johnson gal.
99
451000
4000
07:57
Ain't that a sound?
100
459000
2000
07:59
(Applause)
101
461000
5000
08:08
Well, it was 1954, I guess it was.
102
470000
4000
08:12
We were driving in the car outside of Gatesville, Texas,
103
474000
3000
08:15
where I grew up in the early part of my life.
104
477000
3000
08:18
Outside of Gatesville we were coming back from the grocery store.
105
480000
2000
08:20
My mom was driving; my brother and I were in the back seat.
106
482000
3000
08:23
We were really mad at my mom. We looked out the window.
107
485000
3000
08:26
We were surrounded by thousands of acres of cotton fields.
108
488000
3000
08:29
You see, we'd just been to the grocery store,
109
491000
2000
08:31
and my mom refused to buy us the jar of Ovaltine
110
493000
4000
08:35
that had the coupon for the Captain Midnight decoder ring in it.
111
497000
4000
08:39
And, buddy, that made us mad.
112
501000
2000
08:41
Well, my mom didn't put up with much either, and she was driving, and she said,
113
503000
3000
08:44
"You boys! You think you can have anything you want.
114
506000
3000
08:47
You don't know how hard it is to earn money. Your dad works so hard.
115
509000
3000
08:50
You think money grows on trees. You've never worked a day in your lives.
116
512000
2000
08:52
You boys make me so mad. You're going to get a job this summer."
117
514000
3000
08:55
She pulled the car over; she said, "Get out of the car."
118
517000
4000
08:59
My brother and I stepped out of the car.
119
521000
2000
09:01
We were standing on the edge of thousands of acres of cotton.
120
523000
3000
09:04
There were about a hundred black folks out there picking.
121
526000
2000
09:06
My mom grabbed us by the shoulders. She marched us out in the field.
122
528000
3000
09:09
She went up to the foreman; she said,
123
531000
2000
09:11
"I've got these two little boys never worked a day in their lives."
124
533000
3000
09:14
Of course, we were just eight and 10.
125
536000
2000
09:16
(Laughter)
126
538000
1000
09:17
She said, "Would you put them to work?"
127
539000
2000
09:19
Well, that must have seemed like a funny idea to that foreman:
128
541000
3000
09:22
put these two middle-class little white boys out in a cotton field
129
544000
3000
09:25
in August in Texas -- it's hot.
130
547000
2000
09:27
So he gave us each a cotton sack,
131
549000
2000
09:29
about 10 feet long, about that big around, and we started picking.
132
551000
3000
09:32
Now, cotton is soft but the outside of the plant is just full of stickers.
133
554000
4000
09:36
And if you don't know what you're doing,
134
558000
2000
09:38
your hands are bleeding in no time.
135
560000
2000
09:40
And my brother and I started to pick it,
136
562000
2000
09:42
and our hands were startin' to bleed, and then -- "Mom!"
137
564000
3000
09:45
And Mom was just sitting by the car like this.
138
567000
2000
09:47
She wasn't going to give up.
139
569000
3000
09:50
Well, the foreman could see he was in over his head, I guess.
140
572000
4000
09:54
He kind of just snuck up behind us and he sang out in a low voice.
141
576000
4000
09:58
He just sang: "Well, there's a long white robe in heaven, I know.
142
580000
8000
10:06
Don't want it to leave me behind.
143
588000
3000
10:09
Well, there's a long white robe in heaven, I know.
144
591000
4000
10:13
Don't want it to leave me behind."
145
595000
3000
10:16
And from all around as people started singing and answering back, he sang:
146
598000
4000
10:20
"Good news, good news: Chariot's coming.
147
602000
4000
10:24
Good news: Chariot's coming.
148
606000
3000
10:27
Good news: Chariot's coming.
149
609000
4000
10:31
And I don't want it to leave me behind."
150
613000
4000
10:35
Now, my brother and I had never heard anything like that
151
617000
2000
10:37
in our whole lives. It was so beautiful.
152
619000
3000
10:40
We sat there all day picking cotton, without complaining,
153
622000
3000
10:43
without crying, while they sang things like:
154
625000
2000
10:45
"Oh, Mary, don't you weep, don't you moan" and "Wade in the water,"
155
627000
4000
10:49
and "I done done," "This little light of mine."
156
631000
3000
10:52
Finally, by the end of the day,
157
634000
2000
10:54
we'd each picked about a quarter of a bag of cotton.
158
636000
4000
10:58
But the foreman was kind enough to give us each a check for a dollar,
159
640000
4000
11:02
but my mother would never let us cash it.
160
644000
2000
11:04
I'm 57; still have the check.
161
646000
3000
11:07
Now, my mother hoped that we learned from that the value of hard work.
162
649000
5000
11:12
But if you have children, you know it doesn't often work that way.
163
654000
3000
11:15
No, we learned something else.
164
657000
2000
11:17
The first thing I learned that day
165
659000
2000
11:19
was that I never ever wanted to work that hard again.
166
661000
3000
11:22
(Laughter)
167
664000
2000
11:24
And pretty much never did.
168
666000
3000
11:30
But I also learned that some people in this world
169
672000
2000
11:32
do have to work that hard every day, and that was an eye-opener.
170
674000
4000
11:36
And I also learned that a great song can make hard work go a little easier.
171
678000
5000
11:41
And it also can bring the group together in a way that nothing else can.
172
683000
5000
11:47
Now, I was just a little eight-year-old boy that day
173
689000
2000
11:49
when my mama put me out of the car in that hot Texas cotton field.
174
691000
3000
11:52
I wasn't even aware of music -- not even aware of it.
175
694000
4000
11:56
But that day in the cotton field out there picking,
176
698000
2000
11:58
when those people started singing,
177
700000
2000
12:00
I realized I was in the very heart of real music,
178
702000
4000
12:04
and that's where I've wanted to be ever since.
179
706000
3000
12:07
Try this old song with me. I sing:
180
709000
2000
12:09
Well, there's a long white robe in heaven, I know.
181
711000
4000
12:13
You sing: Don't want it to leave me behind.
182
715000
3000
12:16
Well, there's a long white robe in heaven, I know.
183
718000
4000
12:20
Don't want it to leave me behind.
184
722000
3000
12:23
Good news, good news: Chariot's coming.
185
725000
4000
12:27
Good news: Chariot's coming.
186
729000
3000
12:30
Good news: Chariot's coming.
187
732000
3000
12:33
And I don't want it to leave me --
188
735000
2000
12:35
It's been a while since you guys have been picking your last bale of cotton, isn't it?
189
737000
5000
12:40
Let's try it one more time.
190
742000
2000
12:42
There's a starry crown in heaven, I know.
191
744000
4000
12:46
Don't want it to leave me behind.
192
748000
3000
12:49
There's a starry crown in heaven, I know.
193
751000
4000
12:53
Don't want it to leave me behind.
194
755000
3000
12:56
Good news: Chariot's coming.
195
758000
4000
13:00
Good news: Chariot's coming.
196
762000
3000
13:03
Good news: Chariot's coming.
197
765000
4000
13:07
And I don't want it to leave me behind.
198
769000
3000
13:10
It was a few years ago, but I sort of remembered this story,
199
772000
3000
13:13
and I told it at a concert.
200
775000
2000
13:15
My mom was in the audience.
201
777000
2000
13:17
After the -- she was glad to have a story about herself, of course,
202
779000
2000
13:19
but after the concert she came up and she said,
203
781000
2000
13:21
"David, I've got to tell you something.
204
783000
3000
13:24
I set that whole thing up.
205
786000
2000
13:26
I set it up with the foreman. I set it up with the owner of the land.
206
788000
4000
13:30
I just wanted you boys to learn the value of hard work.
207
792000
2000
13:32
I didn't know it was going to make you fall in love with music though."
208
794000
4000
13:36
Let's try. Good news: Chariot's coming.
209
798000
4000
13:40
Good news: Chariot's coming.
210
802000
3000
13:43
Good news: Chariot's coming.
211
805000
4000
13:47
And I don't want it to leave me behind.
212
809000
4000
13:54
(Applause)
213
816000
8000
14:02
Well, this is the steel guitar. It's an American-made instrument.
214
824000
4000
14:06
It was originally made by the Dopyera Brothers,
215
828000
3000
14:09
who later on made the Dobro, which is a wood-bodied instrument
216
831000
3000
14:12
with a metal cone for -- where the sound comes from.
217
834000
5000
14:17
It's usually played flat on your lap.
218
839000
2000
14:19
It was made to play Hawaiian music back in the 1920s,
219
841000
2000
14:21
before they had electric guitars, trying to make a loud guitar.
220
843000
3000
14:24
And then African-American folks figured out you could take a broken bottle neck,
221
846000
4000
14:28
just like that -- a nice Merlot works very well.
222
850000
4000
14:32
That wine we had yesterday would have been perfect.
223
854000
3000
14:35
Break it off, put it on your finger, and slide into the notes.
224
857000
3000
14:42
This instrument pretty much saved my life.
225
864000
2000
14:46
Fifteen years ago, 14 years ago, I guess, this year,
226
868000
4000
14:50
my wife and I lost our daughter, Sarah Jane, in a car accident,
227
872000
4000
14:54
and it was the most -- it almost took me out -- it almost took me out of this world.
228
876000
6000
15:00
And I think I learned a lot about what happiness was
229
882000
3000
15:03
by going through such unbelievable grief,
230
885000
3000
15:06
just standing on the edge of that abyss and just wanting to jump in.
231
888000
3000
15:09
I had to make lists of reasons to stay alive.
232
891000
5000
15:14
I had to sit down and make lists, because I was ready to go;
233
896000
2000
15:16
I was ready to check out of this world.
234
898000
3000
15:19
And you know, at the top of the list, of course,
235
901000
2000
15:21
were Jenny, and my son, Zeb, my parents -- I didn't want to hurt them.
236
903000
4000
15:25
But then, when I thought about it beyond that,
237
907000
2000
15:27
it was very simple things.
238
909000
2000
15:29
I didn't care about -- I had a radio show,
239
911000
3000
15:32
I have a radio show on public radio, "Riverwalk,"
240
914000
2000
15:34
I didn't care about that. I didn't care about awards or money or anything.
241
916000
4000
15:38
Nothing. Nothing.
242
920000
2000
15:40
On the list it would be stuff like,
243
922000
3000
15:43
seeing the daffodils bloom in the spring, the smell of new-mown hay,
244
925000
6000
15:49
catching a wave and bodysurfing, the touch of a baby's hand,
245
931000
6000
15:55
the sound of Doc Watson playing the guitar,
246
937000
3000
15:58
listening to old records of Muddy Waters and Uncle Dave Macon.
247
940000
4000
16:02
And for me, the sound of a steel guitar,
248
944000
3000
16:05
because one of my parents' neighbors just gave me one of these things.
249
947000
4000
16:09
And I would sit around with it, and I didn't know how to play it,
250
951000
2000
16:11
but I would just play stuff as sad as I could play.
251
953000
6000
16:17
And it was the only instrument that, of all the ones that I play,
252
959000
2000
16:19
that would really make that connection.
253
961000
4000
16:23
This is a song that came out of that.
254
965000
2000
16:26
(Music)
255
968000
32000
16:58
Well, I hear you're having trouble.
256
1000000
3000
17:01
Lord, I hate to hear that news.
257
1003000
3000
17:04
If you want to talk about it, you know, I will listen to you through.
258
1006000
6000
17:10
Words no longer say it; let me tell you what I always do.
259
1012000
5000
17:19
I just break off another bottleneck and play these steel guitar blues.
260
1021000
6000
17:28
People say, "Oh, snap out of it!"
261
1030000
3000
17:31
Oh yeah, that's easier said than done.
262
1033000
3000
17:34
While you can hardly move, they're running around having all kinds of fun.
263
1036000
4000
17:40
Sometimes I think it's better just to sink way down in your funky mood
264
1042000
7000
17:48
'til you can rise up humming these steel guitar blues.
265
1050000
7000
17:58
Now, you can try to keep it all inside
266
1060000
3000
18:01
with drink and drugs and cigarettes,
267
1063000
3000
18:04
but you know that's not going to get you where you want to get.
268
1066000
5000
18:09
But I got some medicine here that just might shake things loose.
269
1071000
6000
18:19
Call me in the morning after a dose of these steel guitar blues.
270
1081000
5000
18:24
Open up now.
271
1086000
2000
19:00
(Applause)
272
1122000
13000
19:13
Oh, I think I've got time to tell you about this. My dad was an inventor.
273
1135000
3000
19:16
We moved to California when Sputnik went up, in 1957.
274
1138000
4000
19:20
And he was working on gyroscopes;
275
1142000
2000
19:22
he has a number of patents for that kind of thing.
276
1144000
3000
19:25
And we moved across the street from Michael and John Whitney.
277
1147000
3000
19:28
They were about my age.
278
1150000
2000
19:30
John went on, and Michael did too,
279
1152000
2000
19:32
to become some of the inventors of computer animation.
280
1154000
3000
19:35
Michael's dad was working on something called the computer.
281
1157000
2000
19:37
This was 1957, I was a little 10-year-old kid;
282
1159000
3000
19:40
I didn't know what that was. But he took me down to see one,
283
1162000
3000
19:43
you know, what they were making. It was like a library,
284
1165000
2000
19:45
just full of vacuum tubes as far as you could see,
285
1167000
3000
19:48
just floors and floors of these things,
286
1170000
2000
19:50
and one of the engineers said,
287
1172000
2000
19:52
some day you're going to be able to put this thing in your pocket.
288
1174000
4000
19:56
I thought, damn, those are going to be some big pants!
289
1178000
3000
19:59
(Laughter)
290
1181000
2000
20:01
So that Christmas -- maybe I've got time for this --
291
1183000
6000
20:07
that Christmas I got the Mister Wizard Fun-o-Rama chemistry set.
292
1189000
4000
20:11
Well, I wanted to be an inventor just like my dad; so did Michael.
293
1193000
3000
20:14
His great-granddad had been Eli Whitney,
294
1196000
2000
20:16
the inventor of the cotton gin.
295
1198000
2000
20:18
So we looked in that --
296
1200000
2000
20:20
this was a commercial chemistry set.
297
1202000
2000
20:22
It had three chemicals we were really surprised to see:
298
1204000
2000
20:24
sulfur, potassium nitrate and charcoal.
299
1206000
3000
20:27
Man, we were only 10, but we knew that made gunpowder.
300
1209000
3000
20:30
We made up a little batch and we put it on the driveway
301
1212000
3000
20:33
and we threw a match and phew, it flared up. Ah, it was great.
302
1215000
3000
20:36
Well, obviously the next thing to do was build a cannon.
303
1218000
4000
20:41
So we went over into Michael's garage --
304
1223000
2000
20:43
his dad had all kinds of stuff, and we put a pipe in the vice there,
305
1225000
3000
20:46
and screwed a cap on the end of the pipe,
306
1228000
2000
20:48
drilled a hole in the back of the pipe, took some of our firecrackers,
307
1230000
3000
20:51
pulled out the fuses, tied them together, put them in the back there,
308
1233000
4000
20:55
and -- down in that hole -- and then stuffed some of our gunpowder
309
1237000
3000
20:58
down that pipe and put three ball bearings on the top, in the garage.
310
1240000
5000
21:03
(Laughter)
311
1245000
1000
21:04
We weren't stupid: we put up a sheet of plywood about five feet in front of it.
312
1246000
4000
21:09
We stood back, we lit that thing,
313
1251000
2000
21:11
and they flew out of there -- they went through that plywood like it was paper.
314
1253000
4000
21:15
Through the garage.
315
1257000
2000
21:17
Two of them landed in the side door of his new Citroen.
316
1259000
3000
21:21
(Laughter)
317
1263000
3000
21:24
We tore everything down and buried it in his backyard.
318
1266000
4000
21:28
That was Pacific Palisades; it probably is still there, back there.
319
1270000
4000
21:32
Well, my brother heard that we had made gunpowder.
320
1274000
3000
21:35
He and his buddies, they were older, and they were pretty mean.
321
1277000
3000
21:38
They said they were going to beat us up
322
1280000
2000
21:40
if we didn't make some gunpowder for them.
323
1282000
2000
21:42
We said, well, what are you going to do with it?
324
1284000
2000
21:44
They said, we're going to melt it down and make rocket fuel.
325
1286000
4000
21:48
(Laughter)
326
1290000
2000
21:50
Sure. We'll make you a big batch.
327
1292000
3000
21:53
(Laughter)
328
1295000
3000
21:56
So we made them a big batch, and it was in my --
329
1298000
2000
21:58
now, we'd just moved here. We'd just moved to California.
330
1300000
2000
22:00
Mom had redone the kitchen; Mom was gone that day. We had a pie tin.
331
1302000
4000
22:04
It became Chris Berquist's job to do the melting down.
332
1306000
4000
22:08
Michael and I were standing way at the side of the kitchen.
333
1310000
3000
22:11
He said, "Yeah, hey, it's melting. Yeah, the sulfur's melting.
334
1313000
3000
22:14
No problem. Yeah, you know."
335
1316000
2000
22:16
It just flared up, and he turned around, and he looked like this.
336
1318000
3000
22:19
No hair, no eyelashes, no nothing.
337
1321000
4000
22:23
There were big welts all over my mom's kitchen cabinet;
338
1325000
3000
22:26
the air was the just full of black smoke.
339
1328000
2000
22:28
She came home, she took that chemistry set away, and we never saw it again.
340
1330000
6000
22:34
But we thought of it often, because every time she'd cook tuna surprise
341
1336000
3000
22:37
it made -- tasted faintly of gunpowder.
342
1339000
3000
22:41
So I like to invent things too,
343
1343000
2000
22:43
and I think I'll close out my set with something I invented a good while back.
344
1345000
5000
22:48
When drum machines were new, I got to thinking,
345
1350000
2000
22:50
why couldn't you take the oldest form of music, the hambone rhythms,
346
1352000
4000
22:54
and combine it with the newest technology?
347
1356000
2000
22:56
I call this Thunderwear.
348
1358000
2000
23:00
At that time, drum triggers were new.
349
1362000
2000
23:06
And so I put them all together and sewed 12 of them in this suit.
350
1368000
5000
23:16
I showed you some of the hambone rhythms yesterday;
351
1378000
2000
23:18
I'm going to be doing some of the same ones.
352
1380000
2000
23:20
I have a trigger here, trigger here, here, here. Right there.
353
1382000
7000
23:32
It's going to really hurt if I don't take that off. Okay.
354
1394000
4000
23:36
Now, the drum triggers go out my tail here, into the drum machine,
355
1398000
7000
23:43
and they can make various sounds, like drums.
356
1405000
3000
23:47
So let me put them all together. And also, I can change the sounds
357
1409000
3000
23:50
by stepping on this pedal right here, and --
358
1412000
3000
23:55
let me just close out here by doing you a little
359
1417000
3000
23:58
hambone solo or something like this.
360
1420000
2000
25:01
Thank you, folks.
361
1483000
2000
25:03
(Applause)
362
1485000
9000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
David Holt - Folk musicianFour-time Grammy Award-winning folk musician David Holt is a born troubadour. Behind his energizing musicianship (often featuring unusual instruments like "the paper bag") is a deep love of hidden Appalachian wisdom and storytelling that shines on every stage he takes.
Why you should listen
As a youngster, David Holt knew he wanted to master the banjo. His quest to that end brought him into the tucked-away communities of the remote Appalachian Mountains, where traditional folk music is still ingrained in the way of life. In his years there, he met some too-enchanting-to-be-true characters and a few local living legends (Wade Mainer, Dellie Norton) -- complete with anecdotes from older and harder times. He also picked up some unusual musical skills beyond the banjo: he's now a virtuoso of the mouth bow, the bottleneck slide guitar and the paper bag.
Holt has won four Grammys and has starred in several radio and television programs, such as Folkways, which visits regional craftsmen and musicians. (He also performed in the 2000 film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?.) He currently tours the country doing solo performances, and accompanied by his band The Lightning Bolts.
David Holt | Speaker | TED.com