Mother's changing music career later in life
Greenlief describes how her mother grew to become somewhat more independent in her career choices during the late 1960s and 1970s, following her divorce from her second husband. By that time, Greenlief had severed her professional relationship with John Lair. Greenlief argues here that the professional work her mother did with musicians like Mike Seeger and with academic Loyal Jones were particularly influential. One transformation Greenlief gives special attention to is her mother's growing awareness of the historical relevance of the music she made.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Barbara Greenlief, April 27, 1996. Interview R-0020. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
Was there anybody in her later years—you say she kind of
gravitated towards men that were manipulative and controlling. Did that
happen in her later career too, that she ended up being attached to
somebody who was helping her out that that was sort of the operative
sort of dynamic? Or was that different?
- BARBARA GREENLIEF:
-
I think when she got away from, you know, when my parents divorced, she
moved to Lexington. She had the means—she had a house and she
had so much money a month from my father. So I think that gave her some
independence that she had never had before. She didn't know
she could have. So, the people that she, now, she did, there were
several characters who would come there and spend all day talking to her
and, you know, taking notes that were just trying to produce some
little—I'm not going to mention names, but who
would produce little books about her that she was very embarrassed
by.
- LISA YARGER:
-
I know who you're talking about.
[Laughter]
- BARBARA GREENLIEF:
-
Okay. She would still give them her time, you know, be very gracious. But
she began to make what I consider smarter choices about people she
hooked up with, like Mike Seeger and like Loyal Jones. And I think,
I'm so glad she met Loyal Jones. Because I think, that was,
she finally found a man, you know, that she had some kind of
professional relationship with, who she felt was genuine. And she just,
every time I went over to talk with her, she mentioned Loyal Jones and
what a wonderful person he was. And she just couldn't realize
that there could be a man like that. So I'm really glad that
he was able to work with her on some projects. Because it gave her the
model she'd never had. And she just so highly respected him.
[Phone ringing]
[Recorder is turned off and then back on.]
- LISA YARGER:
-
You were talking about her relationship with Loyal Jones and how that was
a positive one for her. In general, what did she get out of those later
years? It sounds like those were really rewarding years for her.
- BARBARA GREENLIEF:
-
I think they were her best years, aside from the experience of WLS, which
I don't think could have been topped in her life. She got a
lot of, I guess, affirmation from people who were important, you know,
and who were important in a sense that she discovered later was
happening: that sense of oral history about traditional music. That was
not something that she knew about in her early life. You know, that kind
of scholarly approach to preserving what went on in the mountains of
Appalachia. That was not something she was even aware of, I
don't think. Now, she started reading, once she moved to
Lexington she started reading Wendell Barry's books, and
James Steele's books, and people who were writing about the
Appalachian area of Kentucky. She had never done that before.