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Folksinger Lark McCourry is haunted by the memory of a song. As a child she heard it from her relatives in the North Carolina mountains, and she knows that the song has been in her family since 1759, when her ancestor, nine-year-old Malcolm MacQuarry, kidnapped from the Scottish island of Islay, learned it aboard an English ship. The song accompanied young Malcolm when he made his way to Morristown, New Jersey, where he apprenticed with an attorney, became a lawyer himself, and fought in the show more American Revolution. The song came with Malcolm in 1790, when he left his family and traveled the Wilderness Road to homestead in western North Carolina, where he remarried and raised a second family. The song, passed down through the generations, carries Malcolm's descendants through the settling of the frontier, the Civil War, the coming of the railroads, and into modern times, providing both solace in the present and a link to the past. Over the years, though, the memory of the old song has dimmed and Lark McCourry's only hope of preserving her family legacy lies in mountain wise-woman Nora Bonesteel, who talks to both the living and the dead. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
As usual with Sharyn McCrumb's Applachian novels, an ancient song is at the heart of this story. Lark McCourry, a famous folksinger who has left the mountains and her difficult relationship with her father behind, takes a notion that there was a song she heard sung as a child that would be quite perfect for her next album...a song she does not fully remember, and which she thinks she might introduce to the world. In order to track the song down, and reluctantly to visit her dying father, she plans a trip back home. There are multiple stories intertwined in this novel, as it follows generations of Lark's family, and that elusive song, through the centuries from the time her ancestor Malcolm was kidnapped from a Hebrides beach at the age show more of 10 and pressed into service at sea in the 18th century, through the American Revolution, and the Civil War, to the recent past. Every time I put the book down I was amazed at how much Story was contained in the relatively short segment I had finished. It's a compressed generational saga that doesn't feel rushed or hurried, a sprawling historical novel that's somehow perfectly told in under 300 pages. I am in awe of the amount of research that goes into all of McCrumb's novels, but here she has outdone herself, and it all fits seamlessly into the narrative without ever feeling like a lesson. (In an author's note she explains how much of this story is based on her own family history, and also how she learned some of the historical details included in it--for instance, she found someone who could teach her how to load and fire a Springfield muzzle-loader such as her Civil War ancestor would have used. "That experience gave me an entirely new perspective on war.' I'll bet it did.) Naturally, Sheriff Arrowood and Nora Bonesteel play significant roles in the modern framework of the story, and Deputy Joe LeDonne has some interesting experiences that help him put his own past to rest. I don't often give this type of work 5 stars, but this one deserves every one of them. show less
This novel begins with a ballad, but does not tell the story behind the ballad. While we may not know at first how it fits into each of the multiple story threads, the chorus phrase keeps appearing as meaningful in the various character's lives,, along with another family phrase. McCrumb does a fantastic job of keeping us interested in the different characters in different times and locations, and tying them all together. The first McCourry to immigrate had a prophecy given him by the midwife using a magic stone--take note! the ballad mentions a stone, but that is not the storyline developed here (tho I'd be curious to hear about Nora's background)--and is conscious of its effects throughout his long life. Judge John Walker (born to a show more McCourry mother) & his housekeeper, Becky, may not be folks you'd have as best friends, but you can see why they act as they do, based on their life experiences. Folk singer Lark McCourry's experiences are linked to a Patsy Cline-like character, leaving us wondering at the outcome of her situation. Even the dead are characters in this book. Baird Christopher brings a humorous side story on the new rich coming to Appalachia, which also ties in well with Zeb's 1882 experiences with rich vacationers.
Real history is tied in to this story, which passes through both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, history that is much more meaningful when we see it's effects on individual's lives.
There are 1 or 2 times where a good editor might have eliminated duplicating background information, but all in all, very well written. I appreciated the cliffhanger at chapter end with LeDonne trapped alone in the wilderness and hearing a voice behind him. Then we must wait through the next chapters on Malcolm's life before we find out what happens. show less
Real history is tied in to this story, which passes through both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, history that is much more meaningful when we see it's effects on individual's lives.
There are 1 or 2 times where a good editor might have eliminated duplicating background information, but all in all, very well written. I appreciated the cliffhanger at chapter end with LeDonne trapped alone in the wilderness and hearing a voice behind him. Then we must wait through the next chapters on Malcolm's life before we find out what happens. show less
Not a traditional mystery, more of a suspense story involving history, family dynamics, folk music and a touch of the supernatural, all set in east Tennessee and western North Carolina. Hard to put down.
The Songcatcher is historical fiction based on Sharyn McCrumb's genealogy tied together by a Celtic/Gaelic ballad passed down through the generations. The mystery is really the hunt for the ballad about The Rowan Stave:
Upon the hill above the kirk at moon rise she did stand, To tend her sheep that Samhain eve, with rowan staff in hand. And where she's been and what she's seen, no living soul may know, and when she's come back home, she will be changed-oh!
The Songcatcher takes the reader from the 18th century through 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, in no specific order. Although some find the story disjointed, with too many characters and storylines, I really enjoyed meeting the ancestors of the present-day people who begin and end the show more novel. McCrumb's descriptions of the 18th century sailors at sea were so vivid you could taste the salt air. Knowing that these people were the predecessors of the 21st century folk gave the story continuity.
A recurring theme in The Songcatcher and McCrumb’s other Appalachian books is mysticism, folklore, and superstition. A special white pebble becomes an amulet that protects Malcolm McCourry against the midwife’s prediction that, “The Sea will take him.” Nora Bonesteel, a 21st century Appalachian resident, has “The Sight.” When someone dies, Nora already has the cake to take to the bereaved family baking in the oven. She also sees ghosts and talks to them.
The combination of mysticism, song, family history, mountain lore makes the Songcatcher an enjoyable tale well-worth reading. show less
Upon the hill above the kirk at moon rise she did stand, To tend her sheep that Samhain eve, with rowan staff in hand. And where she's been and what she's seen, no living soul may know, and when she's come back home, she will be changed-oh!
The Songcatcher takes the reader from the 18th century through 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, in no specific order. Although some find the story disjointed, with too many characters and storylines, I really enjoyed meeting the ancestors of the present-day people who begin and end the show more novel. McCrumb's descriptions of the 18th century sailors at sea were so vivid you could taste the salt air. Knowing that these people were the predecessors of the 21st century folk gave the story continuity.
A recurring theme in The Songcatcher and McCrumb’s other Appalachian books is mysticism, folklore, and superstition. A special white pebble becomes an amulet that protects Malcolm McCourry against the midwife’s prediction that, “The Sea will take him.” Nora Bonesteel, a 21st century Appalachian resident, has “The Sight.” When someone dies, Nora already has the cake to take to the bereaved family baking in the oven. She also sees ghosts and talks to them.
The combination of mysticism, song, family history, mountain lore makes the Songcatcher an enjoyable tale well-worth reading. show less
In her usual lyrical way, Sharyn McCrumb tells two stories in one in this book. One is story that goes back to the late 18 century. A story that begins in Scotland and ends in a remote North Carolina mountain cabin. The other story is set in the late 20 century, and is about a plane crash in a remote mountain area that is also in the North Carolina mountains. Ms. McCrumb binds these two disparate stories together with an old folk song and a family thread. The book is the story of young Malcolm McCoury and his colourful and varied life. Then we are introduced to a number of his his descendants, and the lives that they led. It's a lot of ground to cover and a lot of years, but Ms. McCrumb seems to tie it all together to make a cohesive show more whole. We find at the end of the book that she is actually covering her own family history, and it is a fascinating insight into what life is like in this little corner of the world. show less
The Songcatcher tells the story of one North Carolina family and the song that it passed from one generation of the family to the next, a song that famous folk singer Lark McCourry hopes to find so that she can center her next record album around it. Malcolm McCourry, kidnapped in 1751 by English sailors at age nine and taken to sea, learned the song by hearing it on evenings during which the men sang ballads to entertain themselves and their shipmates. It was the kind of ghost story that an impressionable young boy would never forget, and McCourry brought the lyrics with him to America in 1759 when he decided that he was finished with life on the ocean.
Sharyn McCrumb looked to her own family history as inspiration for The Songcatcher. show more She discovered ancestor Malcolm McCourry while researching another book and framed this story around his real life experiences. McCrumb uses alternating sections within each chapter of the book to recount the events of Malcolm’s life that resulted in him starting a second family in the mountains of North Carolina and the real world plight of Lark McCourry who is reluctantly returning to those same mountains to see her dying father one last time.
As the book progresses from generation to generation, it becomes obvious that Lark McCourry has much in common with her ancestors. Like them, she is basically a loner who manages to keep people at a distance and who suffers a poor relationship with her father, the kind of relationship that so many first-born McCourrys experienced over the years. But the song has survived everything that the family has experienced for more than two hundred years and it is up to Lark McCourry to make sure that her father does not take it with him to the grave.
Regular readers of Sharyn McCrumb will recognize some characters from her past “ballad novels.” Sheriff Spencer Arrowood makes a relatively brief, but important, appearance in the book, and Nora Bonesteeel, an old woman who converses with the dead as easily as she does with the living, is there to help tie the McCourry generations together. Rather strangely, the book includes a side story that adds little or nothing to the main plot, a storyline involving a sheriff’s deputy who manages to get his foot trapped beneath the wreckage of an old airplane that crashed into the mountain forests decades earlier. Because the book already alternates two distinct storylines, the addition of a third one into the mix, one that really doesn’t go anywhere, is an unnecessary distraction.
Sharyn McCrumb has an interesting family history and, although The Songcatcher is not one of her strongest books, it is worth a look.
Rated at: 3.0 show less
Sharyn McCrumb looked to her own family history as inspiration for The Songcatcher. show more She discovered ancestor Malcolm McCourry while researching another book and framed this story around his real life experiences. McCrumb uses alternating sections within each chapter of the book to recount the events of Malcolm’s life that resulted in him starting a second family in the mountains of North Carolina and the real world plight of Lark McCourry who is reluctantly returning to those same mountains to see her dying father one last time.
As the book progresses from generation to generation, it becomes obvious that Lark McCourry has much in common with her ancestors. Like them, she is basically a loner who manages to keep people at a distance and who suffers a poor relationship with her father, the kind of relationship that so many first-born McCourrys experienced over the years. But the song has survived everything that the family has experienced for more than two hundred years and it is up to Lark McCourry to make sure that her father does not take it with him to the grave.
Regular readers of Sharyn McCrumb will recognize some characters from her past “ballad novels.” Sheriff Spencer Arrowood makes a relatively brief, but important, appearance in the book, and Nora Bonesteeel, an old woman who converses with the dead as easily as she does with the living, is there to help tie the McCourry generations together. Rather strangely, the book includes a side story that adds little or nothing to the main plot, a storyline involving a sheriff’s deputy who manages to get his foot trapped beneath the wreckage of an old airplane that crashed into the mountain forests decades earlier. Because the book already alternates two distinct storylines, the addition of a third one into the mix, one that really doesn’t go anywhere, is an unnecessary distraction.
Sharyn McCrumb has an interesting family history and, although The Songcatcher is not one of her strongest books, it is worth a look.
Rated at: 3.0 show less
Delightful book based on McCrumb's own family history. It brings together the elements of mystery, a bit of mysticism, music, and genealogy in a wonderful blend. One of her best, and the best book I've read in some time.
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plot includes lyrics to Appalachian ballad in Name that Book (January 2012)
Author Information
86+ Works 15,018 Members
Sharyn McCrumb was born in Wilmington, North Carolina on February 26, 1948. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received an M.A. in English from Virginia Tech. Her novels include the Elizabeth MacPherson series and the Ballad series. St. Dale won a 2006 Library of Virginia Award and the Appalachian Writers show more Association Book of the Year Award. Ghost Riders won the Wilma Dykeman Award for Literature and the Audie Award for Best Recorded Book. She has received numerous awards for her work including the Sherwood Anderson Short Story Award, the Perry F. Kendig Award for Achievement in Literary Arts, the Chaffin Award for Southern Literature, and the Plattner Award for Short Story. In 2014, she received the Mary Frances Hobson Prize for Southern Literature by North Carolina's Chowan University. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Songcatcher
- Original title
- The Songcatcher
- Original publication date
- 2001-06
- People/Characters
- Spencer Arrowood; Nora Bonesteel; Lark McCourry; John Walker; Malcolm McCourry; Baird Christopher (show all 7); Joe LeDonne
- Important places
- North Carolina, USA; Appalachia, USA
- Related movies
- The movie by the same name, starring Aiden Quinn and Janet McTeer is NOT related.
- Epigraph
- The Rowan Stave
Upon the hill above the kirk at moon rise she did stand
To tend her sheep that Samhain ever, with rowan stave in hand.
And where she'd been what what she'd seen, no living soul may know.
And wh... (show all)en she's come back home, she will be changed - oh!
First stanza of 5 - Dedication
- For My Friends of Song
Betty Smith
Sweetwater (Shelly Stevens, Shari wolf & Cindy Funk)
Jack Hinshelwood - First words
- The old man in the lawn chair had visitors already.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And in the darkened backroom at Dent's Cafe, Spencer Arrowood sang.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Mystery, General Fiction, Historical Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 813.54 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PS3563 .C3527 .S66 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1961-
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 800
- Popularity
- 34,499
- Reviews
- 21
- Rating
- (3.89)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 15
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 4
