Echoes of the Hills: Kentuckys Traditonal Music. With guest speaker Ronald A. Pen

Coming to Estill Co. public Library, Ron Pen will be giving a talk about Kentuckys traditional music, history, and more! Ron is a professor emeritus of music at the University of Kentucky where he was also Founding Director of the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music. He served as Associate Director, Coordinator of the Division of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, and Director of Appalachian Studies at UK. His research is focused on traditional Appalachian culture with recent publications including I Wonder As I Wander: The Life of John Jacob Niles, “Preservation and “Presentation of the Folk: Forging an American Identity” in Music, American Made, and “Somewhere’s On the Track” in Appalachia in Regional Context. Currently he is writing a book on traditional Appalachian musician Jean Ritchie under contract to the University Press of Kentucky. Ron is also active as a musician, performing on piano, organ, dulcimer, and fiddle. As a member of the Red State Ramblers string band, he participated in U.S. State Department sponsored travels to Kyrgyzstan, China, Ecuador, and Italy. He is a founding member of the Appalachian Association of Sacred Harp Singers with whom he sang on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion radio program and has lead singing schools throughout the Southeast. As an “engaged musicologist,” Ron participated in Shapes of Water/Sounds of Hope,” a multi-year performance art collaboration involving Sufi dhikr chant and shape note singing in Lancashire, United Kingdom. Current musical activity includes hosting an Old Time Music jam Monday evenings at Old North in Lexington and Sacred Harp Singing with the Appalachian Association of Sacred Harp Singers.