APPALACHIAN ROOTS - Short Artist Biography

Growing up during the 1950s and 60s in Southern Appalachia, Carol Ponder listened to all kinds of music. Although her family's Appalachian roots are deep, she was teethed on classical music as well as old family songs and other folk music. In THE OXFORD AMERICAN, Grant Alden wrote that her "rich, well-mannered voice" reflects both influences, and "the result is just a step lighter and less formal than Odetta."

She first performed onstage in her Uncle Hubert Hayes's Mountain Youth Jamboree in Asheville NC in 1958 at the age of four, playing the autoharp and singing "Lazy John" and "The Cherry Riddle." She learned and sang folk songs from that time on, learning to play guitar, and spoons as a young teenager. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the early 1970s, she began giving academic as well as artistic attention to a cappella ballad singing, developing a style that was satisfying to sing, and that would please folklorists, the general public - and her family.

For the next 30 years, Carol developed rich careers in theatrical performance (she has appeared in well over 150 professional productions, many of which made use of her skills as a singer, instrumentalist, and music director) and in education through the arts (she is a published author in the field). She continued singing throughout all other endeavors, but when she hit her mid-forties she found that she was "compelled by some inner mandate to return to her Appalachian roots and sing ballads."

Since 1998, she has been putting her music first and a cappella ballads at the heart of it, although in performance she also plays guitar, autoharp, and spoons with accomplishment. Her repertoire comprises not only old ballads and folk songs, but also new ballads and songs written in the old styles. Carol is working both to preserve and extend the Southern Mountain and Folk traditions, and through her music to remind all people that they have voices and that each person has a birthright in music.

Since 1998 Carol has produced two CDs that received critical and popular acclaim, Pretty Bird: A Cappella Ballads in the Southern Mountain Tradition, and Little Journeys: A Cappella Ballads and Folk Songs. She is currently collaborating with guitarist, John Knowles, on a CD of songs related to American wars. Three other CDs are in the works.

Since 1998 she has appeared regularly in Nashville (no mean feat!) at venues including: Radio Café, The Basement, Bongo After Hours, The Station Inn, Backstage at the Barn, Café du Temple, and James Ben's Gallery.

In 2000, Carol represented the state of Tennessee with a solo concert on the Millennium Stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

In 2002 Carol received the Tennessee Arts Commission's annual Fellowship in Music, a grant of $5,000 for artistic excellence.

In 2003 for the Tennessee Performing Arts Center Education Department, she did two teacher concerts at the Blair School of Music, and five student concerts in TPAC's Polk Theatre (1,000 seats).

FOR UPCOMING PERFORMANCES, SEE SCHEDULE PAGE

She also has played:

• The Appalachian and Bluegrass Festival, Ulster American Folk Park, Omagh, Northern Ireland, September 2002.
• The Memphis Center for the Arts, eight student and two teacher concerts in July and November of 2002, and January 2003
• Caffe' Lena - Saratoga Springs, NY
• Four Corners - New London, NH
• Cannon County (TN) Arts Center
• Woodstock (IL) Folk Festival - Mainstage and Children's Stage
• The Acoustic Sounds Café, Little Rock, AR, opening concert set
• Cumberland County Playhouse, Mainstage, Crossville, TN
• Charles and Myrtles Coffee House - Chattanooga, TN (three engagements)
• Kirkland Art Center - Clinton, NY
• Rome Art Center - Rome, NY
• Utica Monday Night - Utica, NY
• Series of 14 public, school, and teacher concerts through the Central New York Council for the Arts - Utica, NY
• Guest soloist with the Tennessee Dance Theatre Civil War project - Nashville, TN
• Actors Canteen, house concerts - Cherokee NC
• Tennessee Songwriters Association, lecture/demonstration with Producer/Manager Robert Kiefer

Carol has been an in-studio guest on:

• FM 102.9, Omagh, Northern Ireland, with Frank Gallagan
• WAMC with Wanda Fischer (Hudson River Sampler), Albany, NY
• WFDU with Ron Olesko (Traditions), Teaneck, NJ
• WPLN with Rebecca Bain, Nashville, TN
• WANT with Christie Ray (Front Porch), Lebanon, TN