Tails and Tunes Along Rugby Creek

by Joe Riggs ( December, 2006)

This is a story about a labor of love and how one person conceived an idea for a philosophically worthwhile project and brought it to fruition in 2006. The person is Vicki Stuckert, and as she tells the story of its beginning—well, on second thought, you will just have to hear that from her. I will pick it up at the point where she first encountered the setting of the Rugby Creek Horse Rescue Project. She and her husband,Tom, stayed at Rugby Creek Cabin in southwestern Virginia one evening, and learned that the cabin was rented out to help subsidize the operation of the Rugby Creek Horse Rescue Project (HRP) and the farm where the cabin was located.

Upon touring the farm and hearing of its activities in rescuing, rehabilitating, and caring for horses and other needy and neglected and abused animals, Vicki decided that she wanted to contribute more than a check to the HRP, and the idea for her project was born. She had recently published a book of cowboy tunes from the 1800’s (Songs of the Cowboy), and as she began researching native Virginia music and musicians, she amplified her search to include more than horse and cowboy songs, and began to dig out other songs with a Virginia connection.

The first outline of her project included a CD and a companion songbook with words, general tab for guitar, musical notation, and special tab for lap dulcimer. Then one day during a rehearsal at Wayne Henderson’s house, Vicki met renowned artist Willard Gayheart, who kindly offered to draw the cover for the song book, and so a print was added to the plan for the HRP.

My part in Tails and Tunes Along Rugby Creek began one day in the spring of 2006 when Bryan Bowers called and asked me to call Vicki and talk about Kilby Snow and the HRP benefit CD, and gave me her contact information. Bryan explained that Vicki’s husband, Tom, was a fan of Kilby Snow’s music and style, and they wanted the CD to include something reminiscent of Kilby, a native Virginian. I called right away, and we talked as though we were old friends right from the start.

Before we hung up, we had made plans for a meeting in Cana, Virginia, on the second day of May, 2006. There we were to meet with Wesley Easter of Eastwood Studios, and Vicki and I had settled on “Old Gospel Ship” for me to do with autoharp and vocal, in the key of D. On that morning, my wife, Ellie, and I drove up to Virginia, stopping along the way at two quilt shops, and eating lunch in historic Mt. Airy, aka Mayberry, NC, just a few minutes south of Cana, VA, and Eastwood Studios. We were met at the door of Wesley’s studio by Vicki, who introduced us to Wesley and to her daughter, Carrie, a violin virtuoso; we quickly learned that Vicki displays her own virtuosity on the lap dulcimer. Not long after, Don Pedi arrived, and then Wayne Henderson, Emily Spencer, and Deb Bramer. We took turns recording around a central microphone in the old-time way, and enjoyed a sense of camaraderie in our collective musical contributions to the HRP and our common love of the music. It was one of t hose days that I always want to relive over and over, but will never happen again, except in my memory.

Shortly after that came the California Autoharp Gathering with Jim Snow, then the close of the school year, the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering followed by summer school, and then the opening of the new school year in August. Before I knew it, October was upon us and I received two parcels from Vicki; one contained the CD Tails and Tunes Along Rugby Creek, the companion song book of the same name, and some photos taken by Vicki of the HRP farm and its residents and operators. The other parcel contained the 22 x 17 print that Willard Gayheart had created for the book cover. The print contains all the musicians featured on the CD, with instruments, plus likenesses of two who were there in spirit, Kate O’Neill Peters Sturgill (Deep Settled Peace) and Kilby Snow (Old Gospel Ship), whose gossamer images on either side frame the other musicians, the log cabin, horses and rider, and the mountains beyond.

“Deep, Settled Peace,” number five on the CD, bit me instantly and wouldn’t let go until I grabbed the harp and started playing along with it. All cuts on the CD are tastefully evocative and beg to be played and sung along with by the listener. The companion book is its own treasure of information about the provenance of the selections, often with photos and editor’s notes. Here are the selections performed on the CD and a list of participating artists: Carry Me Back To Old Virginny, The Appaloosa Trail, The Ballad of Caty Sage, Clinch Mountain Backstep, Deep Settled Peace, My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains, The Old Gospel Ship, Rose Hill Train, The Salet Song, Sally Goodin, Sarah Hogan, The Story of Freda Bolt, Sugar in the Gourd, Wreck of the Old Southern ’97; artists are Wayne Henderson, Emily Spencer, Deb Bramer, Don Pedi, Joe Riggs, Papa Joe Smiddy, Dr. Joe Smiddy, Willard Gayheart, Thornton Spencer, John Lowell, Martha Spencer, Carrie Stuckert, and Vicki Stuckert, wi th Wesley Easter on sound. Besides the selections on the CD, the book also contains a number of other songs which are not on the CD, with notes: Cowboy Waltz, Doney Gal, East Virginia, I Ride an Old Paint, New River Train, Old Molly Hare, Rosewood Casket, Sally Ann, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, and one of my favorites, The Zebra Dun.

There you have it; a multimedia feast of listening, print, and visual art. I recommend the complete package for $50, which goes directly to the HRP. Please place your order as follows: Vicki Stuckert, 1600 Eastview Drive, Findlay, OH 45840, Phone 419 424 4096. CD only, $15; Book only, $15; CD and Book Combo, $25; Willard’s beautiful print (22 x 17) only, $20 plus $5 S/H; Complete Package CD, Book, Print is $50.