Doodad
Soundtrack to a Ghost Story
Ten musicians investigate a haunted house and come away with new stories about the afterlife
By Janet Kenworthy
It is all one big story. There are chapters, and
parts: characters evolving, places changing, events altering the circumstances as well as the geography, people and things circling back over time to enrich the narrative. As the story grows, the sections have titles, more for reference than description. It helps us to find our way back to that time. This section is called the Poplar Knight Spot, October 2009 to October 2015. A young band came over from Nashville to celebrate the opening of a new chapter of our musical story. Josh Britt plays mandolin with that band, the Farewell Drifters. And stories are his thing. He is part of ours, and now we are bringing one of his to Aberdeen. I am very proud to present the Orphan Brigade, in concert, and a showing of the accompanying film, Soundtrack to a Ghost Story.
For Britt, a story conveys feelings rather than feel. A good storyteller describes and explains the emotional goings on, rather than reporting the physical experience. He feels the same way about songs, which to his telling are stories set to music. Josh grew up listening to all kinds of songs, many of which had the effects of stories. Songs bring back images, and strong memories. He met his wife in a music store. Lisa worked there, knew cooler stuff, and had very different tastes in music than Josh. A huge movie buff, especially when it comes to the music that, in many cases, makes the movie, she introduced him to bands that had that one cut on the soundtrack, a B-side that never had any traction in the commercial sense. The Britts have their own incredible playlist thanks to the combination of their audio collections. Jump from that oral tradition of storytelling to a modern childhood, and different ways to share a tale. There was always music in his household. Early on, video was added. There is footage of Josh performing kids’ songs, with his own verses, ice cream soliloquies, all recorded to be replayed at family gatherings. The Britts watched, and still watch, lots of movies. Their town has a time machine in the form of a video rental store, buy one get one, where you can revisit all sorts of childhoods. The go-to for Josh is Beetlejuice. That was the start of a romance with ghosts and hauntings.
Sleepy Hollow, The Tell Tale Heart, Ghostbusters; great stories all, but they pale when graced with the opportunity to experience a place certainly filled with ghosts. Josh gathered a group of artists to write, record and film their reactions to the stories they found at the Octagon Hall, a Civil War-era plantation house which has a reputation for being haunted. The house was built by Andrew Jackson Caldwell, a Confederate sympathizer, in the mid-1800s. He lived there until his death in 1866. His second wife, Harriet, stayed on until 1918. The Orphan Brigade was the nickname of the First Kentucky Brigade, whose soldiers were stationed near the house during the Civil War. Journals and poetry, written by those who fought in the area, gave very personal and intimate accounts of their experiences, providing inspiration for Britt and fellow songwriter Ben Glover, and film producer Neilson Hubbard. The trio — along with singers Gretchen Peters, Kim Richey, Kris Donegan, Heather Donegan, Dean Marold, Eamon McLoughlin and Dan Mitchell, pitched camp in the Octagon Hall, over a period of months, and set about creating a soundtrack to the ghost stories they were hearing. And stories they did hear. The house itself was generous in evoking mood and design. Its rooms held secrets and dreams, nightmares too, that seeped out over time. Some were teased by a psychic, a first time visitor to Octagon. She made specific comments as to the previous inhabitants of particular rooms, and the events that transpired. Her comments were corroborated by the coincidental sounds recorded on audio and video: the weeping of an old woman, the definitive cries of a baby from a room used as a nursery. Others were measured by ghost hunters, folks that research paranormal activity with technical tools such as a K2 meter that registers change in magnetic fields. Ghost hunters see these alterations in electromagnetic energy as evidence of significant activity or communication from spirits on the other side. For Josh, it was entertaining. Then it became philosophical. The songs, the friendships, and the project that came from this place are parts of the story. The questions that arose from the experience are the real story. Serious questions about how we live, how we are in relation to others, and most seriously, if there is a presence after life, what does that say about our lives? How will we be remembered, if at all? The easy answer is that we will be remembered by our stories. Josh Britt went on from that October 2009 to make two albums with the Farewell Drifters and travel to Japan, China and all over the States. The band is still touring. He and Lisa have since had two children. Our paths cross frequently, though not in Aberdeen. That changes this month with the film showing at Poplar Knight Spot, October 25, followed by a concert from the band that created the film. The film will also air at the Cameo Arthouse Theater, October 24, followed by a Q & A session with the writers. The story continues. PS Janet Kenworthy watches birds of every feather from her nest in Aberdeen.
PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 2015
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