The Seven Legacies

Artist: Christy Dunn
Installation: 2016

Location: 100 W Main St, Mountain City, TN 37683. At the intersection of Main and Church. On the South East side of side facing Church.

These murals were part of a community project, each one is dedicated to an influential recording by a Johnson County musician.

1 – House of the Rising Sun by Clarence “Tom” Ashley
Artists: Michael Eggers & Andy Wright
Clarence “Tom” Ashley preformed the oldest known recording this now famous folk song in 1933. The song itself was already a folk tune when Ashley learned it from his grandfather, however it was his recordings that brought this version out of the mines of Appalachia and into the living rooms of America. There is an irony in that it is suggested that this song has its roots in English folk music, but that it was the purely Appalachian version Ashley made popular that the Animals used in their famous 1964 cover of the song.

2 – Handsome Molly by G.B. Grayson
Artists: Ina Bellamy & Jason Hughes
This ballad was first recorded by the blind fiddle player G.B. Grayson, and demonstrates Appalachia’s deep cultural ties to the music of Ireland. Since that first recording it had become a staple of Old Time and Bluegrass music.

3 – Amazing Grace by Clarence “Tom” Ashley
Artists: J.P. Burnham, Pam Steinke, and Nancie Svensen
Clarence “Tom” Ashley composed and recorded the arrangement of this classical hymn that is now sung in churches all over the world.

4 – Train 45 by G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter
Artists: Temple Reece & Karen Ann Barr
G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter first recorded this song in 1927, it is derived from a older tune called “Rueben’s Train”

5 – Tom Dooley by G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter
Artists: Karen Rose & LeAnna Garrett
G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter recorded this ballad in 1929. This traditional Appalachian folksong has special importance to the people of Mountain City because Tom Dula was captured in Johnson County, by G.B. Grayson’s uncle Colonel James Grayson. “Dooley” is a phonetic pronunciation of Tom’s last name, “Dula”.

6 – The Ballard of Finley Preston by Fred Price, Clint Howard and Sons
Artists: Bob and Pam Patterson & Jinny McCormick
This later recording of the song was made in 1972, but is still just #0009 on the Rounder Records label. It is the story of the local events that lead to the hanging of a convicted murderer on the grounds of the Old Courthouse in Mountain City. Hypertext last scentance

7 – Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley’s
Artists: Tommi Mayo & Theresa White
This album included music by some of Johnson County’s finest, Clarence “Tom” Ashley, Doc Watson, Fred Price, and Clint Howard. It was Doc Watson’s very first album and was introduced into the National Recording Registry in 2013 alongside music’s greats Simon & Garfunkel’s the Sound of Silence and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.