For more information:
• Kentucky Folklife Program, Kentucky Historical Society, 100 W. Broadway, Frankfort, KY 40601, (502) 564-1792

Producer: Donna Ross

Just Us Folks

Festival of Kentucky Folklife

Usually, Kentucky Life travels around the state to capture a variety of Kentucky sights and sounds. This time, we let the state come to us as we visit the 1997 Festival of Kentucky Folklife, a showcase mounted by the Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort to celebrate Kentucky’s occupational, ethnic, and family traditions.

Host Byron Crawford tries his hand at a variety of traditional tasks: He throws lines with towboat pilot Lou Webb of Erlanger and learns how the famous stone fences of the Bluegrass region were built from Richard Tufnell, a Scot who teaches seminars on restoring them. The program also includes an explanation of “mussel brailling,” a method of harvesting mussels for their shells, which are used to generate pearls within oysters in Japan.

And what’s a party without food and music? Watch as parishioners from St. Mary Magdalene Church in Owensboro smoke up some award-winning barbecue and listen to the sounds of Kentucky’s diverse ethnic traditions, from the Mexican quartet Cuarteco Romance to the Rabbit Hash String Band.