Originally Published to Mailing-List:
Sunday, November 20, 2022
Rumble & Scream: The Word, Issue #2
“In this time in particular, this day in particular, this time of my life. I feel much more comfortable being myself. It’s soul music. I think that’s what I am. I think I’m a soul singer. Because you have to connect with your soul in a way… I feel more like me.”
—Tom Petty, Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free - The Making of Wildflowers
Most musicians will confirm: the second-hardest part of starting a band (after you’ve rounded up some players, of course) is usually coming up with a name. The most challenging, though, is deciding what genre of music to tell people it is that you make.
Aristotle’s Poetics defined categorizations for dividing poetry circa 335 BC, which means genre-labeling is literally an ancient tradition and issue. As frustratingly tedious as it can become, being able to easily communicate what it is you do or create to other humans really is a pretty obvious and logical necessity, at least if you partake in society at all. Regardless of any ability to grasp the practicality of the concept, it’s a thing I’ve struggled with for a very long time—long before I was a songwriter or musician.
For as long as I can remember, the question: “What kind of music do you like?” has felt odd, confusing, and overwhelming. What’s your favorite air? Good. Fresh. Oxygenated.
As an elder-millennial, I can recall the sound of connecting to the internet as nostalgically as the sound of FM radio before Clear Channel’s $17.4 billion deal on October 3, 1999—resulting in a single company owning “830 radio stations… in 32 countries.” They swallowed small stations up along with their unique media content like rivers meeting the ocean, becoming diluted, briney, and ultimately undrinkable.
Thankfully, before any of us knew the gift of decent radio, there were records.
Sample of J.T.’s record collection.
In rural Central Pennsylvania where I’ve lived the majority of my life, it’s often taken an hour’s drive to get to a music store—twice that if you’re looking for any variety. Before streaming, being a music fan here meant that making friends with fellow music enthusiasts was vital from my youth on into my twenties. Finding friends with diverse music collections and good taste was something else, something deeper, powerful, spiritual—religious. Basements, bedrooms, kitchens, garages, sheds, broke-down campers, and beat-up rusted junkers of all makes and models could become sacred spaces when busted speakers bumped with the perfect soundtrack for that place and moment in time.
By that definition, gathering around a fire is another type of service all its own. The warm crackle, pop, and hiss has always felt like setting the needle down on an evening. Often that’s meant for intimate listening; occasionally, roaring blazes have ushered impassioned, chaotic, outbursts with a variety of outcomes. And when juxtaposed against the mountain’s drone of insects, frog-songs, howling packs of coyotes, or trees whispering their secret syllables—each vibration can hold the potential to elicit mythical, primitive emotional experiences.
To our ancestors, this was known as existence. But we may still tap into this energy—if only for a moment, we can feel a sense of relief, peace, connectedness, or perhaps just content.
Good. Fresh. Oxygenated.
Referring to Genesis 2:7, Wendell Berry writes, “The breath of God is only one of the divine gifts that make us living souls; the other is the dust. Most of our modern troubles come from our misunderstanding and misvaluation of this dust.”
Image of Appalshop Headquarter’s in Whitesburg, KY, July 2022 from wvpublic.org.
On July 28, 2022, historic flooding crashed through Berry’s state and surrounding regions, especially areas of Eastern Kentucky and Southern Virginia, leaving devastation in its wake. One of the hardest hit areas included Whitesburg, KY, which is home to Appalshop.
In the words of modern folk music masters, The Local Honeys, “For those of you that don’t know Appalshop, they are an artist collective and media institute that has been making art and media in the mountains since 1969.”
As a folklorist, folk musician, and fan, it was awful to watch unfold from afar. The images I saw on social media and news outlets felt very familiar, having spent much of my life in an Appalachian valley, but also from having studied the Johnstown Flood extensively in Pennsylvania History courses, and touring the Flood Museum in Cambria County, PA.
I wasn’t raised Catholic, but I learned to understand the concept of purgatory during this period of several very long weeks—as my wildest dreams hung suspended in time.
Image of post-flood cleanup at the Appalachian Luthier School from kentucky.com.
You see, just prior to the flood striking Eastern Kentucky, I’d been contacted by Appalshop, and informed that I was to receive a grant through the Appal Seed Fund.
So I spent those weeks watching the news and social media feeds for updates, preparing for the worst, hoping for the best—for everyone’s sake.
Though Appalshop lost archives, and my sponsor, WMMT’s studio was destroyed, along with major damage to their signal tower; they are rebuilding, moving forward in new ways. For example, WMMT, a Listener-Supported, Consumer-Run Mountain Public Radio Station, is set to begin broadcasting live radio again soon—out of a remodeled RV on donated equipment.
And as the waters receded, I learned that the funding was indeed still in place; my Appalshop team and a cohort of fellow grant recipients met to discuss our projects.
Drawing/Collage by J.T. featuring logos of WMMT 88.7 FM - Possum Radio, Appalshop, Rumble & Scream, “YT” ie, Yours Truly (J.T.’s first band, whose clubhouse looked a lot like this camper), with a quote from the Rancid song, “Indestructible.”
For me personally, that means it’s time to announce the forthcoming debut of Rumble & Scream: An Original Alt. Folk-Blues & Psych. Rock-n-Soul Opera; or Post-Modern Sounds in Pennsylkrainia, written and composed by J.T. Temchack. We’re planning our release for sometime in the latter-half of 2023 on WMMT 88.7 FM, streaming online—with more details and dates to come.
Rumble & Scream, the opera, is set in Central Pennsylkrainia—a remote scattering of former coal mining villages in Pennsylvania’s Appalachian region—and follows the story of Jeremiah Scream as he negotiates encounters with layoffs, repossession, eviction, trauma (personal, generational, cultural, spiritual), environmental collapse, mental illness, violence, substance abuse, grief, faith, and love.
The musical compositions—true to the aforementioned genres—were primarily created with a parlor-sized Gretsch acoustic guitar named Ishmael, a harmonica, or a 25 year-old hiking stick, in hand.
J.T.’s Gretsch, known as Ishmael, alongside hiking stick, and Hohner Marine Band Harmonica.
I’ve since brought on board my longtime friend and musical collaborator, Justin Kasubick, to record bass, guitar, and melodica. It’s been wild to realize that we’ve been making noise together for almost as long as I’ve had that hiking stick! Our rehearsals have really come a long way, and I am truly thrilled to begin sharing some examples of the hard work we’ve put into developing Rumble & Scream as more than a band, instead, it’s a hillbilly chamber orchestra designed for producing Post-Industrial Mountain Music.
I’m also exceptionally proud of the award-winning poets, writers, and editors I’ve assembled to help me fine tune this work into the best thing we are capable of building. Thank you to Rebecca Faulkner, Megan Rilkoff, and Zac Furlough for believing in this project from the beginning.
And none of this would be possible without my dear Bethany Temchack, whose love, support, and more than I’ll ever explain in a newsletter, keeps our ship afloat, and keeps me from drifting too far out at sea!
Thanks to you as well, my good buddy, for reading this essay, and for already offering your support in various ways. I look forward to sharing this journey with you, all in due time.
Until then, our next gig is Black Friday, November 25, at Bella Terra Winery in Bedford, PA.
Please spread the big news with any folks you think may be interested. Any violin, cello, or bowed bass players that would like to be considered for recording needs should send a song sample with their instrument in the subject line to: rumbleandscream@gmail.com.
Endless gratitude to the folks at Appalshop and WMMT for helping me tell this story! If you have the time and the means, I encourage you to explore Appalshop and WMMT’s websites, and donate to the ongoing flood relief efforts, here.
Alrighty. That’s enough for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, if you are so fortunate.
Take care,
J.T. Temchack
Rumble & Scream | Hillbillibrettist-Bard | Folk-Artist
