A songcatcher is a person who uncovers
old ballads and folk
song which are largely forgotten, and records them to bring them back into the modern day. In her book, The Songcatcher, Sharyn McCrumb gives the reader a story of an such almost forgotten tune.
As a young boy in Scotland, Malcolm McCourry is kidnapped by sailors to work aboard their ship in 1751. Malcolm learns the song “The Rowan Stave” from a fellow sailor during his ten
years aboard ship. When Malcolm finally disembarks in the
new world, he makes his way to Morristown, New Jersey. There he meets the Freeman
family and is given an apprectiship with Benjamin Freeman as a lawyer. Malcolm marries the Rachel Freeman, Benjamin’s daughter, and settles into
law practice with his father-in-law to provide for his growing family. After many years, Malcolm tires of the law practice, and leaves his wife and family to begin a new life in the Appalachian Mountains. He is 50 years old, with no intentions of ever returning to New Jersey. He meets a 15 year old girl who agrees to be his bride. The author is the great-great-great granddaughter of Malcolm through this second marriage.
Chapters interspersed with the McCourry family story is the community life of Hamelin, Tennessee. Characters that reoccur throughout the Ballad series of books by author McCrumb are back again, including Nora Bonesteel, who can talk to the dead, Sheriff Spencer Arrowood and Deputy Joe LeDonne.
Joe LeDonne decides to hike a portion of the near-by Appalachian Trail in celebration of his birthday. Off the Trail, he comes upon airplane crash. He learns, after his eventual rescue, this
plane was carrying folk singer Bonnie Wolfe back home to the mountains looking for a song she once heard: “The Rowan Stave” While checking out the crash site, the plane accidentally falls on Joe, trapping his leg. He has no cell phone with him. His shouts for help go unanswered, and he eventually realizes he is most likely to die trapped where no one would think to look for him.
A private plane carrying Lark McCourry crashes in the mountains, trapping her in the plane. She is able to use her cell phone to call 911, but unfortunately, the pilot is dead, and Lark does not know exactly where the plane has crashed. Ben Hawkins, the 911 operator who receives her call, notifies the sheriff departments for both Tennessee and North Carolina. In trying to keep Lark conscious and talking, Hawkins asks why she is coming to the area. Lark tells him about her search for an old ballad, and asks him to contact Nora Bonesteel to find out if she remembers the words to the old tune, which turns out to be “The Rowan Stave”.
As Malcolm’s family winds through the years, children following children, we are taken with them through the civil war and beyond to Lark’s grandmother, who knows the identity of a local well-known murderer and that knowledge scars her for the rest of her life, right down to Lark’s father and Lark herself. In the end, the two stories intertwine in a surprising but satisfying way. There is much history here, but also plenty of adventure. McCrumb has a way of telling a mesmerizing tale.
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