Nonnie Presson: Biography

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• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

• Guy Carawan
• Candie Carawan
• Mike Seeger
• The Red Clay Ramblers

• Riley Puckett
• Charlie Poole
• Gid Tanner
• Will Warren
• Jimmie Rodgers
• Kirk McGee

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World & International Music

This Appalachian musician has the distinction of being the one of the only American players of the zither in the old-time style. She is known for several different collaborations with her brother Bulow Smith, including the Perry County Music Makers, a group which recorded a series of records for Vocalion in 1930. The County label scored considerable success reissuing one of these tracks, "Sad and Blue," in the '70s. Her music with Smith stands out not only because of her use of the zither, but because of the deeply moving vocal harmonies the two work out for both traditional and original material. Presson plays a larger than usual, custom made zither, but even if it was a standard issue zither it would still not be an instrument every young student in town wants to learn. Things weren't always this way for the zither, many of which were stuffed into the suitcases, tote bags, and steamer trunks the first waves of German immigrants brought to the United States in the turn of the 19th century. Any American city with a large German population would have had a zither society. Any dissapearing act played by this element of the culture doesn't faze Presson, who developed a zither style totally unlike the original Austrian model. She originally picked up the instrument when a friend of her fathers happened to give one away. Her family lived in a tiny cabin, and she remembers her father arriving home one day, walking through the forest and up the road, all the time strumming the zither. This "commenced a fascination" as might have been said then and there, and in what is something of a cliché in folklore legends, the child began sneaking the instrument out when father was away. It wasn't her first musical venture, as she already enjoyed playing harmonica duets with her mother. She had also heard quite a bit of music that she liked from a local banjo player, Will Warren. Some of the first of the more advanced tunes she began learning on the zither were originally banjo pieces Warren played, such as "Hollow Poplar" and "Black Satin." Her brother's birth marked the second musically-inclined child in the family. He also came under the sway of banjo man Warren, although the mentor was not able to keep his student from switching to the guitar once he could pick out a few tunes on the banjo. Presson learned to read music, but her brother didn't. This never caused a problem in their musical interaction and they soon began playing for dances in the area, sometimes topping the group up with fiddle and banjo. Some of the gigs were a bit high energy for a zither player, and it was a case of "Poor Nonnie" when the lass would get in from a square dance breakdown with her arm hanging like a wet dishrag. Their father had an influence that went beyond just bringing home strange instruments. He was a music teacher in four southern states and published a technical pamphlet in 1912, something to do with a self-invented gadget that could supposedly transpose keys. A simply greater influence on the brother and sister than any one individual was the beginning of the availability of phonograph records. It had a much bigger impact than radio, because in and around and about these Tennessee hollows radio reception got a trifle fizzy. Presson learned "On the Beach" off an Edison cylinder, for example, and continued broadening her musical vocabulary via the time honored tradition of checking out sides. She branched into Hawaiian music as well as hillbilly artists, such as Charlie Poole. They began broadcasting from Nashville over WTNT in the late '20s, and on these programs hooked up with a harmonica player named Henry Bone who wound up taking them on the road with him. Bone tightened the ensemble up with touring and then made a demonstration recording for the Brunswick scouts. This led to the group's recording session in Knoxville; despite having hustled the session and made the arrangements, Bone's harp blowing was not to the liking of the producers and he was not allowed to play a note on any of the four songs that were cut. All these tracks were recorded as first takes, with no mistakes. The songs, including "I'm Sad and Blue," were all in the traditional vein but composed by Presson; the sketchy royalty accounting that followed the releases, re-releases, and re-mastered re-re-releases apparently discouraged her from putting too much effort into writing and recording her own songs. Fans of her songwriting wish that she had either been more thick-skinned or treated more fairly so that there might have been a larger catalog of her songs created over the years. The selection that have been recorded are considered on the level of much more well-known Appalachian country songwriters such as Dolly Parton or Hazel Dickens. Once these records were first released, Presson formed a new band with another brother, "Jackie Daniels," performing comedy skits as well as music. They did many covers of Jimmie Rodgers material, and appropriately enough wound up getting grounded mid-tour by the combined force of the Depression and the Dust Bowl. The charity given to the stranded musicians by one family in Lincoln, AR, led Presson to write a song entitled "Take Me to Lincoln." This is one example of the intensely personal nature of her songwriting. She still performs a song she wrote when she ten years old, and also has said there are songs she will not perform because the memories associated with them are too painful. The material of her and Smith is in a strictly old-time style, sounding as if the music known as bluegrass had never happened. During the Depression Presson and her brother stayed in Nashville, trying to make money as musicians but also keeping day jobs. They landed a weekly WSIZ show called Bonnie and Bulow, the Melody Pair and toured in a variety show called ~Toby's Comedians. They also worked with a fiddler named Sid Harkreader, who had just left the band of Uncle Dave Macon. Then, both brother and sister made the same decisions to get married, settle down, and retire from music. Instruments were dumped in closets. The zither began to rust and spring leaks. In the 70s an interested school superintendant got Presson to clean out her closet and perform at the local ~Harvest Festival. But the instrument was in absolutely no condition to be played, and the craftsmen in the area who worked on acoustic instruments had hardly even seen a zither before. But the show went on with the sounds of a reunited brother and sister's music charming the crowd. It was the first time they had played together in 25 years, and the success of the event led them to dig out old songs as well as write new ones. They spent their last years with a newly formed the Perry County Music Makers and were continually planning new releases as well as recording with neighboring old-time music historians Guy and Candie Carawan.

- Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide