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Balladeer Comes to Mars Hill
by Sabrina Greene
Those who enjoy love stories and songs will like the traditional ballads sung by Melanie Rice. Rice is an eighth generation ballad singer from Madison County, and many of her favorite ballads are about lovers.
Rice is one of many local artists who performed Saturday, Oct. 4, at the annual Bascom Lamar Lunsford Festival on the Mars Hill College Campus.
Rice considers herself lucky to have acquired the old traditions.
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She was born and raised in Sodom, which is on Shelton Laurel in Madison County, and she has been performing professionally since she was just a child.
Rice has a rich background of traditional music. Her mother took her to local music festivals when she was very small. On a clip from one of the early Lunsford Festivals, she can be heard as a little girl singing, "Can't You Hear Jerusalem Mourn."
She didn't have a bit of stage fright, even at that early age.
"I remember the first time I was on stage in my life," recalled Rice during a recent interview at the college. "I was three years old, and my momma held me up to the mike so I could sing. The only thing I can remember about that was the bright lights and the dark faces looking at me."
She has been traveling and singing ever since.
Her ancestors came to this country from Scotland and Ireland, and that is where the ballads she sings came from. In the days before they moved over here to America, the men generally passed down the ballads, but after they arrived here, the women in the families picked it up. They also retained their musical traditions, and Shelton Laurel became a hotbed for music.
Rice considers herself lucky to have acquired the old traditions because they are fading away fast. "It is sad," she says. In her own generation, she and her cousin Donna Norton have taken a personal interest in learning the ballads and passing them on. Her mother, Sheila Kay Adams, learned from local ballad singer Della Norton. Adams' own grandmother died when Adams was a child, and she adopted Dellie to be her new "Granny Dell." Adams passed the songs on to her daughter Melanie. Now they hope to pass the tradition on to Donna's daughter one day.
Rice is constantly learning new ballads, and her favorite right now would have to be "Young Hunting." When she sings, the story seems to come to life, and the music takes you away to another place and time. She seems to allow herself to be taken away as well.
Rice received a degree in Psychology and minored in Regional Studies at Mars Hill College. She has a master's degree in Appalachian Studies from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. She is returning to live back in Sodom this fall. She says she still holds this place close to her heart.
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