My Mountains…Forever Home

Shaconage

For years now, one of the things I thought about myself, is that I would leave this area of the country and move north. When someone talked to me, one could hear it in my tone and my voice. I wanted out. When the opportunities presented themselves to leave the hills, the opportunities would dissipate and I would be stuck in this area. I’ve been so ready to leave, that I’ve nearly forgotten how amazing and beautiful this area is. For those who don’t know, I live in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee. One of my heroes (which I’m sure you know) is Dolly Parton. Dolly grew up about 30 minutes from where I live. She has been a big inspiration for me for a long time. Someone recently asked me when I started being a Dolly fan. I honestly have no idea. I’ve just always adored her. I felt like I’ve always known of her and known her. I would go to her museum at Dollywood as a child and just soak it up. I would marvel at things like her Coat of Many Colors (which inspired one of her biggest hits), and her first record on the Goldband label, “Puppy Love.” She was always someone I felt like I had a kinship with. I’ve read her autobiography Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business about 34 times. I know that woman. Even now, when I see her on TV or in person…my heart flutters and I’m speechless. Even now, in Dolly’s new museum “Chasing Rainbows,” I wonder around and get filled with inspiration.

I started working at Dollywood in 2006, and I loved it. Things happened in my job where I didn’t love it so much. When I quit in 2008, I went on an anti-Dolly tirade. I didn’t want anything to do with her. I got rid of a lot of my Dolly paraphernalia that I’d accumulated for so long. A week before Dollywood opened this season, my family all got our season passes renewed for this season. A great friend of mine that works at the park gave…yes…gave…me her copy of Dolly’s Sha-Kon-O-Hey! Land of Blue Smoke. As I mentioned yesterday, Dolly wrote the music to the show of the same name at Dollywood. She recorded the songs and is selling the CD at Dollywood, Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede, and through the Great Smoky Mountains Association. The CD is $10, and all proceeds benefit the Great Smoky Mountains’ “Friends of the Smokies.” The money is going to the “Trails Forever” program.

I was excited about listening to the cd, as I was curious about the music that she would’ve written for it. The tracks have names like “My Mountains, My Home,” “Hey! Howdy Hey!,” “Working on a Dream,” “Time Flies,” “Heart of the Smokies,” “Good Time,” “Sha-Kon-O-Hey,” and “Forever Home.” The story of the show is a family has sold their land to the Park Service and are having to leave all their lives and pasts behind. The family meets a wizened storyteller and are introduced to a lot of the area’s colorful characters from the past including: Scots-Irish settlers, Railmen, Lumbermen, and the Cherokee indians. The show’s name is a phonetic spelling of Shaconage, which the Cherokee indians called this area. Shaconage means “blue like smoke.”

The CD reawakened my heart to the amazing beauty of this area. The first song, “My Mountains, My Home,” is a perfect telling of how I feel about my past here. So many wonderful memories! The fact that on a good day, I can look out my window and see the Smokies. In fact, living in the shadow of LeConte is such an amazing thing.

The last song in the show, “Forever Home,” is THE song that I realized that this area is always going to be my home. No matter where I go. I’ll carry the spirit of Shaconage in my heart.

I’ve posted some lyrics to “My Mountains, My Home,” for you to check out.

MY MOUNTAINS, MY HOME
Dolly Parton

These are My mountains, my valleys
These are my rivers flowing like a song
These are my people, my memories
These are my mountains, this is my home

There’s old an churchhouse, an old schoolhouse,
An old homeplace down a shady lane.
Conversation, playful recreation
Freinds and neighbors and you know em all by name
Time for stopping, makin’ time for family
Time for washin’ a little dirty face
Time for helpin’ grandpa in the garden,
Grandma in the kitchen sayin’ daily grace

REPEAT CHORUS

Heart’s heavy, not ready to leave it all behind,
Say goodbye and walk away
A new world’s calling, but we’re stallin’
The future tells me go, but my mountain heart says stay.

My home is a place heaven shines so brightly on
My home is a place where the mountain streams roll on
My home is a place of laughter, love and song
These are my mountains, this is my home.

REPEAT CHORUS X2

These are my mountains, my multi-colored rainbow
These are my mountains, this is my home
These are my mountains, this is my home.