The Songs &
Stories of
David Massengill
The city of Bristol lies
on the border of Virginia and Tennessee, and the state line runs
down Main Street. That means that when Bristol holds a parade-if
you're lucky-you can march down the street with one foot in each
state. When David Massengill was growing up on the Tennessee
side, he thought that was about as exciting as things could get.
But today, when David looks back, he remembers many other stories,
some scary, such as the time he chased a bobcat, and the bobcat
chased him back; some funny, such as the time he first heard
Aunt Gladys cuss. Other stories he has learned since growing
up by listening to friends and reading family letters and newspaper
articles. They all add up to a personal history that David shares
with his listeners.
"Basically, I tell
true stories about friends and family," he says. "Basically
true . . . or," he adds after a pause and a smile, "stories
I made up about friends and family."
As distinctive a performer
as he is a writer, David Massengill accompanies himself mainly
on the Appalachian dulcimer, which he slings over his shoulder
like an electric guitar. The sound of the dulcimer has an intimate,
detailed quality that complements the easy graciousness of Massengill's
stage presence. He has achieved a virtuousity on the traditional
instrument that enables him to wring from its few strings music
of a complexity and richness far beyond anything it was ever
meant to produce, drawing the listener in to his lyrical imagery
and the close-up focus on human foibles and experience that is
the substance of his best songs.
Jesus escapes from a
mental hospital, history's greatest villains gather for a dinner
party, a New York restaurant kitchen crew saves an illegal alien
cook from the immigration man, a young woman and a bandit fall
in love as he robs her … these are just some of the vividly
imagined scenes and characters with which David Massengill captivates
audiences wherever he performs. Massengill's songs are rich with
insight and poetic imagery, they're upbeat and engaging but full
of subtle complexities; this Appalachian dulcimer player with
the soft-edged vocal style and offhand stage presence is acknowledged
to be one of America's finest songwriters.
Even when Massengill
tackles large-scale social and political themes, he approaches
them through stories about people, in the best folk tradition.
In "My Name Joe," for instance, Massengill conveys
some complex feelings about the plight of illegal immigrants
through his empathetic portrait of Joe the Thai cook, a hopeless
outsider in an alien culture; at the same time, he paints a picture
of the kitchen worker's milieu-and tells a good tale too-with
an arresting, brief appearance by an incidental character or
two for extra spice.
In the mesmerizing eight-minute-long
ballad, "Number One in America," Massengill tells the
epic story of the struggle for racial equality through a series
of anecdotal first-person vignettes spanning three decades; the
central incident is a 1986 march by the Klan in Bristol, Tennessee,
Massengill's home town. The story gains dramatic power as, in
the refrain and elsewhere, the same words recur in different
people's mouths, expressing dramatically different-even opposite-sentiments,
a device that imbues the song with powerful irony and a touch
of ambiguity that deepens its ultimate impact.
Here is a downloadable B&W photo of David for publication.
Here is the same photo at a higher resolution if necessary.
