Creator Record
Metadata
Name |
Ivan Powell |
Other names |
William Ivan Powell |
Dates & places of birth and death |
b. 1909 - Roan Mountain, Carter County, Tennessee d. 1993 |
Nationality |
American |
Occupation |
The following biography was submitted by a Reece Museum volunteer in November 2024. "William Ivan Powell was born in Roan Mountain, Carter County, Tennessee in 1909. When Powell was six years old he started plucking on a banjo crafted from a cigar box. That simple childhood amusement inspired a lifelong journey of playing music, entertaining audiences, and even building musical instruments. Powell performed on live radio broadcasts before pre-recorded music became the norm. During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Powell took the stage with his banjo for a live Saturday morning radio show called Barrel of Fun broadcast from the Bonnie Kate Theater in Elizabethton, Tennessee. The broadcast was often standing room only. After that, Powell played for a radio show in Bristol, Tennessee called Farm and Fun Time. This show first aired on WCYB radio in November 1946. Farm and Fun Time was broadcast from the former General Shelby Hotel in downtown Bristol. In the early years this show hosted bluegrass artists like the Stanley Brothers, Jim & Jesse McReynolds, and Mac Wiseman. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs performed on the show after they moved to Bristol. Powell was the featured banjo picker for the Dixie Dew Drops, a group formed by Richard Blaustein, Professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. The Dixie Dew Drops became known in the area for their concerts at Roan Mountain State Park and area fiddlers' conventions. Powell said the purpose of the band was "to preserve and promote old-time music." The Dixie Dew Drops performed at the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville. Around 1968 he became the banjoist for the Old Time Country Radio Reunion, a project of Jonesborough, Tennessee, WJCL Radio, and the ETSU Center for Appalachian Studies. While it is unclear how long the Reunion continued, one source indicates the show was still taking place in 1980. The radio reunion show featured performers who appeared on country radio shows from the 1930s through the 1950s. The Reunion was said to be a reenactment of the Barrel of Fun Show broadcast on WJHL AM radio. At one time Powell had a band known as Ivan Powell's Mountain Boys and in the summer of 1940 he hosted an amateur talent contest at Cloudland High School with the proceeds going to the Parent Teachers Association. He played in venues locally and regionally throughout his life. In 1977 he started making musical instruments. Over the course of ten years Powell made approximately 100 instruments including fiddles, teardrop-shaped guitars, and traditional Appalachian and non-traditional dulcimers. Research did not reveal the quantity of instruments he made during his lifetime. Concerning those instruments, Powell said: "I go for sound and tone; I don't go too much for beauty." When talking about a four-string dulcimer he once made, Powell recalled: "It doesn't take long to make one of these. I just piddle around. Some days I don't mess with it, some days I do." The most atypical instrument Powell ever crafted was a Celtic harp, an instrument that dates to Biblical times. Powell apparently recalled that it was so hard he never tackled another one. Powell was a home building contractor and was employed for 10 years at North American Rayon Corporation in Elizabethton. He met his wife, Vada, in West Virginia while working in a coal mine. Ivan and Veda had four children altogether. Two of their sons served in the Army during the Korean War. Powell was a Mason and an officer at the Masonic Lodge in Roan Mountain. He died in 1993. Powell is buried in the Masonic plot at Happy Valley Memorial Park in Elizabethton, Tennessee." |
Notes |
Elizabethton Star, December 16, 1987 - Accessed through Newspapers.com Elizabethton Star, July 24, 1940 - Accessed through Newspapers.com Elizabethton Star, August 12, 1980 - Accessed through Newspapers.com Findagrave.com, William Ivan Powell Archives of Appalachia - Blaustein https://archive.org/details/0029OldTimeRadioReunion https://birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/about/news/farm-and-fun-time-75th-anniversary-special-nov-11/ |
Places of residence |
Roan Mountain, Tennessee Carter County, Tennessee Elizabethon, Tennessee |
Role |
Artist |
Titles & Honors |
Officer, Masonic Lodge, Roan Mountain, Tennessee |
Related Records
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1982.008 - Dulcimer
This dulcimer was crafted and donated by Ivan Powell of Roan Mountain, Tennessee. The dulcimer is made of fruitwood and maple. It is believed to have been crafted shortly before its donation to the museum in 1982.
Record Type: Object
