Dave Combs | Music in His Appalachian Roots

Episode 64 - Stories In Our Roots

Dave Combs | Music in His Appalachian Roots

Heather: Hi, Dave. Thanks for joining me today on my podcast. It is a pleasure to have you here.

Dave: Well, it's a pleasure to be here with you Heather. I'm really looking forward to our conversation. It's gonna be great.

Heather: Well, could you start by giving a little bit of an introduction of yourself, please?

Dave: I'll be happy to. And I'll start with the very, very beginning in the beginning. I was born in east Tennessee. I'm a Tennessee mountains, hillbilly, I guess you could call. I'm proud to be a hillbilly of east Tennessee, along with Dolly Parton and a bunch of other people. I was born in the mountains of east Tennessee, almost into North Carolina. In fact, I could walk from my front porch into North Carolina on the Appalachian trail. It was that close.

I was born to wonderful parents who were both musical. My father and my mother both played the piano and my, father's mother, my grandma Combs. I called her Granny Combs. She was born in 1894. This was back almost before electricity. And so her favorite instrument to play was an old pump organ, which you pumped with your feet to get the air moving through the organ. And she could really play and sing. And I have with me here, her other favorite instrument, which you may or may not be familiar with, it's called an autoharp.

Now this instrument was made famous by Mother Maybelle Carter and, uh, of the Carter family fame and Johnny Cash, and that whole group. But this was my granny's auto harp. And when she passed away the family opened up the case and inside the case was a note said this harp belongs to my grandson, David Combs. Because my job, every time I went to see Granny Combs, Was to tune this auto harp up for her and then hand it to her. And then she would just tear loose and sing all kinds of great songs, whether it's amazing grace or any favorite hymns. And it still sounds great.

So simple to play, just push the key, push the button and strum it and whatever, but she could play it and make it really sound like it was talking. It was great. So that's part of my roots is my roots are founded in, in music and the mountains of Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia. So music has been part of my, being, I guess, since I was born and, uh, raised up in the, the, in our church in Calvary Baptist church in east Tennessee, and music was a big part of that with the choir singing and the organ and piano, duets, and, you know, quartets and just all kinds of music.

Heather: you've mentioned that your ancestors were musical, what other characteristic. Do you see coming through that your ancestors had that you used through this process of recording songs and this trajectory that your life took.

Dave: Well, I've thought of that, about that a lot, because, uh, my mother went to college. She was a school teacher. She got her two year degree from Radford to teach school. Uh, my father went to a business school and I had other relatives that had gone to school, but, and my amongst my cousins, most of my cousins did go to college, but we were really the first generation to go to college.

Our parents grew up on a farm. And my mom and my dad both were on farms in Southwestern, Virginia. Well, back then it was mainly tobacco farms. Tobacco was the cash crop for the, the farmers. So they, my mom was part of, you know, the six kids. She had, uh, two sisters and three brothers and her mom and dad, they worked this 160 acre farm.

And if you know much about farm life, it is hard work. Sun up to sundown, you know, the chickens and the cows and whatever. They don't know what, uh, they don't take the weekend off . And so I think part of my upbringing and all this many stories that I heard from my mother and father over when I was growing up, dealt with the hard work and the determination and the willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed in feeding their family and being, staying healthy and keeping the family together.

And, and, you know, having your, not only your health, but your, your spiritual health as well, you know, it was important to be active in our, our church and whatever our religion and, uh, was important. And so those kind of things I think are passed down. Now I've heard stories of my, my great, my, my great-grandfather on my mother's side, uh, was a, a minister.

So, uh, there, I'm sure there was some probably musical folks in that generation. And I would give anything to know. Which of those of that generation, which I don't know much about were also musically inclined because back then, you know, music was a big part of the family life. You would, you know, it was acoustic instruments.

You, whether it was a guitar or an auto harp, like I just played a while ago or a piano, a piano's been around a long time. So music has been a part of. At least in the, the, the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina and Southwestern Virginia has been a big part of life, you know? And it, it eventually all evolved into, you know, the bluegrass music that was so, so popular and so wonderful now, but those have the roots that go way, way, way back, probably even back to our ancestors in Scotland and Ireland and England. So I think that, uh, the musical aspect of probably my DNA. Is is, comes from some musical ancestors. I at least I'd like to think.

Heather: And do you have stories of other examples of ancestors , what challenges did you see that they overcame in order to make their life better than it used to be?

Dave: Well, I think the main stories were those of them, going through all of the, either weather related or health related difficulties back in the early 19, hundreds and 18 hundreds where the, whether it was a, a pandemic of some sort of flu or whatever, like, uh, uh, Not unlike probably what we've gone through today, but they didn't have all the tools at their disposal back then to survive all that.

And there were diseases that really affected them and for them to live a long life beyond even like 75. And I'm, I'm gonna turn 75 years old here and next week hard to believe. And you can, you can. Go, Ooh. And ah, later of day, surely you're not that'll well, anyway, uh, but back back then, in those days, I would probably be an exception rather than the rule to have, have lived this long.

So I think the, the, the challenges of staying healthy. And staying alive because even if you, if you broke a leg or you broke a hip or something, you were gonna be crippled the rest of your life, we had no hip replacement joints back then. it just amazes me the benefits that we have today that were, that our ancestors did not have.

So if you have ancestors that lived into their seventies and eighties, or even nineties or whatever, you're very, very fortunate. And, uh, one of my things is I always tell young people. When they still have grand great grandparents living. I said, you take your iPhone or your phone. And you pushed the little record button and you, you sit down and you have your great grandpa or grandma tell you some stories about their life when they were your age or growing up.

I said, you'll never regret having that recording of your ancestor. Cause once they're gone, those stories are gone forever. Unless you've got 'em record. So I, I fortunately have a lot of stories that I've recorded from my mother. She was a great storyteller. And I think that was part of their tradition to hand down history was through storytelling.

You know, you probably have the same experience with your ancestors, what they love to talk about. And you'll say, I, I know I've heard that story four times, but tell it to me again. so it's, it's, it's a wonderful way to, to hand down your, your history of your ancestry. Because there are stories that are going to inspire you and tell you about, you know, maybe yes, they did walk to school.

My mother walked, I think it was like five miles from her home. And it was like a mile up to the, to the highway where she eventually could catch a bus and go to school. She taught in a one room schoolhouse. She taught all eight grades. I love those stories about my mom talking about the, the little first graders and the eighth graders and how, how she handled that management of a school room with all eight grades in it and teaching all that. But she did. And I'm sure there are lots of other folks that have similar stories to tell.

Heather: And you mentioned how your music has connected you with so many people. How has your learning of your ancestors connected you with other people?

Dave: Well, for one thing, it has enabled me when I do find some, person that, uh, I want to have a discussion about my music with, and we can get off on the subject of genealogy. It's amazing to me, how many times we can find out that the person I'm talking with and, and I are related. And so that automatically kind of makes a real bonding or connection in part of your conversation.

I found out, for example, you know, I'm a distant cousin to Dolly Parton, to Elvis Presley, to Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers, so those kind of musical connections are just interesting. But when you talk to anybody if you can make a connection through your ancestors to that person, it just, it makes the conversation go much, friendlier And more, probably more lasting. When you, when you say goodbye, you say, "see you later, cousin" it's a great thing.

Heather: have children? Okay.

Dave: No, Linda and I were never blessed to have children of our own. Now we both have careers. Uh, I worked with AT&T for 22 and a half years. And then for five years, I was the chief information officer for the United States department of agriculture in Washington. And my wife has been a public servant for many, many years.

She is currently the controller of the state of North Carolina in Raleigh, she is retiring at the end of June of this year. And before that, uh, in the early ni two thousands, she was the controller of the United States in Washington. And so in those high level positions, you end up with staff that work for you that are.

You really have a responsibility to mentor these young folks when you've been around the horn two or three times, and you've experienced things, it behooves you to pass that knowledge and wisdom on. To these young people, well, we don't have any biological children, but we have tons of kids.

And these are our, you know, folks, young folks that have either worked with us or for us over the years that we've kept up with. Linda and I have sponsored several endowed scholarships at Wake Forest University and High Point University, East Tennessee State University, and Appalachian State University.

And those scholarship recipients are obviously young people in their twenties or whatever, starting their life out. We've gotten to know these young people and we keep up with them. We have one scholarship at Wake Forest that we have had 27 recipients of that scholarship over the years. Many of those now are married and have kids who have kids. it is. It's amazing. But yes, we have many adopt. We call it kids that have adopted us. And so that's a real blessing.

Heather: Well, and it sounds then you found a way to continue your legacy, even if it's not through blood, but to pass down who you are. And the generations that have come before you to future generations, even if it's not technically related.

Dave: Exactly. We, we really feel a connection with a lot of people and whether it's close friends, or like I said, these recipients of scholarships or people that have worked with us and for us that are just dear friends that we've developed over the years and we want to pass on to them what, what wisdom we have and also where we can and help them financially through the scholarships. That's been a, a really pleasant thing to do as well. So, yeah, there's a huge connection with, uh, uh, quote family that is pretty large at this point.

Heather: well, that's great to hear. Well, thank you so much for sharing your stories. How can people connect with you if they'd like.

Dave: Well, the simplest thing to do is just remember my last name of Combs, C O MBS, and go to my website, combsmusic.Com and it's a very simple website. You go, as soon as you get there, you will see on the left side of the page, a picture of my new book called Touched By The Music you'll see. my CD cover of Rachel's song and if you click that, it will literally play for you. The demo recording song of Rachel's song it's it is that original demo recording UN not been remastered, not been remixed. That is what, when you hear it, you heard you hear what I heard in that studio that they about 41 years ago. So if you like stories and are inspiration, you'll check out my book and listen to my music while you're doing it. That'd be great.

Heather: Well, thank you so much.

Dave: Well, thank you. It's been a pleasure.