May 21, 2022

Troubadour of Crossroads Village Michigan: Neil Woodward

Troubadour Neil Woodward is an instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and folk historian who helps preserve Michigan musical traditions. He is often heard at historic Crossroads Village, Michigan, near Flint in the summer months.

Neil holds the title -- State Troubadour. In 2003, the Michigan Legislature officially named Neil Woodward Michigan’s Troubadour in recognition of his lifelong commitment to preserving Great Lakes folk music and culture.

Besides Woodward's performances at Genesee County's historic Crossroads Village and Huckleberry Railroad, he spends some of his summer days as a musical performer while strolling around Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan.

During this episode, Neil Woodward performs and discusses four of his songs; "Engine 464", the "Swampin' of the Genesee Belle," "... say No?!" and "Peach Tree Creek". These songs are Flint, Michigan, historical songs, which you will also hear from time to time at Crossroads Village, Michigan, while Neil is at work.

The song "Engine 464" details the history of Engine 464 of the Huckleberry Railroad located at Crossroads Village, Michigan.
The "Swampin' of the Genesee Belle" is a story about a paddleboat that submerged on Mott Lake during its maiden voyage at Crossroads Village, Michigan.
The song " ... say No?!" is about Flint, Michigan, and its legendary autoworkers. He painfully describes the pressures Flint autoworkers felt in the 1990s from the forces of globalization and the threats of losing their jobs to Mexican factories.
Peachtree Creek is a Civil War song that tells the story of a Flint, Michigan, soldier wounded in Sherman's March to the Sea (Battle of Atlanta). Troubadour Neil Woodward is the recipient of the 2018 State of Michigan Heritage Award "in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Michigan's cultural heritage."

Most of Neil’s work focuses on preserving Michigan's songs in the troubadour tradition, from Great Lakes sailor shanties to lumberjack songs.

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For more information about Troubadour Neil Woodward and his storytelling and songs, visit the Neil Woodward Website.
Read this profile story, "Neil Woodward, Michigan's Troubadour, Storyteller and Historian," by Radio Free Flint.
Watch a 25-minute YouTube performance by Michigan's Troubadour.

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Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:01.360
This is Arthur Bush.

00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:03.359
You're listening to Radio Free Flint.

00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:09.199
And our guest is here today, Neil Woodward, the Troubadour of Michigan.

00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:11.839
Good morning, Arthur.

00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:12.880
Good.

00:00:13.199 --> 00:00:14.160
Have at it.

00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:14.960
All right.

00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:17.120
One, two, three.

00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:39.280
Neil, uh, tell us what that song was about.

00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:42.479
That's a uh hometown song there.

00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:48.800
Uh one of the one of the jewels of Michigan, of course, is the Huckleberry Railroad, crossroads village.

00:03:49.039 --> 00:04:02.000
Uh that's a little song about uh the locomotive up there, one of the original locomotives at uh uh Huckleberry Railroad, Engine 464, the Denver and Rio Grand Western Engine 464.

00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:03.599
Very good.

00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:10.080
Now, for those in uh the audience who think they might know this fellow, you probably do.

00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:17.920
He has worked at Crossroads Village since 1985.

00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:21.040
Entertaining, right?

00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:25.279
Play music, sing a single song, telling stories.

00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:34.800
So, Neil, how did you get to be the jumidor of uh Crossroads Village?

00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:39.680
Uh I started in the crossroads uh, let's see.

00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:53.199
Uh I was playing some pubs downtown in the uh in the mid and late 70s and I was actually at the uh first season of uh Auto World.

00:04:53.680 --> 00:05:14.879
And uh I grew up in Dearborn, so I was real close to Greenfield Village, and I was very much um very much immersed in history and the storytelling traditions of that um historical settings of uh different different buildings and then different music that would fit into those buildings, different stories that go in along with them.

00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:31.360
Um so while I was there at um All the World, I found a brochure uh at the entrance, and it was the first time I was even aware that uh that Flint and Genesee County had any place like uh Crossroads Village and Other Bay Railroad.

00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:41.439
So I made some inquiries and uh got a few real nice recommendations from some good Flint people that I met up there, and uh the rest is history, as they say.

00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:46.720
Uh there uh 35 35 summers, except for this past one now.

00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:48.720
Missed y'all greatly.

00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:57.839
Okay, Neil, uh I just wanted you to tell us a little bit, describe your uh your job at Crossroads Village.

00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:09.120
I'm the village troubadour, uh so I'm telling stories, uh carrying on the traditions of um uh storytelling and music.

00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:21.439
So I do a lot of music that uh is appropriate to uh 1870 kind of period, uh mid-1800s until the uh up to around 1900 or so.

00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:38.959
Um both the old timers, and uh then I'll also carry on that tradition of uh telling stories about uh things that are happening around me and people that I um meet and people that I'm inspired by to write songs about.

00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:49.759
And um play fiddle and banjo and uh various other instruments, dulcimer, harmonicas, uh well, a bunch of different instruments.

00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:59.279
And I'll be uh I'll be uh sitting on the porch of a home or uh maybe in the parlor on a windy day.

00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:07.519
Um I see I see people coming in the uh coming in the gate first thing in the morning.

00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:25.920
I'm usually out on the uh uh out on the hotel porch and I see uh passengers coming in and off the train and um greet folks and uh listen uh listen to other people tell them how to find the band the uh the bathrooms, things like that.

00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:36.079
And then anytime anybody has time for a story uh or feels like doing some step and dance step dancing or uh singing a song, but that's that's what I'm there for.

00:07:37.439 --> 00:07:39.040
What is a troubadour?

00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:41.920
Uh the troubadour.

00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:49.360
To make a long story short, the troubadour is uh someone that tells stories in music, in a song.

00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:54.079
And uh what's the history of it?

00:07:55.839 --> 00:08:09.279
Uh boy uh I I believe it goes back before the time of uh the printing press and uh more modern forms of uh communication, uh mass communication.

00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:27.759
Uh old troubadours um literally travel from town to town and carry the stories, carry the news from one city to another one uh or or or village or town, um, a homestead.

00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:34.639
Um I mean it could be literally the uh the town over the next the next mountain.

00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:37.759
Could be uh just up the road.

00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:44.240
So we we're sharing uh the stories and the um uh the news really.

00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:47.440
We're kind of like a newspaper, a trailer newspaper.

00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:48.799
In song?

00:08:49.919 --> 00:09:01.840
Yeah, in song and then um the Troubadour also care Troubadour also carries on the uh uh the other storytelling traditions of um folk tales stories.

00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:15.759
And now you're keeping this uh this alive and uh and in your work that you do, you really you're really a historian in action, aren't you?

00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:21.120
Well, it's uh it's really the only way that history makes sense to me.

00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:33.039
I was never any good in uh excuse me, history class, but uh in school, because so much of it was involved with um remembering people's names and dates.

00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:36.000
Uh uh it's just not my strong point.

00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:42.720
Where it really started to come alive for me was the stories of uh of what people's lives were like.

00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:57.759
And the music, the further I get into the music, I realized just when I was a little kid, it seemed like the song can just take you right to some place where you would never have uh you couldn't imagine yourself being there.

00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:02.720
But the song takes you right into uh, I mean, it's the words of the people that were there.

00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:09.600
It can take you right inside uh the whole time period of what life was like for a whole lot of people.

00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:14.320
So that's uh that's been what what attracted me in history.

00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:26.480
And it's really the only time the only way I can remember dates and times is if they're in a song, I have to go through the whole song, get up to that verse, and then I got that person saying cooking up here right now.

00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:32.399
Because you work at the Genesee Bell, I mean you work around the Genesee Bell, which is the boat.

00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:36.799
You wrote a song about the Genesee Bell sinking.

00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:38.960
I did.

00:10:40.159 --> 00:10:42.000
What's the name of that song?

00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:45.039
It's called The Swamping of the Genesee Bell.

00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:48.000
Okay, so so people understand.

00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:51.519
We bought this boat, the county did.

00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:54.159
It came from uh Scota, I think.

00:10:54.559 --> 00:10:55.279
Up in there.

00:10:55.600 --> 00:11:05.759
Yes, and it was called uh Asabo River Queen, and the bell sunk while it was out there on Mot Lake.

00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:08.080
Unfortunately nobody got hurt.

00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:12.320
So Neil, you wrote a song about this this castle, right?

00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:12.879
I did.

00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:25.840
It's uh in the great tradition of um shipwreck songs, but uh one thing that I one thing that made me go ahead and do this is that uh there's a happy ending on this story.

00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:27.519
Everybody was okay.

00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:35.440
Uh it was it was a great uh a great boat to get started there, and the boat that's up there now is a really wonderful thing.

00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:38.559
So as far as I'm concerned, there's a happy ending to the story.

00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:43.519
So I hope people um I hope there aren't any bad feelings about it.

00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:48.879
Because uh it made a lot of people smile and a lot of people happy over the years, a lot of people know that song.

00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:50.399
And what's the name of the song?

00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:53.679
The name is The Swamping of the Genesee Bell.

00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:55.519
Can you play that one for us?

00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:58.240
Sure, I'd be happy to whip that one up for you.

00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:04.000
This is uh this is an old, old uh tune I think here to tell this story.

00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:13.759
It's uh the original, a lot of people know the song from uh uh tremendous train wreck, and it's actually the site of many train wrecks.

00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:20.559
Uh the uh the wreck of old 97, which is the one that so many people know.

00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:26.240
There's uh there's a whole lot of a whole lot of background on that one if you want to look up that song.

00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:27.679
It's an amazing story.

00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:36.799
The song goes back to um uh uh shipwreck song called um The Ship That Never Returned.

00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:41.919
But anyways, so it's it's an old tradition that with just in the tune itself.

00:13:00.159 --> 00:14:40.879
After many long years of my sub we must bring a sign And the fastest later on the baby boy to get the hundreds delayed in line As the loaded pastors on motor to then hunt and the later went to found the bottom hero on the spot to the three days of screaming babies with crying trying to swear for dogs and caries and the stories manager back.

00:14:41.120 --> 00:15:57.679
Let's get our hands, they're back to the show, just like I'm gonna be able to do that.

00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:12.960
My exploration has taken me in all directions, and you've taken me probably the furthest back of anyone.

00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:23.200
Um you sang the song Peachtree Creek on one of the episodes about the battle flag that I did a while back.

00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:33.919
I wondered if you've written any songs more about Flint's more current situation, the economic stress and uh and the water crisis.

00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:35.039
Yeah, yeah.

00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:47.440
Um stories um of folks that I've met up crossroads.

00:16:47.679 --> 00:17:01.840
So uh sort of attribute to the people up there and uh tell a lot of those uh 1800 stories, but um definitely done a few more contemporary uh to the 21st century, 20th century, 21st.

00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:06.799
Does any of your music have to do with social or economic justice?

00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:12.799
Or are they just or is your view that we should sing about the lives of people and honor their work?

00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:20.559
Well, it's uh uh it's all in yeah, it's all part of the same deal, as far as I can tell.

00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:27.359
Uh yeah, and I'm not uh I'm not much of a uh proselytizer or preacher.

00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:29.519
The advocacy is in the songs.

00:17:29.839 --> 00:17:58.640
One of the songs the songs that I recorded, which is on my uh the dog singing, all songs about uh songs that I wrote that were all about um things that were going on in 1992, 93, 94, right in there, amongst others, is uh song called Say No, as in What Could I Do Say No was about uh auto workers faced with their uh contract negotiations.

00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:28.799
This is a true story for So yesterday the shirts and ties were spotted on the line.

00:18:30.000 --> 00:19:09.759
Curtis says they're coming up the mill God only knows where the cops could find Thirty people dealing on our shield A hundred faces glaring I could feel flush of mine praying for a plan to leave this life behind I wonder if we sold out the contract we just signed What could I do?

00:19:10.160 --> 00:20:28.319
Say no The ship I jump to Mexico say I told you so The corporate profits prove how well we did I'm at home tryna feed my kids The last contract brought me to this town And ever half one went dry I had seniority when my plants shut down Thank God I'm still working in life I remember last time we thought our jobs were saved The union made hot celebrated made The company put out of town The promises be trained What can I do?

00:20:28.559 --> 00:21:26.960
Stay though she's my job to Mexico Stay told the show Sit back and smile to say how well we do What all I'm trying to do is feed my kids folks who need the limit.

00:21:28.000 --> 00:22:00.960
You could see it in their eyes, longing for a leader or an attractive lie The face of desperation in a desperate time I think I've got to change my point of view.

00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:06.400
I feel like things have got the best of me.

00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:14.160
Wish it I could make the move to something new.

00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:42.960
I wish it I could set my family free The babies always hungry Sisters with flu temp to punch that clock again, the rent payment is due my daughter speaks, I answer Dear I love you too What could I do?

00:22:43.200 --> 00:23:25.599
Stay though to Mexico Stay I told you so smile and say how will we get all I've tried to be like it we felt how will we deal with my kill Sit back and smile and say how will we deal the try to display my kids?

00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:08.079
Oh when they play number songs, these are kind of a couple of things you like to sing about.

00:24:55.279 --> 00:25:22.799
Stories about stories about war songs because there's stories that uh contemporary uh stories of my own people of my own life that uh just too close for me to uh something that was going on fifty years ago.

00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:30.559
And history does history does have a way of repeating itself, doesn't it?

00:25:31.359 --> 00:25:42.240
Yeah, and the the the uh war aspect of it in a way that's disrupting people's lives is uh how it keeps going on and on.

00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:45.519
It's uh hard thing to face sometimes.

00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:47.839
Yeah, for sure.

00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:48.880
That's good.

00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:50.559
Well, I'll tell you what, Neil.

00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:53.279
It was time for us to wind up here.

00:25:53.519 --> 00:26:07.279
Um I enjoyed uh your company, and I can see there's a lot of passion that you have for this uh this music and and the storytelling that you do, and uh I know the people love it.

00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:13.599
Uh and the people of Jesse County are grateful for all the time that you've spent with them.

00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:19.920
Uh and I'd like to also thank David Norris, David O.

00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:24.880
Norris, who is a songwriter here in the flanner, who introduced me to Neil.

00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:50.240
We're gonna go out uh of this episode with a song um which was written, uh the poem I guess was written, as Neil explained it, uh, by David Norris about his great-great grandfather, who was in the 10th Infantry Regiment from Flint, Michigan, to go fight for the Union side against the Confederates.

00:26:51.039 --> 00:26:53.920
And it's called the Battle of Peachtree Creek.

00:26:54.400 --> 00:26:56.720
So we we'll play that on the way out of here.

00:26:56.960 --> 00:27:04.799
Neil, do you have any last words for for the audience and and uh anything to say about that song, anything more than you've already said?

00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:07.200
Uh appreciate your work.

00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:13.440
I appreciate the opportunity to be here joining us with you and um enjoyed the uh interview.

00:27:13.759 --> 00:27:21.279
Uh the song uh is uh a story that uh is is uh just chilling to me.

00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:31.680
And uh it was it's just a wonderful thing to uh be involved in this kind of music to have people share their family stories the way that David has.

00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:44.000
A lot of people have done that, and uh to be part of carrying on their stories with uh a little bit of songwriting and my own input on it is just an honor.

00:27:44.400 --> 00:27:49.519
Well, thank you, and that is the story of flat bravery, courage, and perseverance.

00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:53.359
Uh and peach creet tree does it all.

00:27:53.680 --> 00:28:03.599
So, with that said, um thank you again, and I wish you well, and I hope to see you again uh real soon next summer at Crossroads Village.

00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:16.480
Well, this brings us to the end of our program.

00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:22.880
I'm sure you enjoyed uh listening to Neil Woodward, the troubadour of Michigan.

00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:35.039
Uh we like to play the song now, the Civil War song, which was written uh in collaboration with uh David Norris.

00:28:35.359 --> 00:28:38.400
Uh Neil sings the song, Peachtree Creek.

00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:40.799
Thank you again for listening.

00:28:40.880 --> 00:28:42.480
We'll see you next time.

00:28:46.880 --> 00:28:51.519
Tree Creek, fireflies tank sparkles all around.

00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:56.400
The ornament light moves ghostly white.

00:28:58.559 --> 00:29:14.720
Tonight, death sleeps silent with its sweet warm brown on summer night it genus fireflies and peach tree.

00:29:51.440 --> 00:29:56.960
My arm was shattered by the ball that should be home from hell.

00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:06.880
And I wondered, did the boys remember?

00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:39.759
Sparkles all around the ornament of light white death sleeps within the sweet warm ground on summer night fireflies in peach tree creek.