Shawnee, Ohio
by Brian Harnetty
SHAWNEE, OHIO (2016, rev. 2021)
Shawnee, Ohio is a series of eleven sonic and visual portraits of a small Appalachian town, its people, and its land- and soundscapes. It exists as a sound recording, live performance, and sound/video installation. Each of these components are part of the larger project.
Performed with sampled archives, video, field recordings, and live musicians, Shawnee, Ohio critically engages ecology, energy, place, and personal history to ask: What are the stories of people from a rural town? What are their memories and thoughts of mining? Of fracking? What are the sounds of a town fighting to survive after a century of economic decline and environmental degradation?
In each portrait, we hear the actual voices of past residents as they recount their lives, work, friendships, and deeds. We hear local centuries-old murder ballads and present-day fracking protests. We listen to the grain of vernacular voices, the cautionary tales of mining and environmental disasters, and the hope of recovery and future sustainability. These sounds are used as compositional material reflecting layers of history in Appalachian Ohio.
Shawnee’s history includes coal, gas, oil, and clay extraction, and the formation of early labor unions. The town’s downturn and partial restoration act as an ethos of the struggles and hopes of the larger region, now immersed in a controversial fracking boom. Shawnee, Ohio considers these histories, evokes place through sound, and listens to the present alongside traces of the past.
CUE #1: BOY (audio track: #2; video: 7:28; score: p. 28)
This brings together authentic Appalachian banjo and contemporary ensemble. It features an archival recording of a child interviewing his grandmother about coal mining. The recording is ghostlike: he places the recorder too far away and we hear questions, but no answers.
CUE #2: JUDD (audio track: #5; video: 21:14; score: p. 67)
A mining inspector, Judd talks of family, work, and the dangers of being in the mines. Reminiscent of the Lumière brothers, the archival video is the oldest known footage of coal mining in Ohio.
SOUND RECORDING - SONIC PORTRAITS
(FULL-LENGTH, AUDIO ONLY; RUNNING TIME - 56:00)