Afterward

The False Knight Upon the Road (lyrics)

"The present text was collected June 28, 1936 by Richard Chase and Annabel Morris Buchanan from Mrs. Maud Gentry Long, Hot Springs, North Carolina." [Southern Folk Ballads, vol. II, p 119-120]

Overshadowed by the artistic temperament and international renown of John Powell and the practical attention to the bottom line of businessman John Blakemore—though in fairness to Mr. Blakemore, such considerations are what the festival possible in the first place—the blush quickly faded from the rose of Mrs. Buchanan's "White Top work."

It bears repeating, however, that it was due to Annabel Morris Buchanan's unstinting efforts that the festival succeeded to the degree that it did. And as David Whisnant observed in All That is Native and Fine:

“The historical irony is…that the festival would probably have been better—treated its participants better, been less tied to the wishes and preconceptions of an academic art-music elite, adopted broader definitions of cultural authenticity, focused less attention on Powell’s bizarre cultural ideas—had he not been involved.”

It should be noted that Mrs. Buchanan's reputation does not rest on a single cultural event, historically significant as it was. Annabel Morris Buchanan was in her own right "a talented composer and prodigious collector of all kinds of folk music." Buchanan's papers in the University of North Carolina's Southern Historical Collection include about 13,000 items...,ranging from white and black spirituals to Native American ballads..." ["First Lady in a False Kingdom," p. 188]

Her special talents helped her to gather over 1,000 folk songs primarily from southwestern Virginia during the period from 1930-1950. Buchanan's work, both as a folklorist and a writer/ composer employing folk themes, deserves wider recognition." ["Annabel Morris Buchanan: Folk Song Collector," p. 27]