Performing in ornate theaters and in front of thousands of festival-goers is commonplace now.
But when Josh Goforth was growing up in the mountains of western North Carolina, the main stage was the front porch. Family and friends would gather to strum guitars and banjos, or saw on the fiddle. In between songs, they’d tell stories of characters from their past.
That intimacy and authenticity stayed with Goforth. Even when he’s playing before a large crowd, he tries to recreate that atmosphere for his audience.
“It’s basically like bringing you to the front porch with me, where I sit with all of those older people. That’s what it’s like,” he said. “I try not to think of myself as someone performing for an audience. I try to think of myself as someone literally sitting on that front porch, like we all were, telling stories and singing songs together.”
Goforth will bring his blend of old-time bluegrass and swing music, along with his storytelling prowess, to a special performance in Indianapolis this weekend. “Visiting My Home on the Mountain” transports people to Goforth’s upbringing in Madison County, North Carolina.
The performance is the centerpiece of Talk of the Town, the main fundraiser for Storytelling Arts of Indiana, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to preserving and encouraging the art of storytelling. In addition to be shown virtually, the show will be open to a limited number of in-person audience members.
For those who take part, Goforth hopes his show transports them beyond their own lives, and into musical history.
“I think of those times when I was doing that, sitting on the front porch, hearing my granddad tell stories and singing old songs, we didn’t have a care in the world. We weren’t thinking about what had happened that day, what we had to do tomorrow. We were just sitting there enjoying each other’s company,” he said.
Like everyone else, the past year has been a jarring change for Goforth and the path his musical career has taken. In lieu of live performances and gigs around the country, Goforth has focused on providing lessons for young musicians, filling his days with teaching. At the moment, he’s also producing three different albums for different artists.
He also has added video equipment and software to his home, so he could put on virtual shows when invited.
“To let you know how I’m doing, it’s going a little bit crazy,” he said.
But music has been an overwhelming part of basically his entire life, so not even a pandemic could stop Goforth from doing what he loved.
Since he was a child, he as influenced by the musical traditions of his own family and the region he grew up in. Madison County in North Carolina is known for its rich heritage in bluegrass music; a ballad collector in the 1920s once described it as “the richest pocket of culture in America.”
“You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a fiddle player or a banjo player,” Goforth said. “All around me, I was surrounded.”
His parents helped mold his diverse musical talents. On his mother’s side, religious music and gospel was more popular. His grandfather was a vocal teacher at school, and taught him how to harmonize at an early age.
But his father’s family was known for its banjo and fiddle players, where Goforth learned ballads.
At age 4, he was playing piano in his church. When he was 11, his uncle gave him a guitar.
“He knew a few chords, and my other great-uncle knew a few chords, and from then on, I learned every instrument I could. I’d practically get home from school and play them until I fell asleep, and it was like that,” he said. “Being able to play a tune was the coolest thing in the world. To pick up this hunk of wood and metal and play something out of it.”
Goforth was also influenced by the social nature of music, particularly in the region he grew up.
“Music is so tied to social life in the mountains of North Carolina. Pretty much, you’d go over to someone’s house, and they’d grab a guitar or banjo and start singing,” he said. “My granddad would be out on the porch, singing songs he heard when he was a boy.”
Goforth was active in his high school’s music program, and as drum major, he helped his high school’s marching band win first place in each of the 33 competitions it entered. He then moved on to the famed bluegrass and country music program at East Tennessee State University.
“I had gone to college thinking I’d be a band director. But then I found, you know what, my calling in life is really to bring the music and stories of people I grew up with to other people,” he said. “I love getting on stage and playing. It became an easy thing, and a fun thing, for me to do.”
He has toured extensively with a variety of noted artists, including David Holt and Laura Boosinger, and has also shared stages with Ricky Skaggs, Bryan Sutton, The Yonder Mountain String Band, Open Road and The Steep Canyon Rangers.
With varied and wide-ranging exposure to all kinds of music, Goforth learned every kind of instrument he could. He is most famous for his fiddling — he’s a three-time “Fiddler of the Festival” at the famed Fiddler’s Grove Festival and earned the designation of Master Fiddler.
But he wows audiences with guitar, banjo, and many others — even tapping out percussion on a paper bag.
After touring with bands for many years, Goforth started performing by himself on stage at the encouragement of Holt.
“He said I ought to throw in some of those stories from my people, because they’re funny and heartfelt and have every emotion,” “So I just started experimenting with playing songs I grew up with and songs I’d written, with stories that connected them, and it just started to work.”
Goforth’s career has taken him down that path, and is the foundation of “Visiting My Home on the Mountain.”
“The social aspect of music is part of the culture. To get together and play together, and not just play music together but to tell funny stories that had happened,” he said. “That oral tradition of passing down stories and playing the music, it all kind of fits together.”
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“Visiting My Home on the Mountain”
What: A musical and storytelling event from bluegrass artist Josh Goforth, focused on the heritage and his history in Western North Carolina.
Who: Organized by Storytelling Arts of Indiana, as part of their Talk of the Town fundraiser.
When: 7 p.m. April 10
Where: Eugene & Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, 450 W. Ohio St., Indianapolis. The performance will also be available online via Zoom.
Cost: Tickets are $35 for an individual in person and online, $60 for a household.
Information: Storytellingarts.org
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