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Bringing an Appalachian groove to a poetry reading near you
The joltwagon-wheel of yellow moon was rolling not too high above the green hills under heaven.
– Jesse Stuart, The Thread That Runs So True
Three poets. One old-time musician. A shared passion for words and music that reflect where we’ve been and where we’re going. Ride along with us – from the past “just over yonder” to an “elusive country” of hopes and dreams. We’ll take the back roads and have such a good time, before you know it we’ll be home.
Special upcoming appearance!
Monday, November 5th, 2012, 7 PM EST – Susan Underwood of Tennessee Joltwagon will be on Tennessee Shines
Dawn, Susan, Kory and Kelsey on WDVX's Blue Plate Special, February 2012
Tennessee Joltwagon started when poet friends Dawn Coppock, Susan O’Dell Underwood, and Kory Wells decided to extend what Kory and her daughter, Kelsey Wells, had been doing with their poetry and old-time music collaborations. In February 2012, the group first performed on the WDVX Blue Plate Special in Knoxville, where they shared their contemporary “mamaw angst,” as Dawn puts its, and Susan’s poem “Holler,” based on Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” received an overwhelming response.
Writing of the group’s appearance in the Knoxville Focus, Sarah Baker said:
Don’t go thinking this was a bunch of Hallmark sappy sweet verses about quilt making and blackberry cobbler. Sure, I heard some allusions to the dignity of “meaningful work” and the details of daily chores. I also heard some raw irreverence and tender exasperation…Some of their lines were impudent; some were out-and-out sexy.
The group has also performed at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville.
Tennessee Joltwagon members
Dawn Coppock is known as a church lady, lobbyist, yoga teacher, Appalachian advocate, lawyer, stack cake consultant, writer, mom, mediator, jewelry maker, mountain lover and regular Tilt-a-Whirl girl, so she’s right at home on the Joltwagon. Dawn has published poems in Now and Then, The Mossy Creek Reader and Wind. She lives on a farm in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee. In addition to writing poems, she is a practicing adoption attorney, author of Coppock on Tennessee Adoption Law, and an activist for creation care and an end to mountaintop removal coal mining.
Susan O’Dell Underwood was supposed to major in music in college, but turned to writing and ended up with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. So instead of teaching piano lessons at home all day, she’s the director of creative writing at Carson-Newman College. Her chapbook of poetry, From, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2010 (copies still available!), and she’s looking for a publisher for her novel Genesis Road, which won a 2004 Tennessee Arts Commission Grant for Literature. Her poems have been published in various anthologies and journals, including The Oxford American. Originally from Bristol, Tennessee, Susan now lives in Jefferson City with her husband, visual artist David Underwood.
Kory Wells is author of Heaven Was the Moon (March Street Press), a poetry collection that explores small town Southern life, suburban sprawl, music, motherhood, prejudice, faith, and more. Kory often performs her poetry with daughter Kelsey in an act that’s been called “hillbilly cool” and inspired the genesis of Tennessee Joltwagon. The duo’s album, Decent Pan of Cornbread, was released in the fall of 2012. Kory’s novel-in-progress was a William Faulkner competition finalist, and her “standout” nonfiction has been praised by Ladies’ Home Journal. Her work appears in numerous publications, including The Christian Science Monitor. Kory lives with her family in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where she works her “real job” in the software industry and advocates for literacy and creation care. korywells.com
Kelsey Wells, musician for Tennessee Joltwagon, came into the world with her feet still, her mouth shut, and her eyes wide open. Since then, she has discovered the joys of old-time fiddling, Appalachian dancing, and various other traditional arts. A Buchanan Fellow and visual communications major at Middle Tennessee State University, she is an alumna of the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts and a former Uncle Dave Macon Days Macon-Doubler Scholarship recipient. A solo performer and a member of the band Sweet Fancy Moses, she performs traditional and original music on fiddle, clawhammer banjo, cello, and more.