Quay Smathers: b. 1913, d. 1997

From Christian Harmony Notes, No. 17, February 1997:

A Tribute to Quay Smathers by Zack Allen

It troubles my heart to report the death of Quay Smathers of Dutch Cove, Canton, N.C., a patriarch of our small band of Western North Carolina Christian Harmony singers. He was 83 and died quietly of cancer Wednesday morning, January 22, 1997, with his family near and the sounds of singing in the air.

For more than sixty years, Quay conducted the “Old Folks Day” singing at Morning Star Methodist Church in Dutch Cove, where singers from all around gather each September and lift their voices. Last September, he turned the 106-year-old event over to younger hands and said his good-byes.

Quay will be remembered not only for his leadership but for his unflagging spirit and drive for advancing and preserving the music he loved. Many of us will also remember his stern insistence on singing the songs the old way—at a stately measured pace—and his warnings not to “bluegrass it”. He did not hold much with the 20th century additions to the Christian Harmony tunebook. If you asked, and sometimes even if you didn't, he would freely share his strong opinions about the incursions of “Gospel-sounding Songs” into the Christian Harmony tradition.

Quay grew up with folks who sang from The Christian Harmony as naturally as they breathed the mountain air. He learned his shapes and became a leader. He conducted singing schools and taught others to sing. He not only kept the tradition alive at Morning Star, but also assisted for many years at the semiannual singing at Etowah, N.C.

He was a singer, a musician, a master carpenter of the old school, a fine gentleman, and, I am proud to say, my friend. It was through his encouragement (and outright insistence) that many of us first gained the courage to stand before others to lead.

There is not room here to list his many accomplishments and to quote what has been written about Quay. I refer you to the interview with Carol Rogers in Foxfire 7 for more on his important role in the tradition. There is a longer version in the Winter 1984 edition of “Foxfire Magazine”. In that interview, he summed up his singing philosophy: “If the young folks want to sing old songs they ought to sing 'em like the old folks sung 'em and they've heard 'em. That'll go a long way. What I've tried to stress with these younger folks that I'm teaching is those songs has got a certain speed to be sung to 'em, and some of these younger folks wants to speed it up a little bit.”

We buried Quay on Friday, January 24. Nearly thirty singers joined family and friends at the Wells Funeral Home Chapel in Canton, which Quay had helped to build. Mr. J.B. Parker of Ellijay, Georgia, led us in singing “Angel Band,” “Sweet Rivers,” and “Pisgah”. It was cold and raining as we left the chapel, and about a dozen singers were among those who found their way to the graveside at Morning Star. After a short service, as everyone was leaving, someone raised the air of “New Britain”. When we finished, we were alone—with Quay in the rain by the graveside. Then someone started “The Parting Hand,” number 200—“My Christian friends in bonds of love whose hearts in sweetest union join; Your friendship's like a drawing band, yet we must take the Parting Hand...”—it was a fitting farewell.

Special mentions at singings

• 2025: Etowah, Fall
• 2024: Etowah, Fall; Morning Star
• 2023: Morning Star; PLOTT-TOBER FEST
• 2019: Morning Star; Singing on the River
• 2017: Morning Star; Singing on the River
• 2016: Grapevine; Etowah, Fall
• 2015: Folk Heritage Edition Dedication
• 2014: Etowah, Spring
• 2013: Morning Star
• 2012: Morning Star
• 2009: Morning Star
• 2008: Morning Star
• 2007: Etowah, Fall

Tunes led