JEFF LESTER / News Editor
Coalfield Progress, Norton, VA
Friday, April 24, 2009

BIG STONE GAP — The word “citizen” is of great importance to Ron Short.

It’s taken on a new layer of significance since Saturday night, when the Wise County Chamber of Commerce named him the county’s 2008 Outstanding Citizen of the Year.

The Big Stone Gap resident and Dickenson County native is well known locally and nationally as a singer/songwriter, playwright, actor and music producer who’s dedicated more than 30 years to helping the world better understand the Appalachian region.

His work with Appalshop’s Roadside Theater has often stirred up debate about the region’s social struggles as they relate to coal mining and patterns of land ownership and use. By Short’s own admission, Roadside and Appalshop don’t always see eye-to-eye with the business community.

But the chamber’s mission is to build and strengthen the community, Short said in a Wednesday interview at his home. “We have similar goals, but different approaches.”

To be a good citizen is to contribute to the community where you live, Short noted. There’s no higher calling, he said, and of all the awards he and Roadside have won for their work, “there’s probably no better honor than one coming from your fellow citizens.”

He gave the award plaque to his parents, Thadys and Mabel Short of Wise. The values they taught grounded him and equipped him to pursue this work, he said.

CAREER

At the home he shares with wife Joan, a Powell Valley High School teacher, Short showed visitors his “music room,” its floor overwhelmed with instrument cases containing guitars, fiddles, banjos and more.

To Short, making music is as natural as breathing for most people. That talent has been the springboard for a career incorporating theater, storytelling and community activism.

In fact, music was the tool that fooled Short into attending the chamber event. He thought they wanted him to sing a song to entertain the crowd.

Winning the chamber award and other honors means being recognized for “just doing what I do,” he observed. “It’s not extraordinary. It’s what I should be doing.”

The chamber highlighted the results of that work while presenting the award to Short:

• Creation of 16 plays that have toured 43 states and Europe. Recently, Roadside learned it will receive the prestigious Otto Rene Castillo Award, which is open to organizations internationally that contribute to developing political theater.

• Creating a three-year Cornell University project on community-based art and a national theater symposium.

• Creating a four-year playwriting and storytelling project in rural Maine.

• Helping establish and teach at Mountain Empire Community College’s annual Mountain • Advocating for creation of The Crooked Road, the region’s heritage music trail that has attracted national tourism attention.

• Helping the Lonesome Pine Office on Youth create Big Stone Gap-based Lonesome Records.

• Through Lonesome Records, producing the critically acclaimed “Music of Coal” CD and the “Appalachia: Music From Home” CD, the latter of which is a companion to the new Public Broadcasting Service documentary series “Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People.”

• Working to build and promote local music events such as the Dock Boggs Festival, Home Craft Days, the Tri-State Singing Convention and Gathering in the Gap.

WORK AT HOME

Short has spent decades on the road introducing others to Appalachian themes and common themes of place and human character. Now, he’s working harder on making things happen at home, he said, such as the mountain music school, Lonesome Records’ projects and supporting local music events.

The national and international attention stirred by creating and promoting the Crooked Road and its music venues has made a clear impact on tourism, Short noted. Last year, Clintwood recorded the largest tourism growth in all of Virginia, he said.

This region’s musicians are at a peak of creativity, Short believes. It’s a critical time to promote and support them — from legendary veterans like Ralph Stanley to youngsters who have taken their region’s musical traditions to heart and will carry them forward.

Because people here are surrounded by bluegrass and old-time players, and places to hear live music, they sometimes take that abundance of creativity for granted, Short believes. His mission includes helping people here gain a new appreciation for their culture and a new understanding of what they think they already know about themselves, he said.

For all the accolades, Short emphasized that his career has nothing to do with fame or fortune. “I’ve never made a lot of money, but I have had a great life.”

Ultimately, the strength of Appalachia is our powerful connection to this place, to our families and neighbors and to the meaning of community, Short believes.

He summed up his commitment to those values by paraphrasing author Wendell Berry: “You can’t save the world, so save the square foot of ground that you stand on. Imagine what would happen if we all do that.”