Wayfaring Strangers

Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia

Second Edition, with a new afterword by the authors

by Fiona Ritchie, Doug Orr and Darcy Orr 

Foreword by Dolly Parton 

From the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, a steady stream of Scots migrated to Ulster and eventually onward across the Atlantic to resettle in the United States. Many of these Scots-Irish immigrants made their way into the mountains of the southern Appalachian region. They brought with them a wealth of traditional ballads and tunes from the British Isles and Ireland, a carrying stream that merged with sounds and songs of English, German, Welsh, African American, French, and Cherokee origin. Their enduring legacy of music flows today from Appalachia back to Ireland and Scotland and around the globe. Ritchie and Orr guide readers on a musical voyage across oceans, linking people and songs through centuries of adaptation and change.

Fiona Ritchie MBE is the founder, producer, and host of National Public Radio’s The Thistle & Shamrock. In 2018 she was inducted into the Folk DJ Hall of Fame. Douglas Orr is President Emeritus of Warren Wilson College, where he founded the Swannanoa Gathering music workshops.

“Songs can take us on extraordinary journeys. They respect neither border nor time, and by following them, we can chart the movement of generations of people. In Wayfaring Strangers, Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr take a long look at this story using Scottish songs as their compass. It’s a fascinating and often surprising ride.”—Cerys Matthews MBE, Welsh folksinger, author, and broadcaster

“Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr . . . are the perfect authors to trace the journey this music has made and to paint the picture of the living, breathing stream that it is.”—Kathy Mattea, singer-songwriter and teacher

“Except for my family, there is nothing I love more than being a part of the 'living tradition' captured in this book.”—Rosanne Cash, singer-songwriter and author

“Essential.... A gorgeous gift book.”—New York Times Book Review

Published 2021; Paperback, 384 pages