Tuscarawas County in song: Dover teacher release album recounting area's history
DOVER ‒ The rich history of Tuscarawas County has been set to music in a new album just released by Dover resident Josh Compton.
The album, "The Big Trail and Other Ballads of the Tuscarawas," covers the county's story from the arrival of Moravian missionaries in the 1770s to the devastating 1913 Flood.
"It's a little difficult in that it's hard to sum up as large as Tuscarawas County is in one album, and that isn't my intention with this album. I'm hoping that I'll be able to down the road add more volumes to the story that I'm telling. I narrowed it down to focusing more on the missionaries that came here around the Revolutionary War times, what that looked like," said Compton, 42, a native of Sugarcreek.
He has included songs about the Zoar Separatists, the Ohio & Erie Canal and the coming of the railroads.
Songs about David Zeisberger
Several focus on David Zeisberger, a native of Moravia (now the Czech Republic) who founded the Moravian Indian mission towns of Schoenbrunn and Gnadenhutten.
One is called "He Walked the Forbidden Trail." The Forbidden Trail was a pathway used by the Iroquois Indians in upstate New York. Europeans were forbidden to use it, but the Iroquois allowed Zeisberger because of their respect for him.
"I told the story from his perspective, using a little creative liberty," Compton said. "I tried to get into Zeisberger's head a little bit and what it was like to travel overseas into a new country and to blaze new trails. What the homesickness might be like."
Compton's favorite song on the album is 'O Goshen," about the last Moravian mission town founded in Tuscarawas County.
"It's about Zeisberger's last mission that he started and the dissolution of that mission, and probably the dissolution of his dream, too. It's not a happy song. It's pretty sad," Compton said.
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A collaborative project
He was assisted in the project by Coby Hartzler. Hartzler engineered it, mixed it and mastered it. He also played on the album, including piano on "O Goshen."
"When I hear his piano on there, it breaks my heart. I love that song," Compton said.
He recruited many of his friends for the album, including Joe and Matt Kurtz and Joey Weaver. Local group the Kodachrome Babies sang on one song. Kathy McCaulley played dulcimer on a couple of songs.
"I wanted it to be as collaborative as I could. I didn't want it to just be my voice. I wanted it to be lots of different voices," he said.
'I loved telling stories'
Compton is an art teacher at East Elementary and South Elementary in Dover. He comes from a family of educators. His father, Larry, was a teacher and principal at Garaway Local Schools. His grandfather, Neil Compton, was a principal, coach and bus driver in Port Washington. His uncle, Jud Compton, was a principal at Dover East Elementary.
He gravitated towards music at an early age.
"I probably had a lot of songs ringing around in my head for many, many years before I started playing music," Compton said. "I was around 20 years old when I first picked up a guitar because I wanted to start writing songs. I loved telling stories. I've been telling stories since I was a 4-year-old kid, drawing pictures. I was really into Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and so many other songwriters, and I just wanted to do that. I wanted to tell stories that way."
He learned how to play guitar and spent the next five to 10 years writing what he described as "a lot of really bad songs and a lot of Bob Dylan knockoff songs." But he got better and started performing in the Akron and Canton area.
He describes his music as a form of folk music. "My biggest influence would be Appalachian music. I think that's where my chord progressions come from, that's where my voice comes from."
How the album came about
"The Big Trail and Other Ballads of the Tuscarawas" grew out of a photography class he took while in college. "I would come home, and I would travel the back roads of Tuscarawas County, obscure back roads, just going around taking pictures for a photography class," he said.
He visited historic sites and historic markers in the county. He said he was impressed by the area's history.
"Soaking all that up really inspired me as a songwriter. I started writing songs back then, over 10 years ago, about Tuscarawas County. In the last couple of years, I really went on a big time creative spurt of writing songs and bringing the album together."
Compton received financial support for the project from the Tuscarawas Arts Partnership, the Tuscarawas Center for the Arts and the Appalachian Community Fund, as well as family members, including his wife, Tessa, and their daughters Louisa and Theodora.
"The Tuscarawas County Center for the Arts was pleased to support this worthwhile project through grant money provided by the Appalachian Community Fund," said Jeannine Kennedy, the center's executive director. "Josh is not only a gifted musician and writer but a visual artist and art educator. We at the arts center congratulate him on this amazing accomplishment."
A launch party for the album was recently held at Dover First Moravian Church.
“Josh took parts of our local history, transformed them into lively lyrics with passionate, soulful music, and taught the listeners the stories that shaped our Tuscarawas County history," said the church's pastor, John Wallace. "This album should be placed in the hands of any local Ohio history teacher. The music moves the stories forward and well worth a listen.”
How to order the album
"The Big Trail and Other Ballads of the Tuscarawas" can be downloaded on Amazon, iTunes or anyplace where people can stream music. CDs, songbooks and digital copies of the album can be ordered online at Harp Family Recordings, https://harpfamilyrecordings.bandcamp.com/
Compton will be performing songs from the album at 6:30 p.m. March 7, at the Tuscarawas County Public Library in New Philadelphia and at 6:30 p.m. May 7, at the Dover Public Library.
Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Dover resident releases album telling Tuscarawas County's story
