Album Notes

Patsy Hatfield Lawson is a descendant of four feuding families, the Hatfield-McCoy, and the lesser known Greene-Jones. The Hatfield side came from her father and the Greene came from her mother. Patsy grew up on a small farm in rural East Tennessee in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains where her family spent their evenings telling family and community stories on the front porch after supper. Life on this rural farm involved living among 16 aunts and uncles, and small town folk who were trying to understand and adapt to a larger world that was changing dratically in 1960 and 1970. She was taught her mountain heritage, yet she had to constantly adapt this heritage to a modern world that lay beyond her mountains. This CD introduces you to her family and her tradition.
As a professor of psychology, a licensed marriage and family therapist, professional storyteller and award-winning teacher, Patsy has devoted her life to helping others avoid the dead end solutions her ancestors chose. Her focus is on humor as a way to create understanding and to prevent conflict that strong willed people inevitably encounter. Like other Tennessee traditions, Patsy has captured the best of rural humor and added insight and wisdom.