There is something about the current of a river. Whether you are in it, on it, or viewing it from the shore, its pull is inescapable. Sometimes control over the water can be achieved, but mostly the sticks and leaves and people flowing along go where the river wants them to go—whether or not that was their plan.
Such was the case with Rachel Grimes. A Kentucky pianist and composer with one foot in traditional music and another in contemporary folk eclecticism, Grimes began her life near the shores of the Red River and now resides near Carrollton, at the confluence of the Ohio and Kentucky rivers. The cadence of all three rolls through Grimes’ life as a metaphor for the people, places and events that formed the history of our Commonwealth. Tapping into that current would lead Grimes to compose the folk opera, The Way Forth, and graciously bring the rest of us along for the ride.
“There was always a lot of music on both sides of our family,” Grimes said. “My dad played the piano, my grandmother—his mother—played the piano, and so from a very young age—and I’m talking like less than a year old—I started sitting there with them.”
Blessed with the ability to play music by ear, Grimes continued with piano lessons, joined a rock band in high school, and eventually landed at the University of Louisville’s School of Music. “I decided to focus on composition because I’d always improvised and made up tunes,” she said, “but I really didn’t know how to properly write them down.”
While playing in a band, singing in chorus, and performing traditional chamber music, Grimes met others who were doing things she refers to as “less than traditional.” “I started doing some sound design and scoring for small theater productions, and met a guy named Jason Noble in the Louisville music scene,” she said. “He was interested, too, in this idea of more theatrical music or music for movies, and making more moody, instrumental stuff.”
Writing what Grimes describes as “contemporary classical” compositions for guitar and piano, she and Noble began their collaboration in 1993. In 1995, the company that previously had produced a record with Noble wanted to do the same with some of what he and Grimes were doing. The two put together a compilation of tunes for guitar and piano as well as the string quartets that had been the focus of Noble’s earlier recording. They named their group “Rachel’s,” not in reference to Grimes but an earlier iteration of Noble’s band and a nod to one of his favorite characters from the movie Blade Runner, albeit with a different spelling. It was from this point on that Grimes moved in a new direction, working with bands, going on world tour, and being less “academically” focused.
Then life’s current pulled Grimes and her brother, Edward, in an unexpected direction several years ago. “Each of our parents were living in separate places, they had been divorced for a long time, and both were needing medical help and to live somewhere with more assistance,” she said.
After moving their mother and father into their respective facilities, Rachel and Edward then had to tackle the task of winnowing two households and facing the difficult decision as to what should be kept and what should be let go. “My mom had done a pretty good job of whittling down,” Grimes added, “but my dad had not. He had a lot of possessions in a sort of jumble.”
Familiar with some of it, Grimes began to weed through many photographs, letters and documents that had been a part of her grandparents’ things. An upcoming road trip with her brother and cousins prompted her to put together a photo album they could all view and discuss. “Every time you open up a tub of photographs,” Grimes said, “you take all these different journeys and detours … ‘Look how that person looks just like my baby cousin’… It’s just this crazy journey that you go on when looking at family things.”
During the journey, Grimes saw patterns emerging and stories coming together to form a sort of family tapestry. As she puts it, none of this was “linear,” but rather a “bopping back and forth” between different people, places and time periods. She joined Ancestry.com to delve further into her family’s past and learn more about the Calloway branch, who were part of the early settlement at Fort Boonesborough. After discovering that much of this portion of the family lineage was inaccurate, she read a book, Women at Fort Boonesborough, 1775-1784, by Harry G. Enoch and Anne Crabb. “I wanted to investigate some of the lore, some of the stories, the linear chronology of the settlement of Kentucky,” Grimes said, “but also the daily life in Kentucky … through the eyes and ears and feelings of women.”
Setting the record straight, as well as tackling the challenges of researching the past—particularly that of the African-American community, where data was even more difficult to obtain and sift through—began to take on a new life in Grimes’ mind. “It really seemed to be forming stories,” she said, “and it just seemed like a natural fit for making some kind of musical work.”
Though she had written primarily instrumental music, Grimes had worked with others who used voice and narration in their compositions and thought putting together her own similar work would be an exciting challenge. “I can write the music inspired by these stories,” she said, “but it really needs to be heard in words.”
In the spring of 2017, Grimes had composed nearly a dozen tunes and considered it largely a finished work when tragedy struck. “The night before we were supposed to premiere that work, my brother collapsed at work of a heart attack and died,” she said.
Work on the project stopped for a while until Grimes reconnected with Catharine Axley, a filmmaker she had worked with about a month before her brother’s death. Axley, a filmmaker in residence at the University of Kentucky, is an accomplished artist. “I attended Stanford’s Documentary Film & Video MFA program,” Axley said, “and one of my first jobs post-graduation was providing additional editing for the PBS digital series, Music Makes a City Now, that profiles Teddy Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra. The series was produced by Owsley Brown Presents, based in San Francisco. Little did I know then that four years later, I would actually become a Kentucky resident!”
After meeting Grimes, hearing about her research, and listening to the beautiful melodies of The Way Forth, Axley jumped at the chance to work with her on adding film to the musical composition. “When I began listening to Rachel’s music and learning more about her project, I was so intrigued,” Axley said.
When Grimes revisited the raw footage she and Axley had shot, the images had a cathartic effect. “It all flooded back,” Grimes said, “and I realized that what we were out there filming … was still vibrant and inspiring to me.”
The foundation of The Way Forth is people, specifically women whose stories unfold with raw emotion and a level of pragmatism that defies description. The lyrics and the spoken words weave together beautifully with the music and transport the listener to a specific moment in each person’s life. Sharing their stories in a haunting and enchanting way are Dolly, a slave from the Boonesborough settlement days; Patsy, a Winchester woman who relates her experiences on a 19th-century farm; and Sara Katherine Simpson Jones from Lincoln County, who had to take a job with a family “in town” so she would be able to attend high school. Connecting with their lives—often in their own words—is what makes Grimes’ opus unique and compelling.
“One of Rachel’s earliest ideas that I’ve been particularly excited about is the incorporation of ‘vignettes’ of everyday activities that mostly women have done from one generation to the next,” Axley said. “This includes drying rinsed peaches, shaking out a quilt, and holding hands with a loved one. In feathering these slightly abstracted moments throughout the piece, we hope that viewers will have a visceral connection to the past and be able to more fully imagine the lives and narratives that make up The Way Forth.”
The album, as well as some of the video material, are available now on Grimes’ website, rachelgrimespiano.com. The feature-length version of the film is set to be released next year, aiming for community settings where Grimes can interact with viewers and discuss their impressions of it.
“The dream here is that, once we get this film finished, I can take it around to a lot of different places in Kentucky and the region and have screenings and conversations,” Grimes said.
These conversations reflect the connection among the people, their words and the music that Grimes and Axley have sought to create. “During our shoots,” Axley said, “we would drive to locations she had spotted over the years that emotionally resonated with her or that were directly connected to moments in history she was referencing in the piece. I hope viewers leave The Way Forth simmering with emotion, curiosity, and feeling a little unsettled.
“Rachel’s music is gorgeous—at times poetic and gentle, and other times threatening and decisive—and with the film, viewers will be along for a journey that is beautiful, ugly and oftentimes incredibly contradictory. We hope that viewers will have a visceral connection to the past and be able to more fully imagine the lives and narratives that make up The Way Forth.”