Many long-time Highlands residents are familiar with Sylvia Sammons, a former Highlands resident, shop owner and singer. Many fans of 60s rock music are familiar with Gram Parsons, a former member of the group The Byrds, and his career as a singer, songwriter and guitarist. What most are not familiar with is the controversial connection between the two, centered around the song, “Hickory Wind.”
Thought of as Parsons’ signature song and most representative of the country-rock sound that he was influential in creating, the song has an uncertain genesis.
Blind from the age of six, Sylvia Sammons grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and began singing and playing at an early age, eventually mastering the guitar, banjo and several other stringed instruments. Sammons began traveling to Highlands in the 1970’s, eventually building a home and woodcraft shop on 4th Street where Martha Anne’s on the Hill is now located. Like many, Sammons split her time between summers in Highlands and winters in Florida.
A veteran of the Greenville coffee house circuit and other regional music venues of the 60’s and 70’s, she began performing impromptu concerts from the balcony of her home on the “Hill” and continued doing so for 14 summers until 2003. Those Friday evening recitals of old-time English, Scot-Irish and American folk tunes became a tradition for locals and visitors alike as she would end her time by lowering a bucket to the crowds of up to 100 people for tips. Her repertoire included hymns like Amazing Grace and works written in Appalachia like Across the Blue Mountains, as well as many songs that she penned herself.
Born Ingram Cecil Connor III, Parsons grew up in the Boston folk scene where he played from a young age. He was a member of several groups through the years, most famously the Byrds replacing David Crosby. During his time with the group they recorded Hickory Wind on their album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo. It was a song that he last played live with The Byrds at a reunion concert in 1973, the year he died from an overdose of alcohol and drugs.
That sets the stage for the mystery behind Hickory Wind. Unfortunately, the controversy began following Gram Parson’s tragic death when Sylvia Sammons heard a later version of the song performed by Joan Baez and recognized it as her own. When interviewed for an online article in 2002, Sammons claimed that she regularly performed the song at Greenville coffee houses during 1963, a time when Parsons was temporarily touring in South Carolina. She further claimed that she reached a settlement with the publisher in 1969 when she turned over a tape-recorded copy of the song which was her proof of authorship.
Sammons was supported in the article by several people who claimed to hear her perform the song long before Parsons purported to write it in 1968.
The conflicting stories have been typically resolved in Parson’s favor by the mainstream public, who wanted to believe such a signature song must be his own. In support, it has been argued that Sammons said she was age 42 in an unrelated Orlando Sentinel article in 1993, which would have made her 12 when she claimed to write and first perform the song. The argument rests on the fact that a 12 year-old would not be likely to write such evocative lyrics. Whether a typo, or a woman fibbing about her age, this age for Sammons was clearly wrong. A 1962 Wade Hampton High School yearbook lists a graduating senior, Sylvia Sammons, in its gallery of photographs. This fact would have made her 19 or 20 years of age when the young and talented singer purported to write the now famous song.
Another argument is that the subject matter of the song — climbing trees – seems absurd for a blind woman. Though she did not lose her sight until the age of six, which person is truly more likely to write a song about youth in South Carolina, filled with sensory observations?
Whose version is correct? We will probably never know. Regardless, it makes for an interesting story about one of the great characters in Highlands’ musical history.
Stories like this and many more can be found at the Highlands Historical Society, located at 524 N. 4th Street, Highlands. It is open for the season on Thursdays through Saturdays, 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. and Sundays 1:00 to 4:00 P.M. until November 23. If you cannot make it by the museum, visit the Historical Society’s website at highlandshistory.com to discover similar stories.
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