By Patty Huston-Holm
On a morning nearing the first day of spring, a lingering winter chill evident outside the kitchen from where he sat, David Tweedie picked up a four-string violin and began to play.
Sitting on a nearby table was a small black-and-white photo of his late grandmother, Julie Streicher, youthful, smiling and holding her violin, the same four-string that Tweedie was playing. A colorful rendition of an anonymous violin/fiddle player hung within view on a wall.
“A gift from my board after a festival,” he said, nodding at the painting created by an artist at an event produced by Ocracoke Alive.
The tune he played was “Blizard Train,” popularized by Ralph Blizard, a legendary, long-bow fiddler who died in 2004. Such old-time bluegrass and Celtic-style tunes are most often on Tweedie’s playlist, frequently heard when he plays as a member of the Molasses Creek band.
A resident of Ocracoke Island for three decades, Tweedie’s musical life has both firm roots in the past and a strong foundation in the present.
He has great respect for musicians like Blizard and the New Southern Ramblers and his classical violinist grandmother.
In the present, with an eye toward the future of the music he loves, he is the executive director of Ocracoke Alive, an organization promoting engagement with the arts and varied learning opportunities for all island residents and visitors of all ages.
Tweedie, 53, is married to Amy Howard, an island native who manages the Village Craftsmen, a shop that sells fine American-made crafts. The shop sits next to the Tweedie-Howard home, on a street that bears Amy’s family name. Her parents, Julie Howard and Philip Howard, still reside on the island.
An average day for Tweedie is difficult to describe as it varies by need.
On this day, he sandwiched this interview with Ocracoke Alive’s new winter offerings on topics related to art, music, cooking, and nature with planning upcoming Earth Day events, the Ocrafolk Festival, Arts Week in Ocracoke School and more.
That evening, he would personally lead a free public session on bagel making.
“I’m not a trained cook or baker,” he said. “But I like to do it and like sharing what I know with others.”
Tweedie plays the concertina and violin, but the latter is his favorite and where his expertise lies. He started violin lessons at age 10. He went to school in the shadow of an older sister who excelled academically while he was noticed as a performing artist.
A native of Oklahoma, Tweedie’s mother was a child-development specialist, and his father worked as a university geography professor. The family traveled to places like Egypt, Greece and Scotland, where his sister lives.
Before and after his graduation from Davidson College, Mecklenburg County, with studies in theater, anthropology and folklore, Tweedie was awarded a fellowship to study fiddling in Scotland and Ireland.
He frequented Ocracoke Island as a guest and later as a performer with the Molasses Creek band, which he co-founded with Gary Mitchell.
While Tweedie was visiting Ocracoke, Amy Howard caught his eye and then his heart. They have a son, Lachlan Howard, 20, a sophomore at the Cleveland (Ohio) School of Art.
Tweedie’s love of music keeps him playing, recording and recognizing other performance talent that he orchestrates for festivals on Ocracoke.
“I’m the only Alive employee,” he joked. At that, his executive directorship of roughly 1,000 hours a year is part-time. He was volunteering in that role for 12 years until Ocracoke Alive became a 501(c)3 non-profit in 2010.
Ocracoke Alive is an outgrowth of Ocracoke Players, a community theater group that grew from a 1974 “Tale of Blackbeard” musical written by Tweedie’s mother-in-law Julie Howard.
The Deepwater Theater building on School Road serves as the organization’s classroom and performance space while larger events happen elsewhere in the village.
While Ocracoke Alive serves all ages, the organization is especially tuned in to the need for arts education in the island school that, like many schools nationwide, lacks funding for such programs. The biggest Alive challenge is resources—both money and people.
“We tend to have overworked volunteers,” Tweedie said. “I’m always looking for more.”
“The only time when Alive slacks off a bit is in July and August,” Tweedie said.
In those months, David and Amy conduct their ghost- and history-walk tours for tourists, and he might be involved in a baking activity, likely at the Back Porch restaurant where he bakes desserts.
“An island atmosphere is unique,” Tweedie said. “This island is especially special with so much talent. But like the rest of the world, we can go into our social-media rabbit holes and forget the value of in-person human connections.”
The face-to-face interaction on Ocracoke became important in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian (September 2019).
“I realized then that we are a huge extended family here,” he said. “Even if we are at loggerheads on an issue, people are generous about what they know and how they can help one another.”
Ocracoke Island has more talent in one small place than any place I’ve traveled. I’m grateful that residents, like David, have allowed me to learn slices of their lives…
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