Jescofest to raise money for The Dancing Outlaw
Pre-fest coverage. The Gazette laid out the mission before a single note was played — firewood, water, plumbing, and a future for Jesco.
THE OUTLAW
Jesco White was born July 30, 1956, in Bandytown, a tiny community tucked into the Appalachian Mountains of Boone County, West Virginia. He is the son of Donald Ray White — D. Ray — a legendary mountain dancer featured in the Smithsonian Folkways film Talking Feet as one of the finest traditional dancers in the United States.
Jesco started dancing at five years old, learning the subtle mix of tap and clog that is native to Appalachia. After his father was shot and killed in 1985, Jesco inherited D. Ray's tapping shoes — and his legacy. He wore those shoes on every stage he took.
In 1991, filmmaker Jacob Young released Dancing Outlaw on West Virginia Public Television. The Emmy-winning documentary introduced America to Jesco and his three personalities — the gentle Jesse, the dangerous Jesco, and the extremely strange Elvis. The film turned a Boone County dancer into an unlikely national celebrity, a hillbilly ambassador whose fame peaked with a cameo on Roseanne and later the 2009 Tribeca-premiered The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.
His wife Norma Jean was ailing. The trailer was cold. The water had gone bad. A crew of friends, promoters, and mountain musicians decided to do something about it — and JescoFest was born.
That August, twenty-three acts traveled from as far as Los Angeles and Lafayette, Louisiana to the little railroad town of Hinton, WV. Every one of them played pro bono — for the one and only Dancing Outlaw. The festival raised awareness of rural Appalachian poverty and delivered what was needed most: bottled water service and firewood for Jesco's home through the coming winter.
Norma Jean passed in 2009. Jesco married Alida Darvill in 2011 and eventually left the hollows of West Virginia for the rolling hills of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, where he still lives today. He keeps an active presence online — custom wood burnings, fan mail, and the occasional video — and his voice still spins on Rebel Radio as the DJ of Grand Theft Auto V. The Dancing Outlaw dances on.
