Exploring American Folk Music

by Kip Lornell

  Laura Bolton—Hudson Bay Research. Courtesy of the Ralph Rinzler Archive, Center for Folklife and Cultural Studies, Smithsonian Institution.

  DEFINING AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC

  Defining folk music in our postmodern world is not an easy task. In the nineteenth century the United States was a less hectic and more rural and agrarian society. But in the early twenty-first century we can watch the latest news about the use of robots in Japanese automobile factories on television and explore Internet sites to learn about genocide in Africa or to find out the latest prices on the French stock market—all in “real” time. Prior to modernization the United States did not support such a strong and extensive popular music industry nor very many academically trained composers. The ways in which music is performed, sold, and disseminated in the early twenty-first century has become extremely complex, blurring some of the tell-tale attributes of folk music—such as its rural characteristics and its oral transmission. Despite these complicating factors in this text, we focus upon music with strong regional ties or a racial/ethnic identity and direct links with its past.

  To expand upon this rather simplistic definition, consider these six general characteristics of folk music:

  1. Folk music varies greatly over space but relatively little over time. A cowboy song such as “When the Work’s All Done This Fall,” for example, has been sung in Wyoming since at least the late nineteenth century and in this context its lyrics about ranch/cattle work are timeless. However, its appeal to a third-generation Ukrainian American steelworker in a Gary, Indiana, mill is rather limited. She might well prefer the sounds of her favorite polka band, Li’l Wally (Jagiello). Innovations, however minor, tend to occur slowly because the forms of folk music are largely determined by a conservative musical culture. This is especially true in Euro-American groups, but less so in African American expressive folk culture.

  2. Folk music emanates from a specific, identifiable community, such as coal miners, Louisiana Cajuns, or Native Americans. Such communities are found throughout the United States and they are associated by way of their occupation, tribal affiliation, ethnic identity, or even physical proximity. These folk communities also share some of the characteristics—such as speech patterns, foodways, or family names—that are part of our everyday lives. Folk music often retains well-established associations with functional activities within the community: in the workplace, during a religious ceremony, or at a community dance.

  3. The authorship or origins of folk songs and tunes are generally unknown. We rarely know who writes folk music. The authorship of fiddle tunes such as “Soldier’s Joy” or “Old Molly Hare” is unknown and almost certain to remain that way. A specific song, nonetheless, can sometimes be attributed to one region or folk community. For example, “Pony Blues,” “Walking Blues,” and “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” clearly emanate from the Mississippi Delta blues tradition.

  4. Folk songs are usually disseminated by word-of-mouth, aurally, or through informal apprenticeships within a community. Folk music is learned within a community by people who grow up in or become an integral part of that community. The process rarely entails formal lessons, as one would take for credit at a conservatory or a university. You learn the music that others in your community play as part of worship, relaxation, or entertainment. Today folk music is also often transmitted by way of mass communication, particularly through radio and recordings.

  5. Folk music is most often performed by nonprofessionals. Specialists within folk communities often perform music, but only a very small percentage of them actually make their full-time living from music. The majority of these are musicians who arrived on the scene during or after the “folk revival” of the 1960s. Less well known is the network of folk music performers, consisting of primarily unpaid or part-time musicians, who play for others within their community—such as the bluegrass band that regularly provides the music for the Saturday night dance at the Danville, Virginia, Moose Hall. Some exceptions include musicians such as Georgia blues man Blind Willie McTell or bluegrass mandolinist and progenitor Bill Monroe, who eventually made a full-time living from performing a popularized form of folk music.

  6. Short forms and predictable patterns are fundamental for folk music. Most American folk music falls into repetitive paradigms that are generally familiar to members of the community. Blues, for instance, tends to follow the same, basic harmonic progression based on I, IV, and V chords; however, its form invites individual expression within these boundaries. The short and predictable hula meles from Hawaii may all sound similar to the uninitiated but can be distinguished by the vocal qualities demonstrated by the singers. While the folk music itself is often complex, its general performance “rules” vary little from one presentation to the next.

  It might help to also consider folk music in light of popular and classical music. We know that folk songs are not composed, “art” ballads championed by academic institutions. Nor, unlike opera, is it very often heard in formal, often greatly subsidized, concerts. The work of most commercially popular tunesmiths enjoys fleeting, short-lived popularity, which fundamentally owes its dissemination to the mass media. There are exceptions to this generalization; writers of popular songs, such as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Randy Newman, and a handful of others has or is likely to endure for many decades to come. And the music of a few rock-oriented groups, like the Beatles and the Grateful Dead, appear headed toward long-term acceptance and study. Folk music tends to be overlooked by “serious” music scholars and often used by the tradesmen of popular culture, many of whom are constantly looking toward their roots for inspiration. Perhaps you can think of it as the forgotten music of America that reflects both our diverse heritage and our everyday lives. An appreciation for community and family traditions and a look at our heritage appear to be increasingly important in our dynamic society, which is becoming increasingly multicultural, fragmented, and complex.

  Blues man Sleepy John Estes (1970). Courtesy of the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution.

  “Folk” and “traditional” are used interchangeably in this book. In the world of popular culture, however, “traditional” sometimes carries a somewhat different meaning—it is used to describe something that is merely old or simply anything created in the past. In 1991 the National Association of Recorded Arts and Sciences (the body that oversees the annual Grammy Awards) added the seemingly oxymoronic category: “Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance.” They were simply referring to popular songs written in a style that existed prior to the advent of rockabilly and rock ’n’ roll in the middle 1950s. Perhaps the next Grammy category should be “Best Traditional Classical Instrumental Performance” to differentiate older classical musicians such as Christoph Gluck from a more modern figure such as Lou Harrison. Maybe they should also distinguish between the “traditional” country music of Uncle Dave Macon or Eva Davis and the “contemporary” sound of Mary Chapin Carpenter or Faith Hill.

  The modes of transmission—word of mouth, the Internet, radio, CDs, and so on—underscore the ways in which alterations occur within these traditions and the subsequent creation of new movements. The twin processes of industrialization and urbanization have increased contact with other cultural groups, which causes even greater blending, hybridization, or creolization. These terms generally refer to a cross-pollination between two or more different cultures, resulting in a unique hybrid that contains elements from both. Cajun and zydeco music in southwestern Louisiana remain the clearest specific examples of creolized American folk music. Chapter 8 discusses other examples of the varied forces accelerating changes in folk music.

  CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY AND TRADITIONS

  Cultural geographers are the most familiar with the first two characteristics in our expanded definition of folk music. They study spatial variations in human culture: the differences in human culture from one place to another. Sports, politics, languages,
place names, and architecture are among the aspects of culture that have been studied by geographers. Since about 1970 cultural geographers have focused a bit of their attention on music in the United States. Because the attributes of folk music include regionalization and diffusion, the study of American folk music clearly intersects with geography.

  A cultural region is an area inhabited by people possessing one or more cultural traits in common. Cultural regions generally reflect shared traits such as ethnic identity and foodways as well as music. For instance, the Navajo cultural region in the Southwest is delineated by language, religion, foodways, architecture, as well as physical proximity. Because culture is fluid, such regions do not have fixed borders. Vernacular culture regions are particularly important because they are perceived by their inhabitants to exist. “Dixie,” for example, is more than a beer brewed in New Orleans, an anthem associated with the former Confederacy, or a part of a name associated with popular music (i.e., Dixie Chicks or Dixie Dregs); it’s also a more generalized term for some sections of the South that is both informed and restrained by its historical connotations.

  Earlier in this chapter you read about go-go. This genre represents an extreme example of regional music—its strongest base of support remains in Washington, D.C., and its immediate suburbs. Furthermore, most of its adherents and practitioners are African American; few outside of D.C.’s black community know much about go-go. In these regards, go-go must be the most regional and racially focused music in the United States.

  Musical styles like Southern California beach music or southern rock are often informally grouped by cultural regions. American folk music is quite often defined by region or community: Mississippi Delta blues, sea shanties, and the folk songs of northwestern lumberjacks. Regional variation is one of the main attributes of American folk culture and helps to explain the differences in the music, such as blues, produced by members of a specific community.

  Every cultural region in the United States evolved through communication and human contact. Cultural diffusion describes the spread of ideas, innovation, and attitudes across time and space. Prior to our postmodern era most diffusion was accomplished through the relocation of human beings from one location to another and then communicated face-to-face. This communication spread also throughout the general population like a snowball rolling down a hill or the rippling waves of a rock thrown into a pond.

  Today’s ideas and innovations are equally likely to result through electronic discourse or the printed media. Although they once had stronger local or regional ties, radio, television, and the Internet now provide instantaneous contact with the entire world. Newspapers and magazines exchange information on a daily or weekly basis. It would be impossible to find an American folk musician in the early 2000s untouched by these forces. Folk music is still widely disseminated through informal means, but records and the radio have both added a new dimension to this process.

  FOLK CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES

  It is important to make the distinctions between the levels of culture that touch and shape our daily lives. As a college student you are presently part of the elite, academic world that involves, among other things, attending lectures, doing library research, writing critical essays, performing scientific experiments, doing Internet searches, and reading novels. At the same time you also participate in popular culture by enjoying comic strips such as “Dilbert” eating the occasional hamburger at a McDonald’s restaurant, or listening to a top-selling popular music artist by way of the Internet.

  Our participation in folk culture seems almost subconscious or second nature. These are the customs and traditions that we learn or assimilate from our family, members of the community, and our ethnic or racial group. Folk culture can be expressed in many ways—how we celebrate our religious holidays, greet one another, or pronounce certain words. It is the “traditional, unofficial, noninstitutional part of culture. It encompasses all knowledge, understandings, values, attitudes, assumptions, feelings, and beliefs transmitted . . . by word of mouth or by customary examples” (Brunvand 1998). Folk culture is circulated when people communicate. Allowing for the inevitable exceptions, this communication is almost always oral, such as the telling of a ghost story, an urban legend about a poodle in the microwave, or a jump-rope rhyme passed along by girls on playgrounds across the country. But it can also be transmitted by example, especially in everyday living. For instance, I learned to make meatballs by watching my second-generation Swedish American mother prepare scores of them for our annual Christmas smorgasbord.

  Folklore (the “items” of folk culture) are usually grouped into three categories:

  Oral folklore. At its most basic level, an individual word or phrase may qualify as “folk speech.” One example is the oft-used pronunciation of the word “chimble” for “chimney” in southwestern Virginia. Because of their speech patterns and pronunciations most residents of “down east” Maine can be easily identified as soon as they open their mouth. At another greater level of complexity are proverbs or proverbial sayings, such as “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.” Finally, there are more complicated forms of oral folklore such as narratives—tall tales or cowboy recitations—and ballads.

  Customary folklore. These often combine oral communication and example for their transmission. For instance, superstitions can be transmitted orally. As a youngster perhaps your father warned you that black cats mean bad luck. Or it can be promulgated by example—catching the bride’s flowers because it means you will be the next to marry. Children’s jump-rope games almost demand that one both move and speak properly to participate. Folk dance and drama provide two other examples of customary folklore.

  Material folklore. These are the tangible objects created by a craftsperson or by members of a community. For example, the seasonal icehouses found on lakes in the frigid north during the midwinter fishing season. Navajo blankets woven by Native Americans in Colorado or Arizona fall into this category, as do the traditional foods prepared by Greek Americans for Easter.

  Significantly, we continue to distinguish the geographical origins of our fellow Americans based on speech patterns and expressions; for example, how we greet one another. “Howdy,” a diminutive for “how do you do,” is commonly heard in the South but rarely in Idaho. If you ordered a “frappe” (milk shake) or a “grinder” (a submarine sandwich) in a restaurant outside of New England, you would no doubt be asked to explain your request. By the same token, the use of the Scandinavian expletive “Uff-daa!” (a very ethnic/family-specific term) is generally greeted with blank looks in Miami.

  Food is perhaps the most common way by which people distinguish their geographic and cultural backgrounds. Hogjowls and greens can be found in northern urban supermarkets largely patronized by black Americans, many with strong southern ties. In New Mexico “eggs rancheros” (essentially an omelet with salsa) is found on many menus, while cheese grits are rarely found on the tables of the hearty residents of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Restaurants in Rhode Island sometimes offer quail dishes in deference to their Portuguese and Portuguese American patrons. Wherever Swedes, Norwegians, or Danes have settled you are likely to find lutefisk, a very distinctive smelling dried white fish that is reconstituted in alternating baths of lye and water.

  Gomez wood carving. Courtesy of the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution.

  While the United States is not yet a bland melting pot composed entirely of K-marts, the Fox television network, and General Motors, homogenization increases each year. The “modern” era began early in the twentieth century, transforming America from our fundamentally rural agrarian society into a new age characterized by urbanity and industrialization. Today we live in a postmodern United States linked by instantaneous communication and interstate highways, and informed by almost universal public education. These factors help to make us more like one another in our speech, foodways, music, and othe
r basic aspects of culture. VH-1 similarly inform viewers from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, with the same news, videos, and commercials, all of which are related to contemporary popular music.

  Regional and ethnic variations remain important keys to understanding twenty-first-century American folk music because they clearly display great variety across the country. The music of a Norwegian American Wisconsin polka band is, for example, easily distinguished from a north Georgia country string band. Think also of the differences between the music of two neighboring churches in Washington, D.C.: Performances of “Amazing Grace” by an African American Primitive Baptist congregation and an Anglo-American Methodist choir present a study in strongly contrasting musical cultures. America’s melting pot still steams with a warm and rich brew of Cajun music from Louisiana and southeastern Texas, German and Scandinavian polka music in the upper Midwest, and sacred harp singing in Georgia and Alabama. The regional differences found in American music remain strong. They have been reinforced by a recent resurgence of interest in ethnic traditions and racial roots, which is illustrated in everything from T-shirts (“Coonass and Proud,” worn boldly by Louisiana Cajuns) to children’s names such as Sven, Bobby Jo, Zelodious, or Anna Maria.