Exploring American Folk Music
Page 41
KEY FIGURES AND TERMS
Almanac Singers
Arhoolie Records
Moses Asch
British Invasion
Samuel Charters
Judy Collins
Bob Dylan
Folkways Record Company
folk/rock
Woody Guthrie
independent record companies
Alan Lomax
New Lost City Ramblers
Newport Folk Festival
revival
Pete Seeger
Dave Van Ronk
SUGGESTED LISTENING
Grateful Dead. Ladies and Gentleman . . . The Grateful Dead: Fillmore East April 1971. Arista 14075. A typical “Dead” set from the period that features such folk revival favorites as “Dark Holler,” “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,” “New Minglewood Blues,” and “Casey Jones.”
Bob Dylan. Nashville Skyline/New Morning/John Wesley Harding. Columbia/Sony 65373. Original material that portrays Dylan’s folk roots as well as his progressive political vision on three separate “folk-rock” albums now packaged together as a set.
Woody Guthrie. Dust Bowl Ballads. Rounder 1040. These topical songs and ballads from the late 1930s are arguably Guthrie’s best recordings; many other fine records are available on Smithsonian Folkways.
Bruce Molsky. Contented Must Be. Rounder 682161053424. The longer that he plays, the clearer it becomes that this D.C.-based fiddler, guitarist, and banjo player is one of the most accomplished musicians to explore old-time music.
New Lost City Ramblers. The Early Years: 1958–1962. Smithsonian Folkways 40036. A multivolume repackaging of their best work for Moses Asch.
Mike Seeger. True Vine. Smithsonian Folkways 40136. Mike’s fine interpretations of a wide variety of songs and instrumentals mostly from the Upland South, from the familiar (“Freight Train”) to the sublime (“When Sorrows Encompass Me Round”).
Pete Seeger. If I Had A Hammer. Smithsonian Folkways 40096. An overview of Seeger’s topical material recorded between the 1940s and 1998.
Various. The Best of Broadside 1962–1988: Anthems of the American Underground From The Pages of Broadside Magazine. Smithsonian Folkways 40130. A boxed set of five compact discs and an excellent booklet that covers the “protest” music of the folk revival and beyond.
Various. Close to Home, Old Time Music from Mike Seeger’s Collection, 1952–1967. Smithsonian Folkways 40097. These informal recordings include such important artists as Dock Boggs, Tom Ashley, Elizabeth Cotten, and Snuffy Jenkins.
Various. Don’t Mourn—Organize! Songs of Labor Songwriter Joe Hill. Smithsonian Folkways 40026. Renditions of Hill’s powerful songs by Earl Robinson, Billy Bragg, Hazel Dicks, and others.
Various. The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute to the Anthology of American Folk Music. Smithsonian Folkways 40085. This 1997 recording showcases performances by artists such as Geoff Muldar, Jeff Tweedy, and the Fugs interpreting songs associated with the Harry Smith Anthology.
Various. O Brother, Where Art Thou. Polygram 170069. This soundtrack to the Coen Brother’s film includes strong and interesting performances by Norman Black, Allison Krause, Ralph Stanley, the Fairfield Four, and a host of other talented (though not necessarily well-known) artists.
Various. Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook 1. Old Town School 001. The first of a series of four compact discs that sample the work of students and graduates of this Chicago community music school whose alumni include members of Wilco and the Mekons.
Various. That’s Why We’re Marching: World War II and the American Folk Song Movement. Smithsonian Folkways 40021. Twenty-five selections by the Almanac Singers, Tom Glazer, Josh White, and others that reflect the nation’s mood during this troubled period.
Weavers. Reunion at Carnegie Hall, 1963. Vanguard 15/16. A triumphant reprise of the group some thirteen years after they first made headlines with “Irene, Goodnight.”
SUGGESTED READING
Ray Allen. Gone to the Country: The New Lost City Ramblers and the Folk Music Revival. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010. Allen’s firmly balanced book looks carefully at this pivotal group and its place in shaping the taste of folk music fans from the late 1950s into the early twenty-first century.
John Bealle. Old-Time Music and Dance: Community and Folk Revival. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. Sharply focused on founding in 1972 and the subsequent development of the Bloomington Old-Time Music and Dance Group, Bealle explores larger questions about countercultures, identity, and authenticity.
Robert Cantwell. When We Were Good: The Folk Revival. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996. A scholarly historical examination of the “folk movement” and revivals following World War II.
Ron Cohen, ed. “Wasn’t That A Time”: First Hand Accounts of the Folk Revival. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1995. A fine and varied compilation of essays about the folk revival, concentrating on the 1950s and 1960s.
Bob Coltman. Paul Clayton and the Folksong Revival. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008. Though not well known to the general public, Clayton played an important—though often behind the scenes—role as a performer, song collector, and enthusiast.
David Dunaway and Holly Beer. Singing Out: An Oral History of America’s Folk Music Revivals. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. In-depth interviews with subjects as diverse as Arlo Guthrie, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Holly Near, and Bob Dylan.
Serge Denisoff. Great Day Coming. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971. A pioneering discussion of the relationship between left-wing political and grassroots music.
Peter D. Goldsmith. Making People’s Music: Moe Asch and Folkways Records. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998. A biography of Folkway’s founder Asch, intertwined with his relationship with the record industry and the folk music scene of the 1940s through the middle 1980s.
Thomas Gruning. Millennium Folk: American Folk Music Since the Sixties. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006. Unlike most books on this topic, Gruning focuses on the last two decades of the twentieth century and foregrounds issues of gender, ethnicity, race, and authenticity.
Ronnie Lieberman. My Song Is My Weapon. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989. A personalized view of the folk revivals and left-wing politics.
Jim Longhi. Woody, Cisco, and Me: Seaman Three in the Merchant Marines. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. A firsthand account of the author’s experiences with Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston during their service together during the early 1940s.
Shelly Romulis. Pistol Packin’ Mama: Aunt Molly Jackson and the Politics of Folksong. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998 An intriguing book about the role played by this Kentucky-based protest singer and her place in America’s progressive political movement in the late 1930s into the 1950s.
Neil V. Rosenberg, ed. Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993. This book of essays, several of which are based on firsthand and very personal experience, concentrates on the folk revival since World War II.
Michael Scully. The Never-Ending Revival: Rounder Records and the Folk Alliance. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008. Scully details how Boston-based Rounder Records and the umbrella organization known as the Folk Alliance helped shape the commodification of folk music, particularly the period from 1970 until the early 2000s.
William Roy. Reds, Whites, and Blues: Social Movements, Folk Music, and Race in the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010. Sociologist Roy provides a different take on the folk revival and focuses on the period between 1930 and 1960.
Eric Von Schmidt and Jim Rooney. “Baby Let Me Follow You Down”: The Illustrated History of the Cambridge Folk Years. New York: Anchor Books, 1977. This is an entertaining, insider’s view of the folk revival in Boston.
SUGGESTED VIEWING
Don’t Look Back. Acclaimed documentary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker’s black-an
d-white feature about Bob Dylan’s controversial 1965 tour, which highlighted the schism between the folk and rock elements of popular music.
John Cohen. Remembering The High Lonesome. Davenport Films/Folkstreams.net. Not only a recollection of Cohen’s film, The High Lonesome Sound, it is also a portrait of this longtime member of the New Lost City Ramblers.
Holy Modal Rounders. Bound to Lose. Carnivalesque. A documentary about the craziest “folk-inspired” group that has been together on and off since 1963.
New Lost City Ramblers. Always Been A Rambler. Arhoolie DVD 204. An hour-long documentary celebrating fifty years of this seminal group that includes lots of historical footage, interviews, and performances by artists ranging from Bela Fleck to the Carolina Chocolate Drops.
Steven Wade. Catching the Music. Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, Inc./Folkstreams.net. This film, autered by Wade, explores how musicians as disparate Hobart Smith, Uncle Dave Macon, Virgil Anderson, and Wade himself united in their love of the music made on the five-string banjo,
Various. Folk City 25th Anniversary Concert. Rhino-VHS 1977. A celebration of Gerde’s club in New York City, with Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton, Joan Baez, and others.
Various. Musical Holdouts. A fascinating view of traditional and regional folk-based music shot mostly in the early 1970s by John Cohen.
Chapter 11
THE FOLK ROOTS OF CONTEMPORARY POPULAR MUSIC
• Black Codes from the Underground
• Improvisation in Black Musical Culture
• Rhythm and Blues
• Rockabilly
• Early Rock ’n’ Roll and Rock
• Motown and Soul
• Hip-Hop and Rap
• Country Music Today
• Final Thoughts
The majority of significant forms of American popular music that have emerged since World War II have strong roots in the recent past. Our focus in this chapter is on the swiftly changing, ephemeral popular music scene that spawned rockabilly, classic rock, hip-hop, and other related forms since the middle 1950s. Each of these genres owes an immense debt to traditional music, in particular the vernacular musical culture of black Americans. Although records by Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, or Tony Bennett have sold millions of copies since the 1940s, these very talented vocalists are more closely related to jazz—especially of the swing and “cool” eras—as well as displaying a fondness for such important American popular songcrafters as Cole Porter, the Gershwin brothers (George and Ira), and Jimmy Van Huesen. Songs from the musical theater since World War II, South Pacific, Oklahoma, West Side Story, or A Chorus Line, remain immensely popular and are established fare for community and professional theater groups throughout the United States. They, too, come from a similar music aesthetic that is far removed from rock and its close relatives. Disaffected white youths—the single most important group in promoting American popular culture—tend to look toward other individual (often black) rebels or musical outsiders such as Robert Johnson, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, or Tupac Shakur for inspiration and change in their musical culture. It is the rock-based, black-influenced popular music of the past half century that we will address in this chapter.
BLACK CODES FROM THE UNDERGROUND
Popular black music, with its strong roots in traditional forms, the church, and in the streets, has witnessed the emergence and spread of rhythm and blues (R&B), Motown and soul, funk, and rap since the close of World War II. These styles materialized in periods of approximately ten years. R&B, for example, was an important form of music by the late 1940s with Louis Jordan and his Tympani Five leading the way. In the early 1960s Barry Gordy’s Motown label brought artists such as the Temptations, the Marvelettes, and the Supremes (led by Diana Ross) into homes and dance halls across the United States and, ultimately, to many other parts of the world. Following in the footsteps of the civil rights movement, Motown became the first style of black popular music to fully cross over and be unconditionally accepted by American popular culture. Within ten years, funkmeisters Ohio Players, Parliament/Funkadelic, and Larry Graham were being heard on radios and record players across the United States. By the middle of the 1980s the hip-hop nation (most notably rap) emerged as an important, and sometimes controversial, element of black and white youth culture.
The early twenty-first century represents a new era in African American music. By way of records, tapes, compact discs, live performances, radio, television, Internet broadcasts,’ and downloads dynamic black American music has influenced music across the world, most notably in Africa and Europe. During the late Reconstruction era jubilee religious singing groups visited countries as far away as South Africa and Australia; one hundred years later James Brown drew hundreds of thousands of almost worshipful listeners to his Ghana concerts. The popular “Highlife” sound of southern Africa that first developed during the 1930s remains highly charged with American jazz and was later informed by R&B. By the mid-1980s respected electric blues performer Johnny Copeland had recorded an album in Africa accompanied by native musicians, following the lead of jazz artists Ornette Coleman and Yusef Lateef, both of whom had previously explored North African/African American collaborations. The twentieth-century products of this African American creative spirit (blues, gospel, and jazz) doubtless rank among our most vital and important contributions to the musical world. Black American music lends clear voices to a culture that cherishes improvisation in its everyday life and whose spirit has deeply influenced musicians not only in our own country but across the entire globe, also.
Aside from the popular forms that have gained widespread exposure through the mass media, the diversity of vernacular music largely remains a series of black codes from the underground. People across the world are familiar with black popular music, especially since it began to cross over with R&B in the late 1940s. They consume the Motown “soul” music of the Four Tops and the Jackson Five that gained popularity in the early 1960s or (a generation later) rap sounds of Public Enemy, Ton-Loc, and Salt-N-Pepa. Far fewer people, however, listen to, or are even aware of, early-twentieth-century blues and gospel artists. Most of us remain blissfully ignorant of the roots of our own contemporary popular music. These folk singers—some of whom were discussed in previous chapters—have descended from a rich, varied legacy buried in the obscurity of everyday life or more often have been simply forgotten. Because their music is rarely studied in our secondary schools and colleges, and all but shunned from today’s commercial marketplace, the names, lives, and music of most older black musicians largely remain unknown to the general public. Nonetheless, these musicians have made important contributions to our music history and have clearly shaped the popular music that we so voraciously consume and have made available to millions of interested consumers throughout the rest of the world.
IMPROVISATION IN BLACK MUSICAL CULTURE
More than most musicians, Afro-American folk performers are always trying to create their own sound or utilize vocal techniques or instrumental devices that facilitate this process. I recall many conversations over the past thirty years with blues and gospel musicians who told me they prided themselves on being able to mimic Blind Boy Fuller or Mahalia Jackson as well as their ability to communicate in their own voice. I found, for example, that black gospel quartet singers in Memphis enjoyed being able to sound like Ira Tucker of the Philadelphia-based Dixie Hummingbirds but they were even more interested in working on the vocal qualities that distinguished them from other singers.
Improvisation in black folk music is a valued skill and takes many forms. Instrumental and vocal improvisations represent the basic ways musicians seek individuality in a performance. Most black folk singers view their ability to replicate musical styles as a gift. Inherent aptitude is undeniably part of this process, but many folk musicians (black and white) also go through an apprenticeship with a master musician. This learning process is one aspect of folk music that bears closer scrutiny, but it cle
arly involves a long period if the younger musician is striving for mastery. The nuances of performance (vocal inflections interplaying between the voice and instrument, tuning of the instrument, even posturing and facial expressions) are part of learning music.
Houston Stackhouse at the 1970 Festival of American Folklife. Bill Pierce photo, courtesy of the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution.
Showmanship or clowning is part of black folk performance practice, too. Older blues singers speak in awe of the tricks that musicians such as Charlie Patton and Tommy Johnson performed in the 1920s: playing the guitar while holding it above their head, behind their backs, or picking it with their teeth! I have seen the late South Carolina medicine show performer, Peg-Leg Sam, perform spellbinding visual tricks with his harmonica, a legacy of his years on the road.
Sacred musicians are not beyond pulling a trick or two. Gospel performers sometimes work a crowd by walking among them or by leaping onto church pews while singing with microphone in hand. The concept is simple—to communicate with the audience—and all of these practices are important in engaging the audience, grabbing their attention, keeping them focused on the performance, and drawing them into the event. It is a means of integration between audience and performer that African American performers have used since at least the days of “Jump Jim Crow.”
James Brown, a more contemporary popular singer, uses some of these same performance techniques. Brown is certainly one of the most dynamic performers in twentieth-century music and one of our most influential live performers. His sliding dance steps and general athleticism might harken back to the “buzzard lope” of the mid-nineteenth-century minstrel stage but it also presages Michael Jackson’s moon walk and the gymnastic moves of the later hip-hoppers. To see James Brown performing “Cold Sweat” or “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” in the middle 1960s was like watching Muhammad Ali at the height of his abilities, when Ali’s statement that he could “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” sounded not only like poetry but also the truth. The emotional and highly charged performance practices might be shunned as mere antics by many audiences, but in front of an understanding black crowd they are quite acceptable, often anticipated and even expected. And you can take it as gospel that musicians or musical groups as diverse as Mick Jagger, the B-52s, KISS, and every Anglo-American adherent to hip-hop (from Vanilla Ice to Eminem) would not be as animated on stage had black American performers not shown them the way.