Southern Music

Bill C. Malone and Leontyne Price, express little or no region-

al identity, the folk South, in contrast, has
he S"euth has played a central greatly broadened the nation's musical styles.
ana defining role in American Southern-born musical styles also have con-
usical history, as an inspir- quered the world, making immense fortunes
tien for songwriters, as a for a few musicians and more entrepreneurs,
source of styles, and as the but we should not forget that they were born
birthplace of many of the in poverty. They were nurtured in the folk
nation's greatest musicians. It communities of the South, largely apart from
is impossible to think of Amer- the gaze of outsiders, in homes, churches,
ican music in this century singing schools and conventions, juke joints,
without such Southern-de- honky tonks, brothels, fiddle contests, and
rived forms as ragtime, jazz, other scenes of social interchange. The region's
blues, country, gospel, rhythm working people drew deeply from their mar-
and blues, Cajun, zydeco, and velous music to preserve their sanity, assert
rock 'n' roll. These vibrant their identity, build community ties, worship
styles have been taken to heart God, and win emotional release and liberation
by people around the world in a society that seemed too often to value only
and have even been reintro- their labor.
duced to this country in The deep waters of Southern folk music
altered forms through the flowed principally from the confluence of two
performances of such foreign- mighty cultural streams, the British and the
based musicians as the Beatles West African. This mighty river was enriched
and Rolling Stones. by the periodic infusion of German, Spanish,
Romantic images of the French, Caribbean, and other melodic and
South have fired the imagi- stylistic elements. The African admixture has
nations of songwriters since at contributed much to the distinctiveness and
"Bill Monroe, often called the least the 1830s, when black-face minstrels appeal of Southern music: syncopation, anti-
father of Bluegrass music, began exploiting Southern musical forms and phony (call and response), improvisation, and
established the classic Bluegrass cultural symbols. The region has spawned a blue notes. But other ethnic groups have also
veritable school of songwriters, from Stephen added to the musical mix. Scotch-Irish bal-
sound- high, pure tenor voice,
Foster, Will Hays, and Dan Emmett in the ladry and fiddle music, German accordion
powerful mandolin solos against nineteenth century to Johnny Mercer, Hoagy rhythms and hymn tunes, the infectious Cajun
the banjo background. Bluegrass Carmichael, Allen Toussaint, Tom T. Hall, dance style, and the soulful cry of Mexican
remains the most distinctive of all Dolly Parton, and Hank Williams, Jr., in our conjunto singers have all shaped the Southern
the sub-styles within country own time. Visions of lonesome pines, lazy sound.
music, having changed relatively rivers, and smoky mountains have long enrap- Southern working people's music also bor-
little in the last half-century." tured America's lyricists and delighted audien- rowed much from both high art and popular
ces with images of a land where time moves culture. Some rural dances, for example, had
-David Vinopal, All Music Guide slowly, life is simple, and people hold clear middle- or upper-class origins. The square
Photo by Bruce Roberts, values and love to make music. dance came from the cotillion; the African-
©Southern Living, Inc. Southerners themselves have greatly en- American cakewalk was a burlesque of formal
riched American music, as performers, song- European-American dancing; the Virginia Reel
writers, record producers and promoters, and was a variation of the upper-class dance called
folklorists . While some Southern-born musi-
cians who have won international distinction,
like Mary Martin and Kate Smith, Van Cliburn
Festival of American Folklife 1996 57
At the home of
Terry Wootten
on Sand
Mountain, in
Alabama, the
Wootten family
sings from the
Sacred Harp
Songbook, first
published in
Georgia in
7844. The
invention in
7802 ofshape
notes, a format in which the pitch the Sir Roger de Coverley. Many fiddle tunes see, made devotees of "serious music" aware of
of each note is represented with hallowed in rural folk tradition, such as "Under Negro Spirituals after 1871, when they made
one of four shapes, facilitated the Double Eagle," "Listen to the Mocking- performing tours in the North and in Europe.
bird," and "Red Wing," came from marches or And in the 1890s, a large number of itinerant
music reading. The notation
pop tunes written by popular composers. piano players, led principally by Scott Joplin
proved so popular in the South Chautauqua tents, medicine shows, tent-rep from Texarkana, Texas, revolutionized the
and Midwest that practically shows, vaudeville, and the popular music world of American popular music with rag-
every singing-school book used industry all introduced styles and songs that time. During the years surrounding World
the four shapes devised by became part of Southern folk traditions. War I, composer and veteran brass-band mu-
William Little and William Smith. Southern music entered the nation's con- sician W. C. Handy, based in Memphis, popu-
sciousness late in the nineteenth century. Until larized a style of sophisticated, urban blues
Photo by Anne Kimzey,
that time national audiences had heard only music, including his own compositions such
© Alabama Center for
Traditional Culture caricatures of Southern music in the perform- as "St. Louis Blues" and "Memphis Blues." The
ances of the black-face minstrels- Northern, most dramatic entrance of Southern-derived
White song-and-dance men who roamed the music on the national scene, however, came
country sporting corked faces and grotesque after 1917, when a few bands from New Or-
"darky'' dialects. In 1865, however, a small leans, including the Original Dixieland Jazz
group of African-American entertainers, the Band and Joe "King" Oliver's Creole Jazz Band,
Georgia Minstrels, inaugurated a brand of min- brought their hot, improvised numbers to
strelsy that, while still suffering from stereo- receptive fans on the West Coast and in Chi-
types of the genre, enabled Black performers to cago and New York. First described as 'jazz"
slowly develop a form of entertainment more in Chicago, this music rapidly won over young
truly representative of their culture and music. musicians and fans with its dance beat and
At least as late as World War I, minstrel spirited improvisations. Jazz stars quickly a-
troupes featuring African-American performers rose, including instrumentalists Sidney Bechet
such as Billy Kersands, Ma Rainey, and Bessie and Louis Armstrong and vocalist Bessie
Smith spread Black Southern music to a wide Smith, whose city blues developed in a close
audience. relationship with jazz.
By 1900, Southern music had had a power-
ful impact on high and popular culture. The
Fisk Jubilee Singers from Nashville, Tennes-
58 Festival of American Folklife1996
 Gospel singers on W. C. Handy
Square in Memphis. Gospel music
is rooted in spirituals, blues,
shape-notesongs, ragtime, and
the urban church revival. It
emerged in the early twentieth
century as traveling performers
"visited" church communities,
popularizing compositions by
Charles Tindley and Thomas
Dorsey. Gospel compositions are
formally notated, but they are
transformed during performances,
when participation and
Although collections of Appalachian ballads jordan, and the urban and electrified blues of improvisation on the part of the
and cowboy songs had been published in 1917 Muddy Waters. Southern music was already audience become an important
and 1920, the music of rural White folk of the making crucial stylistic departures and reach- part of the offering.
South between the eastern mountains and the ing out to larger audiences by the end of the
Photo © Roland L. Freeman
western plains remained unknown and un- 1930s through powerful radio broadcasts,
valued nationally. The discovery and populari- Hollywood movies, personal appearance tours,
zation of this music came with the media revo- and increasingly sophisticated recording
lution of the 1920s. White rural entertainers techniques.
began performing on newly established South- The massive population movements and the
em radio stations, and in 1923 a fiddler named prosperity caused by World War II and new
john Carson, who had earlier performed on forms of consciousness among youth, women,
WSB in Atlanta, made the first "hillbilly" re- and African Americans combined to intensify
cording in the same city. As the decade con- the nationalization of Southern music. Many
tinued, other Southern grassroots forms such as small record labels featuring grassroots music
Cajun, cowboy, gospel (African- and European- styles of the South appeared after the war, in
American), and country blues also began to and outside the region. Major record labels
appear on commercial recordings. found commercial success with Southern-born
Southern musical forms changed as they musicians like Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold,
grew to national popularity during the 1930s Louis jordan, Nat "King" Cole, Sister Rosetta
and 1940s. They thrived during the Great Tharp , and Elvis Presley. Postwar recording
Depression and provided hard-pressed Ameri- tended increasingly to be done in such South-
cans with escape, fantasy, and hope in dance- ern cities as Dallas, Houston, New Orleans,
able rhythms and down-to-earth lyrics. New Memphis, Macon, Muscle Shoals, and
and vital forms emerged, including the singing Nashville.
cowboy genre of Gene Autry, the western Powered by prosperity and an emerging
swing dance music of Bob Wills, the hanky- youth market, a skyrocketing entertainment
tonk music of Ernest Tubb, the gospel soul of industry distributed great quantities of com-
Mahalia Jackson, the shuffle beat of Louis mercial music. Old forms evolved and acquired
new labels that seemed to better reflect Amer-
ica's newly emerging realities. "Hillbilly" gave
way to "country," "rural blues" became
Festival of American Folklife 1996 59
 erican South

"rhythm and blues," and the gospel style of the Country music has become America's
old shape-note publishing houses became a favorite. Its styles and themes seem to appeal to
polished and dynamic urban gospel. American much of the nation's adult White population.
youth were increasingly receptive to musical This trend may reflect a "southernization of the
alternatives of which their parents had been North," but it also suggests the musics and the
unaware, or to which they were opposed. cultures that created them are becoming part of
Elvis Presley was a major beneficiary of these the national mainstream. But country
transformations. His dynamic and sensual style musicians are still overwhelmingly from the
combined elements from virtually every form South, and their lyrics often self-consciously
of popular music available in the postwar reflect Southern preoccupations and longings.
years. He and other rockabilly musicians such Southerners export musical treasures to the
as Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, world and absorb much in return. Their styles
and the Everly Brothers unleashed the most may no longer be as regionally distinctive as
important musical revolution that America had many would like, but how could it be other-
experienced since the blossoming of jazz earlier wise when the folk cultures that produced
in the century. Together with rhythm and these traditions are undergoing a similar trans-
blues performers such as Fats Domino, Little formation? Happily, many of the older tradi-
Richard, and Chuck Berry, they carried the tions- such as old-time fiddling and string
musical sounds of the Southern working class band music, clog dancing, and Sacred Harp
deep into American popular culture. singing - are preserved and revitalized by
increasing numbers of young
Music &the U.S. Civil Rights Movement people. New Orleans has seen
a revitalization of the brass
Jacquelin C. Peters We shall overcome
Suggested Listening rediscover band as young musicians
We shall overcome it, and scores of
Song and eloquent oratory are integral We shall overcome someday. Been in the Storm So Long. Cajun youth have taken up
to African-American religious Deep in my heart, I do believe Smithsonian Folkways SF 40031. the accordion and the
expression, and they were pervasive, We shall overcome someday.
Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil
Louisiana French music of
spiritually sustaining elements of the Rights Movement through its Songs.
their ancestors.
Techniques such as call and response,
U.S. Civil Rights Movement. In Smithsonian Folkways SF 40032.
Many performers preserve
"worrying the line" (using melismatic
emotionally tense or physically the older traditions of South-
vocal embellishments), or "lining out"
threatening situations, the standard of Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: ern rural music: singers like
(the song leader's singing or reciting
nonviolence and a serene attitude Black American Freedom Songs, Austin-based Don Walser,
the next line of verse before the end of
were maintained through song, 7960-7965. Smithsonian Collection who yodels and sings in the
the previous one) are other retentions
prayer, and words of encouragement. of Recordings R023. old-time hanky-tonk style;
from traditional African-American
Massive church rallies, picketing Wade in the Water, Vols. 7-4.
Ralph Stanley, the banjo
song.
demonstrations, and even jail houses Smithsonian Folkways SF 40072/75.
player and tenor singer from
echoed with the sounds of resolve, Grounded in the tradition of Black McClure, Virginia, who pre-
declaring, "Just like atree standing by congregational song, choral quartets serves the haunting, pinch-
the water I We shall not be moved." and ensembles transmitted the jacquelin Celeste Peters is a throat style of Appalachian
Movement's musical message to consultant scholar for the D.C. singing; and Doc Watson, the
Sacred African-American music Community Humanities Coun-
audiences far from the locale of the North Carolina wizard of the
provided the basis for many freedom cil. She compiled the premier
struggle. The Montgomery Gospel Trio, flat-top guitar. And, thank
songs. One such spiritual, "I Will Be All edition of the Directory of
the American Baptist Theological God, Bill Monroe, the Ken-
Right," has evolved to become the African American Folklorists
Seminary Quartet (also known as the tucky musician whose sky-
universal anthem of protest, "We Shall for the Center for Folklife
Nashville Quartet), the Congress of high tenor singing and
Overcome." Programs & Cultural Studies.
Racial Equality (CORE) Singers, and the powerful mandolin style
SNCC Freedom Singers gave perfor- defined the art of bluegrass
mances that encouraged the world to music performance, still lives
sit up and take notice. and entertains.
60 Festival of American Folklife 1996
 .. ,. . .

Young, more commercial musicians prove it The 7958 cast of the Louisiana
is still possible to create new, exciting, and Hayride. Begun in 1948 in the
popular sounds by building on time-tested Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport,
musical genres: Tish Hinojosa, with her affec-
the Louisiana Hayride was the
ting blend of Tex-Mex and country styles; the
Nashville Bluegrass Band, with its superb mix- launching-pad ofcountry music in
ture of dynamic musicianship, original and the 1940s and 1950s. The show,
traditional songs, and a cappella gospel har- dubbed the "Cradle of the Stars,"
monies; Zachary Richard, with his fusion of presented area favorites and trend-
rock and traditional zydeco stylings; and setting explorers on the edge of what
Aaron Neville, with his sweet, soulful melange was then called "hillbilly" music. Fans
of country and New Orleans rhythm and
came from neighboring states and all
blues.
Whatever directions its talented musicians over Louisiana to the live, Saturday
may take in the years to come, the South will night broadcasts over local satation
not soon lose its genius or its romantic aura. It KWKH. The sometimes-rowdy
will always sing and be sung about. audience could make or break an act.
It was on the Hayride that atruck
Bill Malone is a professor of history at Tulane
driver from Mississippi, Elvis Presley,
University in New Orleans, LA. He holds a Ph.D.
from the University of Texas. gyrated himself to stardom with more
A former Guggenheim Fellow for the study of moves than the Grand Ole Opry in
country music and the Southern working class, Nashville would tolerate. When
Dr. Malone is the author of an award-winning KWKH joined the CBS radio network
book entitled Singing Cowboys and Musical and the Armed Forces Radio System,
Mountaineers: Southern Culture and the Roots the Hayride audience grew to encom-
of Country Music, and numerous educational
pass an entire new world oflisteners
journal publications and encyclopedia articles on
the varied forms of Southern music. intrigued and excited by the Hayride's
transformation of ''hillbilly" into
"country" music.
Photo courtesy
Tillman Franks Family Archives

Festival of American Folklife 1996 61