You can read online, or click on the links to download each article.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Old-time music part 1 / part 2
- The Carter Family
- The Blues
- Robert Johnson
- Country
- Bluegrass
- Rockabilly
- The Folk Revival
- Woody Guthrie
- Modern Folk Music
1. Introduction to Folk Music
Folk music exists everywhere. Folk music is any tune that you hum as you walk somewhere, a beat you tap with your hand on a desk, or a song you make up with your friends. It is music that is organic. It is not born in a studio or preserved on a digital recording, but appears in the hearts and minds of people, inspired by their own lives.
Folk music reflects the lives of common people. Through this music people give voice to their feelings. They cry about their sorrows and shout about their happiness. They express their beliefs and remember their ancestors. They tell about the things they have seen and heard and felt in their lives. Through folk music people preserve their history. Not the history of textbooks, but the history of common people.
Traditionally, folk music was not written down or recorded. It was created in a time before compact discs, MP3s and the internet. It was shared with other people orally. This means that people learned the songs directly from other people. Therefore folk songs often changed over time, as each person played the songs with their own unique style. People living in different regions of the United States might know slightly different versions of the same song. They might know different lyrics or a different melody for a song of the same name. Or they might have different names for the same song. Many folk songs have no authors, or the original authors have been forgotten.
The folk music we are presenting to you is folk music from the United States. We often say that the United States is a country of immigrants, a melting pot of cultures, and the folk music of the U.S. reflects this diversity of culture. Like other aspects of our culture, it developed after many years of contact between people of different ethnic, national, and cultural backgrounds. The roots of folk music can be found in countries all over the world, but the music itself is something uniquely American.
Folk music in the United States is very diverse and can be difficult to describe. Many people today may use the term ‘folk music’ to mean different things. In the following articles we use the term not to describe a genre of music, but to describe a culture of music. What this means is that folk music is not defined by any definite musical qualities, but is defined by the historical, social, and cultural conditions in which people create, sing, play, and listen to it.
Some of the common characteristics of American folk music are:
It reflects the lives of common people.
It is not standardized (there is no one correct version of any song).
It is always evolving.
It’s roots are in the musical traditions of people who immigrated to the United States hundreds of years ago.
In the following texts we will talk about both traditional folk music, and some of the kinds of more contemporary music that grew out of traditional American folk music. In them we try to explain the historical, social, and cultural context of each different genre. However, we would like to remind the readers that it is impossible to truly understand music by reading about it. The famous actor, comedian, and banjo player, Steve Martin, once said: “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” Words can never capture the sounds, energy, and emotions conveyed through music. Therefore we encourage students and teachers to to use the online multimedia resources found on our website to gain a deeper understanding of American folk music.
2. The Roots of Old Time Music (1800-1920)
The term ‘old-time music’ describes the traditional songs that were sung and played by common people primarily in the southern United States from the time that European immigrants began arriving there in the 17th century. Old-time music was influenced by the musical traditions of people from many different nations and cultures. These diverse musical traditions mixed together over time, as people from different backgrounds came into contact with each other, and created a form of music that was truly and uniquely American.
Old-time music is difficult to define because it developed before such technologies as the radio and phonograph became common. Therefore, there was no standard version of old-time music. It was music which originally existed only in the people who played it, and those who listened, danced, and sang along. It was truly ‘folk’ music because it was played by common people for common people, it wasn’t recorded or played on the radio, and no one made money from it.
Old-time music grew out of the music brought to the United States by immigrants from the British Isles. Traditional music from these countries had two kinds of songs: ballads and dance tunes. Ballads were long songs which told a story. Often they were sung without the help of instruments. A ballad could be a story about anything, but most often they told romantic and sad stories like the song “Barbara Allen”. Here are some lines from this famous ballad:
‘Twas in the merry month of May
The green buds were a swelling
Sweet William on his deathbed lay
For the love of Barbara Allen
Oh mother mother make my bed
Make it long and make it narrow
Sweet William died for me today
I’ll die for him tomorrow
The dance tunes, however, were cheerful songs with a fast tempo and a steady beat. These songs were most often played on a fiddle. Fiddle is the name for a violin when it is used in folk music. The fiddle would become one of the most important instruments in old-time music and all other forms of folk music in America.
After arriving in the United States, immigrants continued to play these traditional songs of their homeland. As time went on the songs slowly began to change. People would often change the lyrics to the songs to more accurately reflect their new lives in America. Sometimes musicians would make small changes to the melody of a song. They would change the order of the parts of songs, add entirely new sections, and remove others. As immigrants spread across the land and settled in different regions, the songs began to evolve in different ways. Each community developed its own individual style of playing these traditional songs. A musician from the mountains of West-Virginia would play a song slightly differently than a musician from the hills of Kentucky. They would also sing the song with slightly different lyrics.
Over time the traditional songs from the British Isles changed more and more. Many songs were forgotten altogether, and many new songs were written. Today it is difficult to know the origins of any old-time song because they weren’t written down or recorded. Children learned the songs from their parents, relatives, and neighbors. Each person who learned the song would make some small changes, giving the song a bit of unique flavor by playing in his own personal style.
Old-time music was not only influenced by the traditional songs of European immigrants; it was also strongly influenced by the musical traditions of Africans who were brought to America as slaves. The majority of slaves worked on large farms, called plantations, in the Southern United States. There were also many free blacks living in the South. There was much contact between whites and blacks, and white musicians often borrowed certain features of the songs they heard black musicians play. One of the most important contributions of slave musicians to old-time music was the banjo. The banjo is an instrument with five strings and a round body covered by a drum. It was brought to the U.S. from Africa by slaves, and it would become one of the most common instruments used in old-time music.
Besides the fiddle and banjo many other instruments were popular in old-time music. The guitar, which didn’t become popular in the rural south until the early 1900s, was one of the most common instruments played by old-time musicians. The combination of fiddle, banjo, and guitar was favored by early old-time “string bands” which were precursors to the popular country and bluegrass bands that would appear beginning in the 1930s and 40s. Although the fiddle, banjo, and guitar were the most common instruments used in old-time music, musicians sometimes used other instruments such as the piano, bass, mandolin, dulcimer, harmonica, autoharp, ukelele, steel guitar. Many different percussion instruments were used to keep the beat and add a rhythmic element to songs: spoons, bones, washboard. Sometimes music was accompanied by a percussive form of dancing, called flatfooting or clogging, in which rhythms were played by tapping one’s feet on the floor while dancing.
Old-time music developed primarily in the southern United States. It was here, in the rural communities of the South that old traditions were best preserved. This area of the country has always been more socially conservative and more traditional in its customs than the North. People in the south have often resisted change, while those in the North have welcomed it. Old-time music was also the music of the common man. The communities where old-time music was most popular were usually small villages far from cities where people lived in poverty. Old-time musicians were farmers, coal miners, factory workers, slaves, and sharecroppers. The social and economic difficulties faced by rural southerners are reflected in the lyrics of many old-time songs which tell of the difficulties of everyday life. The following lines are from the song “Little Log Cabin in the Lane”, which tells the story of an old farmer who is poor and lonely:
Oh the chimney’s fallen down and the roof’s all caved in
Lettin’ in the sunshine and the rain
And the only friend I’ve got now is that good old dog of mine
And the little old log cabin in the lane
Religious themes were also very common in the lyrics of old-time songs. Religion played an important role in the lives of most people living in the rural south, and it was in the church that most old-time musicians were first introduced to music. The songs sung in church were known by everyone in the community and many of these songs were adopted by old-time musicians. The song, “Will the Circle be Unbroken”, is a religious hymn that was written in 1907 and has been played by countless folk musicians:
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
Is a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?
Old-time music was social music. It was played at social gatherings, parties, and dances. It was played in people’s homes when family members gathered after work or whenever visitors came. Whenever there was a party there would always be a fiddler, sometimes accompanied by a banjoist or guitarist, to provide music. Often they would play for hours without rest as people danced along. It was music that brought family, friends, and neighbors together.
Old-time music preserved the traditions of years past and expressed the values of rural communities in a time before television, radio, and the personal automobile. It was a diverse kind of music that was influenced by the musical traditions of many different people. It was always changing as each musician added his own personal touch, and then taught it to his children. In each community and each region the music was slightly different, but wherever it was played, old-time music reflected the lifestyles and values of the common working people.
Old-Time Music Continued – 1920s and the commercialization of old-time music
In the early 20th century new forms of technology revolutionized the ways that people listened to music. Before this time music was played and heard in live settings – at concerts, parties, family gatherings, and at church. But with the invention of the phonograph in the late 1800s, and the popularization of the radio in the 1920s, the commercial music industry was born. These technological advances would introduce old-time music to people all across the United States.
Before the 1920s, old-time music was mostly unknown to people living in large cities. The songs from Tin Pan Alley and vaudeville acts dominated popular music in the large cities of the north, while old-time music remained a rural southern genre. However, beginning in the 1920s the old-time music of the rural south enjoyed a period of great popularity, which would lead to the standardization of rural southern music in the forms of the “Country” and “Bluegrass” genres.
The rise in popularity of old-time music was largely due to the spread of the radio. Radios became popular household items beginning in the 1920s. By 1930 one third of all households had a radio. Radio stations in the south were the first to realize the commercial possibilities of old-time music. They discovered that programs which featured traditional old-time music were very popular and they began to search for talented musicians to perform for their radio station. Some stations featured weekly programs of old-time music called “radio barn dances”. The stations would invite an array of local artists to come play old-time music over the radio. Based on the popularity of such radio programs, record companies began sending talent scouts to the south to find old-time musicians to make records.
The first southern old-time musician to gain widespread commercial success was John Carson, a fiddle player from Georgia. Better known as Fiddlin’ John Carson, he was a master fiddle player, and was known in his home state for playing at fiddling conventions and competitions. In 1923 a man named Ralph Peer who worked for Okeh Records in New York came to Georgia looking for talented southern musicians to record songs. One of the musicians he recorded was Fiddlin’ John Carson. Peer thought Carson’s singing was awful and did not expect to sell many of his records, but they were so popular that Peer soon invited Carson to New York City to record more songs and sign a contract with Okeh Records.
After the commercial success of Fiddlin’ John Carson record companies began recording and marketing the music of many old-time musicians. Most of the early commercial artists were not professional musicians, but working people. They were farmers, laborers, miners and cowboys who played music in their free time. The songs they played came from a variety of sources. Some of them were songs brought to the United States from the British Isles, some of them were from Tin Pan Alley, but most of them were of unknown origin. Few of these musicians played original songs, but almost all of the musicians made their own changes to the songs they played. Lyrics, melodies, and even song titles were often changed, replaced, or forgotten.
However there were some artists who began composing original old-time songs as the genre became increasingly popular. Many of these song writers wrote “event songs”, which were similar to the old ballads of Great Britain. These were songs written about the important events and news of the time. Songs about train wrecks, robberies, kidnappings and other shocking events were especially popular. One of the most famous “event songs” tells the true story of a man named John Hardy, who killed another man during a game of cards. He ran away but was eventually captured, put in prison, and executed. Supposedly he wrote this song himself while he was in prison.
John Hardy
John Hardy, he was a desperate little man,
He carried two guns every day.
He shot a man on the West Virginia line,
And you ought seen John Hardy getting away.
John Hardy, he got to the Keystone Bridge,
He thought that he would be free.
And up stepped a man and took him by his arm,
Says, “Johnny, walk along with me.”
John Hardy, he had a pretty little girl,
That dress that she wore was blue
As she came skipping through the old jail hall,
Saying, “Poppy, I’ve been true to you.”
I been to the East and I been to the West,
I been this wide world around.
I been to the river and I been baptized,
And now I’m on my hanging ground.
John Hardy walked out on his scaffold high,
With his loving little wife by his side.
And the last words she heard poor John-O say,
“I’ll meet you in that sweet bye-and-bye.”
One of the most influential of the early commercial old-time musicians was Bradley Kincaid. Kincaid grew up listening to old-time songs in a small town in Kentucky. His father gave him a guitar when he was young and he learned to play and sing these traditional songs. He had no plans to become a professional musician, but after he moved to Chicago to go to college he was contacted by the music director of a local radio station. The director of the radio station heard from a friend that Kincaid knew many traditional songs and he asked him to play a fifteen minute show. This first show was so popular that Kincaid was asked to perform regularly for National Barn Dance, a popular old-time radio show. Kincaid was not a great guitar player, but he had a beautiful voice. He traveled throughout the country giving concerts and playing for radio stations for many years. According to Bill Malone, author of Country Music USA, Kincaid “probably did more to popularize old-time songs and ballads among Americans than any other individual.”
Old-time music was traditionally played by common working people in the rural south, but as it grew in popularity it began to attract musicians from different backgrounds. Vernon Dalhart was a professional musician living in New York. He studied opera at the Dallas Conservatory of Music. He worked for many years in New York as an opera singer and recorded many popular songs for many different record companies. As a singer of opera and popular music Dalhart was only moderately successful, however in the 1920s Dalhart decided to try recording an old-time song. He recorded the event song “The Wreck of the Southern Old 97”, a song written about a famous train accident, and “The Prisoner’s Song” for Victor Records in 1924. The record became a major hit and sold over one million copies, making it the best-selling single of it’s time.
In the decades following the 1920s the popularity of traditional southern music continued to grow. New genres of folk music, such as country and bluegrass, grew out of the traditional old-time music of the South. As traditional music grew in popularity it also became more commercialized and more urbanized.
3. The Carter Family
While many musicians recorded and performed traditional music during the 1920s and 30s, perhaps none are as well known today as The Carter Family. During their thirty year career they recorded hundreds of songs, and their music has influenced countless musicians.
The Carter family consisted of A.P. Carter, his wife, Sara, and his sister-in-law, Maybelle. They were all born in the southern state of Virginia. A.P. grew up in a very religious family and enjoyed singing religious songs as a boy. In 1915 he married Sara Dougherty, who was a skilled singer and instrumentalist. In 1926, Maybelle Addington married A.P.’s brother. Maybelle was a very talented musician who played the guitar, banjo, and autoharp. The Carter family often played music together at home, and in 1927 they auditioned for Ralph Peer, a record producer who had travelled to the south looking for new musical talent. The songs they recorded quickly became popular, and Peer invited them to New Jersey to record more songs.
The Carter Family’s sound was unique and easily recognizable. It was based around beautiful vocal harmonies and Maybelle’s distinct guitar playing. Sara was the center of the group, with her strong soprano voice. Maybelle and A.P. often sang harmony. Maybelle played guitar with a unique technique, which is known as the Maybelle Carter style, or the Maybelle Carter scratch. She played melody notes with her thumb on the bass strings and brushed the treble strings with her fingers which provided rhythm. This style of guitar playing was copied by musicians around the country, and is still common in country and folk music today.
The Carter Family played traditional songs as well as their own compositions. They preferred religious songs and traditional songs with themes of family and the home. After the Carter Family gained some commercial success, A.P. began traveling through the south “collecting” traditional songs. He would write down songs which southern farmers, laborers, church members, musicians, and others sang for him. Then the Carter Family would play and record them. In this way the Carter Family “discovered” many traditional songs, and introduced them to the public.
Although the Carter Family stopped playing together in 1936, Maybelle would continue to perform for many years with her three daughters and with other famous musicians. Her daughter, June, became a famous folk musician and married Johnny Cash, one of the most famous American musicians of all time. Together they recorded many albums of folk and country music.
The Carter Family was certainly one of the most influential folk music groups ever. Their songs have entered the repertoire of almost every famous folk, bluegrass, and country musician. In fact, one of Bob Dylan’s most famous songs, “The Times They Are a-Changin”, is actually a copy of the Carter Family song, “Wayworn Traveller”, with different lyrics!
4. The Blues
“The Blues” is a kind of music that is very important in the United States. It was created by African Americans who used to be slaves in the early part of the 1900′s. Black people in America used to live and work on large farms called plantations. Their working conditions were not very good, and while they worked, they would sometimes sing to each other in the fields. Later, these songs became the first Blues music.
This kind of music is very emotional. Slaves did not have happy lives, and even after slavery became illegal, life for black people in the south was still extremely difficult. Therefore, the words to these songs were often very sad. It became possible to say, “I’ve got the blues” or “I’m blue” when you were sad because of the lyrics of these songs. Here is an example of a Blues song.
“All My Love’s In Vain”
by Robert Johnson.
I followed her to the station with a suitcase in my hand
And I followed her to the station with a suitcase in my hand
Well it’s hard to tell it’s hard to tell, when all your love’s in vain
All my love’s in vain
When the train rolled up to the station, I looked her in the eye
When the train rolled up to the station, and I looked her in the eye
Well I was lonesome I felt so lonesome, and I could not help but cry
All my love’s in vain
When the train it left the station, ‘t was two lights on behind
When the train it left the station, ‘t was two lights on behind
Well the blue light was my blues and the red light was my mind
All my love’s in vain
Ooh…
All my love’s in vain
This song is about a man who loves a woman, but the woman has to leave. And even though he loves her very much, she still will not stay with him. So all of his love means nothing, or, all of his love is in vain.
Another very important part of Blues music that came from African culture is something called “Call and Response.” This came with the slaves from Africa and was developed into the songs that slaves would sing as they worked. One person, the leader, would sing a line and a group of people would sing it back. That style of singing turned into the way blues singers played their guitars. If you listen to the recording of “All My Love’s In Vain” you can hear how after the singer sings each line, the guitar plays back to him. It almost sounds like the guitar is answering, or responding, to what the singer sings.
The Blues began in small black farming communities, but soon it grew into something much bigger. During the Great Depression, a time between 1929 and 1940 where it was very hard to find a job in America, many people, white and black, were forced to move out of the countryside and into cities to find work. This migration brought the Blues to city people and made a division within this style of music. Now there were two kinds of Blues; Country Blues and City Blues. Country Blues was usually just a man or woman singing and playing a banjo or guitar. City Blues could have many more instruments, like washboard, double bass, fiddle, and mandolin, and sounded more professional or polished.
After World War II, Blues continued to grow in popularity. The economy had recovered and during the 1950′s many more African Americans moved toward cities, bringing the Blues to more people. By this time there were very large Blues scenes in cities like St. Louis, Chicago, Memphis, and Detroit. In these cities, a new style began to grow out of City Blues called Electric Blues. This is the style that most modern blues musicians still play in and includes instruments like drums, electric guitar, electric bass, harmonica, and a horn section. But even though Blues was becoming more and more well known, the musicians and fans of this music were still mostly black. This began to change in the 1960′s and 70′s.
Until this time, even though black people were no longer slaves, white and black people lived very different lives. This was especially true in the Southern States where black people were forced to eat at different restaurants, sit in different seats on buses, and even send their children to different schools. If any of these social taboos were broken, the penalty was often death. This strict separation also existed in the music community. White people just did not listen to black performers, and therefore, did not listen to the Blues.
But from 1955 to 1980 something called the American Civil Rights Movement took place. During this time, African Americans fought against the unfair way that white people forced them to live. It was a very hard time in American History with many sad stories, but once black and white people began to live together peacefully some great things happened. As the races began to mix their lives together, their music mixed together too. African American Blues musicians like B.B. King became internationally famous among white and black people. And many of the great Blues musicians playing today, like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton, are white.
Nowadays, Blues is for everyone. In most large American cities, there is at least one Blues Club where people can go to play, dance, or just listen and enjoy. Children learning how to play guitar for the first time are taught how to play the 12 Bar Blues before they learn anything else. This music has inspired many films such as “The Blues Brothers” in 1980 and “Crossroads” in 1986, and even video games like “Guitar Hero” keep the Blues alive and popular for our children. The birth and evolution of the Blues is an important piece of the cultural history of the United States, and it will never be forgotten.
5. Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson was a very important man in the history of American Blues. But surprisingly, we know very little about him. He was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi on May 8th in 1911 or 1912, and died very young at the age of 27. He was called, “the most important blues singer who ever lived” by Eric Clapton and during his short musical career he recorded 29 songs. His life is very mysterious and because we don’t know very much about him, a very interesting legend formed around the life of Robert Johnson the traveling blues man.
Blues musician Son House remembers Robert Johnson as a young boy who followed him around and tried to copy his playing style. House also remembers that Johnson was not very good. Soon after this, Johnson disappeared for a short while. He resurfaced two years later and was now a master of the guitar. This is a very short time to learn how to play an instrument, and an even shorter time to develop your own style of playing. And Robert Johnson’s playing style is still totally unique. He had an almost magical effect on audiences. His playing mesmerized everyone who heard it, and he also had the ability to hear a song only one time and then easily play it back. So how did such a young man become so good such a short time?
There is a common story in American and European folklore in which a character has a chance meeting with the Devil. The Devil then offers to give the man something in exchange for his soul. Our particular legend says that Johnson wanted to be a successful blues musician so badly that he would do anything to make his dream come true. One night, he heard a story of a place where a man could go to make a deal with the Devil. A crossroads (place where two roads meet). Johnson went to this place and met the Devil there. He took Johnson’s guitar, tuned it, and played a few songs. After he gave it back, Robert Johnson was immediately able to play perfectly.
This is of course, just a story. But it is interesting that Johnson was able to become so good at the guitar so fast. He also traveled from town to town very often and sometimes didn’t know anyone who lived where he was going. But he always found a place to stay, and always made enough money to eat. People who believe this myth also find evidence that it is true in the lyrics of Robert Johnson’s songs. He wrote and recorded 6 songs that mention the Devil in some way. He even played his guitar alone at night in graveyards.
But many blues historians say that this legend has grown into just another tall tale. The legend really gained popularity with Johnson’s white audience years after his death. During this time period, white people often thought that talented black performers had some kind of unholy gift from the Devil because of racial prejudice. It is true that Johnson played in graveyards at night, but this was probably because it was quiet there and people were less likely to bother him. Johnson may sing about the Devil a lot, but so did many other blues musicians. So what makes Robert Johnson different?
The most important point in the story of Robert Johnson is that we don’t know much about him. Because of this fact, it is possible for us to believe the legend. The idea of this fantastic tale has been put into recent American films such as Crossroads in 1986 and O Brother Where Art Thou in 2000. You must decide for yourself what you want to believe about the legend of Robert Johnson. But whether or not he made a deal with the Devil, we can certainly say that he was a great musician, and a man worthy of recognition.
6. Country
“It can be explained in just one word: sincerity. When a hillbilly sings a crazy song, he feels crazy. When he sings ‘I Laid My Mother Away,’ he sees her a-laying right there in the coffin. He sings more sincere than most entertainers because the hillbilly was raised rougher than most entertainers. You got to know a lot about hard work. You got to have smelt a lot of mule manure before you can sing like a hillbilly. The people who has been raised something like the way the hillbilly has knows what he is singing about and appreciates it.”
- Hank Williams on the success of of country music
Country music is today one of the most popular genres of music in the United States. The music itself has a very long history, with roots in the traditional old-time music of the south. Early country music was very similar to old-time music, but country musicians also used elements of the blues and popular urban music. Country musicians also used many new instruments such as lap slide guitars, electric guitars, resonator guitars, and drums. Today country music includes many different sub-genres: country rock, alternative country, western swing, country pop, and others.
Not everybody agrees about when country music began, but the man known today as the “father of country music” was Jimmie Rodgers, born in rural Mississippi in 1897. His mother died when he was five years old, and he was raised by his father. His father was a railroad worker and he often had to move from one town to another for work. Because of this Rodgers saw many different parts of the country in his childhood.
Rodgers began working with his father on the railroad at the age of 14. During his life he worked in areas all over the South and met many different people working on the railroad. When he became a professional musician in 1925 his experiences as a railroad worker strongly influenced his music. He wrote many songs about life on the railroad and was known by fans as “the singing brakeman.” Rodgers made his first recordings for Ralph Peer of Victor Records, the same man who recorded other influential southern musicians such as Fiddlin’ John Carson and The Carter Family.
By 1930 Rodgers was the most popular southern musician in the country. There is a legend that during this time customers at grocery stores would “approach the counter and say: ‘let me have a pound of butter, a dozen eggs, and the latest Jimmie Rodgers record.’” citation? His music was heavily influenced by the blues, which he had learned from black musicians while working on the railroads. He was an excellent guitar player, but his songs were most popular for his unique singing. He added an interesting vocal feature to his songs, known as the “blue yodel,” where he sang in a high pitched voice. Most of his songs were about small-town life, the railroad, ramblin’ hobos, and other themes recognizable to southerners.
Rodgers died of tuberculosis in 1933 at the age of 35. During his short life he recorded 111 songs which would influence country, blues, and rock’ n roll musicians for generations to come. He was the most popular of all the southern musicians of the 1920s, and after his death hundreds of other musicians began to imitate his musical style.
One of the most important influences on the development of modern country music were radio shows known as “barn dances.” These early radio shows featured old-time, blues, and country musicians. They also included humorous sketches and storytellers who attempted to recreate the atmosphere of family gatherings in rural communities. These programs reached a very large audience, and they launched the careers of many of country music’s most influential musicians. The most important of all the barn dance shows was called The Grand Ole Opry, which still exists today. The program has featured all of country music’s greatest stars for more than 85 years!
One of the early musicians to earn widespread fame on the Grand Ole Opry was Roy Acuff, sometimes called the “King of Country Music.” Acuff joined the Grand Ole Opry as the lead singer and fiddler for a group called the Smokey Mountain Boys in 1938. By 1940 the Smokey Mountain Boys were the most popular performers on the radio program. They performed both traditional songs and popular contemporary songs in the country style. They were one of the first popular country groups to include a lap slide guitar, an instrument brought from Hawaii. Acuff also acted in early Hollywood films, and started his own music publishing company. Although he left the Grand Ole Opry in 1946, he would continue to be the most recognizable star associated with the show for many years to come.
Hank Williams, one of the great legends of country music, was born in a log cabin in rural Alabama in 1923. His childhood was very difficult. His family was poor and he almost never saw his father who was in the hospital because of a brain disease. He and his sister began working from an early age to help support the family. He began performing on the local radio station at the age of fourteen and left school at the age of sixteen. In 1947 he signed a contract with MGM Records and recorded the song, “Move it on Over,” which became a major country hit. He soon began playing for the Grand Ole Opry, and recorded many more hit country songs. His music was highly influenced by Jimmie Rodgers and Roy Acuff. Almost all of his songs contained themes of loneliness, lost love, and adultery.
His successful music career was hurt by problems in his personal life. Williams had a serious problem with drugs and alcohol. In 1952 he was forced to leave the Grand Ole Opry and his band left him because of his drinking problem. He died in 1953 at the young age of 29 from heart failure caused by drugs and alcohol.
During his short and turbulent life Hank Williams recorded eleven number one country hits despite the fact that he did not know how to read or write music. His music influenced not only country musicians, but artists of many other musical genres as well. His songs have been covered by such famous artists as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennet and Ray Charles. His children and grandchildren have gone on to become very successful country musicians as well.
7. Bluegrass
“Scotch bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin’. It’s Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. It’s blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound. It’s plain music that tells a good story. It’s played from my heart to your heart, and it will touch you. Bluegrass is music that matters.”
-Bill Monroe
Bluegrass is a popular sub-genre of country music which is highly influenced by country, old-time, blues, and jazz music styles. Although bluegrass music is based upon the traditional old-time music of the south, there are also many significant differences between the two.
Bluegrass music appeared in the United States in the late 1940s, after World War II. There is no one person who invented bluegrass music; it was formed out of many already existing musical styles. However, the person who was most responsible for popularizing this exciting new musical style was Bill Monroe, known as the “founding father” of bluegrass. In fact, the term “bluegrass” comes from the name of his band, The Bluegrass Boys.
Monroe was born in 1911 in the state of Kentucky, nicknamed The Bluegrass State. He learned how to sing as a young boy at church and learned the guitar from a black coal miner and musician, Arnold Shultz. The young Bill Monroe played with Shultz at local dances. His experience playing with black musicians, and his love for the music of Jimmie Rodgers, gave him an appreciation for blues music which would influence his playing and songwriting throughout his career.
Although Monroe first learned to play the guitar, he is most famous as a mandolin player. He and his brother performed as the Monroe Brothers throughout the 1930s, and in 1938 Monroe formed the group, the Blue Grass Boys, in which he played mandolin and was the lead singer. The Blue Grass Boys earned a spot on the Grand Ole Opry in 1939. Originally the group’s sound was similar to other old-time string bands of the time. Their sound began to change however when the famous banjo player, Earl Scruggs, joined the group in 1945.
Earl Scruggs played the banjo with a unique three-finger style that he had learned from old-time musicians in his home state of North Carolina. This style of playing allowed the banjo player to play many syncopated notes very fast. Although he did not invent this style of playing the banjo, he introduced it to the world during his time playing with the Blue Grass Boys. Today, this three-finger style is called “Scruggs style,” and it is the most common banjo playing style today.
When Scruggs joined the Blue Grass Boys he introduced an exciting new dynamic to the group’s playing and caused their sound to move in an interesting new direction. Between 1945 and 1948 the group would develop the sound that make them the first, and perhaps best, bluegrass band ever. Although the songs were mostly traditional old-time tunes, they were played in a style similar to jazz. Each musician would take a turn to play an improvised solo between verses. In traditional old time music the fiddle or vocals always carried the melody. Now every instrument had a chance to play the melody and to improvise on that melody. The traditional songs also became faster and more complicated. Another important aspect of their sound was harmony singing.
Many musicians of the time were very impressed by this new kind of country music and began to imitate the Blue Grass Boys. Famous bluegrass musicians such as the Stanley Brothers, Reno and Smiley, the Foggy Mountain Boys, and the Osborne Brothers all contributed to the growing popularity of bluegrass music during the 1950s and 1960s. This period is known as the “Golden Age” of bluegrass music. All of these groups based their sound on the music of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, and this sound has continued to define classic bluegrass music to this day.
Over the years bluegrass music has also attracted many innovative musicians who have made changes to the original bluegrass sound. Often called “progressive bluegrass,” or “newgrass,” this more contemporary form of bluegrass music often uses electrified instruments and borrows elements from rock and roll and jazz. Many progressive bluegrass musicians also use more complex chord progressions than traditional bluegrass, and incorporate lengthy improvisations. The contemporary group, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, are one of the best examples of creative innovation in bluegrass music today. Their music, although based upon bluegrass, is difficult to define because it includes elements of almost any musical genre imaginable. Banjo player, Bela Fleck, has been nominated for awards for his work in musical genres as diverse as bluegrass, jazz, pop, country, and classical.
8. Rockabilly
By the early 1950s the traditional blues music of the south gave rise to the sounds of rhythm-and-blues in the north. Like traditional blues music, rhythm-and-blues was played by black musicians for a mostly black audience. Rhythm-and-blues took the traditional blues sound, made it faster and louder, and added electrified instruments and the drums.
The fresh sounds of rhythm-and-blues appealed to the young generation who were bored with the old country and popular songs of their parents’ era. Many rhythm-and-blues songs “crossed over,” which means that they were popular not only among the african-american community, but also among white listeners. In the mid-1950s white country musicians mixed rhythm-and-blues with country music to create a new style of music called “rockabilly”. This music is considered by many people to be the earliest form of rock and roll.
The center of rockabilly music was Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. In the early 1950s, Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, recorded mostly African-American musicians who played blues and rhythm-and-blues. These blues records were successful, but they were only popular within the African-American community. Phillips believed that if he could find a white musician who played the kind of music played by black musicians he would sell millions of records. In 1954 he found that person.
On July 5th, 1954 at Sun Records Recording Studio, three white country musicians were working on an album. One of these musicians was Elvis Presley. According to guitarist Scotty Moore, “we were taking a break, I don’t know, we were having Cokes and coffee, and all of a sudden Elvis was singing a song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up the bass and he began acting the fool, too, and you know, I started playing with them. Sam had the door to the control room open – I don’t know, he was either editing some tape or doing something - and he stuck his head out and said, “What are you doing?” and we said, “We don’t know.” “Well back up,” he said “try to find a place to start and do it again.’” On this night rockabilly music was born.
Elvis’s rockabilly sound combined the raw, youthful energy of rhythm-and-blues with the country and gospel music he sang during his youth. The songs were played much faster than traditional country songs. Drums and slap-bass provided a strong, steady beat while electric guitar solos gave the songs an exciting new edge. The vocals were energetic, with shouts and screams.
The two songs recorded on that famous night in 1954 display the two main influences on rockabilly music: the first song was “That’s All Right, Mama”, an old rhythm-and-blues song; the second was a fast-tempo version of a famous country waltz, “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”
This high-energy fusion of country and rhythm-and-blues would become the dominant musical style in the United States for the next decade. Elvis would soon become the most famous musician in the United States. Other artists such as Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins became successful rockabilly musicians, all recording for Sun Records in Memphis.
Rockabilly music was highly controversial. Many people of the older generation strongly disliked the music. They thought that it encouraged immoral behavior and was an insult to traditional country music. But the music was very popular among teenagers. The music was energetic and fun to dance to. The rebellious image of rockabilly stars like Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash appealed to teenage boys and girls.
By the 1960s, the popularity of rockabilly began to decline in the United States, but it remained very popular in England. In England, rockabilly influenced many important musicians, such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, who would take rock and roll music to new levels of popularity in the 1960s.
9. The Folk Revival
Folk music underwent a revival, or rebirth, in the the 1950′s and early 1960′s. In the beginning of the 1950′s jazz and early rock n’ roll were what most people listened to on the radio, and folk music was fading away from the mainstream. However, two big movements from this era—the Civil Rights movement and the anti Vietnam war movement—helped reinvent folk music and make it popular again.
The Civil Rights movement was when Black people in the United States organized for the right to vote and an end to legal segregation. Though slavery had been outlawed in the United States in 1862, the United States still had legal segregation up until 1954, and much more segregation continued unofficially afterward. Segregation meant that black people were not allowed to use the same public schools, bathrooms, hospitals, or live in the same neighborhoods as white people. Black people were also often denied jobs due to their skin color. This had been going on since slavery ended, and by the middle of the 1950′s many people of color began to organize for their rights, staging protests and demanding equality.
While the Civil Rights movement was going on, the United States was also engaged in a war with Vietnam. Many people in the United States did not approve of the war, and wanted to end it and have American troops sent home. This created the anti-war movement in the United States, and folk music played a big part in this movement.
The people who were in favor of equal rights and opposed to the Vietnam war were part of a subculture in the United States. This subculture used folk music as a way of unifying people. Folk music was attractive to this cause because it helped remind people of their shared history and common culture. The relative simplicity of folk songs as opposed to jazz and classical music made them easy to play, and this drew people to folk music as well. By listening to a folk song a few times, most people were able to learn them, and this made it easy for large groups of people to get together and play them.
Here are a few songs which were popular during this period. First is a Civil Rights song called “We Shall not be Moved:”
We shall not, we shall not be moved
We shall not, we shall not be moved
Just like a tree standing by the water,
We shall not be moved
When fighting for our freedom, we shall not be moved
Black and white together, we shall not be moved
Just like a tree standing by the water
We shall not be moved
This song illustrates how straightforward music from the folk revival was–the lyrics leave little room for interpretation. Also, the song lyrics repeat fairly often so its easy to learn and remember just by hearing it a few times.
Another song called “If I had a Hammer,” speaks out in a more general way for racial equality and an end to war. This song also repeats lyrics, so its fairly easy learn.
If I had a hammer
I’d hammer in the morning
I’d hammer in the evening
All over this land
I’d hammer out danger
I’d hammer out a warning
I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land
If I had a bell
I’d ring it in the morning
I’d ring it in the evening
All over this land
I’d ring out danger
I’d ring out a warning
I’d ring out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land
10. Woody Guthrie
“No matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work.”
- Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie was one of the best known folk musicians ever in the United States. Guthrie sang songs about peace, freedom, and togetherness. In total, he wrote over 3,000 songs!
Guthrie was inspired to sing songs about poverty and struggle because he experienced it firsthand. He was born in 1912 to a poor family in a poor town in Oklahoma. In 1929, when Guthrie was only 17, the United States experienced a time of intense poverty known as the Great Depression. Hundreds of thousands of Americans has no jobs, and wandered around the country looking for work. In 1935, Guthrie joined the masses of wandering Americans. Having no car, he walked and rode frieght trains for over 1,000 miles to Los Angelos in order to make a living. He met many people during his travels, and Guthrie wrote songs about their struggles. His song “Hard Travellin’” is about life on the road:
I’ve been havin’ some hard travelin’, I thought you knowed
I’ve been havin’ some hard travelin’, way down the road
I’ve been havin’ some hard travelin’, hard ramblin’, hard gamblin’
I’ve been havin’ some hard travelin’, lord
I’ve been hittin’ some hard-rock minin’, I thought you knowed I’ve been leanin’ on a pressure drill, way down the road Hammer flyin’, air-hose suckin’, six foot of mud and I shore been a muckin’ And I’ve been hittin’ some hard travelin’, lord
I’ve been hittin’ some hard harvestin’, I thought you knowed North Dakota to Kansas City, way down the road Cuttin’ that wheat, stackin’ that hay, and I’m tryin’ make about a dollar a day And I’ve been havin’ some hard travelin’, lord
(Guthrie wrote his lyrics in the accent of the way he talked. You’ll notice how the “g” is left out of the “ing” words like “having” and “traveling” in this song. This is because it was common for people from the countryside, where Guthrie grew up, to talk like this in the United States.)
Guthrie’s travels brought him in touch with a wide variety of people. Through this experience he grew to see all people as equals, regardless of skin color, religion, or any other distinction. He was inspired by workers organizing in unions for equal rights and fair pay. He sang for soldiers in World War II when he fought overseas. He even wrote a song about a Russian soldier named Ludmilla Pavlichenko who was known for her bravery Russia’s army during World War II.
Woody Guthrie is known to many Americans. Today he is remembered as a champion of anyone who has struggled for justice. When asked about his music Guthrie once said:
11. Modern Folk Music
Today in America, folk music is still alive and strong. Influenced by the popular folk artists of 1960s, many American groups claim to be ‘folk’ groups, although their music may sound quite different than that of Bob Dylan, Donovan, and other 1960s folk artists. This is because folk music has evolved into several new styles. These styles include indie folk, freak folk, and anti-folk, although each of these is seen as a very loose definition.
Indie folk had its beginnings in the 1990s, where artists in America’s Independent, or indie, rock community began to draw influence from artists popular in the 1950s and 1960s. They began to write songs that reminded people of these older styles. Songwriters such as Beck or Elliott Smith are seen as early Indie folk artists, because their sound was more reminiscent of folk groups than other popular music of the day.
In the 2000s, the genre became more popular than ever, with bands playing music using entirely traditional American folk instruments such as acoustic guitar, banjo, upright bass, and the mandolin. Groups like The Great Lake Swimmers, Beirut, and Fleet Foxes are good examples of bands who have attempted to recreate an old-fashioned sound. Some of these groups, like The Decemberists, also intentionally wrote songs that were supposed to sound like they had been written in an earlier time, using specific vocabulary and older words.
Freak folk is heavily based in traditional folk music, but also introduces elements of psychedelic folk from the 1960s as well as elements of world music. In addition, freak folk artists tend to produce more avant-garde music and use different vocal styles, chanting, and uncommon sounds. Some of the most popular Freak Folk artists include Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Animal Collective, CocoRosie, Bowerbirds, and the Dodos. Each artist has their own distinctive sound, although all of their music is included in this style.
Anti-Folk began in the 1980s when some early artists of this genre were not allowed to participate in the New York Folk Festival because their version of folk music was ‘too punk’. Anti-Folk differs from traditional American folk music in that is heavily influenced by punk music. Simply put, Anti-folk is a bit like punk music played on traditional American folk instruments. Generally, the music tends to be a bit heavier and more distorted than other forms of folk music. Some popular anti-folk groups are Defiance, Ohio, Neutral Milk Hotel, Paul Baribeau, and The Moldy Peaches.
