Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers: Southern Culture and the Roots of Country Music

When it comes to tracing the roots of American music, there's just no place like the South: jazz, rhythm & blues, rock & roll, gospel - most music that comes with a "made in America" stamp originated south of the Mason-Dixon line. And while the world obviously owes a huge musical debt to African-Americans for their contributions in the aforementioned genres, what we now call "Country" music primarily evolved from the souls and throats of white rural southerners. It is these singers - and their songs - that are the focus of Bill C. Malone's "Singing Cowboys and Musical Moutaineers." Malone's first concern is to precisely define white rural southern music, especially that which was sung in the 19th century South (just before this music was discovered by the rest of the world). Was it - as early 20th century British musicologist Cecil Sharpe wanted to believe - merely a twangy re-definition of ancient British ballads? Sharpe collected hundreds of Appalachian songs that were clearly traceable to the British Isles, but as Malone points out in "Singing Cowboys," Sharpe was in the South specifically looking for this connection. He found it in spades but because the other songs he surely heard echoing through the mountains didn't concern his thesis, he simply ignored them. There was much to ignore. Country music has many primary sources, and although Malone claims that a detailed history of the genre is nigh impossible, he does a masterful job of describing most of its influences in fascinating detail. British ballads, black spirituals, minstrel show songs (most of their composers ironically Northern), German bands and hymns all had a major role in shaping the white folk music of 19th century America. Rural southerners were very catholic in their love for music: a good tune was a good tune, whether it originated in ancient Britain or at the desk of a contemporary New York composer. By far the most fascinating aspect of Malone's book is hinted at in its title and answers this question: why did Country singers such as Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Alan Jackson -- who all hailed from the southeast - dress as though they had been raised on a Texas ranch? Simple: our national hunger for symbols. Before the cowboy singer took over as Country music's mascot in the 1930's, he was the mountain man of the 1920's, romanticized by novels and the "Great War" hero, Alvin "Tennessee Mountain Boy" York, which exemplified a rural, unfettered, Anglo-Saxon America for an increasingly urban and immigrant-heavy America. It was primarily the Carter family and Bradley Kincaid whose performances first personified this mountain personality; their success paved the way for many other southern musicians of the era to cash in on the hunger for the quintessential American symbol. However, when reports of aberrant behavior and oppression from coal companies began to trickle out of the Appalachians, along with the proliferation of vaudeville acts that degenera

This book is divided into three chapters : 1) Southern Rural Music in the 19th Century 2) Popular Culture and the Music of the South 3) Mountaineers and Cowboys: Country Music's Search For Identity. The first two chapters are largely devoted to explaining one of Malone's central ideas - that old time country music did not appear as a pure descendent of an Anglo-Saxon/Celtic heritage. But was rather, like nearly all American music, a product of multiple influences. These included German hymns, French cotillions and, perhaps most importantly, black blues and gospel songs. Also the early country classics of the Carter Family and others weren't always pure folk songs. Malone explains how, much to my disappointment, many came from Northern Tin Pan Alley commercial songwriters. For instance, "Mid The Green Fields of Virginia" was actually written by a New Yorker who had never even set foot in Virginia. Other popular entertainment, such as the minstrel shows and the travelling medicine shows, also played a major role in providing new material to rural Southern musicians. The third chapter deals with country music's fascination with two types of cultural symbols - the cowboy and the mountaineer. The first big stars of country music were Jimmy Rodgers and the Carter Family. Rodger's adopted the image of the cowboy - a tough, masculine rounder who rambled about in search of wild women and good times. The Carter Family, in contrast, were seen as wholesome mountain folks who embodied the traditional virtues of home and hearth. These country musicians were popular not only with their fellow Southerners but also with urban Northerners who liked to romanticize America's rapidly vanishing days of simple family farms and wide open frontiers. Malone goes on to describe many other cowboy icons, from Bob Wills to Willie Nelson, and how they came to symbolize freedom and independence to the American public. The mountaineer influence also remained strong, with a multitude of Appalachian born perfomers such as Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Ricky Skaggs. But while the cowboy hat and boots remained in fashion. The mountainer's image as a hillbilly in overalls tended to become the subject of cornpone humor such as on the Hee Haw television show. Malone has a top flight knowledge of country's musical and cultural roots. This book is a terrific read for anyone wanting to learn more on the subject

For those interested in the history of the music they play or listen to - specifically country, bluegrass and old time - Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers is a detailed and lively introduction to the beginnings of popular American music. Subtitled, "Southern Culture and the Roots of Country Music," Singing Cowboys analyzes American musical currents across three centuries. Beginning in pre-Colonial America, the book moves rapidly forward to the "industrialization" of country music in the 1920's that reached its apogee in contemporary Nashville. By demonstrating how rural and urban Americans entertained themselves musically, author Bill C. Malone deftly debunks stubborn linear-inheritance theories of musical transmission. Using countless examples, he shows how American popular music has always had multiple influences. Favorite tunes like "Coo Coo" or "Shortnin' Bread" did not descend in a straight, "pure" line from slavery. Instead, Malone underscores the significance of close-quarters housing and labor among poor whites and blacks in the 19th century. Despite overt racism, such proximity was particularly common in the south, and forged an active and ongoing interchange of style and repertoire among both groups. The author also makes a strong case for how music was routinely "traded" between these groups and the professional minstrel troupes performing throughout the big cities and backwaters of 19th century America. For those who feel that many of our reels and hornpipes remain intact from the British Isles of earlier centuries, this book suggests amalgamating factors not commonly addressed in theories of Celtic or Anglo-Saxon musical influences on American southern music. Of particular importance to the perpetuation of American folk musical traditions was the Civil War. Men from all over the country circulated songs and playing styles - especially fiddle and 5-string banjo. When soldiers returned home after the war, they brought these musical influences with them. Underscoring the role of war in cultural transmission, the author points out that American men also went to war in 1775, 1812, 1846, 1898 and 1917.Where the book really shines, though, is in its analysis of the transition of rural music, performed largely by amateurs and "part-timers," into a multibillion dollar industry. Pivotal to this change was technology. Radio and tape recording were critical factors without which no popular music could have grown to the degree that country music did in the 1930's. Unfortunately for posterity, there are no eyewitness descriptions of actual playing technique and tunings from earlier centuries. And of course no recordings were made until the first decade of this century. However, banjo players like "Uncle" Dave Macon, born in the 19th century, may have represented somewhat accurate glimpses of these earlier styles in their performances. Field recordings of rural musicians were made primarily in the American southeast - and most often in the A