{"id":212,"date":"2010-08-30T19:12:15","date_gmt":"2010-08-30T19:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pmdc.wcu.edu\/?p=212"},"modified":"2023-06-20T13:20:55","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T13:20:55","slug":"old-time-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/2010\/08\/30\/old-time-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Time Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In Appalachia, Old-Time Music refers to a variety of traditional music styles — ballads, folk songs, fiddle and banjo tunes, sacred songs, and even some popular songs recorded in the early 20th century. It grew out of the mix of cultural influences — Native American, English, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, and African — that shaped Appalachia. Traditional stringed instruments such as the fiddle, banjo, guitar, upright bass, and dulcimer predominate. This music was originally played for family and friends, but with the invention of recording and radio in the early 20th century it was played more and more for profit. Several times it has seemed on the verge of dying away, but it has always revived. Today it flourishes through festivals, radio and television, CDs, and even computer downloads.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Do You Know \u2026?<\/h2>\n

The life of Sylva\u2019s Samantha Bumgarner is a fascinating story.\u00a0 Born in 1878, her first banjo was a gourd with a cat hide stretched over it and strings made from waxed cotton thread.\u00a0 At age 30 she became known as Aunt Samantha.\u00a0 While her fame was not vast, her knack for playing traditional mountain music and weaving old-timey stories was legendary.\u00a0 In 1924, she was the first person to ever be recorded \u201con wax\u201d playing the five-string banjo.\u00a0 One day she and another young fiddler, Harry Cagle, got in a big Cadillac with gold hubcaps and headed out west with Jackson County\u2019s Dr. John Brinkley.\u00a0 Brinkley, \u201cthe Goat-Gland King\u201d became rich marketing a hormonal tonic (from goats) that promised to increase male virility.\u00a0 Bumgarner and Cagle ended up playing on Brinkley\u2019s southwest XERA radio station \u2013 booming 500,000 watts of power, and blanketing most of the United States.\u00a0 In 1928, back in Western North Carolina, Bascom Lamar Lundsford encouraged her to play at the first Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville. She was a regular at that festival every year until her death in 1960.\u00a0 When she performed for President Franklin Roosevelt, he too embraced her as Aunt Samantha.<\/p>\n

History<\/h2>\n

The Appalachian musical heritage that influenced pioneering personalities like Aunt Samantha Bumgarner, Doc Watson, and Mother Maybelle Carter dates back hundreds of years.\u00a0 Those contemporaries were carrying on a form of traditional music that blended and evolved from two very different cultures.\u00a0 One culture was that of the early mountain settlers, primarily from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.\u00a0 The other cultural influence, from Western Africa, came with the slaves brought to America by white Europeans.<\/p>\n

\"\"European Settlers<\/h2>\n

A few European songs were instrumentals that featured fiddles, dulcimers, and possibly a flute or fife.\u00a0 However, most ballads were preserved in the oral tradition.\u00a0 They were passed down between generations and often landed in far away mountain coves, courtesy of wandering travelers.\u00a0 Usually without musical accompaniment and most often sung by women, these songs served two purposes. \u00a0They preserved a dimming European heritage while providing a welcome diversion from a hard life in a new land.\u00a0 Eventually, whole families and church congregations began to develop \u201csinging communities\u201d that served as entertainment and respite from the rural reaches of Appalachia.<\/p>\n

African\u00a0Slaves<\/h2>\n

African culture in America was primarily \u201chidden\u201d until after the Civil War.\u00a0 Early slaves maintained ties to their homeland with a unique style of group singing, usually centered around work or worship.\u00a0 The songs would be lined out by one person with a call – followed by a response action from a group.\u00a0 Although birthed from human toil, African music was much more upbeat than the stoic European ballads.\u00a0 In fact, it seemed to indicate a joyous celebration of life.\u00a0 Ultimately, a distinct instrument emerged that would forever change the sound and style of Appalachian music, the banjo.\u00a0 Originally from Arabia, it followed early traders to Western Africa, and eventually ended up in the New World.\u00a0 Identified as a \u201cslave instrument\u201d, it was largely ignored until the 1860s.\u00a0 With the banjo, African-Americans mixed the music of their native homes with the rhythmic structures they found in the new country, creating new genres of song and melody.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cultural Harmony<\/h2>\n

In rural mountain areas, fiddles, dulcimers, banjos, and eventually guitars combined with tight, tin, rising vocals to create a unique musical style like no other.\u00a0 The racial mixing of Civil War armies, the development of the \u201cblackface\u201d minstrel show, and the rising popularity of black religious music helped to produce this new sound.\u00a0 The sound we know as traditional, or even hillbilly, emerged as European and African cultures interacted and shared.<\/p>\n

Today’s Appalachian Musical Heritage<\/h2>\n

Traditional Appalachian music is more popular today than ever.\u00a0 Culturally significant and entertaining it continues to serve much the same purpose it always has, providing a link to the past by connecting people in the present.\u00a0 During the warm summer months there are festivals and dances just about every weekend.\u00a0 Two of North Carolina\u2019s most popular are the Shindig-on-the-Green in Asheville and Fiddler\u2019s Grove several miles east in Union Grove.\u00a0 Another favorite, the Mountain Folk and Dance Festival is the nation\u2019s longest running event of its kind (since 1928).\u00a0 If you want to join in the fun, plenty of information is available in local newspapers, entertainment magazines, visitor guides, and within the links provided below. \u00a0Whether you are a learner, listener, or player, music is one characteristic of our Appalachian Heritage that is available to everyone.<\/p>\n

When asked what time the show begins, old-timey musicians get a faraway gleam in their eye and reply, \u201cOh, along about sundown \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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This essay was based on information provided by The Sylva Herald,<\/em> Mike Seeger and Wayne Erbsen of NativeGround Music<\/em>, and the magazine Musical Traditions.<\/em><\/p>\n

For more information please see:<\/h3>\n