Roots Music
From Memphis to Mumfest
Written by
Patty Castillo Davis
Focus On...
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Modesto, CA
On a consecutive trip through Savannah, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina, he settled on a stop in Bristol, Tennesee. Nineteen performers recorded seventy-six songs in twelve days and
from those Bristol Sessions two new
Megastars were discovered. nAudiences were introduced to the “Blue Yodel” parlour
tunes of Jimmie Rodgers and the melancholy songs of the the Carter Family. Authentic
Southern Appalachian Music was fully introduced to America and two cornerstones of what was to be Country music were proclaimed. Mamie Smith, a vaudeville performer/singer, became the first African American to record a Blues tune in 1920. Her song, “Crazy Blues” sold 75,000 copies in thirty days. These musical forms and styles now called the Blues and Country emerged from the same regions during the same time in the United States. During this era, there was no clear musical division between the genres Blues and Country except the race of the artist and many times without witnessing a live performance, one could not know for sure.
migration, technological innovation and industrial development brought all our contrasted communities together. Our sense of “Folk Music” had broadened to also include Jazz-the first indigenous American style to affect those styles after, Cajun, Native American, Tejano (Mexican Americans in Texas) Country, Bluegrass, and Gospel music. These singular styles found a home within the Folk music movement. While gathering in houses of worship, in the fields and factories or creating lullabies to appease their sleepy children, this community music was sung. For some time these songs were born in isolation.
Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, and for the first time in history music unlike their own could be “captured”. By the early 1900’s the refined Victrola became an invaluable possession of many rural families. In 1917, a young man from Texarkana, Scott Joplin whose Ragtime piano compositions and fellow pianist James Reese Europe from Mobile, Alabama whose “stride style” handling of melodies would insure them as pioneers of the first records to be labeled Jazz and sold in stores in the United States. It was during the 1920’s that Producer , Ralph Peer of Victor Talking Machine Company journeyed to the South to record Blues singers and expert fiddle players. In just a few weeks 500 copies of “Cluck Old Hen” recorded by Fiddlin John Carson sold out. Encouraged by this success, and eager to reach more customers, Peer set out to find more “Hillbilly” talent by traveling to the southern most areas of the Appalachia.
Just what is “American Roots Music”? The most dynamic and unique sounds in the world, rooted in it’s history of it’s people’s foreign origins. It’s evolution lies in the fact that we have learned to accept one another’s differences and enjoy the exploration.
Preserving individual histories in an ever changing social climate has made songs a crucial cultural practice. African American work songs by field workers and stevedores helped them endure hard labor, European immigrant’s Folk songs, hundreds of years old committed to memory were brought to remind them of the land and the people they left behind as they struggled and settled on the bayous of Louisiana, the mountains of Virginia, the Mississippi Delta, and the campfires on the Texas plains merged these traditions to become what is known today as Roots Music.
Music made by whites of European ancestry was labeled as Folk Music. At the development of the 20th century, the definition of folk music progressed to include styles of songs. Folk music allowed a view into the lifestyles of these populations, they articulated the powerful sentiments, promise and misfortune of typical people. No matter how much time passes, this music is like a constant flow of water, it moves in every direction-to and from commercial Pop and back to Old Timey, but the common stream always connects us.
During this time, an exceptional combination of expanding commerce
From Memphis to MUMFest
Written by Patty Castillo Davis
