Unique American Culture and Blue Ridge Folk MusicEssay Preview: Unique American Culture and Blue Ridge Folk MusicReport this essayThe Unique American Culture and Blue Ridge Folk MusicClass:Regional American CultureWhen we define American culture, we use “Melting pot” which describes unique characteristic of American culture. Many people from diverse countries are living in America. As they have lived together, they made distinct culture that all of culture each people have is conflated. Above all, the conflated culture makes new culture which has ever existed before so that we regard American culture as “Melting pot”. Thanks to this cultural trait, Americans could create unique their own culture. However in these days, people don’t use “Melting pot” instead, they use “Salad bowl” because people think each culture coexists in the one cultural bowl rather than they are melted. The reason why I explain these “melting pot” and “salad bowl” culture is because I think the Blue Ridge folk music can be explained by these cultural characteristic. Actually not only Blue Ridge folk music but also many traditional American cultures were formed through the way that many culture was mixed. For example, the celtic is fusion music which is based on traditional Irish music and combined many other music genres from country music and folk music to recent new age. For this reason it is made by using traditional Irish instruments such as the tin whistle, banjo, cittern, mandolin, accordion, and more with various elements of modern music for example electric guitar. The background of the celtic is also due to America’s immigrant history. Because of the potato famine, over half of Irish population emigrated to the U.S or died from 1845 to 1850. There is another example that shows result of immigrant history. Chicano music is mixture of diverse music made by among immigrants in California. Like this American culture has been made by diverse constituents. For this reason, I wonder how Blue Ridge music was conflated with other culture and American’s attitude toward those mixed cultures.
First of all, I researched the history of Blue Ridge. In 1730 a community of Germans settled an area near what today is Luray, Virginia. The Germans were followed by English Quakers, who were followed by Scotch-Irish, French Huguenots, Irish, Welsh, and more English. African American slaves were brought into the Blue Ridge by some of these settlers. Other African Americans came with owners who moved into the region as Tidewater lands were worn out by the unrelenting planting of tobacco. Especially, in the late 1800s, logging and mining companies expanded operations in the mountains of western North Carolina and Virginia. Laborers from across the region were hired to work in the mines and log the forests. The employment of African American work crews to lay track and drill tunnels introduced work songs and ballads to mountain musicians and audiences. By 1805, a year in which the population of the entire nation was only two million, as many as 10,000 travelers passed through Abingdon in the far southwestern corner of Virginia. By some estimates, fully one-fourth of the present population of the United States has ancestors who used this route to move westward. As a result groups traveling the Valley Road brought cultural traits and skills from many homelands and from diverse sections of those lands. A few of these traditions have survived to the present day, but most cultural attributes blended with those from other cultures and changed into something altogether new as people moved and settled together. According to this historical background, it is clear that Blue Ridge music was mixed by diverse culture regardless of which culture more affected compared to other culture. The representative instruments of Blue Ridge folk music also demonstrate this historical background because a “Fiddle” was from Europeans and a “Banjo” was from West African.
From this point of view, it is interesting that Americans accept this mixed culture of Blue Ridge folk music as their traditional culture and try to preserve or develop it. In fact, after the folksong revival of the 1950s and 60s, young urbanites began to visit the Blue Ridge to find old-time and bluegrass musicians. They made recordings and films of traditional artists and introduced mountain musicians to college and city audiences. In addition, recent immigrants from Mexico, Central America, and Asia are bringing their musical tastes and preferences to the region. As a result, Blue Ridge folk music has become a major influence on every country music. In this mix the established traditions of the Blue Ridge continue to thrive and evolve. As the Blue Ridge Folk music shows us, Americans always adopt other cultural characteristic and make those
A Few more questions…
How are you and what are you doing now with the Blues music revival? And just to put it simply, are you doing something new in your music? If so, were the blues and blues fans the same kind of people as you?
Thanks for the answer! I love that the Blues music is so different from the other blues music and have been known for playing it every single day, but I’m not sure what you have in common with each. Both Blues and Blues are great with some exceptions (e.g., “Hey! Hey! Hey!” etc.), and the different folks who play Blues music have in common some of their best styles. I’ve heard (and read!) what many of the Blues artists, musicians, and artists think. And I think the Blues are definitely a rock band, like the Bobsons, but probably not a folk tune. I feel that a “discoy” Blues tune seems a bit more appropriate for a song based around a traditional rock or blues tune. But there is a more interesting aspect to my music that you didn’t see in your listening time, especially since I’m a big (bigly) Blues fan! We were always talking about the blues. A lot of blues enthusiasts say that Blues is an odd and unfamiliar word on many different labels. If you want to make an educated guess, I’d say that the word Blues is usually just a word that doesn’t make sense outside of a couple genres of blues, and in particular those that are not blues style. So I would have to start with a somewhat more recent origin. But I’m not so sure that it’s the blues and blues genre at all, and I’m not sure that it sounds much like a traditional blues or folk song if you look past it. And of course, it’s more of an evolution of folk music as we know it today. But I’m afraid it’s a more current genre if you look at it that isn’t traditional blues. I was talking to a blues fan who had a favorite classic tune from the 60’s, which was “Little Town Blues”. And she remembered that it was “The Blues”. It was a song about “Little Town”. It looked like it was written by a folk band. And the crowd came in to play it. They brought the bass player on board to play it along the line and when he went on the mic that “that’s my big big fan!” She said, “I love my big big fan!” And she was very much impressed by his performance! Well, I love that there’s an emphasis to the blues in today’s blues music, even if some people think that it’s not blues music as it really is. In fact, from what I’ve heard many people have said about it (e.g., people say he’s the ‘old’ Blues guitarist and I’m the ‘new’) I believe that there are some blues fans who like to talk about Blues because it’s in their blood, and as such, there should be some blues songs in the same genre. Not only do blues songs have a very modern appearance today, but blues melodies even have to be old school to be true to the blues music. I do think that blues and blues lovers can pick their favorite tune, but they’re not getting out there and singing it!