Hi everyone. It is really delightful to see this list come alive again like
this. When I first joined, I looked at the archives and there just was not
much activity.
I think that, when discussing the topics we are delving into, it is
important to use a lot of perspective on a lot of different levels. For
instance, we all need to separate our own personal perspectives from those
of the public in general, and to learn, also, to separate one public from
another. There is, for instance, a public that is versed in bluegrass music,
and one that is rooted in mountain, "hillbilly" music through the experience
of growing up in families that were rooted in it by way or their ancestors.
And then there is the public at large, and other segments that the public at
large who become the vanguard in leading those who have no connection with
bluegrass and the mountain music in which it is rooted, to discovering it,
and to accepting and enjoying it.
It was my experience as a small child visiting my relatives back in Missouri
(I grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, actually), that there was an appreciation
for the old music, and mothers would sing it to their children, but its
overall popularity had passed, and people were now listening to what was on
the radio. But these people had not changed, themselves. They were still the
same simple, God fearing, hard working, honest, and poor folks that their
parents had been. But they could have been attracted to any country or rock
and roll star, in the late 1950's and early 1960's, but the person who, in
spite of this attempts at innovations in music, most appealed to them was
Johnny Cash. Johnny had not, I don't, really tried to carry on that sound
that they found so appealing. What happened was that he simply could not
help it. No matter what you might say about his style, he still sounded like
a balladeer from a generation earlier, and he did not have it in him to ever
change that. And that, I think, is why all of these folks that I remember
back in the Ozarks there were attracted to him. He was one of them, and they
recognized that in him - the way he looked and dressed, and in his voice and
his guitar style, and the rhythm of his music. So, I think that, in terms of
the public at large, when they were attracted to him, and interested in
knowing something about him, they would become attracted with the society
from whence he came, and there they would find the music that served as the
roots for his own music, and that was the real staple of the society in
which his own roots were planted.
Now, if we take a look at those who never knew anything about mountain folk
music, then we could look at all sorts of people past and present, and we
could go back as far as the man who really laid all of the groundwork for
everyone else that followed who attempted to preserve the music that was in
danger of being lost, which was Alan Lomax. Or we could focus on the man who
did so did so much for so long to bring it to the public's eye and who was
like a beacon to those who actually succeeded in popularizing it for a time,
and that was Pete Seeger. Or we could come up to the present a look at Emmy
Lou Harris and her contemporaries. But, I think that no one can take half
the credit for actually making it known far and wide around the world to
people who had never heard it before, and make them love it and appreciate
it, than what we might give to Joan Baez.
So I know that my observations about Johnny Cash are personal, and based on
what I saw, and I don't think that he consciously did anything to actually
advance the cause of popularizing mountain music and folk music, really. But
he was, nevertheless, all the things that I just said he was, and so I won't
repeat all of that or summarize it. Baez, however, should be recognized for
her contributions, however. She should be held up as the one person who fell
in love with the folk music of the Appalachians, studied it (probably with a
lot of help from Seeger, Lomax, and others, either in person or just by her
having delved into what they had accomplished), and she made it her own and
breathed an incredible lot of life into it, so that, in her capable hands
and voice, it shone brilliantly, and really touched people, and her legacy
is still there today, having really set the stage for a lot of things that
followed. I want to say that it really moved me. Especially "Little
Darlin'". That song just about brings tears to my eyes the way she sang it.
That is why I think that is she and Dr. Ralph Stanley were to record the
right song, it would top the charts, and make each of them millionaires, to
put it simply.
Bluegrass, of course, is not really 100% traditional. Certainly, the same
songs were being played and sung, using the same instruments, but the style
itself was an innovation, and the person generally credited with making that
innovation, of course, was Bill Monroe. So, in effect, Bluegrass is really a
genre of popular music based on traditional folk music. However, its roots
run very deep. The music and songs are incredibly old, I believe. For
instance, some of the ballads that Baez sung were brought over by the
Scotch-Irish from their homeland in Scotland and Northern England, but the
melodies themselves are much older. The words were just grafted onto older
melodies in order to immortalize folk heroes and deeds and affairs of the
period prior to their emigration from those lands. The tunes themselves
might actually go back to prehistoric times, being sung by the Celts, the
Gaels, and the Picts, long before the arrival of the Romans on the soil of
the British Isles. I often reflected on that, in particular with regards to
"Amazing Grace", which, the way Dr. Ralph Stanley sang it, sounds to me much
like as if her were a Celtic chieftain. I can just see him standing on the
moor in his kilt, sword and shield in hand, preparing to fend off the cattle
raiders from another clan and calling on the Old Gods to come to his aid in
song.
The past is always with us, whether we can see it or not.
Well, I thank all of you for taking the time to read my ramblings. I don't
think that I am necessarily right about any of this. These are simply my
reflections, as seen from my own perspective and my own little viewpoint.
It's just the way I feel about this, and I guess I just "Cayn't hep it". God
bless all of you.
Yours truly,
Bryant Holman
Presidio, Texas
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2005 9:53 PM
Subject: Re: BG: Re: Digestified mailing available for this list?
--- Renee' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Cayn't hep it.
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