So, this is idea here is not a specific question, more of a half- formed idea of mine I'm sharing for discussion because I'm curious what other people think.
The other day I was listening to Jawbone Railroad, a fine Montana- based stringband whose CD I picked up during my travels. They do a cool version of Keep Your Skillet Good and Greasy and it contains a vocal line about collard greens. Now, I don't think collards can grow in Montana. I know they can't in my part of the world, which is zone 3 for you greenthumbs. So the tune probably traveled to Montana. In this day and age, obviously, between the internet and other mediums tunes can travel anywhere. But most traditional stringband music seems to be Southern, that is to say, zone 5 or higher. Collard green growing climates. And I'm going to use these zone markings to keep the focus on climate and not any other sort of differentiation between the different parts of the US. Back in "the day," there had to be fiddle bands in all the zones, because the instrument traveled there. There's collections of Minnesota/Wisconsin fiddle music, for example, which is mostly Scandanavian in its origins. But that part of the world had its share of Irish immigrants, as did Appalachia and other regions associated with stringband music. Up in Zone 4 or colder, though, the other major instrument seemed to be the accordian, not the banjo. So that's my wordy introduction to My Questions. Do you think the reason much of the fiddle or stringband tradition seems to be (mostly) Zones 5-8 is the banjo is cooler than the accordian? (that's a subjective question, I know) Is it because the Carter family and other professionals really crystallized a lot of very cool stuff on recorded mediums in a way that transcended their place and time? Is it because WSM was located in Nashville? Are there "lost" tunes that are Michigan/ Minnesota/Montana in origin and are only lost because the performers died out before the field recorders or the radio got there in time? Did the record companies think Iowans were less likely to buy records than Virginians? Certainly we can play what-if games all day about history, which is actually one of my late-night conversation hobbies. I guess what I'm after is why do you think contemporaty Montana-based stringbands sing traditional songs about collard greens (with cornbread and beans) and Carolina-based stringbands don't sing traditional songs about ice fishing? Of course, that's just keeping the focus on the United States. And with that, I'm going to wrap this up. I'm curious to read what people think. erik --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
