Part 3The Growth of Vernacular

TraditionsChapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban

Folk Revival

America’s Musical Landscape 5th edition

PowerPoint by Myra Lewinter MalamutGeorgian Court University

© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

2© 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Ethnic and Regional Styles Upon Country Music Country music characteristically absorbs ethnic

and regional styles These styles are adapted to become a part of the country

sound As people in Western states welcomed country music,

they added distinctive flavors derived from their own experience

Hawaiian music Music of the mariachis of Mexico Cajun music and zydeco from Louisiana

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Hawaiian Music Popular today, this music has profoundly affected

mainland country music and pop Rooted in old religious chants and hymns, Hawaiian

music absorbed rhythms, sounds, and instruments brought to Hawaii by missionaries, tourists, and settlers

1800s: Mexican cowboys brought the guitar to Hawaii Guitar accompanied hula and Hawaiian songs and hymns Slack key guitar, a Hawaiian invention involving loosening

(slackening) guitar strings was popular Charles Philip “Gabby” Pahinui (1921-1980), was the master

of the slack key guitar and renowned for his virtuosity

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Invented around the turn of the 20th century, made popular at the

1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco

A favorite Hawaiian instrument, with metal strings raised above the fret board, held horizontally in the lap The player presses a steel bar against the strings, rather than

pressing them to the fret board with the fingers as on a traditional guitar

By sliding the metal bar along the strings with the left hand, the player achieves a gentle slide suggestive of country twang

By the end of the 1930s the Hawaiian steel guitar was found in Southwestern country bands and their music

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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The Ukelele A small 4-string guitar History

Portuguese immigrants brought the ukulele to Hawaii in 1879

According to legend enchanted Hawaiians called this instrument “ukulele,” meaning “jumping fleas”

As with steel guitar, attracted enthusiasm at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exhibition

By the 1920s ukulele accompanied Tin Pan Alley performers

Recently: Ukulele festivals draw large crowds

Ukulele

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Cajuns: Background French Acadians in the eighteenth century

were evicted from their homeland, Acadia (Nova Scotia), by the British Settled in the remote area south of New Orleans Continued to speak French, evolving a patois, or

mixed language of their own

These French Acadians became known as the Cajuns

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Cajun Music Talent scouts in the 1920s discovered and promoted Cajun

musicians

John Lomax (1867-1948) A folklorist who traveled in 1932 to Louisiana and recorded

genuine traditional Cajun music for the Library of Congress

Blues and hillbilly music reached Cajun regions by radio, influencing the music Cajun musicians translated popular country and country-

western songs into French

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Listening Example 38

Cajun Two-Step

TraditionalListening guide page 186

Form: A series of 4-measure strains:

Tempo: Fast

Instrumentation: Accordion, or concertina, and triangle

Punctuated with occasional joyous shouts

A A B B A A B …,

During the 1920s and1930s the Carter Familycollected, arranged and recorded hundreds of American traditional songs, spirituals, andfolk songs, laying thefoundation for moderncountry mu

Notice the sound of Rodgeel.

During his lifetime Rodgers established thesolo song as an important part of hillbillymusic.

Rodgers was the first person elected to theCountry Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

Cajun music is mainlylighthearted, with a hintOf tragedy

Dance rhythms, catchymelodies, and accordion

“Oh, ya, yaie!” is similarto Bluegrass sounds

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Zydeco: A more recent accordion-based music The music of southern Louisiana’s Creoles (“free persons of

color”)

Spicy-hot Caribbean and Latin rhythms

Background Late eighteenth century revolution in Santo Domingo sent black

and white French citizens north to the French-speaking communities of Louisiana

The black refugees brought Caribbean rhythms, religious practices and spicey cuisine

In the US, they developed a distinct French dialect or patois

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Zydeco The word “zydeco” is a corruption of the French, translated to

mean “the snap beans aren’t salted” A saying indicative of hard times

Instruments: Accordion Harmonica Frottoir, a washboard-like instrument strapped to a musician’s

chest (textbook figure 11.2, page 188) Electric guitar and bass Drums Sometimes saxophone

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Zydeco’s sound and influence Is heard along the Gulf Coast in contemporary

zydeco bands Exhibiting the energy and amplification of rock Playing exotic melodies of Cajuns

Clifton Chenier was the late “king” of zydeco

Mainstream artists who show the influence of zydeco and Cajun music include Paul Simon Mary Chapin Carpenter

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Listening Example 39“Tu le ton son ton”(“Every now and Then”)Performed by Clifton ChenierListening guide page 189

Form: Twelve-bar bluesMeter: QuadrupleTempo: Moderately fastHear how the performnace

suggests the influence of rock or rhythm and blues

Chenier, who sings and plays accordion, is Accompanied by electricBass, drums, and Washboard:

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Urban Folk Music Urban folk musicians performed folklike music in a polished,

suave manner designed to appeal to fans of popular music Some performers used traditional tunes, writing new words Others composed new songs in the folk or country style Folk music was used to express political beliefs

The urban folk revival evolved in the 1950s and early 1960s into a popular movement of mainly young people Fans were often socially counscious, politically active Folk enthusiasts drew inspiration from singing hobo Woody

Guthrie

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Woody Guthrie, America’s Greatest Folk Poet (1914-1967) Singer-songwriter Guthrie evolved

From a simple hobo and hillbilly singer of the Great Depression…

into a Sophisticated composer and performer of protest songs

His family devastated by dust storms, fire, bank failures, and illness, Guthrie decided that only by banding together common people could survive Guthrie’s music, often set to traditional and religious

songs, expressed this belief

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Woody Guthrie Inspired the folk revivalists of the late 1950s and 1960s Guthrie’s famous song “This Land is Your Land” (“God Blessed

America for Me”) protested Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” Guthrie changed the verses over the years

Later Guthrie expressed frustration that his song became popular without its protest verses

Within Guthrie’s verses he describes

“One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steepleBy the relief office I saw my people—

As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering ifGod blessed America for me”

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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The Movement Evolves: Pete Seeger (b. 1919) Seeger left college to collect folk songs, learn banjo, and

travel with Woodie Guthrie

Later Seeger formed the Weavers (named to reflect the qualities of rhythm and work) Huddie Ledbetter (aka Leadbelly, 1885-1949)

popularized the Weavers’ first hit, “Goodnight Irene” Leadbelly was a gifted black blues singer and

songwriter, discovered in jail by musicologiests John Lomax and son Alan Lomax (1915-2002)

The Lomaxes helped to release Leadbelly from jail, launching him on a successful music career

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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The Weavers in the McCarthy Era Red Scare hysteria forced the Weavers to restrict

performances to union halls, civil rights and peace benefits, college campuses

In 1955 Pete Seeger faced censure by Congress Accused of subversive influence in entertainment, Seeger’s lack

of cooperation resulted in being blacklisted from television for leftist leanings

At the end of the decade Seeger left the Weavers and became a successful soloist

The 1990s: Seeger was inducted into the rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Urban folk revival reached full bloom

The popular Kingston Trio’s recording of “Tom Dooley” (1958) A murder ballad innocent of political overtones “Tom Dooley” formed a tie between country music and

mainstream pop

Suburban, collegiate, clean-cut groups produced commercial music for a sophisticated urban audience, reviving interest in early folk music The Limelighters The New Christy Minstrels Peter, Paul, and Mary Joan Baez revived and modernized the Carter Family’s songs

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Bob Dylan (b. Robert Zimmerman, 1941) Dylan followed Woody

Guthrie to New York Performing in clubs and

recording his original folklike protest songs, Dylan learned from Guthrie

Dylan’s passion and stirring, often personal lyrics made him the favorite figure of the folk revival

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Bob Dylan’s Influence Upon the Urban Folk Revival Before Dylan, the folk revivalists had mostly performed songs

composed or handed down by others

Dylan’s original songs inspired others in the folk revival movement to write their own material Rather than performing new arrangements of traditional tunes,

the folk revivalists now produced original “folk” songs

Dylan would soon connect with rock by making a transition from leader of urban folk to electric rock performer

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Bob Dylan and the Newport Folk Festival In the early 1960s the Newport Folk Festival was the central

annual event for those who loved folk music Guitar pickers, blues singers, old-time fiddlers, banjos players

joined gospel singers, Cajun bands, bluegrass groups, and folk stars for concerts, workshops, jamming

People saw folk music as a tool for social change, revering Bob Dylan and his socially relevant songs including “Blowin’ in the Wind”

By 1965 Newport Festival fans were outraged by the change in Dylan’s style to rock and songs about personal relationships

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Later in Dylan’s Career: By the 1990s Dylan returned to traditional folk and

blues material “Good as I Been to You,” “World Gone Wrong,” and “Time

Out of Mind” His 2001 album “Love and Theft” includes sounds of

blues, jazz, folk, and rockabilly

Dylan is now acclaimed as a poet, whose words have been set to music by others, including American composer John Corigliano’s song cycle Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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A New Romance Rock and country now meet on increasingly

congenial ground

Country artists who flirted with rock include Bob Dylan Johnny Cash, who jammed with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee

Lewis, and Carl Perkins in the mid-1950s Pete Seeger, who said “Rock is what future centuries will

probably say was the twentieth-century folk music

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Alternative Country In existence since the 1990s, rivals the

polished professional sounds of mainstream country music from Nashville Blends punk with rock and roll effects plus

country sounds

Alternative country’s own magazine: No Depression, named after the Carter Family’s song “No Depression in Heaven”

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Rock and Country Music today Audiences seem willing to accept elements of

each other’s music Summer 2004, rocker Matt (Uncle Kracker) Shafer toured

successfully with country music star Kenny Chesney and the country trio Rascal Flatts

Country and rock merge on modern country radio and in some of Nashville’s videos

Country is one of the roots of rock and roll

Part 3: The Growth of Vernacular Traditions Chapter 11: Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival

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Image Credits: Slide 5: Ukelele, © Getty Images Slide 12: Washboard, © C Squared

Studios/ Getty Images Slide 19: Bob Dylan, © AP/ Wide World

Photo