They Wanna Hear Some American Music

Jesse Walker | June 9, 2009

In a fun spelunk through the history of country music, Barry Mazor explores the ways "authenticity" and "Americana" are constructed. Here's an excerpt:

Efforts to generate catchy new pop-country ballads in a folk-like ballad style began in those same country boom years -- the new yet old-like mining songs of Merle Travis being a milestone. But to see what he had to do in terms of presentation to sell the sheer Americana of "Dark As A Dungeon" to identified fans of pop folk, check out the Vestapol DVD Merle Travis: Rare Performances 1946-1981.

The California hipster (from that same Capitol Records) who appears on a 1951 soundie version of "Sweet Temptation" shows up just a few months later decked out as a coal-stained miner to perform "Dungeon" -- and, in a perfect indication of things to come, feels it necessary to tell this song's audience about miners' lives and to spell out the point of the song. It's blatantly "serious," downright educational even -- the very opposite of the bopping in "Sweet Temptation".

The audience for this new "old" music video, Travis and his soundie producers saw presciently, was going to be observing the stuff of someone else's life and taking it in as a powerful literary metaphor, perhaps, but not likely as a shared working experience.

One style isn't "better" than another -- I love both "Sweet Temptation" and "Dark as a Dungeon," though I prefer the latter without any extraneous exposition added -- but both were aimed at different audiences. As Mazor puts it later in a somewhat different context, the key issue was "not really a question of song-presentation 'authenticity'; it's about who wanted what, when, and where they got it."

Here's one more quote from the piece, because here at Reason we never pass up a chance to have some fun at the expense of Pete Seeger:

When Pete Seeger overcame political blacklisting enough to get at least an "educational TV" series, Rainbow Quest, in the mid-'60s, he did have acts such as the Stanley Brothers and Johnny Cash and June Carter on as guests. He seemed flummoxed by Carter and Ralph Stanley's presentation of their act in its full vaudeville style, complete with dance numbers and jokes, as he's presenting bluegrass as ancient and "folk music with overdrive." He tries to disguise the nature of the Stanleys' act by referring to the Cumberland Mountain Boys as some friends of theirs, who seemingly just happened to drop in for the occasion. (No professional band, they!) Cash, who sang a range of country, folk and new singer-songwriter material at Newport, shows up in a folk singer leather vest -- and also quite visibly strung out -- on Seeger's show, as Pete proceeds to describe how Maybelle and Sara Carter were daughter and mother, and June attempts to clear things up for him.

The article is long, but it isn't half as long as it could be -- the author stops a few years before the hippies got into the act. And there's plenty of clips of good music along the way.

Comments

|6.9.09 @ 10:51AM|#

Pete Seger was a fake condesending liberal who looked at bluegrass and folk music as some kind of wild exotic music from another culture. He played folk music the same way English orientalists used to dress up in native costumes. Cash and Stanley in contrast were the real deal.

shecky|6.9.09 @ 10:55AM|#

Yes, John doesn't do irony.

|6.9.09 @ 11:02AM|#

Shecky,

There was nothing ironic about Seger. Patrionizing would be the more appropriate term. "Now lets go down and talk to some of the simple hill people and listen to learn some of their primitive music" pretty much describes Seger's attitude.

Warty|6.9.09 @ 11:04AM|#

the author stops a few years before the hippies got into the act.

He could have written a few pages about the dirty hippies in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and their toe-tapping fraudulence.

|6.9.09 @ 11:10AM|#

Oh I don't know. I liked his rendition of "If I had a Hammer (and a sickle).

Jesse Walker|6.9.09 @ 11:10AM|#

John: I think the point Shecky was making is that the Cashes and the Stanleys weren't any more or less authentic than Seeger was, as your "real deal" phrase implies. Cash in particular was prone to "authenticity" role-playing, albeit of a sort that you and I find more congenial than Seeger's efforts.

Warty: I agree that Will the Circle Be Unbroken is a big part of the story, and that there's all sorts of interesting "authenticity" games at work in there. I also think it's a great album.

spambot|6.9.09 @ 11:13AM|#

Nice Blasters reference Jesse!

Citizen Nothing|6.9.09 @ 11:18AM|#

Yo, fuck anybody who doesn't like WCBU (even WCBU II and III).

Citizen Nothing|6.9.09 @ 11:18AM|#

Even the John Denver track. Yeah, I'm hard core.

|6.9.09 @ 11:18AM|#

"John: I think the point Shecky was making is that the Cashes and the Stanleys weren't any more or less authentic than Seeger was, as your "real deal" phrase implies. Cash in particular was prone to "authenticity" role-playing, albeit of a sort that you and I find more congenial than Seeger's efforts."

I disagree. Yes, they played the "authenticity role". But there is no such thing as "authentic". What performer doesn't play a role? Even someone like Robert Johnson, as "authentic" as one can get, was a traveling performer playing a role. Seger in his seriousness betrays the fact that he is a faker. Stanley and Cash in contrast were playing the roles of the performers they grew up seeing. Stanley and Cash understood the music and where it came from. They knew it was despite its seriousness was an act. Seger didn't get that.

dhex|6.9.09 @ 11:19AM|#

But there is no such thing as "authentic".

i agree, but i had no idea you were a postmodernist, john.

|6.9.09 @ 11:20AM|#

WCBU is ok. I don't hate it. But I don't see the point of listening to it. Why listen to the redo when you can listen to the real stuff? It is kind of like listening to Clapton do traditional blues covers. Yeah, Clapton is a talented guy and does a great job. But, what is the point? As good as Clapton is, those songs have already been done about as well as they can be done.

|6.9.09 @ 11:23AM|#

"But there is no such thing as "authentic".

i agree, but i had no idea you were a postmodernist, john."


There isn't in the sense that "art" is always seperated from and a characature of real life. As compelling as something like "Dark as a Dungeon" is, it isn't actually being a coal miner. Being a coal miner is being a coal miner. Music of any kind involves the artist seperating himself from reality and giving a compelling version of it. But it is just that, a version of reality. It is not reality. If it was, there would be no point to art. We all have reality every day.

|6.9.09 @ 11:30AM|#

I like American music. Don't you like American music best, baby?

|6.9.09 @ 11:31AM|#

I like all kinds of music.

Jesse Walker|6.9.09 @ 11:35AM|#

John: I mostly agree with the distinction you're drawing, and I guess I misunderstood what you meant by "real deal." That said, Johnny Cash did a lot more than imitate the performers he grew up admiring: He consciously adopted a variety of roles for a variety of audiences, whether he was recasting himself as a folksinger in the early '60s, playing at Billy Graham revivals in the '70s, or working with Rick Rubin in the '90s. (Complicating matters further, at times he was willing to push some of those audiences outside their comfort zones. He had to do this to some extent, given how much they co-mingled at his concerts, but frequently it seemed to be a conscious artistic decision, as when he invited Bob Dylan or Ray Charles to play with him on his TV show.)

As for WCBU, it's not merely a redo. It's a redo by a bunch of the original artists, with an all-star cast of bluegrass musicians jamming behind the singers. I might be a little biased, though: It's also a sentimental favorite, as my parents had a copy and it's one of the albums I grew up hearing around the house.

Spambot: Thanks. Mazor could have extended his argument to the cowpunk era too, but at that point it would have become a book.

Warty|6.9.09 @ 11:39AM|#

WCBU is utter brilliance. It's one of the best records I can think of off the top of my head, and I didn't even hear it until I was 19 or so.

PJ Doland|6.9.09 @ 11:41AM|#

If you want to know just how shady Pete Seeger is, read up on the copyright he registered for We Shall Overcome.

Warty|6.9.09 @ 11:46AM|#

As the attempted serial killer "Lasermannen" had shot several immigrants around Stockholm in 1992, prime minister Carl Bildt and immigration minister Birgit Friggebo attended a meeting in Rinkeby. As the audience became upset, Friggebo tried to calm them down by proposing everyone to sing We Shall Overcome. This statement is widely regarded as one of the most embarrassing moments in Swedish politics.

Perfect.

|6.9.09 @ 11:46AM|#

John,

It was a weird coincidence. The iPod pulled that up on the shuffle just this morning.

|6.9.09 @ 11:47AM|#

That is a wierd coincidence. I haven't listened to it since college. Perhaps I will give it another shot.

|6.9.09 @ 11:49AM|#

Earle and Springsteen are Pete's progeny. Arrogant, self righteous and sanctimonious.

alan|6.9.09 @ 11:52AM|#

Yeah, Clapton is a talented guy and does a great job. But, what is the point? As good as Clapton is, those songs have already been done about as well as they can be done.

Have a listen

It would be years before American blues players could match this in virtuosity.

dhex|6.9.09 @ 11:52AM|#

There isn't in the sense that "art" is always seperated from and a characature of real life. As compelling as something like "Dark as a Dungeon" is, it isn't actually being a coal miner. Being a coal miner is being a coal miner. Music of any kind involves the artist seperating himself from reality and giving a compelling version of it. But it is just that, a version of reality. It is not reality. If it was, there would be no point to art. We all have reality every day.

menus are not meals, i agree. but what about autobiographical songs?

|6.9.09 @ 11:53AM|#

"Earle and Springsteen are Pete's progeny. Arrogant, self righteous and sanctimonious."

I actually like some of Earle's music, but he is such a fuckwad. Springsteen for all his sanctonomy is at least a somewhat responsible person. He takes care of his band and his family and seems to inspire genuine loyalty among the people who work for him. Earle in contrast spent most of his life as a degenerate druggie doing as much damage to himself and everyone around him as humanly possible. Only to later sober up and spend the rest of his life sactimoneously preaching about how immoral every one who disagrees with him is. I really can't stand that guy.

|6.9.09 @ 11:58AM|#

"menus are not meals, i agree. but what about autobiographical songs?"

Even those tend to be less autobiographical and more art. When Mickey Mantle asked Paul Simon why he said "where have you gone Joe DiMaggio" instead of "where have you gone Mickey Mantle" Simon replied "syllables man syllables." No matter how compelling your story is, allowances must be made.

|6.9.09 @ 11:58AM|#

Just be careful John, I spent two days singing the chorus to "I Held Her In My Arms" the last time I listened to it.

alan|6.9.09 @ 12:03PM|#

I caught Simon in concert (about, wow, twenty years ago, unbelievable), and the rendering he did of 'The Boxer' was enough to shake you root, branch, and leaf.

highnumber|6.9.09 @ 12:17PM|#

In related news, John Fogerty is set to release The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again.
Yippee!!

|6.9.09 @ 12:22PM|#

Alan,

I saw him in summer of 06. He was awesome. Did all of his Graceland stuff for the 20th aniversary of the record.

|6.9.09 @ 1:53PM|#

I've heard the Simon-Mantle anecdote before, but it's clearly a joke made years after the fact when chronological memories were fuzzy, since Mantle was still an active player in 1967; ergo, he hadn't "gone" anywhere at the time.

I'm not that familiar with Merle Travis, but I have seen a clip of his original "Sixteen Tons," and he gives that same kind of "Here is what the song means" explanation before it. Maybe that was just part of his schtick.

highnumber|6.9.09 @ 2:02PM|#

Alternative to the Paul Simon anecdote:
Banarama wanted to write about Al Pacino, but it didn't fit.

|6.9.09 @ 3:18PM|#

"I've heard the Simon-Mantle anecdote before, but it's clearly a joke made years after the fact when chronological memories were fuzzy, since Mantle was still an active player in 1967; ergo, he hadn't "gone" anywhere at the time."

It clearly happened. I think Mantle was joking with Simon. "Why that Yankee and not me when I am the best Yankee". Simon's response was both witty and true.

Mike Laursen|6.9.09 @ 3:22PM|#

Rainbow Quest? Really?! How gay. I'm sickened with regret that I once sorta defended Pete Seeger here.

|6.9.09 @ 4:07PM|#

Thank god someone got to the Violent Femmes quote before me. Otherwise who knows how much of the song I might have quoted.

|6.9.09 @ 4:34PM|#

Do do do too many drugs. I do too many drugs.

|6.9.09 @ 5:43PM|#

"It is not reality. If it was, there would be no point to art. We all have reality every day."

The Balinese have a saying: We have no art; we do everything to the best of our ability.

Marshall McLuhan used to say that a lot.

|6.9.09 @ 7:39PM|#

Excellent Blasters reference in the title.

|6.10.09 @ 8:27AM|#

So who are these Cumberland Mountain Boys? Carter & Ralph's band was called the Clinch Mountain Boys, if that's who this guy is actually talking about.

Jesse Walker|6.10.09 @ 9:44AM|#

The Cumberland Mountain Boys were a bluegrass band. But I think you're right: Mazor probably meant to refer to the Clinch Mountain Boys.