THE SOURCES of COUNTRY MUSIC

THOMAS HART BENTON 1AA9-1975 We at Smith Kramer are proud to b€ part of the effort to celebrat€th€ work of Thomas Hart Benton dudng the looth anniversary of his birth. "The Sourc€s of Country Music" will be seen in many communities across the country thanks to the dedication of the professionals who have worked with us to make this proiect a reality. We are thankful, first and foremost, to the Country Music Foundation of Nashville for sharing their murat and the 32 accompanying studies. All works inthe exhibitar€ partofth€ collectionsofthe Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Diana Johnson and Chds Skinker of the Foundation have been unfailing in their behind-the-scenesefforts to initiate this tour. H€nry Adams, Curator of American Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, has off€red contin- ued assistanceand support. He has provided the enLertarninge55ay on thesepage.. The spon'oring institutions who have o{fered their supPort by participating in th€ tour of the mural also deserve our thanks. The responseswe receive from these sPonsors and those who vi€w the exhibit are very gratifying. We look forward to sharing this delightful and historic exhibit.

David L. Smith Smith Kramer, Inc.

"The Souces of Country MusiC' mural The Sourcesof Country Music On January r8ih of I975, in his .arriage-house studio in KansasCity, Thomas Hart Benion put the last brush strokes on his painting Tl.50,rds o/ Cd!rtr! M,i,.. The mural had be€n .ommissioned the year before by Nash ville's Couniry Music Foundation to be displayed in rhe Counhy Music HalL of Fane and Museum. Its conple- tion, in less than ; year, by an eighty-five ye.arold ariisi. was an impressive physical achievenent. The task might have erhausted a nuch younger painter, for the six by ten f€et and contains seventcen nearly life sized figures. But Tom Benion took on the project becausethc subje.t was ver! oprr'o h m lJm.rnle-p.r in,^-Irrynu... hr-thdl.,lr man actively invdved wiih it, he was himself a gifted musician,as wellas i collectorofAmeiican folk tunes.In Tha So,tN al Ctuntr,!M,sit hc distilledthe study and hrrd work of a lifetime "l remembef it from my childhood," Tom renarked of couniry music, shortl)' after he was commissioned to make the Nashvillc nural. "l was raised down in southwest Missouri, and the only music we had was country music. So I was preity familiar wiih ii. I was ramilia. with the songsand with agood deal oflitcrature

Tom's maternal grandfather, Pappy Wise, of Wax ahachi€, Texas, was a violin naker and used to set up ir the early hours ofthe noining and pl.\' counby fiddle tunes., His mother was a serious pianist Despite this exposufc to music, however, Tom did nor take up an instrument himself until 1931, when he w.rs rorty one years old. One day he picked up a child's harmonica ihat someone had given to his son T.P. and beganto make noiscs.Afiersome experiment, he learned to play a scale and became so excited that he ran home from his siudio to show his new skill to his wif€, Rita. Tuneswere too muchforhim, however,so he wentout and purihased some music books. Ior weeks h€ did nothing but play children's sonAs and elementary folk tunes. After his playing improved, he pur.hased a more e\ppn'ive l.r, mrni, r tlrl al owed l-rm to p.dy l-rlt--ote. dnd m.,\p \ey Hp Jnd plryi-g 'hdrgF. R,LdbFgrn the guitar and harnonica togeiher in th€ evenings. For awhile Ton was more interestedin ihe harmonica than in painting. Thanks to his enthusiasm,a few of his

1.lnttrirr bvhhn A\nir la,ri.liin,The sources ofCounirv Mu\, .J c .l 2. Araflling tD hi\ \i\Jrt Mi|ttl Snqll, fott @rtt oN rl th, Ittlhs thtt Prtv \t\ia h l nrd1 students be.ame interested as well and began meetin8 at his home on Monday eveninss for musicales. To make it easier for the novice, Ton devised a new form ofmusical notation, which was later picked up, and is still used by comm€rcial music publishers-Raiherthan indicating the position of a note on the scale,thb system indicat€d numedcally whi.h hole to blow throush, and had an !p or down arow indi.ating wheth€r to inhale or

For five years, playing the harmonica occupied much of Tom's time. He began taking it wiih him on his summertravels and would perforrn in farmhousesand at country dances.As his ear improved, he besan colle.ting American folk tunes. Helen Lieban, who visited Tom in

Music, next to paintinS dominates the Benbn men age. Mrs- Benton sings the sonAsof her native Lom bardy to her own guitar accompaniment,while Benton puffs lusiil)' on his harmonica, showina spe.ial par- tiality for such early American folk tunes as "Old Joe Clark," "My Horses Ain't Hungry," and "Buf{alo Gals." Of later years he has gone in relentlessly for Beethoven,Bach, and MozarL makinS up in fire what h€ lacks in virtuosity.s During the r93o's, Benton sketched and befriended country fiddlels like Uncle Lavrrenceand Dudl€y Vance

3. Hd?n Litbin, Thand. Bolon, Anttitt MtttL Pnirttt, t)esign,D.dml'rr, I'r3,1 r' J.l (both of whon are mentioned in A, Altist ifl Ahtkn, Tom's colorful autobiography); made po raits of mod- ern composers su.h as Edgar Var€se and Carl Russles, and befriended the musicologist Charles Seeser,an early .ollecior of American folk songs. Charles Seeg€r'sson, the folk singer PeteSe€serhas recalled that he firstheard the sons "lohn Henry" when B€nton performed it for

Many of Benion's best pajntings of the 1930's lrantir rnd lahnv, Thel.olDu' Lott of theLane Green v ollry, and The Engin*r's Drean, for example-w€re directly inspir€d by folk songs. In ihe mural panels he created for ihe Whiiney Museum in New York in 1e32,Tom included a likeness ot Wilbur Levelett, from Calena, Missouri, playins the guita' Dudley Vance, from BlulT City, Tennessee, playing the liddle; ud his pupil Jackson Pollock playins the harmonica. Indeed, Benton probably tried to create visual styles which corr€lated with the various types of music that he toyed. Thek^lon La"o ol Latu Cfter v^llev, fot example, evokes the sadness of a countiy fiddle tune; whereas Iotreion?Road, a likeness of a black man with a mure ano a ramshackle cart, has the serio.omic mood and the jerky, unexpected rhythms of the blues. In 1941 Bentd even flirted with a careeras a harmon- ica virtuoso. In thai year h€ cut a three record album, releasedby Decca, titled "Saturday Nisht ai Ton B€n- tont" (Decca 331). In it he tooted out tunes on his Upperbody, headdulcine. player harnonica, backed by an orchestraotproFesrional musi

As a consequ€nceofhis nusi.al interesis,Tom Benton did not need much persuading when he was first approached by the Country Music Foundaiion. In Jan uary, 1973, when Nornan Worlell, direcior of the TennesseeArts Comnission, and Tex Ritter, ihe famed .owboy sing€r, visiied him in KansasCity, Tom warmed up almosi immediately to Tex's suSgestionthat he create a largevr-ual of the r.oL. of Lou.lry mu\i, 'umma.y While he and Ter sipped Jack Daniels together, Tom repeated,"The sources oF country music-thatt it." He then elaborated: "No one should be recosnizable. It should show the roots of the music th€ sources-before ther€ were records and stars."a Benton laier commenied: I'd had considerabLeinterest in folk music of the United States in various times in my life. So I didn't have to do any research-l knew all ihai stuff. Th€ problem was merely to get it iogether, in my own nind, about how I.ould represent these things in the

Now a great deal of this folk sons orisinally came from the countries where ihe early settlerscame from, 4. Knnl Ann Malii,& Tom Berton and His Drawings. p Un.'.r'-,t \/ba". !- ..ludlt db< t Wli'i4 t i, |r'P lheMa^'ngof fhcsout,"-o-(oJFl') Mu'!. /'dr! ' artntt! Mtst Fo"ndttion, Naslrilk To,*rfr, 1975 lenpasinar and in our own ihe most of'em are English and Scoich lrish, but they, naturally, were modified in the American environment and took on iheir particular charact€rand their particular conient. Now this is an inierestina ihinA aboui .ountry music. Until very Latelythey used no percussion, not evenabanjoorasuitar. Everythinswas eitherfiddle or sinSing.The singing was sometimes part sinaing iwo and three, generally three parts; but there was no kind of percussion instrument, say iike a banjo, which has some ofthe attack that a percussioninstrumeni would have. They were not used. I don't remember any guitar playing in my youth in the Ozalk country at all, in my early youth. The only banjos that were ever played were ihose in the old minsirel shows.s Benton beAan planning the Nashville painting in ihe fall of 1973. In December he wrote to William Ivey, executive director of the Country Music Foundation, ursing that "people should express their opinions and preferences,?'and suggesting that the painting might include "pioneer liddlers and square or play party dancers hvmn singers,(white spiiituals)-ballad singers (rnaybewiih dulcime.), blues sins€rs-(nesro with banjo, mJybeon the beloB Memphi.) Cowboy,in8"h- 'rver etc., etc."6 By the first of January 1974, Benton had submitted an initial sketch to the Board of the tounda

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4," "Thc Sourc€sof Count.y Mnsic"

5everaL.rflhcsc sccncswcrc closelvrel.ted b lom's Tex in lhc.owbol singe.?"He,rlso foted, "l sreatly e.r.lie.panrtings !nd pdnis. For cxampl., ihc gfoup ol thafk whocv.r bro!8hi up the sig.ifi(rn.e or the dnn.ersb.ings tu mind an ilLusiraiionhe made h 1ss4 rriLnud train for olr subjc.l. llow..!ld I heve orer fof the pl.r! (;n?, (;r.r.rJ!.1rl,r.r(€rom Nhich the musical looked it? Though i irtc thcm. I ngrc. that ,t ,s bo Olhl,,!"irwrs derired).rhe churchcomcs risht out of inportht b rgnorc"' ihc,4,/r i'l rl,t S,'rrI p.]nel of 1932 for the l\hihrev ln febru.rry, BenkD leli on a thrcc !!cck "saihrg inunt \4J.. n ., J ..,pp..,-pJli p, n h,. ror- , r '\J, , , nbort the Erham!s." Afier his rctun, howcv.r, hc scl to work fcvisinghis design,.,ndi,r Mrrch 1974he submrt ln Lite linu.rv, ilhcn thc bo.fd mct to disaussthe ted i reviscdsket.h for the bor.d k).onside.. I. this sket.h,they un.lnimouslyvoied to dedi.atcihc muril1o ditwinE he cLiminatcdthe moldiigs nr the e.rrliersketch Tcx Ritter,who had died jusi a shori ilhile before.They and piacedall ihc fisufc5in a unifiedpictorltl space.He nlso m.dc a nunber of suggesinhs.Thev felt that rcplacedthecowboy on horscbackwith a fathergeneral- Benton! sket.h emphasizedtfe squire dancet.rdltion I izcd portraitof Tex Riitef, .nd addcd i train, to suggest Iittle ioo much and noted that it left out the rrln-in thc importrnceof railrodds.Dgs. In addiiion,on his own important thcme in country music. : rrf! .,r.rr lt. .r,rnirr rlii 7.4 f,rirt!11lir ilorf ,:r,i On linu.rv 28, 1s7,1,Bcnton fcpiied to a letter ifom rjir i, rn!tr: rir'.rf rl tr! 1rr,i,n, .!i,i,,r! ()4f ,1 ri,: ii)r,:l Bill lve!. "l go for idea j!,rrr!:' the ihat ihe mural shouldh some l) Jrtrr; trBf ls93 !,[d irr r,,s rrrf !r,n Jr;,h.ra i wav bc a tribute to Ter Riite.. Why don't we symbolize i . ,'r!rrf. iri i{rr'h,,/,n fitrir,, l)Ll,10"r{ inspiration, he put in a steamboatto suBaestthe sianifi canceof vermusic. The finaldesiSn contained5cenes of a riverboat, a train, chuich singins, bam danonr, a black banjo pLayerand a singing cowbov. The Board of the Country Music Foundahon enthusi astically approved his r€vised con.eption, and oler the summer Benton worked on enlarging and Perfectina it. As was his custom, he made elaborate studies befole besinnins work on the final canlas He .onslrucied a painted plasiicinemodel of the whole.omposition, made oil studies in both back-and-white &d color. and drew caretul pencil studies of the insirunents and each of the

Over the summer h€ worked from models close at hand, usins his daughter iesrie's friends and other acquaintances.Benion was not tatisfied, hor{erer, with a painting based only on friends and professionalmodels. Eagerio capture the autheniic spint of count.\'music, he went out to the Ozarks to lo€atesom€ eu^'i!in8.ountry musicians.'1 guessI could us€ the face of an actor," Benton commented, "but sometimes rrhat People do for a long time in iheir life-their o.dpationt shows in their faces. Or is suggested. That miaht be true in a musician-The emotions he has experiencednight 5how. I don't know. I just have to seethe face."! ln the course of a few days, Benton did a number of portrait studies, each about three inches squrre, which iook about twentyminutes apieceto complete.Afterhalf a day ofsearchin8, Tom located Ravmond Bruffet, a local fiddler, who lived in a cabin deep in the rloods, sur rounded by a dozen or so junked cats. He also hunted down old Nick Nickens, a left-handed fiddler, and Chick Allen, whose instrument was the iatlbone of the mule (Allen would hang the dried bone around hi, neck on a thong and rap it with sticks). A young woman at the School of ihe Ozarks posed w'th her morth open, as if singing. Benion laier drew on his sketch of her forseveral nembers of the church choir- Tom rlas equally careful about the insttuments, cos tumes, and background details of the paintina. One of the el"ment. wh,ch c,u.ed him mo'i tunce'n was ihe train. The image of a train appenrs in country music in many vtell known sonss,such as "The Wreck of The Old e7," "The Wabash Cannonball," and "Casey Jones."Benton was particularLycon€erned that th€ train be reprerented a..urately. H€ decided ro use as his model Engine No. 382, th€ 'Cannonball Express," the train in which CaseyJonesperished in his famous wreck, a fasi passensertrain which ran from Chicato to New 8. Robit Sr"fanl Sktxhaf B hn rh. O:rrt: 5. rd,ir lostDispnkh, lan,at! 24,1975 rtt 1D'i 3D "The Sour.esof Counhy Musi.," detail

Orleans. As late as December of 1974 he was still doing iesearch on this question. He asked his ffiend Lyle S. Woodcock in Si. Louis to help him out, and olrDe.ember 19, 1974,Woodcock wrote back: According to the Transpo Museum records, and the Noifolk and West€rn Railroad (successo.io the Illinois Central), Engine No. 3E2, the one driven by Casey lones, was scrapped many years ago. The Museum ofTransport in Si. Lolis has an engine which th€y say is ideniical to No.382. It is a "Ten Wheeler" with a wooden cab,and is No.635. It was a Missouri Pacific Ensine, buili by Baldwin Locomotive Co. in 16E9.This engine is easily accessiblein Si. Louis. The railroad museum in la.kson, Tennesseers the hone ofCaseyJones.They have an engine like th€ one in St. Louis and have numbered it 282 although itisnot lhe orsrnal en8in" of hhr h ( rc"v lone. da. enSi-

In closing, Woodcock enclosedphotosraphs of the St. Louis engine. Tom was dissatisfied wilh the first sei of photoSraphs, so Woodcock w€ni back to iake detaiied photosraphs of the workjng ge.rs. Benton based ihe train in his painting on these photographs, md finished the canvason January 181h,a liitle bit ahead of his schedule. On the afrernoon of Ianuary 1eth, wh€n he had drinks with his youns friend lohn Callison, he suggestedthat they should drive to St. Louis together someday soon to look at the actual train. Unfortunately, however, he was not able to make this trip. Thar sameev€ning after dinner, Tom walked outto his

9 My tronkstaLrk S. \Natdta.klt nlbun'ilnftja.rr)!thitletttr. studio, w€arins the same 01dhat John Callison had posed in while tuming a windlass for the 1972 mural of "Turn of the Century Joplin." (Located in the Municipal Build- ing of joplin, Missoui.) He announccd to his wife Rita that he wantedto look overhismuraL,lf he decidedit was .ompleted he was goinS to sign it. Around 6r30Rita went oui io fetchhin, a,d chidehin for siaying olt so late. she found Ton lying on the floor wiih his speciacleson, directly in front of the Nashville mural. whtrh wr. \lill un{8npd crri.lFn h' r nJ- rv. heari attack, he had faLlen on his wrist Naich, which stopped i)t the exact moneni of his deaih fire minuies

The Cannonball Express had reached its destin'tior. sarnuel Sosland Curator of American Art The Nelson-AtkinsMuseum of Art, KansasCity

All works in this exhibitiona.e from the.ollectionsof the Country Music HalLof Fame and Museun, Nashvillc,

"The Souicesof Counlry Music," detail