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Country- and the Urban Author(s): D. K. Wilgus Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 83, No. 328, The Urban Experience and Folk Tradition (Apr. - Jun., 1970), pp. 157-179 Published by: American Folklore SocietyAmerican Folklore Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/539105 Accessed: 02/09/2010 18:40

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http://www.jstor.org D. K. WILGUS

Country-WesternMusic and the UrbanHillbilly'

COUNTRY-WESTERN MUSICis currentlyone of the most importantfacets of the entertainmentindustry. It owes its statusand respectlargely to financialsuccess, like most of the populararts of America.Indeed, to call country-westernmusic simplyone form of Americanpopular music is to makebut one of the myriadand apparentlycontradictory statements that have been made aboutits origins, devel- opment, function, and significance.The history of this music and our attitudes towardit reflectthe contradictionsin the Americancharacter; that is, in the char- acterof the country-westernaudience, the urbanhillbilly. The dichotomyin the term "urbanhillbilly" expressesboth the polarization of city and countryand the accommodationof values representedin the hybridi- zation of country-westernmusic. I use the word "hillbilly"in all of its connota- tions-including Appalachian,southern, and backwoodsor country-for theyrep- resent but degreesof the same conceptand culture,and the differentshades of meaning accountfor much that seems contradictoryabout the music and its his- tory. Thus my topic cannotbe narrowlyconcerned with migrantsfrom the south- ern mountainsto the northernmetropolis; and, while it deals largely with the industrializationand urbanizationof the southernregions, it is concernedulti- matelywith the urbanizationof the .The Southin generaland the Appalachiansand Ozarksin particularentered the game late, after their folkwayshad developedand solidifiedfor a longer period than elsewherein the country.The shockof urbanization,therefore, was greaterand the reactionmore extreme. The musicgrowing out of the urbanizationof the Southwas basedon a num- ber of traditions,many of them folk and regional,which were able to interact under a minimum of the standardizinginfluences exerted by the commercial music business.Yet for more than three decadescountry-western music has been intimately connectedwith the media of commercialentertainment. For these reasonsit is, indeed, a laboratoryfor the study of some aspectsof the American

1 This paper was accompanied by the playing of a sound tape containing musical illustrations. The opening "theme" was " City," , RCA Victor 8183 (I957). Subsequent footnotes will cite recordings, portions of which were played to illustrate points made in the paper. 158 D. K. WILGUS character,particularly those relatedto the urbanizationof the ruralfolkways. Be- causeof the late collectionand studyof Americanfolklore and becauseof limita- tions in scholarlyoutlook, conclusionsconcerning the earlyhistory and develop- ment of in the United Statesare in many respectsconjectural. Too often we must reconstructthe developmentby analysisof the very materialswe need to understandin orderto explainthe development.We mayconclude, how- ever, that the earlymigration of Britishfolk musicto the United Stateswas rela- tively uniform, but that by the end of the eighteenthcentury the North was re- ceiving newer materialand newer styles than the South and was under pressure to conformto emergingurban "popular" styles and to acceptthe productsof the growing urbancommercial entertainment industry. The South,on the otherhand, tended to preserveand develop the older styles and to createits own materials because of its isolation from urban music. Consequentlynorthern folk music eroded away;either it was lost completely,or it remainedin vertical,family tra- ditions, while performancestyles more and more approximatedurban norms- with the exceptionof certainpockets of geographicalor occupationalisolation. In spite of oversimplification,this summaryis broadlyaccurate. But oversimpli- ficationin this case can lead to misunderstanding.It neglects almost totally the interrelationof folk and popularmusic in the North, a developmentgenerally neglectedin Americanfolk and culturalstudies. More important, it misrepresents the kind of isolationthat operatedin the South and the SouthernAppalachians. To use the Appalachiansas the extremeexample, our summaryperpetuates the notion that settlers flockedinto the valleys and coves and then got stuck there. It would be more accurateto note that the settlersnot only went where they did becausethey wanted to go but stayed there becausethey wanted to stay. They could have left. Many of them did, and many of them returned.By and large, the inhabitantsof Appalachiawere subjectedneither to total geographicalisola- tion nor to totally involuntarycultural isolation. That is to say, their geographical and industrialposition permittedthem to develop a degree of culturalisolation but did not preventcontact with elementsof the dominantand developingAmer- ican culture;their position made it possible for them to accept,reject, or modify manyof its elements. Thus, by the middle of the nineteenthcentury the South-approximatelythe area below Route 4o-had preservedand developeda frontieragrarian culture. This culturewas not uniformin all regions,no morethan it was uniformwithin any smallerarea or community.The regionaldifferences in the cultureare related to variousmusical styles and materialsin early hillbilly music. But there was a uniformityin culturethat was in turn reflectedin musicof the folk. The culture valued independence,self-suffciency, honor, and loyalty (particularlyto kin). The family was the economicand social unit, and childrenwere economically profitable.The economydepended primarily on subsistenceagriculture. Though the culture was work-oriented, life was attuned to natural rhythms, and leisure existed for traditional noneconomic pursuits. The frontier penchant for drink, violence, and rebellion was complemented by an evangelical religion dominated by the Old Testament. A rigid, patriarchal morality was accompanied by a deep drive for individualistic expression. Indeed, the society was one of extremes: so- COUNTRY-WESTERN MUSIC AND THE URBAN HILLBILLY 159 brietyand drunkenness,piety and hellraising,daily stoicism and orgiasticreligious revivals. One makes statementsabout the folk music of this culture with extreme caution. The secular musical tradition was almost completely domestic, per- formed by nonprofessionals.The repertoryincluded both Old World and native Americanmaterials, though it is not possible to demonstratewhen some of the latter entered the tradition. Few old ballads native to the area have survived. Performance,excepting shaped-notesinging, was monophonic;melodies were largelymodal, sung with considerableornamentation and rhythmicfreedom. The only instrumentin wide use was the fiddle, and probablyonly for frolic music. The attitudetoward secular music in general and the fiddle in particularvaried from completetoleration to total rejectionon religious grounds. But there was a strong,conservative tradition with ancientroots.2 A seriesof culturalshocks and alterationsbegan with the Civil War. Of course the music and the culturaltradition of which it was a part had not been com- pletely static,even in deepestback country, but changenow becameincreasingly rapid. We can date economicchanges, we can date song texts, but we cannot date changesin musical styles or even the introductionof musical instruments during this time. For example,the and the Ethiopianminstrel songs were a staple of the urbantradition by I850; yet we do not know when the southern white folk musicianadopted them. What we do know is that by the end of the centurythey had becomea vital partof the tradition.What we can do is recognize influencesthat were gradual,and influencesthat were resisted.We can summarize them as urbanization. The war, as was the case with other Americanwars to follow, broughtrural men into urbanenvironments and men of differentcultural regions into contact. After the war a patternof immigrationand emigrationbegan. Northern entre- preneursand techniciansentered to exploit the South.Southern youths were leav- ing the area-largely for the West-but they were returningas well. Railroads furthered communication;in their very constructionthey introducednew cul- tural (includingmusical) influences.Logging, mining, and manufacturingplants were developed,altering the economyand the face of the South,without funda- mentallychanging the value systemof its folk. It is in this atmospherethat hill- billymusic developed and has continuedto develop. Listen to BradleyKincaid, speakingas a successfulprofessional performer in 1930 of "mountainsongs" on radioand phonographrecordings. There is a practice among recording companies, and those who are inclined to speak slight- ingly of the mountain songs, to call them Hilly Billy songs. When they say Hilly Billy songs they generally mean bum songs and jail songs such as are often sung in lumber camps and among railroad gangs. Such songs are not characteristic of mountain songs, and I hope with this brief explanation you will come to distinguish between these fine old folk songs of the mountains and the so-called Hilly Billy songs.3 was a product of the settlement-school tradition, which was seek-

2 "Johnnyand Willie" (Child 49), Jim Bowles, Rock Bridge, ,recorded 29 August 1959 by D. K. Wilgus and LynwoodMontell; Western Folklore UCLA. 3 Kentucky Archive, Favorite Mountain Ballads and Old-Time Songs, Book 3 (, 1930), 6. 60o D. K. WILGUS ing to combatmany of the effectsof industrializationand is somewhatto blame for the paucityof informationconcerning various forms of music in the moun- tains in the earlypart of the twentiethcentury. But "mountainsongs versusHilly Billy songs"expresses the polaritybetween "" (the staunchAnglo- Saxonconservator of our ancestralrural values) and "hillbilly"(the crudecarrier of filthy backwoodscustoms). "Mountainsong" was of coursebut one of the terms (others were "Old Time," "Southern,""Dixie") used by recordingcom- panies in the 1920s to characterizetheir materialsaimed at the white country audience.Archie Green has tracedthe term "hillbillymusic" to an almostchance remarkmade at a 1925 recordingsession.4 But the name certainlycaught on be- causeof its pejorativenature, and it is now rejectedby the musicindustry for the same reason. At any rate Kincaid was partiallycorrect in assessingthe sourcesof develop- ment of the newermusical tradition. Railroad camps in particularwere important in the contactof the older white folk traditionwith work and social songs, as well as with all sorts of material carriedby migrant workers. There were countlessother influencesand points of contact.Loggers brought in music;young natives rafted logs to cities and broughtback music. The developingNegro tra- ditionwas availableat manypoints-the rivers,the fields,the "BlackBottoms" of southerncities. We must not fail to note the influenceof instrumentallydomi- nated gospel song, which erodedmuch of the style of earlierreligious music and tremendouslyinfluenced secular song. Urban popular song could be heard not only on visits to the city and throughcasual contact but from circusesand travel- ing troupesof entertainers.By approximatelythe end of the century,folk per- formersthemselves were a partof the itinerantshow business. The traditionof wanderingminstrel and balladhawker is an old one, and the peddler of broadsideballads still operatedin northerncities in the I88os. The extentto which the wanderingballad singer of the Southis a partof a continuing traditionis difficultto determine.We have nineteenth-centurysouthern broad- sides and songstersbut preciouslittle evidenceof itinerantperformers. When we do hear of the professionalballad singer, he is almostinvariably included among the halt and the blind, to whom such an occupationwas an economicnecessity, a fact illustratingthe frontierattitude toward musical entertainment. A numberof earlyhillbilly performersbelong in this category:Ernest Thompson, Blind Alfred Reed, LesterMcFarland and RobertA. Gardner ("Mac and Bob"), and "Peg" Moreland.By I909 Blind of Monticello, Kentucky,was touring the South from Floridato Ohio, entertainingat fairs and school houses, selling his broadsidesand songbooks,and staging fiddle contests.The fiddle convention or contest was not his invention, however, nor were all the "banjominstrels" blind. The traveling medicine shows began to employ folk performersas part of their entertainment,and this encouragedyouths to emulate them. Doctor Howard Hopkins-later a hillbilly performer in Chicago and elsewhere-recalls being entranced as a boy in Harlan County, Kentucky, with the performances of Dakota Jack's Medicine Show, which he joined later. Thus there was a tradition of hillbilly musicians-professional performers of

4 Music, Source and OF FOLKLORE (1965), 204 ff. "Hillbilly Symbol," JOURNAL AMERICAN "78 COUNTRY-WESTERN MUSIC AND THE URBAN HILLBILLY 161 materialdirected to a white folk audience-prior to World War I, the next shock and crisis of culturecontact. For we must recognizethat many of the early mu- sicians in the commercializedtradition had not spent all their lives in isolated cabinsso far backin the hills it took ten cents to send them a postcard.They had workedon the railroads;they had workedin the mills of the South,the oil fields of the West, the industriesof the North; they had servedin the Spanish-American War and in World War I. They were musicianslooking for audiences,paying audiences,an importantpoint in the processof urbanization.The acceptanceof music as a careerfor a healthy adult-a violation of folk taboo-is but one of the tensionsof the urbanhillbilly. Phonographrecords and radio did not invent hillbilly music, but without them the traditionmight have withered.The weddingwas inevitable.We tend to emphasizephonograph recordings, mainly because they are survivingartifacts by which we can assessmusical developments. But we have to recognizethat, despite their importancein the spreadand developmentof hillbilly music, phonograph recordingsrank third chronologicallyamong the media bearingthe traditionand that their permanencecauses us to underratethe other media. Professionalcoun- try musiciansperformed first of all before live audiences.Even before the advent of radio some had moved beyondthe medicineshow, the school house, and the countyfair to the vaudevillecircuit-notably Uncle Dave Maconand the Weaver Brothersand Elviry.Except for a few earlyrecordings of no historicalsignificance in the developmentof the tradition,radio was an exploitativedevice before the commercialrecording industry became a medium for the distributionof country performances.The tie-in of radio,phonograph, and personalappearances simply grew-as much throughthe effortsof the musiciansas throughthe machinations of the mediaexecutives. Not that the musicianswere not in manycases "used" by the executives.Unsophisticated performers realized pittancesfor propertiesof great value (for example,), while others (for example,Jimmie Rodgers) became wealthy in a brief period. The point, however, is that the musicianswere in many cases seeking exposurein the commercialmedia, par- ticularlyas an adjunctto personal-appearancefees. It was no accidentthat the recordingsof Eck Robertsonand in 1922-1923 were at the insistence of the artists, nor was it any accident that they were not exploited immediatelyby the Victor and Okeh companies.5It was no accidentthat Whitter camefrom a southernmill areaand that a southerncity like Atlantawas the cradleof commercialhillbilly recording.It was no accident that RalphPeer of Okeh was in Atlantain 1923, to be almostcoerced into record- ing Fiddlin'John Carson on the firstsuccessful hillbilly disc. The exactplaces and circumstancesmay have been accidental,but the historicaldrama seems inevitable. Peer was looking for local talent to bolsterthe phonographindustry in the face of the looming competitionof radio. He had alreadypioneered in the recording of Negro performers for the Negro trade. If he needed to be persuaded that the "pluperfect awful" performance of Carson would sell and that the "wool hat" audience would buy, he lost no time in being convinced and in following up

5 "Wreck of the Southern Old 97" (Laws G2), Henry Whitter, Okeh 40015 (1923; released 1924). 162 D. K. WILGUS the initial success.And the talent was readyand willing. The "GoldenAge" of hillbillymusic had begun. The subsequenthistory of hillbilly music priorto 1941 cannotbe neatlysum- marizednor reallyevaluated with anyassurance. Even to sketchin its broadaspects is difficult.Too muchof the informationstems from the statements,activities, and opinionsof recordingand radio executives,and it is a proven fact that they were gropingin the dark,did not know what they had, and were themselvesoperating under urbanprejudices despite their financialstake in ruralmusic. We do, how- ever,have more information than we cansummarize here. After the successof hillbilly recordsales, the recordingindustry began a large- scale search for regional talent, not only race (Negro) and hillbilly (white ), but Cajun (LouisianaAcadian), Mexican, and other "ethnic" as well. They had discoveredregional traditions and regionalaudiences, and now faced the problemof regional demandand sales. Consequently,they were torn betweenthe necessityof satisfyingthese specialdemands and the hopesof finding an economicalway of satisfyingall regionswith a single product.As we shall see, both aims were pursueduntil the second was almost completelysuccessful, but we might questionjust how accuratethe "regional"approach was as far as south- ern whitemusic was concerned. We have accessto no regionalsales figuresfor the period. We know that the recording companiesdid restrictthe release of recordingsby region and that apparentlythey did not exploit hillbilly recordingsin the North (as they did in the South) by inviting the audienceinto a building,playing them recordings,ask- ing whichthey liked, and selling themon the spot. We know therewas a northern marketfor the music. The first successfulradio barn dance programwas estab- lished on WLS in Chicagoin 1924 with a strongnucleus of Kentuckyhill talent. All of the audiencecould not have been transplantedsoutherners or people from southernIndiana, Ohio, and Illinois. Much later, when certaintypes of hillbilly recordingswere not availableeven from jobbersin the North except on special order,they were blaring from tavernjuke boxes in the metropolitanNorth, and comparablerecords were selling in northerndime stores.Although other facts as well preventour completeacceptance of the regionalapproach and the judgment of media executivesbased on it, we must admit that the early fare of WLS was "bland"compared with manyof the southernrecordings and that the few national hits in the 1920s were not strictly"southern." At any rate,we can establishthat there was in hillbilly music an essenceof wide ruralappeal, even in the North whereexpressed urban opinion was contemptuous. Earlyhillbilly music was stronglybased in the countrystring band, frolic, and banjo-minstreltradition, though the recordingcompanies sampled almost every- thing available,even the SacredHarp tradition(though not the oldest unaccom- paniedstyles of secularsinging). There was no stylisticuniformity, though to the outsiderit seemed so. Instrumentalstyles rangedfrom simple to relativelycom- plex, from self-taughtguitar strumsto somewhatcomplex banjo styles. Instru- ments had becomeavailable through urban contactsand mail order houses, but instrumentalgroups tended to be small. The fiddle played a lead role, although COUNTRY-WESTERN MUSIC AND THE URBAN HILLBILLY 163 there were many solo performanceswith or banjo.6The instrumentsused either were cast-offsfrom urbanculture or were played in an unorthodoxnon- urbanfashion. But we should note the criteriainvolved were not mystical;instru- ments were chosenthat were available,portable, inexpensive, and relativelyeasy to adaptto traditionalmelodies and to each other. Becausemuch earlyrecording was done on location, there was little outside interferencewith instrumenta- tion and style. Studio accompanistswere added in exceptionalcases, but it is notable that city imitatorsof the style, who sought and sometimesgained mass sales,cultivated the simplestelements in ruralmusic and avoidedanything suggest- ing urban refinement,although they seldom were able to avoid dynamicsand "expressiveness."The "classic"approach, restrained and austere,was one of the most typicalelements of hillbilly traditionrepresented on earlyrecordings, which were largely from the Southeast.It perpetuatedolder traditionand reflecteda continuingcultural value. The culturalconservatism that reacts to changing conditions by adapting a selectionof new materialsinto old patternsis demonstratedin the musicalreper- tory, which was largely traditional.Tunes in older styles were simplifiedwhen characteristicsof the new instrumentsdemanded modification, but their essential structureremained, and older tunes were sometimesmade the vehicles for texts borrowedfrom urban sources.No simple characterizationcan be made of the repertory,for it drew on many sources.It might be said that in some respectsit correspondsto the polarizationof the culture: orgiasticfrolic tunes, low-down , and damn-fool ditties versus tragic ballads, lacrimoselyrics, and other- worldlysacred songs. But pervadingthe entirerange is an attitudeof seriousness, sincerity,and reality. This attitude survived and palliated the ultimate profes- sionalismof the hillbilly musician.Songs had to be meaningful,in this sense real. I think this conclusioncan be appliedrather generally to songs retainedfrom the older repertoryand those borrowedfrom othersources. Largely missing from the hillbilly song bag are the older English and Scottishpopular ballads, despite the contention that their themes are universal. Though the matter is difficult of proof and there are alternateexplanations, I feel that the ballads rejectedno longer had a ring of realityand "truth"to the singersand listenersof a culturein transition.This conclusionmay seem ridiculouswhen one considersthe prepos- terous plots of other ballads and the "unreal"and maudlin sentimentalityof hillbilly standards.But if one can discardurban sensibilitiesand considerthe hillbilly traditionand the responsesof performersand audience,the conclusion cannotbe rejectedout of hand. Songs of wrecks,pathetic deaths, murdered girls, orphaned children, crumblingcabins, and weeping willows representedtruth and reality-all the more perhapsbecause their attitudesas expressedin the lan- guage was foreign to the older tradition.The "hillbilly"culture was selecting and assimilatingwhat it could,in waysleast destructiveof folk values.Thus, from nineteenth-century popular song it selected those with themes that did not in essence differ from its older songs. The lack of "austerity" in the texts was an acceptable novelty (though it was not far removed from the style of the English

6 "Sal Let Me Chaw Your Rosin Some," Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, Columbia 15267-D (1928). I64 D. K. WILGUS "vulgar"ballad) and indeed servedas a releasefrom culturaltensions. The senti- mentalityof the texts, and many of the tunes, was overcomeat first by the "ob- jectivity"of performancestyle. We can observehow, with furtheracculturation, even this objectivitywithers away. The point can be furtherunderlined by noting the attemptsof the commercial recordingindustry to serve and exploit the musicaltastes it had discovered.The industryexecutives sought to standardizetheir productand to develop new ma- terialfor sale.They turned for materialto urbancomposers with a folk background (for example,Carson J. Robisonand Bob Miller) and folk composerswhom they could commission(Andrew Jenkins). The most importantproductions were what theytermed "tragedies" or "event"songs-largely factual,sentimental, and moral- istic. Their successcan be measuredby recordsales and by their occurrencein standardcollections of folksong made since that time. For the performanceof these songs and otherswith a greaterbackground in folk tradition,the executives turned to urbanperformers with enough folk backgroundto simulatewhat the executivesfelt to be the essenceof ruralperformance ("" [Marion Try Slaughter] and FrankLuther [Crow)3). These recordingsin the late 1920S generally sold more widely than the performancesof authentichillbillies. The songs and the performancesmay strikeus as often tongue-in-cheek,but many of the songs found wide acceptance.The performancestyle did not; its realvirtue was to convey the lyrics and music most intelligibly to variousregions.7 In point of fact, deliberateurban spoofs such as "They Cut Down the Old Pine Tree" also enteredthe hillbilly repertory,partially for reasonsalready outlined, but also-it must be added-because such spoofs are not alien to the in-grouphumor of the ruralfolk. The problemof accommodatingvarious regional styles was not solved success- fully until recentyears, but in 1927 Victor discoveredalmost simultaneously the Carterfamily and JimmieRodgers, rural performers whose performances appealed widely, at leastin the South,and who standfor two interrelatedstreams of hillbilly tradition.Despite the fact thatthey shared material and utilizedcomparable sources and related professionaltechniques, the Carterfamily representsthe domestic tradition of performanceand song-makingand warm, intimate family values (though A. P. and Sarahwere divorcedduring most of theirprofessional career) ;8 while Rodgersrepresents the lone wanderer,the rounder,the "poorboy, long way from home"among the pitfalls of society."Although Rodgers purveyed much sen- timental,homey material and the Carterfamily drewon Negro traditionand per- formed blues, the distinctionis valid. At the cost of oversimplificationit can be said that the Cartersepitomize the "country"tradition of the Southeast,while Rodgersat leastprefigures the "western"tradition of the Southwest,now dominant in commercialcountry music. The distinctionis relative,however, and the wide popularityof these artistsis one of the reasonsfor the interminglingthroughout the nation of the traditions they roughly represent. Hillbilly music matured during the i930s, in spite, or because, of the Depres- sion. It effectively covered the nation with the help, if not the respect, of com-

7"Santa Barbara Earthquake" (Laws dG45), Vernon Dalhart, Columbia 15o37-D (1925). 8 "Poor Orphan Child," The , Victor 20877 (August I, 1927). q "In the House Now," Victor 21245 1928). Jail Jimmie Rodgers, (February I5, COUNTRY-WESTERN MUSIC AND THE URBAN HILLBILLY 165 mercialmedia. Hillbilly musicianswere becomingthorough-going professionals, still capableof being exploited by the media but at the same time exploitingthe media in their own ways. By and large the musicianswere still orientedtoward personalappearance, and theywere anxiousto use the commercialmedia for pub- licity. They recordedfor flat fees and performedtheir radio shows for little or nothingin orderto promotetheir appearances or to vend songbooksand merchan- dise on percentage.Media executives, on the otherhand, were often slow to recog- nize a total tie-in of radio,recording, and personalappearances with merchandis- ing. Though the totalitywas seldomachieved, varieties of the patternwere in op- eration,not just in the Southbut throughoutthe nation.If the musicdid not have a nationalaudience, it had audienceseverywhere in the nation. Recordingswere availablein dime storesnation-wide and from mail orderhouses; they sold profit- ablyin the hardestof times. The musicwas airedon the radioin the early"rural" hours,sometimes at noon, and often on Saturdaynight "barndances." Musicians performedat schoolhouses, fairs, and lodge halls. After repealof the Eighteenth Amendment,musicians and recordings were featured in working-classtaverns even in northerncities-just as the musichad appearedin illegal tavernsearlier. In variousforms, hillbilly music was availableeverywhere. Who listened to it and supportedit? In the Southjust abouteverybody with accessto a radio,with an egg to tradefor a record,or with fifty cents to see a performance.In the North? The extent to which the musicappealed to transplantedsoutherners, to northern ruralitesand to the northernworking class is difficultif not impossibleto deter- mine. Hillbilly musicin its widest sense had a broadappeal. The varietyaired in the Northeastand in the Midwestduring much of the thirtiesavoided many of the striking characteristicsof southernperformance styles. Its successindicates that there was a general audiencein ruraland working-classareas for the essenceof hillbillymusic, if not for its most distinctivestyles. On the otherhand, a good deal of the musicfrom WLS andother Chicago stations was significantly"down home" and appealedin ruralareas of the Midwest.Furthermore, many of the "hardest" southernperformances were available from the borderstations. The programmingof stationsjust outsidethe limits of the United Stateshelps supportthe conjecturethat commercialmedia in the United Stateswere not reach- ing all significantsegments of theiraudience. In 1930 the "goat-gland"specialist, Dr. John R. Brinkley,having lost his radiolicense in Kansas,launched the firstof a numberof radiostations just acrossthe Mexicanborder, beamed to the United Stateson a wattagethat blanketedthe nation. Begun to publicizeoperations for sexual rejuvenation,the programspeddled reactionarypolitics, old time religion, hair dye, Peruna, mail-ordertombstones, evergrowing plants, and pictures of J-E-S-U-Sthat glowed in the dark-all to the tune of a wide varietyof hillbilly music. In the late thirties similar fare was available from CKLW, Windsor, Ontario-beamed to the Detroit but audibleas far south as Columbus, Ohio. It is worthy of note that despite their dependence on transcriptions, these stations stressed the "live" approach. XERA and other Mexican stations had live performers, but they often made use of transcriptions of full programs in the ab- sence of the performers, rather than commercial recordings. When they did use commercial recordings, the announcers maintained the fiction that the artists were present. A nightly XERA program featured the performances of Bob and Joe (pre- I66 D. K. WILGUS sumablyderived from the SheltonBrothers), but on successivenights one might hearthe recordingsof Bill and CharlieMonroe, the Blue SkyBoys (Bill and Earl Bolick), the CallahanBrothers, or any other male duo whose recordswere avail- able. CKLW normallyused transcriptionsby the CarterFamily, Mainer's Moun- taineers,and other performers to simulatelive performances. The musicperformed in the 193os becameless and less "traditional"in thatthe repertoryof necessityexpanded beyond the mountaineer'sfolk inheritance.But the repertoryremained largely distinctive. Items of currenturban song did appear, but sparingly.Only the rareitems that seemedto fit were performed,and deliber- ate attemptsto blend urbanand ruraltraditions were not reallysuccessful. North- ern radiostations did mix artistsin programming,but their repertories were usually distinct.The new songs grew from the old--or at least on the patternof the old, and they were normallythe productionsof the performersthemselves. Such songs often enteredtradition, the traditionof the professionalhillbillies, who were learn- ing from each other. But though they might monitoreach others'programs and "cover"each others'records, a real "hit"technique had yet to develop.The new songs still dealt with the realitiesalready outlined. There was on the one hand a morecynical, blues reactionto sexualrelations and on the othera deepeningof the nostalgic referencesto home, mother, and the farm. Currentevents were not neglected,and one cancompile an impressivelist of titles and recordingsof topical and protestmaterials. These tended to be nonce productionsand became"tradi- tional" only throughtheir discoveryby urbanintellectuals. But such songs, a dis- tinct minorityamong the new productions,illustrate the realisticapproach of hill- billy music.Along with tales of fires,floods, kidnappings, and bankrobberies, the minstrelssang "The Old Age PensionCheck," "Mean Old Sixty-FiveBlues," and "SalesTax on the Women." The repertoryincluded a greaternumber of songs dealingmore explicitly with sexualrelationships, while preservinga largeamount of traditionalmaterial, both "mountain"and "western." We must note the relationof cowboysongs to the hillbilly repertory,style, and image. Cowboysongs were in the repertoryof easternhillbillies before the com- mercializationof the tradition.Ex-cowboys began recording in 1925. Yet the cow- boy contribution,in additionto a relativelyfew traditionalsongs, was moreimage than actuality.Whatever was viable in the music of the cowboywas largely ab- sorbedinto hillbillytradition by 1930. After this time, cowboysingers came under the spell of pop or hillbillymusic, and whatever authentic cowboy culture remained now borrowedthe hillbilly tradition.But the cowboy"myth" was as influentialon hillbilly musicas on Americanmass culture. Although cowboy and hillbilly music were and areoften bracketed,there is a connotativedifference. The cowboy'simage was almostthe reverseof the hillbilly's.Furthermore, the culturethat gave birth to hillbilly musicshared the generalregard for the image of the cowboyas repre- senting values that were being lost in the urbanizationof America.After all, the hillbilly "uniform"is more humorousthan romantic.So the hillbilly musician adoptedthe songs and the imageof the cowboy;he composedersatz cowboy songs, and assumedthe ersatzdress of the movie cowboy.In stylethere was little to adopt. The commercialmedia were spreadingregional and individualstyles so widely during the thirtiesthat one can note a varietyof tendenciesamong artistsin all sectionsof the nation,but Southeastand Mideastdevelopments tended to be more COUNTRY-WESTERN MUSIC AND THE URBAN HILLBILLY 167 rooted in the so-called mountain tradition.Fiddle bands continuedto flourish (though their documentationon phonographrecordings diminished) and their developmentwas rather "straight-line":they becamesmoother and more inte- grated;when they became"hotter" it was largely throughthe influenceof pop- .1oOne of the outstandingdevelopments was that of vocal duets, in which emphasiswas often on a high tenorreminiscent of the style of older sacredmusic as well as the stridentsolo of older secularsinging."1 The emphasison harmony stimulatedthe developmentof family units,often brotheror husband-wifeteams. More and more female artistsbecame a part of the profession, though almost alwaysas part of largergroups. Individualartists still roamedfrom radio station to radiostation, and the hillbilly bandwas a standardunit; but the great "acts"of the periodwere the vocal duos, even when partof largergroups. The prominence of Bill and CharlieMonroe, Bill and EarlBolick (The Blue SkyBoys), Jackand Jim Anglin, and Howardand DorseyDixon as well as the compositionof larger bands demonstratedecreasing emphasis on fiddle and banjo, the triumphof the guitaras basicaccompaniment instrument, and the emergenceof mandolinor steel guitaras a lead instrument.12All these trends,as well as minorcontradictions, can be observedin the rise to prominenceof . His band, which also illus- tratesthe additionof a slappedbass or "doghouse,"is not an exampleof the finest workmanshipthat developedin the traditionalinstrumental music of the South- east.Nor did the vocalperformances have the artistrywithin the traditionthat can be remarkedelsewhere. Rather, Roy Acuff and the SmokyMountain Boys epi- tomize the southeasterntradition almost to the point of parody.The string band featuredthe unamplifiedwail of a ;banjo was restrictedto frolic pieces or as backgroundto performancesthat were actuallyhumorous exaggerations of traditionalperformances; vocal solos and harmonieswere high and strident.The entire performancewas an immenseand sincerewail of sorrow.'3Acuff himself specializedin sentimental"heart songs," and his performancemade "weepers"of whateverit touched,be the song from the older folk tradition,the nineteenth- centurypop repertory,the gospel hymn books, the growing productionsof hill- billy tunesmiths,or the increasingnumber of "blues"tunes. The "blues"tradition-that is, the influenceof Negro and Negro-basedma- terialsincluding jazz and genuine blues-was evident in hillbilly music from the momentit beganto be documented.Southeastern performers were "white and blues" playing hot instrumentalsin the I920s. JimmieRodgers popularized both the songs and the style, so that therewas no regionallimitation to the style in the 1930s. But the traditionflourished most significantlyin Louisiana,, and Oklahoma.It was in this area, ratherthan in the hillbilly communitiesof the in- dustrialNorth, thatthe greatestacculturation took place. Whereas in the Southeast the frolic pieces, the blues, and the sentimentalsongs coexistedin the repertory, usuallywith stylisticdifferences in performance,they tended to coalescein south- western tradition, dominated by a blues-jazz influence.

10 "Let Her Go, God Bless Her," J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, Bluebird 6104 (August 6, 1935). 1 "I'm Thinking Tonight of the Old Folks," The Monroe Brothers (Charles and Bill), Blue- bird 6773 (October 12, 1936). 12 "Sales Tax on the Women," Dixon Brothers (Howard and Dorsey), Bluebird 6327 (1936). 13 "Precious Jewel," Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys, Okeh 05956 (April 1940). I68 D. K. WILGUS Thereare a numberof explanationsfor this acculturation,from the influenceof the Louisianablues and jazztraditions to the oil boomin Texasand Oklahoma.At countrydances and in tavernsor -tonks,the older Anglo countrymusic met Cajun,blues, jazz,and even Mexicanstyles. The strengthof the Anglo folk tradi- tion had long been underminedby the growing heterogeneityof the population; there was not such a restrictiveset of urbanpop musicvalues as obtainedin the North; and therewas a meetingof manytraditions on a folk level. The southeast- ern white folk culturetended to reaffirmits valuesin the face of culturalchange. The hillbillyghettos in the North were continuallyreaching back to their heritage, but the folk of the Southwestbecame the leading urbanhillbillies. Discounting the specialinfluence of Cajunand Mexicantraditions, we canperceive the pattern. The Southeastacculturated more slowly than the Southwest.The hillbillytradition in the North (as illustratedin exposureand performancein the ghettos, but not on radioand recordings)accepted the southwesterntrends, but it did not become creativeuntil the newermusic became influential in the Southeast. Many southernstring bands in the 1920s were essentiallyinterested in playing music-any music-in the rather"hot" style they were developing.Clayton Mc- Michen,the talentedfiddler of ,tried with no great successto recordpop songs in hot stringarrangements. Groups such as the HackString Band of western Kentuckymade no great hits with their instrumentalrags. But in the Southwest the samekind of ideas cameto fruition.Country bands in Texasbegan playing all kinds of tunes in styles stronglyinfluenced by jazz rhythms.The small stringen- semblesdeveloped into largeaggregations fittingly called orchestras. They differed from their easterncounterparts not only in size but in instrumentation.A percus- sion-slappedbass, drums,and tenor banjo becameprominent. The , rarely presentin the East,was a staplein manybands. The extent to which the electrifi- cationof the steel guitarand later the "straight"guitar was necessarybecause of the competitionof other instruments(or to be heardin the smallerensembles in honky-tonks)is difficultto determine.At anyrate, in the late thirtiessouthwestern bandswere not only hot but swinging. The hillbilly and jazz traditionshad min- gled. Jazzmusicians sat in with the countrystring bands and facilitatedthe devel- opmentof westernswing. Prominentbands like ' addedhorns-trump- ets, trombonesand saxophones. They played traditional breakdowns and pop tunes; and-most important-pseudocowboyor westernnumbers developed in the South- west. The repertoryranged from low-downhonky-tonk numbers, often with Mex- ican influence,to rathersophisticated urban songs. This was basicallydance music, thoughthe vocalrefrains were not unimportant.14The traditionreached its apogee after World War II and its descentpractically paralleled that of the big swing bands. The practicionersof are now small combosplaying their musicin "western"clubs, but not a factorin big-timecountry-western music. It was, paradoxically,the smallergroups of the Southwestthat representthe basic stratumof currentcountry-western music--or, one might say, some basic elementsof western swing developedin anotherdirection. Instead of following the route of the jazz ensembleand developinga predominantlydance form, the

14 "Steel Guitar Rag," Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Okeh 03394 (September 30, 1936); "Bring It on Down to My House, Honey," Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Okeh 03492 (Sep- tember 30, 1936). COUNTRY-WESTERN MUSIC AND THE URBAN HILLBILLY 169 other branchof southwesterntradition stuck more closelyto the JimmieRodgers path. It emphasizeda varietyof "blues"vocal with mainlysupporting instrumen- tation, developedfrom bluesystraight guitar to small honky-tonkcombos, and of courseeventually added the electrifiedsteel guitar.At one extremeit was a white copy of the Negro "partyblues" (for example, "She'sSellin' What She Used to Give Away"),'1 and at the otherit was minorwestern swing. But what was most lasting in the traditionwas the syncopatedbacking of lyricsexpressing the prob- lems of sexualand maritalrelationships in which the neon sign of the tavernwas seldomabsent. From rather pallid and derivativeitems like "BearCat Mama from Homer's Corners,"the lyrics moved to the more significantproblem of "When We Go Honky Tonkin'."Elements of this traditionwere widespreadin the late thirties,but reacheda peak of developmentin the Southwestjust at the outsetof World War II, which facilitatedthe spreadof this as well as other varietiesof countrymusic. We have alreadyseen that long before 1941 hillbilly musicwas a commonplace in both the ruraland urbanNorth. It was availableon large stationsand even on network shows-the WLS , the WSM , the WLW Boone CountyJamboree, 'sMelody Ranch. But even when dressedin the sombreroand chapsof the cowboy,it had both a ruraland low-class image. It was earlymorning and Saturdaynight musicfor the .It was profit- able, more profitablethan the musicindustry generally recognized, but it did not appealto the massmarket to which the musicindustry pitched its product. During World War II hillbilly made its largestsingle leap in massappeal, and the music businessrecognized and exploitedits new popularity.Certain internal disputesin the music industryfacilitated the acceptance:the ASCAP disputeof 1940, which threwthe mediaback on materialin the publicdomain and on music under the control of licensing organizationsmore hospitableto countrymusic eventuallygave an economicboost to composersof countrymaterial; the American Federation of Musicians' recording ban of 1942-1944 promoted the fortunes of small hillbilly orientedlabels that signed with the union. But thesewere relatively minorevents that did little morethan stimulate what now seemsinevitable. The significantreasons for the phenomenalgrowth of countrymusic (for it soon outgrew the hillbilly title) involve populationshifts, industrialand eco- nomic expansion, and the emotional temper of the war years. War industries shifted families from ruralareas to the cities and from the Southeastand South- west to the North and the West Coast.It put moremoney into the pocketsof those with a taste for countrymusic. Servicein the armed forces tended to integrate (not without violence) boys from differentareas with differentmusical tastes; countrymusic was almostforced upon the serviceman,whether he liked it or not. He could not alwayssilence a companyradio tuned to the armedforces network; nor could he alwayssilence the guitarof the boy on the next bunk. The training camps of the South and the Southwest exposed the recruit to a heavy dose of , on the radio and in the honky tonks. For example, one could stroll past a long succession of taverns in Biloxi, Mississippi, and often follow 's "Try Me One More Time" verse by verse through the open doors.16One

15 "She's Sellin' What She Used to Give Away," Buddy Jones, Decca 5613 (1938). 16 "Try Me One More Time," Ernest Tubb, Decca 6093 (1942). D. K. WILGUS 1'70 may well ask why, exceptfor the locationof trainingcamps, the patternwas not reversed,why countrymusic and its audiencewere not alteredby exposureto urban music. One answeris, of course,that countrymusic was to be affectedtremen- dously. But the musicand its listenershad alreadybeen long exposedto varieties of urbanmusic, and countrymusic was their answer,their bridge between folk and urbanvalues. Finally, there were the temperand needs of the time. Countrymusic appealedto a wide rangeof simple and fundamentalvalues. It was melodic and singable. Its lyrics dealt both directly and sentimentallywith the problemsof the time. The returnto simplicityin song had alreadybeen shown by the nationalpopularity of ","which moved from coun- try to pop in 1941. The draftand the war were treateddirectly and meaningfully in the countryidiom, for example, "I'll Be Back in a Year, Little Darlin'." The countrysong writerscould speakout with unabashedpatriotism, though some of their efforts were awful by any standards.But the songs--old and new-dealt with love and separation,mother and home, drink and death. On the one hand, the musicreinforced the fundamentalvalues of all Americansociety; on the other hand, segmentsof it were dealing with the gin mills, the B-girls,the brokenro- mancesand marriagesunder the stressesof urbanizationin generaland the war boom in particular.When touchedthe same chordsit had to go back to similarsources, for example,"Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree." Countrymu- sicians were reachinglarge segmentsof the populace, and countrysongs were spilling over into the pop repertory.Neither the countrynor the pop profes- sionals knew quite how to deal with the problem.Elton Britt's 1942 recordingof "There'sa Star-SpangledBanner Waving Somewhere"became such a national successthat it made the radio "Hit Parade,"and publisherBob Miller threatened to sue if it was played again, for he felt its countrystyle was being destroyed.But in 1943 the publishersof Al Dexter's "PistolPacking Mama" sued the "Hit Pa- rade"because their hit song was beingignored. The decadefollowing the end of World War II witnessedthe developmentof countrymusic into a significantsegment of Americanmass music. A considerable part of the growth was in merchandizing-expanding radio coverage, better recorddistribution and promotion,and well-managedtours and personalappear- ances. The result was a considerablealteration in the characterof the music and its producersand performers.Country music cameunder the aegis of the hit and star system. In 1941 Billboardbegan hesitantlyto notice hillbilly music, first as "western,"then as "folk," and finally in 1949 as "countryand western."The recordingsgained entry to the popularitycharts, causing a shift in the emphasisat least of the countryperformers. They gearedthemselves more to the current,the immediate.One of the profitableaspects of hillbilly recordshad been the con- tinued, if not enormous,sale of individualdiscs. Now the profitscame in quick popularity, rapid sale, and "logging" of radio station plays. The performer needed new material,he needed to plug it, and he needed to identify himself with it. Insteadof drawingon a deep and time-testedrepertory, he tendedto pro- mote the current songs both on radio and at personal appearances. Performers without hits to promote were driven to cash in on the popularity of the perform- ances of other artists. And of course the need for new material strained the ca- COUNTRY-WESTERN MUSIC AND THE URBAN HILLBILLY 171 pacitiesof the performers,so thatthey had to turnto the talentsof others,and a TinPan Alley of countrymusic grew rapidly. The immediatepostwar period was one of transition,in whicholder styles and materialshad considerableinfluence. Regional styles were still in evidence; westernswing was predominantly Southwest and West Coast, while southeastern stringbands and vocal duos continued mountain traditional and tradition-based performances.But stylisticblending and innovationwere proceedingrapidly. ErnestTubb brought the southwesternmusic to the GrandOle Oprystage in per- son, and electricguitars were adopted generally. Nonelectric bands like Johnnie (Wright) andJack (Anglin) andThe TennesseeMountain Boys experimented witha Latinbeat. Eddie Arnold, a Tennesseeboy who had been a featuredsinger withthe midwestern-styledGolden West Cowboys of ,rose to na- tionalprominence as a mellow-voicedsinger of sentimentallove songs,with the backingof a sweet-slidingelectric steel guitar.'7To observeEddy Arnold and ErnestTubb performing a Saturdayafternoon show before an audienceof scream- ing Nashvilleteenagers gave one an understandingboth of the blendingof styles andthe development of a newaudience. Bothpoints are well illustratedin the outputof the new postwarlabel, King Recordsof .Its president,the late SidneyNathan, seems to havede- liberatelyset out to exploitthe collision taking place between the old andthe new, the Eastand the West.He developed"the King sound" by setting a performerof basicallysoutheastern tradition against a studiobackground of southwesternstyle witha hot steelguitar and at timeseven clarinet and trumpet.'8 Or theperformer wouldbe givena newhonky-tonk type song, sometimes composed by Nathan him- self. AlthoughCajun and Anglo styles had been blending in theSouthwest, it was Nathanwho recognizedthe possibilitiesof "JolieBlon" when 's bandwas usingit as a "warm-up"number. Nathan turned it into the national sensation"New PrettyBlonde."'9 And Nathan,reversing the usualprocedure, matedMullican's Louisiana honky-tonk style with the maudlin "."The newand the old werealso blended in the updatinginto a postwar hit of "FilipinoBaby." As composedand recorded by Bill Coxbefore World War II, it recountedthe romanceof a "coloredsailor" and a "black-faced"girl from the CarolineIslands. On (Lloyd)' King release, the "littlesailor" returnsfrom South Carolina to marryhis "dark-facedFilipino baby." The King releasesrange between the extremesof the old-timeyMainer's Mountaineers to the near-jazzof EddieSmith and the Chiefs,and they include many sacred songs in holinessstyles. They indicate not only the rangeand interactionof postwar stylesbut the growingimportance of the recordingexecutive and the studiomu- sician.No longerdid the countrymusician unpack his songbag in thestudio and performas he did elsewhere.Material began to be "placed"with executivesand performers.And the "sound"as well as the musicianbegan to be programmed. So one cannotalways assume identity between a recordedand a live performance (though the greatest difference was yet to come), just as one cannot judge cornm- 17 "Bouquetof Roses,", RCA Victor 20-2806 (1948). Is"Rainbows at Midnight,"Bill and ,King 535 (1946). 19 MoonMullican and His "New PrettyBlonde," ShowBoys, King 578 (I947). 172 D. K. WILGUS pletely the characterof country-westernmusic by the material that reached the top ten of Billboard's popularity charts. Once country-western music became established as a genre appealing to a na- tional market, lines of distinction became even more tenuous. What is country- western becomes what is listed in that category of the charts, based on the categori- zation of recording companies and the decisions of disc jockeys. It is not altogether relevant for us to offer a differing categorization based on stylistic and content analysis when we are at the same time studying evolution and mutation in style and content. The artist is a better criterion, though after 1948 country and pop artists begin crossing chart lines, as does material. A socioeconomic analysis of the audience of all American music-which of course does not exist-might pro- vide a better basis on which to categorize types of music as we are approaching them here. Otherwise we must accept the judgment and audience aim of the music industry. We can, of course, decide that the high position of Gene Autry's "Here Comes Santa Claus" on the charts reflects a certain specialized audience rather than anything we might want to categorize as urban hillbilly, but the issuance of country- western Christmas recordings in general is a significant development. The popu- larity chart may be used as indicative of major trends, as long as we remember that performances of somewhat different characteralso were available to the public and even made the top one hundred on the charts. We should not forget that musical forces significant to us are not represented. For example, the important genre of bluegrass never made the top ten of the Billboard charts, and nothing even deriva- tive of it is represented before I961. In 1948 the chart situation is relatively clear. All artists are identifiably "coun- try" or "western." Styles are almost all some form of honky-tonk, western swing, or smooth movie western. Songs are almost all artist-derived or from a small fra- ternity of tunesmiths like . There is a revival of an old item from the thirties tradition ("Chime Bells") and a genuinely traditional text ("Deck of Cards"). A ringer like "Buttons and Bows" by Gene Autry causes no consternation, but on the chart are two recordings of "Tennessee Waltz." Though neither ever attained the top position, "Tennessee Waltz" was to help make country-western music even less of a distinct genre when two years later it was recorded by and became one of the best-selling songs in the history of American . Country songs had "crossed the line" before, but "Ten- nessee Waltz" geared the industry to a far wider market. Curiously enough, in the period between the height of popularity of "Tennessee Waltz" as a country-western release and its success in the broad field of popular music appeared as a summary of country-western trends and as the most important bridge to their broad popularity. And again curiously enough, Hank Williams was as country-based as they come, or rather he was a typical product of the forces of urbanization on the southeastern . He reeked of the parched fields of , the dirty streets and dives of Montgomery. He embodied drunken Saturday nights in the tavern and soul-saving Sundays in the country church. It was all there in him, and it was all there in his music. He had the gospel, blues, and sentimental tradition from folk and professional sources. He had inhaled the postwar honky-tonk style with every breath, and miraculously COUNTRY-WESTERN MUSIC AND THE URBAN HILLBILLY 173 he formed a band, the , to complete the image. As the apogee of the honky-tonk style, he conquered the "core" country audience with older blues like "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It" and "Mind Your Own Business," but scored as well with the love-lorn "Wedding Bells." He presented-in fact he was-the dichotomy, the polarization of the urban hillbilly: he went "honky tonkin',"20 but knew he was "Headed Down the Wrong Highway"; he cheated, was cheated on, cursed her "Cheatin' Heart," "Dreamed About Mama Last Night,"21 and looked forward to the land "Beyond the Sunset." Williams' popularity did not stop with what should have been his "normal" audience but apparently spilled over into general American culture, or at least his songs did. I say "apparently" because no breakdown can be made of the audience who accepted his performances. The extent to which Hank Williams' compositions are his own or those of Fred Rose is still argued. But in whatever division can be made, the spirit and essence of most of his songs are certainly his own, and he "sold" them so that they-rather than comparable country-western numbers-were taken up by pop artists. As far as Williams' message was concerned, the urban hillbilly audience was larger than one would have guessed. And henceforth country performers and composers could at least hope for a wider market. The death of Hank Williams in 1953 was celebrated in a still-continuing series of "tribute" songs, the best of which, "Death of Hank Williams" by Jack Card- well, was in the traditional "tragedy" pattern. The stage was set for another on- slaught on the insularity of country-western music. Actually the appearance of "Goodnight Irene" on the charts in 1950 was an important portent of yet another influence, but its real force was not felt until much later. Blues and Negro music in general had long been a shaping force on the tradition embodied in country- western, but until 1954 the influence had come from the older country blues, jazz, and music. Now the newer music exerted its influence. Rock-and-roll is demonstrably the fusion of country or country-oriented style with rhythm and blues. First recorded in the North, it erupted in Memphis in the form of , with and Carl Perkins. There is still argument whether or not early is country-westernmusic, but the argument is really futile in the face of the facts. Rock and roll grew away from country-westernmusic but it left its mark. Early recordings of rock and roll made the country-westernas well as the pop charts, and I can testify that a folk music collector can record "Blue Suede Shoes," "Raunchy,"and "Bye Bye Love" in the field. Rock and roll affected both the style and attitude of everyone associated with country-westernmusic. The last link in the country-urbanchain had been forged. Country songs could make it in the pop world, and country musicians could also make it if they changed their styles. As folk musicians had once raced to be exploited by commercial media, so many country-western performers now agreed to the necessary compromises in order to make the pop charts as performers. The fiddles and steel that marked the honky-tonk sound began to disappear; drums, piano, choral, and lush violin back- grounds came in. The music was not all a bland, homogenized style-though this

20 "Honky Tonkin'," Hank Williams, MGM 10171 (1946). 21 Dreamed about Mama Last Luke the Drifter MGM "I Night," (Hank Williams), I•ox7. 174 D. K. WILGUS trend was ever present-but it moved away from country,whether to rockor to pop. The cool, relaxed"Nashville" sound predominated.22 Countrymusic was now movingtoward pop fasterthan pop was movingtoward country.That the movementwas somewhatarrested is certainlydue in partto two forces, one internal and the other externalto the country-westernindustry, but which becametemporarily joined: bluegrassmusic and the urbanfolk music "re- vival." is a hybridform developedbasically from the southeastern stylesof the 1930s, resistingthe greatestimpact of westernswing and honky-tonk influences.The style grew within the BluegrassBoys, a bandof continuallyshift- ing personnelled by ,whose superbmusicianship, dedication to his idea of music,and dominatingpersonality were mainlyresponsible for the cocoon out of which bluegrassburst. During World War II, Bill Monroe'sband was dis- tinguishedby its dedicationto the olderstring-band tradition heavily influenced by the JimmieRodgers type of blues. It kept largelyto a deep selectionof the tradi- tional repertory,which Monroecarefully taught his musicians.Then in 1945 his band evolved a complex ensemblestyle in which unelectrifiedinstruments trade solo, countermelodyand rhythm,and basic rhythmicand harmonicaccompani- ment. The most striking element was the prominenceof the five-stringbanjo, which had almostdisappeared from commercialhillbilly music, performed by Earl Scruggsin a three-fingerstyle he had perfectedfrom North Carolinafolk tradi- tion. The band featuredvocal solos in the older high, tight, "objective"style, duets with the old high harmony,and gospel quartets.23Because of the wide and rapidtouring of the BluegrassBoys, as well as theirOpry broadcasts, the stylewas well known before recordingsof it were released.The style was new, yet old; modern, yet traditional.By 1953 it had spawned numerousbands in its exact image, and the Scruggs-stylebanjo was to becomealmost an epidemic.Bluegrass seemed to give southeasterntradition a new, if highly stylized, lease on life. In spite of its place at the grass roots, it would not have reachedthe statureit did had it not been for the urbanfolk musicrevival. Just as country-westernmusic in the fifties was attemptingto shed the last of its ruraland low-classtrappings and becomeurban middle-class music, national tasteturned back to the grassroots, to the folksy. The urbaninterest in folk music skippedover country-western,and at firsteven earlyhillbilly, to what was thought at least to be authenticfolk. Such an approachwas anathemato a burgeoning musicmarket geared to the newlycreated rather than to the traditionalsongs in the public domain. Growing urbaninterest in folk music stressedparticipation, not consumption.The urban "folk musicians"assimilated the folk music to urban tastesand eventuallysaturated the very pop marketcountry-western was seeking. The "revival"was of coursemuch more complicatedthan this, but we are inter- ested mainly in the reactionof the countrymusic industry.One of the earliest effortsseems to have been the attemptto appealto the image of the past that lay behind the revivalby embodyingit in new material,fake ballads.A real country musician, (James Morris), showed the way by setting new words to "The Eighth of January," creating "The Battle of ." In the

22 "FourWalls," , RCA Victor 447-0413 (0957). 23 "Mollyand Tenbrooks" (Laws H27), Bill Monroeand His BluegrassBoys, Columbia 20612 (I945). COUNTRY-WESTERN MUSIC AND THE URBAN HILLBILLY 175 Nashville of a few years before, it is doubtful that he would have gotten a hear- ing, let alone have been granted an LP recording. Needless to say, Driftwood's country style was not promoted, but in 1959 "The Battle of New Orleans" be- came a hit for Johnny Horton, and Eddie Arnold put Driftwood's "Tennessee Stud" in the top ten the same year. "Johnny Reb," "Long Black Veil,"24 "Sink the Bismarck," "'Don't Take Your Guns to Town," and others followed. The efforts of country-western music to capture the sound and image of the re- vival were not notably successful. Country-western recordings of folksongs pop- ular in the revival were not top sellers ("" was an exception). Nor did revival-tinged performances draw much play, though such techniques as modu- lation and stressing of flat sevenths became accepted techniques of arrangement. Country-western executives did try--even to the ridiculous lengths of "Bluegrass " , which were neither. Their efforts did not click with the old country audience, and the revival almost totally ignored country-western. Older performers were resurrected by the revival, and veterans still performing had to reach back to their roots before making the stage of the folk music night club or the folk music festival. was the only leading performer to get a real hearing, with the exception of bluegrass musicians. Indeed bluegrass became the real "old-time" music to the urban intellectual as well as to the rural audience of the South. In turn bluegrass has shown the most revival influence in its recent ma- terial and style. It has been suggested that so little bluegrass is played by disc jockeys not only because of chart consciousness, but because they have been ad- vised not to play the music under any circumstances,no matter how many requests they receive-a revenge for the attention given to bluegrass during the revival instead of to other forms of country-western.25 Yet the revival did turn country-western back toward its roots, which it had practically forgotten; the industry became more conscious of its history. Though the Country Music Association is a trade organization whose early efforts were directed against the onslaught of rock and roll, it eventually founded a Country Music Hall of Fame. Only recently has the Association come to realize that there was much country music before World War II, besides that of Jimmie Rodgers, but understanding is growing. This historical consciousness has been at least one of the factors that has made the industry more responsive to various segments of the buying public. The reissue of earlier recordings for a limited market-par- tially in response to "bootlegging"-is but one indication of the shift from the drive for a single, homogenized market. At least I believe I can detect the effects even in the top-selling recordings, for we must admit that promotion is a big part of popularity in the entertainment industry. The music of recent years demonstrates a return to somewhat recent roots in a of the resurgence steel guitar and a form of southwestern honky-tonk. A new West Coast or "" has emerged, modifying honky-tonk with harder rock.26Basic audiences such as the truck-driving fraternity are being more successfully appealed to in songs like "Giddyup Go." Perhaps the death of the

24 "Long Black Veil," Lefty Frizell, Columbia CL 2488 (1959). 25 Bill Vernon, Stands the The "Bluegrass Test," World of Country Music (Billboard, Sec. 2), October 28, 1967, pp. 84-86. 26 "We're Gonna Let the Good Times Roll," , Capitol ST 2283 (1967). 176 D. K. WILGUS folk music revival and the emergence of and acid music have done much to point out that there is no longer one pop audience. Not that country-westernhas been driven back into an enclave-far from it. Country-pop is still strong, and performers and songs cross chart lines with great regularity. The line between genres is as hazy as ever. Not only has country-westerninherited the twelve-string guitar from the urban revival, but all kinds of studio "noncountry" instruments are introduced at recording sessions, further removing the music from live per- formance. I would, however, like to conclude by emphasizing one thematic element that may not unify recent country-western music but that is certainly a major thread in the fabric and directs us most particularly to an urban hillbilly audience. Sex, drink, and illicit love may or may not be the outstanding characteristicsof urban society, but they are certainly so in a good percentage of country-western songs. The subjects were far from absent in early hillbilly music and in the folk music that preceded it. Folk and hillbilly music borrowed Paul Dresser's song of a re- pentant whore, "Tell Them That You Saw Me"; and hillbilly music produced the song about the fate of the wayward girl in "Unloved and Unclaimed." There is, of course, a difference in treatment in the more recent country-western ap- proach, but I maintain that there is also an identity. The earlier songs seem to be sharply divided in that there is one category of songs of drink and frolic and carnality, involving the performer and audience, and another category that laments, condemns, or moralizes from outside the situ- ation. Both earlier categories, at least in general performance, are far from ex- plicit in facing these situations, but the country-western approach seems to fuse the two and has become far more frank. Settings or referents in numerous songs are the barroom and tavern. To be sure, there are songs treating simply the con- vivial aspects of "Sam's Place" (1967), but there is usually a hint of problems, as in the rowdy and humorous "Don't Squeeze my Sharmon" (1967). More often the tavern is a lonely escape or a temptation and destroyer of explicit or assumed values. Women function in barroom scenes both as tempters and as the tempted and destroyed. The girl leaves the only one who ever loved her to go back to "The Wild Side of Life" (1952). The man may complain of being left within his "Four Walls" (1957), but his condemnation may be answered by the woman's pointing out that "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" (1952)." The country-western lyrics face aspects of the current world of the urban hill- billy with directness unusual in popular song. And they are not "ballads" in the sense of narratives about the events. They are direct statements by the participants, with whom the listener identifies. The lyrics deal with the "real" world of current life and the "real" problems. The world and the life are accepted, but they are not approved of. Seldom, as in "City Lights" (i958), is the contrast between the rural and the urban scene made explicit, as it was in the older lyrics; but the contrast is implicit and sometimes suggested musically and symbolically. "The Wild Side of Life" and "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" are set to a tune that carries, among others, two well-known older texts: "I'm Thinking Tonight of My

27 , Decca 28232. COUNTRY-WESTERN MUSIC AND THE URBAN HILLBILLY 177 Blue Eyes" is a lament in the older tradition by a girl forsaken by her lover; "The Great Speckled Bird" is perhaps the most notable holiness-gospel song. Similar techniques may be observed in "Almost Persuaded" (1966), in which the nar- rator dances with a girl in a barroom and is "almost persuaded" to forget his mar- riage vows until he sees in her eyes the reflection of his wedding ring. Though the tune is only faintly reminiscent, the title is identical with that of a familiar gospel song.28 The lyrics may strike the "literary" critic as anything from ridiculous to maud- lin, just as the wailing, melismatic honky-tonk vocal style will adversely affect the listener from another musical tradition, but both elements reflect a significant life style. And the lyrics manage, without violating language taboos, to give an amaz- ingly accurate picture of at least a significant part of "The World of Country Music." The girl in the barroom who pleads, "Take Me to Your World" (1968), where love is not a four-letter word and she will not have to hear another dirty joke, may well become the matron who snarls, "Don't Come Home a-Drinkin' with Lovin' on Your Mind" (1966), only to be answered by her husband's re- action to "a worn-out wife like you." Whatever humor can be derived from the material resides in the embarrassing directness of its realism, not in its senti- mentality and naivet6. The country-western text tends to face "The Cold Hard Facts of Life" (1967), the title of a song in which the man overhears a stranger in a liquor store announce that he is on his way to a party at the house of a woman whose husband is away. The husband proceeds unexpectedly to his home, sees the stranger's car in the driveway, commits murder, and faces the legal penalty.29Soap opera? Perhaps, but also tomorrow's headlines. The recognition of marital problems and extramarital affairs has been a con- tinuing and increasingly popular theme since the 1940s. "One Has My Name, the Other Has My Heart" (1948) was relatively reticent in its approach compared with later lyrics, though not as coy and moralistic as "Don't Rob Another Man's Castle" (1949). "Slipping Around" (1949)30 is more direct, but full of guilty regret, while its sequel, "I'll Never Slip Around Again," shows how the later of relationship the guilty couple is poisoned. So "Back Street Affair" (1952) is an- swered by "(I'm) Paying for that Back Street Affair" (1953), this time from the viewpoint of the woman. Women have an increasing voice in songs of "The Stolen Moments" (1955) in the "Game of Triangles" (1966), whether as the aggressor in "If a Woman Answers" (1962) or the aggrieved in "The Home You're Tearin' Down" (1965). The wife may indeed appear not as a black or white morality characterbut as an ambiguous figure who complains of "The Evil on Your Mind" (1966) in such a way that the truth of her nagging suspicions is unconfirmed, particularly in the light of her account of her own opportunities, with the veiled threat of retaliation in kind.31The situation may be dramatized in a telephone conversation, with the "other woman" speaking openly of the re- lationship and the husband answering "Yes, Mr. Peters" (1965) for the benefit of his wife. The contrast with the older value system may again be musically im- 28 David , Epic 29 4-2257. , RCA Victor 447-0786. 30 , Columbia 4-33058. 31 , RCA Victor LSP 3667. 178 D. K. WILGUS plied, as in "Come on Home" (1968), which echoes "Lord, I'm Coming Home.'"32 Explicit references to divorce, however, tend to trigger explicit moralizing. Only exceptionally, as in "Divorce Me C. O. D." (1946) ," is the attitude at all flippant. While there are pleas for dissolution, for the woman to "Set Him Free" (1959), more often the idea of formal severance of the marriage bond makes explicit the conflict between moral and legal codes. So one is "Married by the Bible, Divorced by the Law" (1952),3 and the woman asks, "Will Your Lawyer Talk to God?" (1962). Dramatizations can become quite sentimental, though "I'll Take the Dog" (1966) is unusual in its humor. Splitting up the material assets of the marriage, the couple fail to agree on custody of the canine, and are consequently reconciled. That songs like this one and "Mama Spank" (1967) augur a more relaxed view of the problems is dubious, but certainly other songs indicate a more eman- cipated role for the female. As the woman's viewpoint tends to be more directly expressed, it becomes increasingly aggressive. The woman will react to infidelity in kind, singing "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad" (1967) or taunting her husband with her knowledge of and intention to visit the fleshpots too, as in "Jackson" (1967), which takes probably the most cynical attitude toward marital sex problems expressed in country-western music. The woman is no longer the forlorn victim, and she will take direct steps to protect her "property," telling her rival, "You Ain't Woman Enough" (1966), and threatening to send her to "" (1968)..3 The man, on the other hand, may adopt the role earlier played by his spouse. He will plead desperately, "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" (1967). Reduced almost to abject self deception after hearing of the activities of a woman who looks like his wife, talks like his wife, and has the same name as his wife, he can whine, "Darling, Say It's Not You" (1968). These themes do not represent the totality of even current country-western music. All songs do not deal with problems like "The Other Woman" (1965) or a bar-to-bar search for "Sweet Thang" (i966). Composers and singers may pre- sent pieces of almost surrealistic humor like "May the Bird of Paradise Fly up Your Nose" (1965); they may even insist that "It's Such a Pretty World Today" (1967). The fact that such songs are the more likely to move over into general popular acceptance merely emphasizes the sin-sex-booze patterns that are the staple commodities of country-western music. And the significance of the patterns in relation to the tensions of the urban hillbilly is perhaps the most striking ex- ample of the value of detailed study of country-western music as a barometer of certain aspects of American culture rather than merely a debased offspring of .

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Materials for the study of country-western music are vast but not easily accessible. Billy Charles Malone's "A History of Commercial Country Music in the United States, 1920-I964" (doctoral dissertation, The University of Texas, I965) is a pioneer study significant for its dependence on 32 Peggy Little, Dot 17068. 3 Merle Travis, Capitol 290. 34 , RCA Victor 20-4733. 35 , Decca 32264. COUNTRY-WESTERN MUSIC AND THE URBAN HILLBILLY 179 published materials of the industry and interviews with selected performers and executives. It further provides references to information in popular and esoteric journals, which I shall not repeat. Malone's book has been published as Country Music U.S.A., The American Folklore Society Memoir Series, Vol. 54 (Austin, 1968). Robert Shelton and Burt Goldblatt, The Country Music Story (, 1966) is an interesting and valuable pictorial record, but the text must be used with caution. An important group of articles appeared in the "Hillbilly Issue" of the JOURNAL OF AMERICANFOLKLORE, 78 (1965), 195-286. Also of particular interest are Judith McCulloh "Hillbilly Records and Tune Transcriptions," Western Folklore, 25 (1967), 225-244; Judith McCulloh, "Some Child Ballads on Hillbilly Records," Folklore and Society (Hatboro, Pa., 1966), 107-129; Neil V. Rosenberg, "From Sound to Style: The Emergence of Bluegrass," JOURNALOF AMERICANFOLKLORE, 80 (1967), 143-150. The greatest single resource for original recordings, song folios, runs of rare journals, discographies, interviews with and memorabilia of artists and executives is The Memorial Foundation, University of California, Los Angeles.

Universityof California LosAngeles, California