“Pull up a Chair!”: Accommodation, Participation, and Disability in Old Time and Bluegrass Jam Sessions

University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2020 “PULL UP A CHAIR!”: ACCOMMODATION, PARTICIPATION, AND DISABILITY IN OLD TIME AND BLUEGRASS JAM SESSIONS Emily Elaine Williams University of Tennessee Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Recommended Citation Williams, Emily Elaine, "“PULL UP A CHAIR!”: ACCOMMODATION, PARTICIPATION, AND DISABILITY IN OLD TIME AND BLUEGRASS JAM SESSIONS. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2020. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/5589 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Emily Elaine Williams entitled "“PULL UP A CHAIR!”: ACCOMMODATION, PARTICIPATION, AND DISABILITY IN OLD TIME AND BLUEGRASS JAM SESSIONS." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Music, with a major in Music. Leslie C. Gay Jr., Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Rachel M. Golden, Alexandria H. Carrico Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) “PULL UP A CHAIR!”: ACCOMMODATION, PARTICIPATION, AND DISABILITY IN OLD-TIME AND BLUEGRASS JAM SESSIONS A Thesis Presented for the Master of Music Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Emily Elaine Williams May 2020 Copyright © 2020 by Emily Elaine Williams All rights reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Like every ethnography, this document is a work of collaboration. The people I have met and stories I have heard over the last several months, along with in my upbringing, have shaped both this document and myself. For that, I am forever grateful. I cannot begin to name all of the mentors, teachers, and friends that have helped to shape me throughout my education. The thank- yous written here, then, are not exhaustive. There are so many more individuals to whom I owe my gratefulness. First and foremost, I want to thank my research collaborators, both named and unnamed. To the musicians at the jam sessions here in the Knoxville area—thank you for welcoming this Texas fiddler into your jams and sharing your time, stories, and music with me. I have come away from your jams a better musician and a better person. Further, I am grateful for the stories so generously gifted to me by Tom Wetherington, Melody Gonzalez, Ashley Griggs, Gale Baugh, and Steven Bowman. I am deeply indebted to the musicians at my jam sessions back in Texas—the Monday night guys, the pickers at The Shed, and the many other circles I found myself musicking in throughout the East Texas region. Thank you all for accepting my 11-year-old self into the jam session and allowing me to grow up embedded in participatory music. I would not be the person I am today without the many hours of making music with y’all. This document, capturing these stories and experiences, would not exist without the incredible support of all of my musicology professors at The University of Tennessee Knoxville. To Leslie Gay, my thesis advisor, thank you for your patience, persistence, and dedication to shaping my abilities as an ethnomusicologist. You have gone above and beyond to ensure that I had the tools not only for this project but for many projects to come. To Rachel Golden, thank iii you for helping me dive into the literature of disability studies and pushing me to see my potential. Finally, to Alex Carrico, thank you for coming into our department with a depth of understanding, passion, and joy that has enriched my knowledge of disability studies and myself. To all of my professors here at UTK, thank you for allowing me to waltz into your offices with ideas, thoughts, questions, or simply to say hello. You have offered me the chance to thrive, and I could not be more thankful for your presence. In addition, I want to give my thanks to the many ethnomusicologists across the country that have provided support, answered questions, and provided me with new ways of viewing my research. To all in the Society of Ethnomusicology Disability and Deaf Studies SIG, thank you for welcoming and encouraging me. Further, I want to thank the many educators over the past 20 years who have seen and nourished my potential. Specifically, I want to mention Rebecca Havey, my first violin teacher, who taught me that disability—my hearing impairment and coordination struggles and her cerebral palsy—were obstacles that required creativity. Next, I want to thank Ross Holmes, my fiddle teacher, who instilled in me a deep belief that all music is worth learning, and that all people have something to teach. Further, I thank my classical violin teacher in high school— Clare Cason—and orchestra director—Ryan Ross—for encouraging me to keep asking questions. Finally, I want to thank all the professors I studied under at Stephen F. Austin State University—with a special thank you to Jennifer Dalmas, Gene Moon, and Jamie Weaver. Thank you for seeing me as an individual with unique skills and obstacles throughout my undergraduate studies, and for providing me with an incredible foundation. On a practical level, this thesis would have never gotten done without the companionship of my cohort here at UTK; Holly, Zach, and Ivy—thank you for the hours you have spent at iv coffee shops with me, the late-night memes, and listening to me read page after page of position papers, comps, and this thesis aloud. I cannot wait to see where our journeys in ethnomusicology take us. Finally, but perhaps most importantly, I want to offer my most sincere thanks to my parents—Dave and Gloria Williams—and wonderful fiancé—Michael Roberts—that have carried the stress and anxiety of this process with me. Thank you for your encouragement, patience, and understanding as my inability to find a work/life balance was on full display. I cannot begin to explain how deeply I appreciate your stability and love. Also, thank you to coffee and the many baristas across Knoxville that have made me countless vanilla lattes. v ABSTRACT Bluegrass and old-time are genres founded on Appalachian music traditions, as mediated through the early recording industry. While initially considered performance genres, the styles have become the foundation for jam sessions across the United States. These jam sessions are participatory, inclusive spaces, in which anyone with a basic knowledge of the style and the proper instrumentation can, in theory, join in the musicking (as defined by Christopher Small, 1998). For the musician with a disability, these informal jam sessions, founded on musical sociability, demonstrate an alternative value structure, as they are mostly unregulated by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), an economic-based antidiscrimination law. As this leaves accommodation up to the discretion of the participants, the accommodations found within these settings portray a different perspective of disability—one which allows for possibility and participation. I term this as a participatory model of accommodation and, through ethnography and autoethnography, illustrate how this peer-based model promotes inclusion within the social model of disability. Drawing on Thomas Turino’s (2008) definitions of participatory music and Tom Shakespeare’s (2006, 2010) articulation of the social model of disability, I analyze the musical and social dynamics of the jam session, drawing on my own experience as a fiddle player with a hearing impairment. Further, using ethnographic research—specifically, interviews and participant-observation—of musicians with disabilities in these sessions in Tennessee, Washington, and Illinois, I illustrate the importance of interpersonal relationships, rather than power dynamics, in the jam session. Moreover, I demonstrate how the aging population of these jam sessions impacts ideas of disability, impairment, and mortality. Finally, I argue that this vi narrative of inclusion and practices of accommodation in jam sessions can change individual perspectives on disability. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One Lessons under the Old Shade Trees: An Introduction ............................................... 1 Looking Back .............................................................................................................................. 1 Social Values and Difference ...................................................................................................... 6 Scope and Methodology ............................................................................................................. 9 The Nature of Jam Sessions ...................................................................................................... 10 Understanding Disability and Accommodation ........................................................................ 13 Disability and Language ........................................................................................................... 18 Other Literature ......................................................................................................................... 21

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