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Male Control and Female Resistance in American Roots Music Recordings of the Interwar Period View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Northumbria Research Link Citation: Symons, Andrew Allan (2018) Male Control and Female Resistance in American Roots Music Recordings of the Interwar Period. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University. This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/37657/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html Male Control and Female Resistance in American Roots Music Recordings of the Interwar Period A.A. Symons PhD, History: American Studies 2018 1 2 Male Control and Female Resistance in American Roots Music Recordings of the Interwar Period Allan Andrew Symons A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Research undertaken in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Social Sciences January 2018 3 4 Abstract This thesis examines themes of male control and female resistance in commercially recorded American roots music of the interwar period, focusing primarily on recordings made in the years 1920-1940. It argues that much of the roots music recorded during this period communicated powerful messages about gendered and racial hierarchies to consumers. Rooted in close textual analysis of song lyrics and visual marketing materials for a plethora of commercially available roots music, the thesis deploys methodologies drawn from history, literary, cultural studies, and musicology. It questions why scholars have understudied themes of gendered power contestations and social control in commercially recorded roots music and the accompanying marketing materials during the interwar period. Although scholars have acknowledged intersections of race, class, gender, and the construction of segregated roots music markets during the nascent stages of a rapidly-developing fledgling industry, this thesis contends that lyrical content and marketing materials also intersected with white supremacist and eugenic ideologies, reflecting ideas about social control of women during the interwar period. It advances extant scholarship on black and white female roots music artists active during the interwar period, underscoring and illuminating themes of female resistance to male control, inside and outside of the worlds created on commercial recordings. 5 6 Table of Contents Abstract 5 Acknowledgements 9 Candidate Declaration 11 Introduction 13 Chapter One: “You’ll Never Miss You Mother Until She’s Gone”: 1920s Old Time Music, Modernity, and Sexism 29 Chapter Two: “That Notoriety Woman Is Known All Over the South”: Saints, Sinners, and Female Transgression in “Race Records” of the 1920s 74 Chapter Three: “By You I Am With Child”: Rewriting Tradition, Feeble-Mindedness, and Eugenic Ideology in Commercially Recorded Murder Ballads of the 1920s 119 Chapter Four: “Wild Women Are the Only Kind That Really Get By”: The “Classic Blues” and Female Resistance in the 1920s 156 Chapter Five: Single White Girls: Roba Stanley, Sara Carter 7 and Marital Myths in 1920s Old Time Music 188 Chapter Six: Guns, Knives, Streetwalkers and Wives: Male Control and Female Resistance in Depression-era Blues Recordings 206 Chapter Seven: Who’s “Wearing the Britches Now”? Male Control and Female Resistance in 1930s Hillbilly Music 246 Conclusion 284 Bibliography/ Discography 291 8 Acknowledgements This thesis was made possible by a research studentship that Northumbria University very generously granted me. That this opportunity was made possible at all is still a source of wonder and excitement to myself. I will be forever grateful and indebted to those who put their faith not only in the project, but also in my own ability to do it justice, and hope that the results have not proven their faith unfounded. My supervisors, the dynamic duo that are Professor Brian Ward and Dr. Randall Stephens, deserve at the very least, full recognition, perhaps even medals, for their unerring patience, boundless enthusiasm, and invaluable scholarly input as they helped the thesis come together, whilst I nearly came apart at the seams. I owe them more than these few simple words could ever adequately express. If Brian needs counselling, it’s on me! I’ll try my best to make amends over refreshments one day very soon. Gratitude is also due to the staff at the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University for tending to my research needs when visiting in 2015. On a related note, special thanks are due to Dr. Kristine McCusker for her hospitality, inspiration, and interest in my project whilst visiting. Again, special thanks are due to Charlie Dahan, also of MTSU, for patiently listening to me witter on about Old Time artists, for being genuinely interested and last but by no means least for providing me with some astonishing primary source material out of sheer generosity, good will, and belief in the cause. Finally, I should also take this opportunity to express my gratitude, and love for MTSU grad student Michael Fletcher, a man who had never met me, and yet very trustingly took me into his own house in Murfreesboro, Tennessee; providing me with a place I could call home whilst I carried out my research. We have since gone way beyond the realm of casual acquaintances and I cherish his friendship and warmth. He is a credit to MTSU, and Murfreesboro. On the topic of friendship, my heartfelt thanks go out to my very good friend Billy Hutchinson for being my ears when lyrics were almost impossible to transcribe. Such is the nature of dealing with scratchy old recordings. Luckily, he loves them as much as I do! Miles Turnbull has provided me with more than he’d thank me for writing. We’ll leave it at that. I’m indebted to both of my parents for their love, support and constant assistance in every area of my life. I express the same sentiments to my three children and extended family. Olly, my faithful four-legged companion, knows more about my project than any Labrador should. His walks have never been the same since I started. On a more personal note, I’m sure many PhD students feel that it can 9 be a tough journey at times, and I’m no exception. However, during the first year of this study, my wife and mother faced much tougher physical and mental trials than the hardship of simply having to research and write for hours on end. Not only did both of these astonishing ladies endure, and overcome very serious illnesses; they also continued to provide unwavering encouragement whilst they fought their own battles. I’m exceptionally lucky to have them around and humbled by their presence. This study has enabled me to grow as a scholar, and more generally as a human being. That process has been made possible and all the more fulfilling because of the people mentioned above; and others that I haven’t accounted for. If there has been one main spiritual takeaway worth sharing from this experience, it is this: keep on keeping on, no matter what. 10 Candidate Declaration I declare that the work contained in this thesis has not been submitted for any other award and that it is all my own work. I also confirm that this work fully acknowledges opinions, ideas and contributions from the work of others. Any ethical clearance for the research in this thesis has been approved. Approval has been sought and granted by the Faculty Ethics Committee on February 25, 2014. I declare that the Word Count of this Thesis is 83, 869. Name: Allan Andrew Symons Signature: Date: 31/01/2018 11 12 Introduction This thesis came to fruition after extensive research into the production, consumption, and cultural significance of American roots recordings in the interwar period. For the purposes of the thesis the term roots music encompasses Blues, Gospel, spirituals, Old Time—and its 1930s offspring Hillbilly—music. This is, in many respects, a very well-studied field, attracting important work by a wide range of historians, musicologists, folklorists and journalists.1 Yet on examining this vibrant research field it is apparent that there is a hitherto unexplored, or at least under-explored gap in scholarship regarding the drive for male control and female resistance to that drive that characterised much of the recorded roots music of this period. Of course, a number of scholars have produced significant and substantial works on themes of misogyny in Blues recordings and performance. This thesis recognises the validity and importance of the work in this area of, among many others, Hazel Carby, Angela Y. Davis, and Daphne Duvall Harrison. Collectively, they have produced rich studies of black female Classic Blues singers, 1 A plethora of excellent studies of the cultural significance of roots music exist. A short but by no means exhaustive list of important works would include, David Evans, Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues (Berkley: University of California Press, 1982), Patrick Huber, Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), Bill C.
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