UMS Youth Education Program Carolina Chocolate Drops

TEACHER RESOURCE GUIDE 2010–2011 UMS 10-11 1 SUPPORTERS

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation This Teacher Resource Guide is a product of the UMS University of Michigan Youth Education Program. Special thanks go to Bruce Conforth for his contributions to the development of content for this guide. Anonymous

Arts at Michigan Additionally, UMS appreciates Sarah Suhadolnik, Em- Arts Midwest’s Performing Arts Fund ily Barkakati, Britta Wilhelmsen, Matthew Mejia, Pam Reister, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, The Dan Cameron Family Foundation/Alan and Swanna Saltiel Linda Grekin, and Omari Rush for their feedback and CFI Group support in developing this guide. Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Endowment Fund

DTE Energy Foundation

The Esperance Family Foundation

David and Jo-Anna Featherman

Forest Health Services

David and Phyllis Herzig Endowment Fund

JazzNet Endowment

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Masco Corporation Foundation

Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs

THE MOSAIC FOUNDATION [of R. & P. Heydon]

National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

Prudence and Amnon Rosenthal K-12 Education Endowment

Fund

PNC Bank

Target

TCF Bank

UMS Advisory Committee

University of Michigan Credit Union

University of Michigan Health System

U-M Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

U-M Office of the Vice President for Research

Wallace Endowment Fund

2 UMS 10-11 UMS Youth EDUCATION PROGRAM

Carolina Chocolate Drops

Friday, December 3, 2010 • 11 AM – 12 NOON • MICHIGAN THEATER

Sponsored by CFI Group and David and Jo-Anna Featherman.

Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of Ameri- can Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius.

Teacher Resource Guide 2010-2011 UMS 10-11 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Short on time? If you only have 15 minutes to review this guide, just read the sections in black in the Table of Contents. Those pages will provide the most important information about this performance.

Attending the YOUTH CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS ABOUT UMS PERFORMANCE 29 Ensemble History 46 What is UMS? 6 Coming to the Show 31 Individual Bios 47 Youth Education Program 8 Map + Directions 34 CCD on String Bands 49 Contacting UMS 9 Michigan Theater 35 Repertoire 10 Being an Audience Member 36 Visual + Performing Arts

ABOUT AMERICAN RESOURCES ROOTS MUSIC 38 National Standards 12 What is American Roots Music? 39 Curriculum Connections 13 Piedmont Region 42 Lesson Plans 16 Timeline 44 Other Resources 20 Musicians of the Piedmon 25 String Band Instruments

4 UMS 10-11 ATTENDING THE YOUTH PERFORMANCE

UMS 10-11 5 DETAILS

COMING TO THE SHOW

We want you to enjoy your time with UMS! PLEASE review the important information below about attending the Youth Performance:

TICKETS

TICKETS We do not use paper tickets DOOR ENTRY A UMS Youth Performance DURING THE PERFORMANCE At the for Youth Performances. We hold school staff person will greet your group at your bus start of the performance, the lights will reservations at the door and seat groups as you unload on Washington Street. You will dim and an onstage UMS staff member will upon arrival. be escorted by the usher through the Michi- welcome you to the performance and provide gan Theater alley/walk-way and enter through important logistical information. If you have the front door of the Michigan Theater, which any questions, concerns, or complaints (for faces Liberty Street. instance, about your comfort or the behavior of surrounding groups) please IMMEDIATELY report the situation to an usher or staff mem- ARRIVAL TIME Please arrive at the Michigan USHER Theater between 10:30-10:50pm to allow you ber in the lobby. time to get seated and comfortable before the show starts. SEATING & USHERS When you arrive at the front doors, tell the Head Usher at the door the name of your school group and he/ she will have ushers escort you to your block PERFORMANCE LENGTH 60 minutes with of seats. All UMS Youth Performance ushers no intermission wear large, black laminated badges with their DROP OFF Have buses, vans, or cars drop off names in white letters. students on the south side of East Washing- ton Street (BEHIND the Michigan Theater). If there is no space in the drop off zone, circle the block until space becomes available. Cars AFTER THE PERFORMANCE When the may park at curbside metered spots or in the performance ends, remain seated. A UMS staff Maynard Street parking structure. member will come to the stage and release BEFORE THE START Please allow the usher each group individually based on the location to seat individuals in your group in the order of your seats. that they arrive in the theater. Once everyone is seated you may then rearrange yourselves and escort students to the bathrooms before the performance starts. PLEASE spread the adults throughout the group of students.

6 UMS 10-11 BUS PICK UP When your group is released, SENDING FEEDBACK We LOVE feedback ACCESSIBILITY Courtesy wheelchairs are please exit the performance hall through the from students, so after the performance please available for audience members. same door you entered. A UMS Youth Perfor- send us any letters, artwork, or academic mance staff member will be outside to direct papers that your students create in response PARKING There is handicapped parking you to your bus. to the performance: UMS Youth Education located in the South Thayer parking structure. Program, 881 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, All accessible parking spaces (13) are located MI 48109-1011. on the first floor. To access the spaces, drivers need to enter the structure using the south AAPS (left) entrance lane. If the north (right) en- trance lane, the driver must drive up the ramp AAPS EDUCATORS You will likely not get and come back down one level to get to the on the bus you arrived on; a UMS staff mem- parking spaces. ber or WISD Transportation Staff person will

put you on the first available bus. NO FOOD No food or drink is allowed in WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBILITY the theater. Michigan Theater is wheelchair accessible with a completely ramped concessions lobby. The auditorium has wheelchair accessible seating locations two thirds of the way back on its LOST STUDENTS A small army of volun- main floor. teers staff Youth Performances and will be PATIENCE Thank you in advance for your BATHROOMS ADA compliant toilets are ready to help or direct lost and wandering patience; in 20 minutes we aim to get 1,700 available. students. people from buses into seats and will work as efficiently as possible to make that happen. ENTRY The front doors are not powered, however, there will be an usher at that door opening it for all patrons.

LOST ITEMS If someone in your group loses an item at the performance, contact the UMS Youth Education Program (umsyouth@umich. edu) to attempt to help recover the item.

UMS 10-11 7 → E Huron St →

RACKHAM

E Washington St Thayer St MICHIGAN Fletcher St THEATER

Alley/Walkway Front/Enter E Liberty St HILL Division St Thompson St Maynard St State St Public Parking N University Ave

William St Mall Parking & (ONE-WAY NORTH!!)

N →

MAP + DIRECTIONS

This map, with driving directions to the Michigan Theater, will be mailed to all attending educators three weeks before the performance.

MAP

8 UMS 10-11 VENUE

MICHIGAN THEATER

The historic Michigan Theater opened January 5,1928 at the peak of the vaudeville/movie palace era. Designed by Maurice Finkel, the 1,710-seat theater cost around $600,000 when it was first built. As was the custom of the day, the theater was equipped to host both film and live stage events, with a full-size stage, dressing rooms, an orchestra pit, and the Barton Theater Organ. At its opening, the theater was acclaimed as the best of its kind in the country. Since 1979, the theater has been operated by the not-for-profit Michigan Theater Foun- dation. With broad community support, the Foundation has raised over $8 million to restore and improve the Michigan The- ater. The beautiful interior of the theater was restored in 1986.

In the fall of 1999, the Michigan Theater opened a new 200-seat screening room addition, which also included expanded restroom facilities for the historic theater. The gracious facade and entry vestibule was restored in 2000.

MICHIGAN THEATER 603 E Liberty Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Emergency Contact Number: (734) 764-2538 (Call this number to reach a UMS staff person or audience member at the performance.)

UMS 10-11 9 DETAILS

BEING AN AUDIENCE MEMBER

When preparing students for a members from hearing. Often in large on stage or whether they will miss live performing arts event, it is impor- rock concerts or in movie theaters, something because of the sound and tant to address the concept of “concert the sound is turned up so loud that movement you are making. Given this etiquette.” Aside from helping prevent you can talk and not disturb anyone’s consideration, it’s often best to wait disruptive behavior, a discussion of concert listening experience. However, in other until a pause in the performance (a etiquette can also help students fully enjoy concerts and live theater experiences, pause of sound, movement, or energy) the unique and exciting live performance the sound is unamplified or just quite, or to wait until the performer(s) bow to experience. The following considerations and the smallest noise could cause the audience to share your enthusiasm are listed to promote an ideal environment your seat neighbor to miss an impor- with them. for all audience members. tant line of dialogue or musical phrase. Movements or lights (from cell phones) • Out of respect for the performer(s), if Your Surroundings may also distract your audience neigh- you do not like some part of the per- bors attention away from the stage, formance, please do not boo or shout • Concert halls and performing arts again, causing them to miss important anything derogatory. Remember, a lot venues are some of the most grand action...and there’s no instant replay in of hard work went in to creating the and beautiful buildings you might ever live performance! performance you are watching and it visit, so be sure to look around while takes great courage for the performer you follow an usher to your group’s • At a performance, you are sharing the to share his or her art with you. seats or once you are in your seat. physical components of the perfor- mance space with other audience Share your Experience with • UMS Ushers will be stationed through- members. So, consider whether you Others out the building and are identifiable are sharing the arm rest and the leg • An important part of any performing by their big black and white badges. room in such a way that both you and arts experience is sharing it with others. They are there to help you be as your seat neighbors are comfortable. This can include whispering to your comfortable as possible and if you seat neighbor during the performance, have a question (about the perfor- • As an audience member, you are talking to your friends about what you mance, about where to go, or about also part of the performance. Any liked and didn’t like on the bus back to what something is), please ask them, enthusiasm you might have for the school, or telling your family about the and don’t feel shy, embarrassed, or performance may make the perform- performance when you get home. hesitant in doing so. ers perform better. So, if you like what you are seeing make sure they know it! More Information Sharing the Performance Hall Maybe clap, hoot and holler, or stand with Other Audience Members up and cheer. However, when express- • For more specific details about coming ing your own personal enjoyment of to the concert (start time, bathroom • Consider whether any talking you do the performance, consider whether during the performance will prevent locations, length), see pages 6-8 of this your fellow audience members will be your seat neighbors or other audience guide. able to see or hear what’s happening

10 UMS 10-11 ABOUT AMERICAN ROOTS MUSIC

UMS 10-11 11 ABOUT

American Roots Music

Most of our identification with grew, sheet music publishers and early music is seen as any music (bluegrass, American popular musical styles comes record companies needed to expand blues, jazz, country, gospel, ol-timey, from the names given to its genres. their list of products to keep up with the folk, Cajun, Native America, etc.) that Throughout American history, the nam- developing styles, and to make it easier served as the musical and cultural basis ing of a musical style was always associ- for consumers to identify a style they for the American musical styles (rhythm ated with its consumption; the style’s liked. This led to the development of the and blues, rock and roll, soul, even rap) name was a way of both marketing the categories of folk, country, race records that would come after it. “Roots music” music and allowing the consumer to (replacing “Coon Songs”), blues, jazz, emphasizes diversity in American music know what they were buying. At the turn and ultimately rock and roll, pop, rap, and culture, whereas the genre-oriented of the twentieth century, these popular and other such genres. The more recently approach emphasized homogeneity. categories were fairly limited: Waltz, Two- developed term “roots music” attempts “Roots music” celebrates cross-cultural Steps, Marches, Rags or Ragtime, etc., to break free from this generic world and sharing, the tradition of musical and and when dealing with African-American place music within its cultural and histori- cultural lineages, and the innovation of –inspired pop tunes the derogatory titles cal framework. Root music, by its nature, those artists working today to keep this “Coon Songs” or “Ethiopian Melodies” includes a much wider range of music rich heritage alive. were used. As the twentieth century than can ever exist within any one of developed and as the music industry the aforementioned genres. Today, roots

12 UMS 10-11 ABOUT

The Piedmont Region

The Birthplace of Black String Band Music

Synonymous with East Coast blues and string band music was the area known as the Piedmont Region of the United States. Geographically, this area runs along the Appalachian hills all the way from New Jersey to Alabama. It stretches as far west as the foothills of Kentucky and Tennessee and as far east as Raleigh, North Carolina and Rich- mond, Virginia. Some of the major cities included within this area are Birming- ham, Alabama; Columbia and Atlanta, Georgia; Greenville, South Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Durham, and Raleigh, North Carolina; Lexing- ton, Kentucky; Roanoke and Lexington, Virginia. The range of this region makes it accessible to seaports like Norfolk, urbane, fluid, contemporary style of music ment of bluegrass music. Bluegrass is Virginia; Charleston, South Carolina; than they had known in their homes in the known as a quintessentially white Ap- Savannah, Georgia; and of course New deep south. palachian musical style, and yet its roots Orleans. And all of this means one thing: are a remarkable hybrid. The “father” Whites had already settled in these areas cultural diversity! of bluegrass music – Bill Monroe, a white prior to the Great Migration and found musician – was taught to play guitar and During the Great Migration of African- work in textile mills, factories, or coal mandolin by Arnold Schultz - an African- Americans out of the South from 1910- mines, bringing with them the Anglo American musician. The banjo, an instru- 1930 many individuals and families chose ballad tradition as well as fiddle jigs and ment closely associated with bluegrass, is to come to these eastern cities instead reels. Because the Piedmont was neither actually an African instrument, origi- of heading to the northern industrial as isolated nor severely racist as places nally called a “banjar” and brought to centers of Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, like the Mississippi Delta there was a great America by slaves. Dock Boggs, a white etc. These migrants brought with them deal of cultural interplay between African- musician credited with helping create the jazz from the southland and hard blues American and white musicians in this area. bluegrass style of banjo playing, devel- from the Mississippi Delta. The urban White musicians would teach fiddle tunes oped his style by trying to emulate the industrial cities throughout this region and Anglo traditions like the waltz to blues guitar technique of the African- were already immersed in the pop tunes African-Americans, and they in turn would American musician Mississippi John Hurt. and ragtime of the day and these new teach the blues to whites. One of the most It was precisely this type of close cultural migrants would infuse this music with interesting bits of musical cross-breeding interaction that made the music of the their own unique styles creating a more from this region is the case of the develop- Piedmont so unique. White and African-

UMS 10-11 13 14 UMS 10-11 American string bands shared similar handful of important recordings of white such as these would form the crux of a repertoires, played for each others’ par- string bands and solo artists from the great tradition on Race Records and in ties and dances, and were often believed 1920s and early 30s exist – a testament cultural history. In the 1960s they would to be of the opposite race. But it was the to the cultural traditions and sharing serve as some of the great influences of African-American musicians who rose to mentioned above – the primary artists to the folk/blues revival. And today they are prominence in the commercial recordings emerge from this region were African- being rediscovered and celebrated by a that were to come out of the Piedmont. Americans. String bands emerged from host of new artists such as the Carolina Georgia - Peg Leg Howell and His Gang; Chocolate Drops. Because whites had greater access Tennessee - The Tennessee Chocolate to mainstream economic resources, Drops, The Memphis Jug Band; North however, they tended to use music more Carolina – The Three ‘Bacca Tags; and for social purposes than professional Mississippi – The Mississippi Sheiks. Indi- advancement. Dock Boggs, for instance, vidual artists like Blind Willie McTell, Rev, was offered several recording contracts Gary Davis, Blind Boy Fuller, and Blind but he chose to hold on to the relative Blake ruled the six string guitar and took economic safety of a coal mining job to the instrument into new and innovative the caprice of a career in music. While a directions. Throughout the 1930s artists

UMS 10-11 15 TIMELINE

Music + Musicians of the Piedmont

Date Genre Region Artist(s)

1911 Folk Songs Georgia Unknown (Newton County)

1925 Work Songs North Carolina Unknown

1934 Work Songs, Blues, Georgia (Atlanta, Milled- Prisoners: Folk Songs geville) & North Carolina (Reece Crenshaw (Black) (Raleigh) Blind Joe Walker (Black)

1935 Blues, Georgia Robert Davis (Black) Dance Pieces, (Frederica) John Davis (Black) Breakdowns, Bill Tatnall (Black) Two-Steps Brewster Davis (Black) John Brewster (Black) Henry Blue (Black)

1936 Blues Virginia Jimmie Strothers (Black) (Lynn, Richmond)

Willie Williams (Black)

1937 Folk Songs South Carolina Unknown F ield R ecordings + C ollections

16 UMS 10-11 Songs Instrumentation Collected By

One More Rounder Gone, Unknown Howard Odum Honey Take a One on Me

none listed Vocal Robert Winslow Gordon forthe Library of Congress

Trouble, Guitar John Lomax John Henry and In Trouble Guitar for the Library of Congress

Poor Joe Breakdown Guitar John and Alan Lomax, John Henry Guitar Zora Neale Hurston Fandango Guitar for the Library of Congress Guitar

Keep Away from the Banjo John Lomax Bloodstained Banders, for the Library of Congress We Are Almost Down to the Shore, Red River Runs Guitar

John Henry, Guitar, Washboard, Washtub Bass John Lomax Corrina for the Library of Congress

UMS 10-11 17 Date Genre Region Artist(s)

1924 Blues Georgia (Atlanta); Unknown Ed Andrews (Black)

1926 Blues Georgia (Atlanta) Peg Leg Howell (Black) & His Gang (Fiddler Eddie Anthony & Guitarist Henry Williams)

Florida (Jacksonville) Blind Blake (Arthur Phelps)

1927 Blues Georgia (Atlanta) Barbecue Bob Hicks (Black)

Blind Willie McTell (Black)

The Cofer Brothers(White) Leon (guitar) Paul (fiddle),

The Georgia Crackers (the Cofer Bros w/ Ben Evans- guitar)

1928 Blues Georgia (Atlanta), Curley Weaver (Black) South Carolina (Greenville) Pink Anderson (Black)

1929 Blues Tennessee Howard Armstrong (Black)

1930 Blues Georgia (Atlanta), Georgia Cotton Pickers Tennessee (Knoxville) (Black) (Barbecue Bob, Curly Weaver guitar, Buddy Moss harmonica)

C ommercial R ecordings Tennessee Chocolate Drops (Howard Arm- strong, Roland Armstrong, Carl Martin) (added Ted Bogan – guitar)

1933 Blues Georgia (Atlanta) Buddy Moss – guitar (Black) w/ Fred McMullen guitar & Curley Weaver

1935 Blues North Carolina, Blind Boy Fuller (Fulton Allen) South Carolina Rev Gary Davis

18 UMS 10-11 Songs Instrumentation Collected By

Time Ain’t Gonna Make Me Stay Guitar Unknown (reputed to be the first commer- cially recorded country blues)

Fo’ Day Blues, String Band Unknown Too Tight

Diddie Wa Diddie Guitar

Barbecue Blues, 12 String Guitar Unknown Mississippi Heavy Water Blues

Statesboro Blues 12 String Guitar

Keno the Rent Man String Band

Diamond Joe, String Band The Georgia Black Bottom

No No Blues, Tippi’ Tom, Guitar Unknown I Got Mine, In the Jailhouse Now Guitar

none listed Fiddle, Mandolin, Guitar Unknown

Diddle Da Diddle, String Band Unknown Sittin’ On Top of the World

State Street Rag, Ted’s Stomp String Band

Bye Bye Mama, Red River Blues String Band Unknown

Step It Up and Go, Rag Mama Rag I Guitar Unknown Am the Light, Guitar Cross and Evil Woman Blues

UMS 10-11 19 PEOPLE

Musicians of the Piedmont

String Bands

Tennessee Chocolate Drops (Howard World’s Fair, then settling in that city. string band music. Howell first recorded Armstrong, violin, mandolin/ Carl Martin and Armstrong were also virtuoso solo for Columbia in 1927 but for his Martin, bass/ Ted Bogan, guitar) players in their own right: Martin hav- return visit to the recording studio later ing such a wide array of plucking and that same year brought “His Gang” with bowing techniques on the bass that his him. Their music was based heavily in playing was considered to be a tour de dance tunes and Anthony’s fiddling style force of bass styles. Ted Bogan was an is unique in string band music: biting, extremely skilled flatpicker with an ap- and wild in its attack on the strings. They proach to chording that would equal any issued a number of highly successful re- jazz guitarist. Their playing was consid- cordings (Beaver Slide Rag and Lonesome ered so dynamic that it was often said Blues among them) but Anthony died about them “if they played any faster prematurely in 1934 and Howell gave up they’d catch on fire!” performing. The Tennessee Chocolate Drops em- braced the entire spectrum of African- Peg Leg Howell and His Gang (Peg The Georgia Cotton Pickers (Barbe- American and white American popular Leg Howell, guitar/ Henry Williams, cue Bob Hicks, guitar/ Curly Weaver, music while still retaining elements of guitar/ Eddie Anthony, violin) guitar/ Buddy Moss, harmonica) minstrel shows, country dance music, ragtime, blues, vaudeville tunes, and jazz. Throughout their peak years they played extensively across the whole of the Appa- lachian region. Howard Armstrong was a virtuoso fiddle and mandolin player who was raised in a family of eight performing brothers and sisters. He began recording in 1929 with the great black songster Sleepy John Estes and perhaps the great- est pure blues mandolinists Yank Rachell. In 1930 Armstrong joined with bassist Carl Martin and guitarist Ted Bogan to form the Chocolate Drops. They were an instant success on the medicine show circuit and toured with such blues greats as Big Bill Broonzy and Memphis Minnie. Peg Leg Howell and His Gang called Barbecue Bob In 1933 they appeared at the Chicago Atlanta, Georgia their home and rep- resented the rougher, bluesier side of

20 UMS 10-11 Bob Hicks was born in rural Georgia well as performing widely for white to whether one considers the Mississippi in 1902 but moved to Atlanta around audiences. Their repertoire consisted of Sheiks or the Memphis Jug Band to have 1923. He got his nickname as a cook pop tunes, parlor songs, “hokum” pieces been the greatest string/jug band ever re- in Tidwell’s Barbecue and entertained (humorous songs generally with sexual corded, for they both crossed many musi- patrons with his guitar. He was one of overtones), dance music, waltzes, and cal genres from pop to blues, ragtime the earliest African-American males to country blues. Their first “hit” – “Sit- to country, dance to ballads. Will Shade record, beginning in 1927 and estab- ting on Top of the World” – became a had already played guitar in various lished a successful solo career. In 1930 blues standard and has been covered by medicine and minstrel shows by the time he established the Georgia Cotton Pick- innumerable artists. Lonnie Chatman he got the idea to assemble a string band ers, one of the finest small groups of the (aka Chatmon) came from a family that around 1926. Shade and Will Weldon pre WWII era. Joining him were guitarist produced several giants of the country (Shade’s first partner) played guitar duets Curly Weaver, who like Hicks had already blues. Brother Armenter “Bo” Chatmon on street corners in Memphis until they enjoyed a solo recording career, and (better known as Bo Carter) was one of began to add other musicians and record Buddy Moss on harmonica. Moss was the most prolific of all Mississippi blues in 1927. Musically their large member- only 16 when he joined the Cotton Pick- musicians, brother Sam enjoyed a career ship pool allowed the Memphis Jug Band ers and after Hicks died in 1931. He went that extended well into the 1970s, and the flexibility to play a mixture of many on to create his own career as a singer/ the legendary Charley Patton – the genres. Interestingly, a number of their guitarist. The Cotton Pickers recorded a “Father of the Delta Blues” – has always songs mentioned hoodoo magical beliefs, number of versions of previous hits (such been rumored to be either an illegitimate and some members also contributed to as Blind Blake’s “Diddy-Wah-Diddy”) but brother or some close relative. Walter gospel recordings, either uncredited or as turned them into newer-sounding rock- Vinson was a neighbor of the Chatmans part of the Memphis Sanctified Singers. ing ensemble pieces. and started playing guitar when he was Although their final recordings as a group six. The Sheiks were actually discovered were in 1934, Shade kept them together Mississippi Sheiks (Walter Vinson, by recording artists while playing for a and working well into the 1940s. vocal and guitar/ Lonnie Chatman, white square dance. violin) The Baxters (Andrew Baxter, violin/ Memphis Jug Band (Will Shade [aka Jim Baxter, vocal and guitar) Son Brimmer] vocal and guitar/ Ben Ramey, kazoo/ Charlie Burse, guitar and vocal/ Jab Jones, jug/ Charlie Pierce, fiddle/ et. al.)

Although not physically from the Piedmont region, the Mississippi Sheiks were arguably the most successful string band of the 1930s and their presence was certainly felt on the East Coast, both through their touring and record- The Memphis Jug Band was organized Andrew and Jim Baxter hailed from ings. They also recorded briefly as the in the late 1920s by Will Shade and over Calhoun in Gordon County, Georgia. Mississippi Mud Steppers, adding banjo/ its lifetime contained a wide variety of Andrew was a well-known fiddler in the mandolinist Charlie McCoy to the group). musicians from the Memphis, Tennes- area and teamed up with his son Jim, They were the most sophisticated of see area (even including such notables an excellent guitarist and singer, in the bands of their ilk, utilizing complex as the legendary Memphis Minnie). It is 1920s. They were much in demand for chords and playing in various keys, as only a matter of personal preference as dances performing country, blues, and

UMS 10-11 21 gospel songs. Indicative of the cultural from southwest North Carolina. exchange between musicians of different races in the Piedmont region the Baxters The Carolina Twins - Fletcher and often performed with the white string Foster (Gwin Foster, guitar and har- band The Yellow Hammers (Charles monica/ David Fletcher, guitar) Moody, Jr. on guitar; Bud Landress on banjo; Phil Reeve on guitar; and Bill Chitwood on fiddle). Their first record- ing session in 1927 was shared by both groups, an extremely unusual interracial event even given the informal mixed-race performances in the area. The Baxters were the first group to record the now a great affinity for Black blues and string standard folk tune “K.C. Railroad Blues”. band music and by the 1920s were Gwin Foster began his music career in performing throughout the Appalachians The Three ‘Baccer Tags (George North Carolina as a harmonica virtuoso in coal towns and in medicine shows. Wade, mandolin and vocal/ Luther and guitar player. Although he was While not a terribly original group they Baucom, mandolin and vocal/ Reid white, Foster was dark complexioned and are important for their cultural impact. Summey, guitar and vocal) was often mistaken for being of mixed In 1927 they cut their first records for race. By the late 1920s he had teamed Columbia: a remake of the venerable with David Fletcher who originally played bluesman Papa Charlie Jackson’s “Salty the upright bass. The duo began playing Dog,” “Chattanooga Blues,” “Coal Mine for parties and dances throughout North Blues,” and “Laughin’ and Cryin Blues.” Carolina and in 1928 had a regular half- When the recordings were sent to Co- hour radio show on WBT-Charlotte. They lumbia’s New York offices it was assumed were billed as the Carolina Twins and that given the sound and themes of the recorded some 21 sides between 1928 songs that the Allen Brothers were Black and 1930. While the majority of their and an advertisement for “Laughin’ and The Three ‘Baccer Tags were a white songs stayed within the typical string Cryin’ Blues” was sent out to national string band from Gastonia, North band style, two of their recordings were newspapers with a drawing of the two Carolina that first recorded in Charlotte particularly noteworthy for their unique- performers as being Black. Whether in 1931. Their name came from RCA ness: Charlotte Hot Step and Red Rose or not this confusion was in any way Victor’s recording engineer Ralph S. Rag, the latter a version of the 1911 rag- responsible, the record met with great Peer who was alleged to have told the time hit by the same name. They were success, as did the others in the issue, group that if their records didn’t sell he’d never able to make music their full-time with “Salty Dog” selling 18,000 copies. drop them like “the tin tags on plugs of pursuit and like so many other musicians tobacco.” Fortunately they enjoyed a of this period, Black and white alike, fell great deal of success mixing sentimen- victim to sel;f-destructive drinking and tal ballads with pop tunes and comic difficult lifestyles. novelty numbers. The three members of the group all met while working at the The Allen Brothers (Austin, banjo and Seminole Cotton Mills and soon began vocals/ Lee, guitar and kazoo) to play for church picnics and other social The Allens were another example of the events in the area. By 1930 they were cultural interplay between Blacks and regularly featured on radio station WRBU whites in the Piedmont region. Although in Gastonia. They were the most widely young white musicians they developed recorded pre-WWII white string band

22 UMS 10-11 Solo Artists

Fiddlin’ John Carson Blues” with the ragtime-inspired “West revival of the 1960s, and spent much of Coast Blues” on the B-side. Both are con- his later life playing at various folk music sidered excellent examples of his ragtime- festivals and recording for Folkways based guitar style and prototypes for the Records. Piedmont blues. Little is known about his life or death but his complex and intri- Blind Willie McTell, guitar cate finger picking inspired generations of musicians to follow: Reverend Gary Davis, Jorma Kaukonen, Ry Cooder, and many others. Carson was born in Fannin County, Georgia in 1868, and as such his music Dock Boggs, banjo was indicative of the earliest examples of American roots music. He started to play fiddle while in his teens on an instrument that had been brought to the United States from Ireland. He combined making music with working in a textile Blind Willie McTell was born in 1898 in plant until it went on strike in 1913 Thompson, Georgia. He was a twelve- leaving him with no other option than to string finger picking Piedmont blues play on the street for nickels and dimes. guitarist, and was one of the very few Between 1914 and 1922 he was named country bluesmen to play the guitar in Champion Fiddler of Georgia 7 times. He both the complex, fingerpicking ragtime began to record in 1923 and eventually style indicative of the Piedmont guitarists, produced over 150 sides of music. Boggs’ style of banjo playing, as well as and a heavier bottleneck blues style. His his singing, is considered a unique com- playing in both idioms is masterful, fluid Blind Blake (aka Arthur Blake, Arthur bination of Appalachian folk music and and inventive. McTell was also an excel- Phelps) guitar African-American blues. He was born in lent accompanist, and recorded many southern Virginia in 1898 and learned songs with his longtime musical compan- much of his music from an African-Amer- ion, Curley Weaver; their recordings are ican guitarist named “Go Lightning” who some of the most outstanding examples would “hobo” up and down the railroad of country blues guitar duets. He began tracks between Norton and Dorchester. recording in 1927 and had one of the Boggs’s style is, as many other artists of longest careers of any artist in his style, the time, a hybrid of Anglo and African- recording his last sessions in 1949. American musical traits. He is considered a seminal figure in part because of two Pink Anderson, guitar of his recordings from the 1920s, “Sugar Pinkney “Pink” Anderson was born in Baby” and “Country Blues. Boggs was South Carolina in 1900 and started play- initially recorded in 1927 and again in ing medicine shows as early as 1914. He 1929, although he worked primarily as Blake’s first recordings were made in made his first recordings for Columbia in a coal miner for most of his life. He was 1926 and his records sold very well. His 1928. Anderson’s musical style on the “rediscovered” during the folk music first solo record was “Early Morning guitar was a combination of the typical

UMS 10-11 23 Piedmont fingerpicking and the Anglo- Reverend Gary Davis, guitar, banjo styled ballads common to the Appala- chians. Although not as well-known as many of his contemporaries, his few recordings still stand out as some of the best examples of the Piedmont blues.

Blind Boy Fuller (Fulton Allen), guitar

Gary Davis was born in Laurens, South Carolina in 1896. Blind from infancy he early on developed a unique two-finger (thumb and index finger) style of finger- picking on the guitar that enabled him to create a four-part harmony sound. In the mid-1920s he moved to Durham, North Carolina and met, and apparently men- Fulton Allen was born in Wadesboro, tored, Blind Boy Fuller. At the same time North Carolina in 1907 and became one he was becoming an ordained Baptist of the most popular Piedmont blues minister. Davis was perhaps the most so- guitarists of all time. He learned to play phisticated of all the Piedmont guitarists guitar as a boy and quickly picked up and his repertoire ran the gamut of folk traditional songs and chants, ragtime ballads, ragtime pieces, military marches, pieces, and blues. By 1927 he had lost pop songs, lullabies, and blues (which his sight and began studying the record- he was generally reluctant to perform in ings of Blind Blake in earnest. It was also public). He moved to New York City to at this time that he became associated become a street preacher in the 1940s with Reverend Gary Davis. He began and was extremely influential in the folk- playing on the streets of Durham, North revival of the early 1960s. Carolina and developed a large follow- ing, eventually leading to a record con- tract in 1935. It was at his first recording session that the American Recording Company decided that Blind Boy Fuller would be a more commercial name. Over the next five years he recorded over 150 songs and became known as one of the foremost of the Piedmont blues guitarists. Many of his songs included the double-entendre and, unlike virtually any other Piedmont guitarist, he favored playing his complex fingerpicking on a National “steel” guitar, giving his playing and recordings a unique sound.

24 UMS 10-11 ABOUT

B anjo , F iddle , and G uitar : A T ypical S tring B and

Fiddle The fiddle is the oldest and most Americans and Mexican-Americans also as 1781 when Thomas Jefferson named basic instrument of roots music. Perhaps developed unique fiddle styles in the the banjar as the “instrument proper to due in part to its flexibility and sheer Southwest, likely picking up the instru- them,” meaning his African slaves. The loudness, the fiddle is the dominant ment from early frontiersmen. early banjars were made out of gourds melodic instrument for old-time tunes. with fretless necks, likely with heavy It is accompanied by a variety of other Fiddling has often been associated strings, producing a deep, mellow sound. stringed instruments such as banjo, with classic American heroes. George By 1847, there are accounts of the fiddle Washington had his favorite fiddle tune and banjo being played together; it was (“Jaybird Sittin’ on a Hickory Limb”), as the beginning of the modern string/blue- did Thomas Jefferson (“Grey Eagle”). grass band. Davy Crockett was a fierce fiddler, and Andrew Jackson’s victory over the British in the War of 1812 is still celebrated with the popular “Eight of January.” In more modern times, Henry Ford started a series of fiddling contests in the 1920s to help preserve the old American values.

Though the fiddle was the main instru- ment in early country music in the 1920s, it was gradually replaced by the steel guitar and electric guitar. It re-emerged in popularity in the 1940s as Bill Monroe, guitar, mandolin, and bass. The fiddle Earl Scruggs, and Lester Flatt developed was virtually the only instrument found bluegrass. Innovators like Chubby Wise, on the early frontier. In the South, written Scotty Stoneman, Kenny Baker, and accounts of fiddle competitions can be Benny Martin turned the fiddle into a traced as far back as 1736. Even though Eventually, this early Black folk tradition driving vehicle for improvisation. the fiddle is heavily rooted in Scottish was adopted, quite popularly, by whites, and Irish tradition and is therefore often heavily in the Appalachians. It became considered a “white instrument,” in the Banjo The banjo is instrument that finds the focus instrument in minstrel shows 19th century, a strong tradition began its roots in Africa, originally known as (typically a show done by whites, high- among African-Americans. This occurred the “banjar.” Where the fiddle can be lighting African-(American) culture, often because slave-owners would send slaves called the most significant instrumental performed in blackface), which began away to learn traditional fiddle tunes for contribution from Northern Europe, the to gain popularity in the early-to-middle th the purpose of entertainment upon their banjo is the equivalent from Sub-Saharan 19 Century. African-Americans certainly th return. All of this translated into an even- Africa. It can be traced back to 13 influenced the sound and repertoire of tual blues fiddling style that would persist century African culture and was being these early minstrel groups by teaching from the 1800s into the 1930s. Native written about here in America as early the first generation of white banjoists

UMS 10-11 25 how to play. Even after the minstrel tives reveals a number of memories of tory in 1900 reported that over 78,000 shows fell out of popularity, the banjo guitar-playing by blacks in pre-Civil War guitars had been manufactured that year. remained prevalent among Southern, times, almost all of them located in the Throughout the 1920s, American musi- whites. In the 1920s, several regional Mississippi River delta. While it is unclear cians set about inventing new ways to styles emerged. Masters of the banjo, like the style with which these guitars were tune and note these instruments. Uncle Dave Macon, could play as many played, the location of these recounts is The first generation of country or “hill- as 17 styles. The “banjo entertainer” significant: it would later be the center billy” musicians tended to play a style emerged with the rise of Vaudeville and for the classic delta blues with loud, percussive strokes designed to early radio, where the banjo would be provide little but rhythm. But soon, key used by singers who told jokes, did comic players, like blind Riley Puckett, a north- songs, and generally “cut up.” ern Georgia native who made hundreds It was in 1945 that the banjo was taken of records as a singer and band guitarist, in a different direction by a young Earl showed the guitar was capable of adding Scruggs, from North Carolina. He per- melody lines as well as rhythm. And in fected the three-finger roll, which allowed 1927, at the famous Bristol sessions in him to play a rapid-fire cascade of notes. northeast Tennessee, Maybelle Carter (of With this, the banjo was capable of hold- the Original Carter Family) introduced ing its own in the driving tempos of the what would become known as “the emerging bluegrass music. Scruggs be- Carter Scratch,” playing a melody on came probably the single-most influential the bass strings and brushing the higher instrumentalist in American roots music, strings for rhythm. It would become the as generations of younger musicians took quintessential lick for country music. his style and built on it, even taking it into Down in Tennessee, a brash young man the realms of jazz and formal music. named Sam McGee, the traveling partner of Uncle Dave Macon, watched with fas- Guitar America’s archetypal instrument is cination as black section hands near his undoubtedly the guitar. While important farm in middle Tennessee played a blues figures such as Benjamin Franklin and finger picking style. He would soon com- Andrew Jackson’s wife played the guitar By the turn of the 20th century, improved bine this with ragtime he had learned or guitar-like instruments, the guitar did guitar-making techniques allowed manu- from a parlor guitar teacher in nearby not gain widespread popularity or usage facturers like Martin (founded 1833) and Franklin to create some of the first solo until the 20th century. As early as the Gibson (founded 1894) to offer steel- records featuring the guitar: “Buck 1600s, Spanish settlers had brought to string guitars. When played with picks, Dancer’s Choice,” “Railroad Blues,” and the New World a European-style guitar this allowed a much brighter, louder “Knoxville Blues.” with five sets of double-strings. By 1800, sound and let the guitar hold its own in the six-string instrument we are familiar a string band and as a solo instrument in with today had developed and was also its own right. It was about this time that brought over from Europe. The instru- the singer Lead Belly discovered an inex- ment was popular enough by 1816 that pensive Stella 12-string with steel strings the first guitar instruction book was and as loud as a piano. Soon mail-order published. Early guitars were smaller catalogue stores like Wards and Sears- than today’s modern style, were strung Roebuck were adding inexpensive guitars with gut strings, and were finger-plucked to their catalogues. Sears’ models ranged (as opposed to today’s popular style of from $2.70 to $10.20, and one inven- using a pick). A study of ex-slave narra-

26 UMS 10-11 Other String Band Instruments

While the banjo, fiddle, and guitar are the instruments of a typical string band, other complementary instruments often augment this core ensemble, including the following:

Bones

Harmonica

Jug

Kazoo

Washtub Bass Spoons

UMS 10-11 27 CAROLINA CHOCOALTE DROPS

28 UMS 10-11 ABOUT

Ensemble History “Tradition is a guide, not a jailer. We play in an older tradition but we are modern musicians.”—Justin Robinson

In the summer and fall of 2005, three young black musicians, Dom Flemons, Rhian- non Giddens, and Justin Robinson, decided to travel to Mebane, North Carolina, every Thursday night to sit in the home of old-time fiddler Joe Thompson for a musical jam session. Joe was in his 80’s, a black fiddler with a short bowing style that he inherited from generations of family musicians. He had learned to play a wide ranging set of tunes sitting on the back porch with other players after a day of field work. Now he was passing those same lessons on to a new generation.

When the three students decided to form a band, they didn’t have big plans. It was mostly a tribute to Joe - a chance to bring his music back out of the house again and into Asheville, N.C., he flew east and ended up The connection turned out to be a great dance halls and public places. They called moving to the Piedmont where he could get match. While the young “Drops” were themselves the Chocolate Drops as a tip of at the music first hand. upstarts in a stable of deep tradition, they the hat to the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, were also the link between past and future. the three black brothers - Howard, Martin The Chocolate Drops started to play around, They began to expand their repertoire, taking and Bogan Armstrong - who lit up the music rolling out the tunes wherever anyone would advantage of what Dom calls “the novelty fac- scene in the 1930s. Honing and experiment- listen. From town squares to farmer’s mar- tor” to get folks in the door and then teaching ing with Joe’s repertoire, the band often kets, they perfected their playing and began and thrilling them with traditional music that coaxed their teacher out of the house to join to win an avid following of foot-tapping, was evolving as they performed. They teased them on stage. Joe’s charisma and charm sing-along audiences. In 2006, they picked audiences with history on tunes like “Dixie”, regularly stole the show. up a spot at the locally-based Shakori Hills the apparent Southern anthem that musicolo- Festival where they lit such a fire on the gists suggest was stolen by the black-face min- Being young and living in the 21st cen- dance tent floor that Tim and Denise Duffy of strel Dan Emmert from the Snowden family, tury, the Chocolate Drops first hooked up the Music Maker Relief Foundation came over black Ohio musicians who missed their warm, through a yahoo group, Black Banjo: Then to see what was going on. The band was still sunny home. The “Drops” gave new energy and Now (BBT&N) hosted by Tom Thomas figuring out who they were, yet Duffy offered to old tunes like John Henry and Sally Ann, and Sule Greg Wilson. Dom was still living in to house them with people like Algie Mae adding blues songs, Gaelic acappella, and flat- Arizona, but in April 2005, when the web- Hinton, musicians who were not pretenders footing to the show. chat spawned the Black Banjo Gathering in to a tradition, but the real thing.

UMS 10-11 29 Yes, banjos and black string musicians first got here on slave ships, but now this is everyone’s music.

The band moved up through the festival Off-stage, their connection to the Music Rolling Stone Magazine described the Carolina circuit, from the Mt. Airy Fiddler’s Convention Maker Relief Foundation meant a place to Chocolate Drops’ style as “dirt-floor-dance to MerleFest. They shared the stage with a record. In 2007, Music Maker issued “Dona electricity”. If you ask the band, that is what new fan, Taj Mahal, and traveled to Europe. In Got a Ramblin’ Mind” and, in 2009, “Carolina matters most. Yes, banjos and black string 2007 they appeared in Denzel Washington’s Chocolate Drops & Joe Thompson.” In 2010, musicians first got here on slave ships, but film The Great Debators and joined Garrison with the release of their Nonesuch recording now this is everyone’s music. It’s OK to mix it Keiler on Prairie Home Companion. In 2008, “Genuine Negro Jig,” the group confirmed its up and go where the spirit moves. they received an invitation to play on the place in the music pantheon. With its tongue Grand Ole Opry. “The Drops were the first in cheek, multiple-meaning title, the album black string band to play the Opry,” Duffy ranges boldly from Joe Thompson’s “Cindy notes. “The Opry has a huge black following Gal” to Tom Waits’ “Trampled Rose” and Rhi- but you don’t see that on stage.” Opry host annon’s acoustic hip hop version of R&B artist Marty Stewart pronounced the performance a Blu Cantrell’s “Hit ‘Em Up Style.” healing moment for the Opry.

30 UMS 10-11 PEOPLE

Dom, Rhiannon, + Justin

Dom Flemons

“I left Arizona because I knew the music would take me somewhere - but I had no idea!”

You don’t have to be born in the Pied- mont to feel the music in your blood. It may even be fair to say that Dom Flemons’ journey has been a trip from instinct to action. It all began with a PBS documentary about the history of rock and roll. “There was an episode on the folk music revival that got me wanting to do it,” Dom explains. “At the time, Dylan albums were inexpensive so I started buying them. From there I read about the folk scene in New York City and I tried to do that in Phoenix. I began busking and playing in coffee houses.”

Dom calls this a natural progression backwards. From writing short stories and poetry slams he moved to music, from a fascination with the 60’s and play- ing guitar he collected recordings of the early masters and used them as teachers. After the success at the Banjo Gather- On stage Dom rolls from one instrument Finally, Dom added banjo to the mix, ing, Dom decided to move to the Pied- to another with a fearless attitude toward going for the sound of the old-time play- mont. Here, he hooked up with Rhian- tradition and repertoire. As the Carolina ers. While still a student in Arizona, he non Giddens and followed her to Joe Chocolate Drops push Joe Thompson’s headed off for Encanto Park in Phoenix Thompson’s house where Justin Robin- classics into new territory, Dom remem- and jumped into Wednesday night music son was playing. Without even planning, bers his idol, Mike Seeger, who died in jams. If he was the only young player Dom’s music revival dream was real. “It 2009. “Mike is the person who changed and the only black man with a banjo, gave me a different perspective” Dom my outlook – he got me trying to do Dom didn’t care. He did find his way to reflects, “going from being someone what he was doing, taking traditional a website, blackbanjo.com, and learned who was learning from recordings – it things and smashing them together and about plans for a Black Banjo Gathering was very different to learn sitting next making something different.” in North Carolina. to the artists and hearing them talk and seeing how mannerisms are translated into the music.” UMS 10-11 31 Rhiannon Giddens

“We’re first and foremost entertainers and musicians. The other stuff enriches, deepens the experience - but if you can’t enjoy the music, we aren’t doing our job.”

It’s hard to contain the energy and en- thusiasm of Rhiannon Giddens. Her life story reads like a post-modern novel with overlapping plots. Talents and fascinations, whims and obsessions tumble over each other and pour out in a fiery stage perfor- mance rooted in disciplined virtuosity. It’s the training of opera overflowing into the unchained world of old-time music.

At age 16, Rhiannon began her vocal training at Oberlin College choral camp, where she took on the deepest part of After witnessing an inspiring banjo the classical vocal river - opera. “I did five dancing to calling. It was one quick step performance by Joe Thompson, Rhian- operas and three main roles,” Rhiannon more and a slippery slope into playing non heard about blackbanjos.com and summarizes, “I got into it pretty hard- the music. “I decided I wanted to play hooked up with Sule Greg Wilson and core.” So hardcore that she decided to fiddle” Rhiannon says in a matter of fact Tom Thomas doing web work for the take some time off. That’s when Rhian- voice, “so I went into a store in Greens- Black Banjo Gathering. She also followed non “eased into the folk world,” as she boro and picked one off the wall, gave up on an invitation from Daniel Laem- puts it, although the sequence is not it a draw and bought it. It was a cheap ouahuma Jatta to visit Gambia, got a quite so clean. Rhiannon had already Chinese fiddle – hard to play, but that gig as a singing hostess at the Macaroni been sparked by a flyer at Oberlin adver- toughens you up.” Grill and saved up the money for a trip to tising English Country Dancing. “I’m a Hands on the fiddle, Rhiannon began Africa. By 2006 the Carolina Chocolate Jane Austin fan and that’s what they do to mix it up, singing as always with her Drops were moving to the top of the in her books. Turned out to be contra.” sister, Lalenja Harrington, joining up with list. In 2010, the band was a full-time Back home with a day job in graphic Cherise McCloud (“who is a Mezzo”), job – along with a new daughter who is design, Rhiannon began to attend weekly forming a Celtic band, Gaelywand, and already a veteran road warrior. contra dances, moving rapidly from just entering Scottish music competitions.

32 UMS 10-11 Justin Robinson

“Some people say you should play one instrument, but I feel a need for a change of pace.”

While early string band musicians trace their roots to front porches and frolics, Justin Robinson began his musical educa- tion with the careful discipline of classical violin. “I was about 8 years old when I started violin,” Justin recalls. “It was my parents’ idea, but I wanted to play. They were into classical music. At the time, my mother was not performing yet, but later she sang with Opera Carolina in Charlotte.”

While Justin showed promise, as a teenager he made the all too familiar turn from practice to “other things”. He was an avid listener, but it wasn’t until the end of college that actually play- ing the music became important again. While Justin made a deliberate choice to pick up the old instrument, violin, he had made a second deliberate decision; He was going to use the instrument to fiddle. If there is one word that fits Jus- tin’s music, it has to be eclectic. If there’s a second word, it has be determined.

Asked how he ended up at the 2005 banjo-playing friends and began to go and began to hone their own sound. Black Banjo Gathering, Justin puts it to Joe’s every week. Rhiannon started Justin and his new young black musi- straight. “I invited myself,” he says. “I coming along a month or two later and, cian friends had inherited an unexpected went there with the intention of meet- in October, Dom joined in. Soon Justin’s role as a new generation’s voice in black ing Joe [Thompson]. I knew he lived in quest became a regular apprenticeship string music. Mebane [N.C.] so I went up there with with a man tied by blood and time to the intention of meeting him and going the origins of black string players. The to his house to play.” Justin collected Chocolate Drops were formed as a band

UMS 10-11 33 PEOPLE

CCD on String Bands

The Carolina Chocolate Drops works in this way, always playing his are the newest and youngest players in fiddle in the company of a banjo. a long lineage of Black String Bands. The tradition traces its roots to musicians While string bands and old-time music from Africa who came to the Americas are often grouped with bluegrass at festi- in the holds of slave ships. The anchor vals, the sound is very different. Bluegrass instruments were made of gourds with has a fast-paced style and draws more a neck and a variety of string combina- on the guitar and the mandolin. It rarely tions. The same basic gourd banjo, called includes the home-made instruments the ekontone, is played today in Gambia. common to string band players like Alongside the banjo gourd, musicians bones (or spoons), quills, and jugs. That devised a number of fiddles, American- said, more and more bluegrass musicians born relatives of the African ritti or are opening up their style. Banjo players one-stringed fiddle. Eventually, perhaps like Béla Fleck and Tony Triska are just as under the influence or orders of masters likely to show up around jazz musicians who wanted Irish jigs played in their as they are to play at a bluegrass festival. parlors, black fiddle-players picked up the Audiences expect a string band to stick European violin, taking that instrument closer to home. back to their cabins, adding classical-style The string band, with its panoply of ers and contemporary players like Joe fiddle to banjo and percussion; so the instruments, is also a socially open form. Thompson, it’s clear that the music kept blurring of boundaries began. It says anyone can play or dance or sing. going, passed down by family members and played for dances and gatherings in All three of the Carolina Chocolate Drops It’s about getting together. Some suggest both the white and the black community. can switch instruments, playing banjo that black string bands disappeared after As Rhiannon likes to tell her skeptical and fiddle, trading leads and playing the Civil War because the musicians no fans, square dancing and string music is along with a stock of other instruments. longer wanted to play music associated all about African roots and black folks’ This mixing-it-up comes from the tradi- with forced performances for white traditions. tional black string band where the banjo plantation audiences. The immediacy and self-taught quality of the music makes takes the lead, trading off with fiddle, In the end, it’s all about serious fun and it more likely that the documentation, while any number of other instruments traditional innovation. join in around them. Joe Thompson not the music, disappeared. Looking back from early twentieth century play-

34 UMS 10-11 REPERTOIRE

Likely To Be Performed

While the Carolina Chocolate Drops will decide which pieces to perform much closer to the date of the Youth Perfor- mance (they will announce the titles from stage), they are likely to play the following four pieces: “Little Rabbit,” “Georgie Buck,” “Dona Got a Ramblin’ Mind,” and “Sourwood Mountain.” Below are video links to the Carolina performing each piece as well as lyrics for the three songs with vocals.

“Georgie Buck” “Sourwood Mountain” “Dona Got a Ramblin’ Mind” Video: http://www.youtube.com/ Video: http://www.youtube.com/ Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v watch?v=8yTijiKUUV8 watch?v=5v4ATabf07M =N3CM5WOaJZ4&playnext=1&list=PL75 0203F197682997&index=9 Georgie Buck is dead CHORUS: The last thing he said Roosters a-crowin’ on Sourwood Mountain, Dona got a ramblin’ mind (x4) “Don’t put no shortnin’ in my bread.” Hi ho fiddle, I ay Dona gone jump the fence So many pretty ones you can’t count ‘em, Dona gone down the line Georgie Buck is dead Hi ho fiddle, I ay The last thing he said “Don’t put no shortnin’ in my bread.” My true love’s a blue-eyed daisy If I don’t get her, I’ll go crazy “Little Rabbit” CHORUS: Video: http://www.youtube.com/ Down the road (CHORUS) watch?v=tszAmWRVVpU Down the road I see Big dogs bark and little ones bite you Trouble in my way Big girls court and little ones spite you Trouble in my way Trouble in my way down the line. (CHORUS)

Georgie Buck is dead My love lives at the head of the holler Last word he said She won’t come and I won’t foller “Don’t let a woman have her way. (CHORUS) “If she have her way, My true love lives over the river She be gone all day. A few more jumps and I’ll be with her Don’t let a woman have her way.” (CHORUS) (CHORUS) Ducks in the pond, geese in the ocean Georgie Buck is dead Devil’s in the women if they take a notion The last word he said “Don’t put no shortnin’ in my bread.” (CHORUS) Put no shortnin in my bread... Put no shortnin’ in my bread...

(CHORUS)

UMS 10-11 35 CONNECTIONS

Visual + Performing Arts

The following artwork is part of the University of Michigan Museum of Art Collection.

Look at the image on to the right and consider the following: Sherman Lambdin United States, born 1948 How does this image reflect your percep- Red Devil Bird tion of American Roots Music? Of String 1970–91 Painted wood twig Band Music? Gift of the Daniel and Harriet Fus- feld Folk Art Collection, 2002/1.211 If you wrote or could pick a piece of music to represent this image, what kind of music would it be? Why?

How does this image physically represent music?

What are three words you would use to describe the image? How do these three words relate to what you know about American Roots Music?

How might the piece relate to the work of Carolina Chocolate Drops?

What material (mode) is the image made out of? How does that affect how it ap- pears and what it represents?

36 UMS 10-11 RESOURCES

UMS 10-11 37 ENGAGE

National Standards

The following are national standards addressed through this Youth Performance and through the ideas in the following curriculum connections.

English Language Arts Mathematics Social Sciences

English K-12 Data Analysis and Probability Pre-K-2 Civics K-4 NL-ENG.K-12.8 Developing Research Skills NM-DATA.PK-2.1 Formulate Questions NSS-C.K-4.2 Values and Principles of NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills That Can Be Addressed with Data and Democracy Collect, Organize and Display Relevant Data to Answer Civics 5-8 Performing arts NSS-C.5-8.2 Foundations of the Ameri- Data Analysis and Probability 3-5 can Political System Music K-4 NM-DATA.3-5.1 Formulate Questions NSS-C.5-8.3 Principles of Democracy NA-M.K-4.6 Listening To, Analyzing, and That Can Be Addressed with Data and Describing Music Collect, Organize and Display Relevant Geography K-12 NA-M.K-4.8 Understanding Relation- Data to Answer NSS-G.K-12.2 Places and Regions ships Between Music, The Other Arts, and Disciplines Outside the Arts U.S. History K-4 NA-M.K-4.9 Understanding Music in NSS-USH.K-4.1 Living and Working To- Relation to History and Culture gether in Families and Communities Now and Long Ago Music 5-8 NSS-USH.K-4.3 The History of the United NA-M.5-8.8 Understanding Relation- States: Democratic Principles and Values ships Between Music, the Other Arts, and and the People from Many Cultures Who Disciplines Outside the Arts Contributed to its Cultural, Economic and NA-M.5-8.9 Understanding Music In Political Heritage Relation to History and Culture U.S. History 5-12 NSS-USH.5-12.3 Revolution and the New Nation

38 UMS 10-11 ENGAGE

Curriculum Connections

The UMS Youth Performance by the Carolina Chocolate Drops gives students the chance to explore the music, geography, history, communities, and cultures of America. To help connect these performances to classroom curriculum, pick one of these concepts and activities or create an entire interdisciplinary curriculum with these as a base.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops is a three-piece string band that has its roots in the Piedmont Region of North Carolina and performs “roots” music. Before attending this concert take the opportunity to talk, not just about roots music, but about the word roots, its many meanings and the different ways it is used.

Define homonym as one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have differ- ent meanings. The word left is a good example. As a verb, left refers to leaving or exiting a place. As a noun it can refer to direction. the communities to which they belong students to ask their parents or grandpar- The word root is a homonym. As a and their local residential communities. ents about their family roots. Graph the whole class, or with students divided into Families have roots. Discuss why a per- results. You might find out the answer to pairs come up with as many meanings son might want to know his or her fam- question like these: for the word root as you can. These can ily’s roots. Include a little science here. Where did most of the families in include the following: What is a root? What does it look like? this class originate? Root- the underground part of a plant Do all plants have roots? What do roots Where did the fewest families Root – to root out, destroy, get rid of, do for a plant? Roots nourish plants. Do come from? eradicate they also nourish families? How? How many countries are represented Root - to root around, dig with a snout as places of origin? like a pig Find out where the families in your class What are the names of those Root – of something, it’s origin, where it originated. Ask your students if they countries? comes from know when their family settled in the When your graph is complete, take out United States and where they came from a wall map and put pins in each country Kindergartners, first graders and second before they moved to this country. If that is the country of origin of one of graders study themselves, their families, not, come up with a list of questions for your student’s families. This is a good

UMS 10-11 39 time to include some mapping skills. Tell students about the concert. Com- and the Kite Dragon by Bruce Edward Where is each country in relation to the pare the term roots music and its mean- Hall, (conflict between ethnic groups) Tea United States? Which is the furthest ing with the concept of family roots. with Milk by Allen Say (different customs) away? Which is the closest? Are any of and The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi. the countries across an ocean? Which Communities have roots. Help students (Comfort with who you are) countries and which oceans? Which look at their community and the com- countries are closest to each other? munities that surround theirs. Some Third graders study Michigan. Take a communities are made up of people from look at Michigan. The state is made up Talk about some of the reasons families all different cultures and countries. Oth- of different groups of people. Some eth- might have left their original country ers have a mostly homogeneous popula- nic groups are dispersed throughout the to come to The United States. Discuss tion. Some communities are composed state. Others are mostly found in one the fact that our country is often called of families that have been in the Unitied part of the state. Who are the people a country of immigrants. What did im- States for so many years that they don’t of Michigan? What are their roots? migrants bring with them to our country? have any ethnic affiliation. Where did the early settlers come from Which things are now an integral part of and where did they settle? What about our life and culture? There are “ethnic communities.” Ask today’s new immigrants? Do they come if anyone has been to a Chinatown, a from the same countries as the early set- Using reference books or the computer, Mexican town, a little Italy? What was tlers? Do they settle in the same areas? show students how to find a few simple it like? Wlhy do we have communi- Why or why not? facts about their family’s country of ori- ties that are made up predominently of When the Carolina Chocolate Drops gin. Tell them to look for something spe- one ethnic group? Discuss immigrants decided they wanted to perform the cial that represents or is identified with coming to this country not knowing the music of the Piedmon Region in North the country. Share these facts any way language or culture and settling near and South Carolina, they went to a you wish. Ask for written paragraphs other people from the same country. man named Joe Thompson, an old-time or reports, oral presentations, collages, Talk about comfort level, ease of living, fiddler, who had performed that type pictures, music, etc. language, prejudice. Read aloud Henry of music for years. They talked to him

40 UMS 10-11 about the music, listened to him and cas and bones and just had a good time to their mother and their mother sang to learned from him. They used his music as playing and singing and dancing. It was them? Is there a recipe that has been in a base and then added to it and changed a community activity, community music, their family for generations? Does their it until it was their own. Through the community entertainment. The same mother, perhaps, have a piece of jewelry years, we have used this same process to kinds of things were happening with that belonged to her grandmother or develop some of the important institu- other music in other parts of our country. their dad have a watch from his grandfa- tions and documents in our country. Small communities of people all across ther? What kinds of customs, traditions the United States got together for barn and celebrations are a part of their family Fifth graders study America’s past. The dances, singing and dancing to the kinds and have been a part of their family for first people in this country beside the na- of music they knew and liked. Does that many years? Have students share these tive peoples, were mostly from England still happen? Do small groups of people things orally, or by writing a paper about and other parts of Western Europe. get together to make and enjoy music or them and their importance. Along with their families, they brought do we entertain ourselves in other ways their culture, traditions and ideas to this today? Do we come together as a com- Read aloud The Always Prayer Shawl new country. By the time of the Revo- munity for entertainment? Is our enter- by Sheldon Oberman, Pink and Say by lutionary War, many of those ideas had tainment provided by people outside the Patricia Polacco, Always an Olivia by become a part of our nation. community? Do we entertain ourselves Carolivia Herron and The Burnt Stick by with more solitary pursuits? Anthony Hill. These are all books about Take a look at the Declaration of Inde- the connection between generations and pendence and the Constitution. Where The music played by the Carolina Choco- the passing down of customs, traditions, did the ideas in the those documents late Drops is head-bobbing, foot-stamp- ideas, stories and special things. originate? Did we change them in any ing music. It’s available if you google The following National Standards are met way? How? California Chocolate Drops. Play some of completely or in part with the included this music for your students before they curriculum guide. The Constitution was formed so that it attend the concert and set them loose to could meet the changing needs of our move and dance to the sound. After stu- country. How can we change the Consti- dents have heard the Carolina Chocolate tution? What is the process? Have we Drops play, play a piece of classical music. changed the Constitution? How? Have students think of as many words as they can to describe and compare the Fourth graders study regions of the two kinds of music. United States. Find North Carolina on the map. In what section of the country The band members of the Carolina is it? North, South, East or West? Chocolate Drops went to Joe Thompson and listened to him talk about and play The Piedmont Region of North Carolina his music and the music of the Piedmont is a hilly section of the state at the base Region in North Carolina. He passed of the mountains. In what geographical down his musical heritage, the music he region is North Carolina? How would knew and performed, to the members you describe that region? How does that of the band. We learn about our history part of North Carolina compare to the and feel connected to our past when region in which you live? ideas, things and skills are passed down to us from the generation before us the When the Black people who lived in the way Joe Thompson passed down his Piedmont Region of North Carolina got music. Ask students if anything in their together they played music for their own family has been passed down. Ask if entertainment. People took out kazoos there is a song their grandmother sang and banjos, fiddles and guitars, harmoni-

UMS 10-11 41 ENGAGE LESSON PLANS

Langston Hughes and the Blues http://rockhall.com/education/resources/lesson-plans/sti-lesson-2/

An authentic African-American folk-music and the foundation for much American music including rock and roll, the blues is a unique expression of black American culture. In addition to being an art form in its own right, the blues has inspired many writers and artists including Langston Hughes. Exploring the connections between the blues and the poetry of Hughes will enrich students’ understanding of the African-American experience in the early part of this century.

You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Until It’s Gone: The Changing American Landscape http://rockhall.com/education/resources/lesson-plans/sti-lesson-15/

The rise of American cities between 1865 and 1900 was spawned by the industrial revolution. Technological advancements in industry and transportation fathered the enormous growth of large cities across the United States. The patterns of urban growth then saw the rising middle-class moving further out from the cities creating the suburbs. Suburbs flourished as rural areas dwindled with farmers selling off their land for new housing developments and shopping malls. Today, we have a global and mobile society interconnected by computers, fax machines and the internet. These changes in the way Americans live and work have sparked new challenges for each generation. Understanding the causes and effects of these changes may enable students to better prepare for the world of the future. By studying contemporary song lyrics, students may be better able to recognize the effects of these changes upon others.

Runaway Slaves http://rockhall.com/education/resources/lesson-plans/sti-lesson-19/

The Underground Railroad was a significant part of American History. It served as a lifeline to hundreds of slaves who risked their lives to escape the horrors of bondage. Through readings of primary sources and listening to music, students will gain a better understanding of how slaves pursued their “freedom” by stealing away to “Follow The Drinking Gourd” to the north and to free- dom.

I Went to the Crossroads: The Faust Theme in Music, Film, and Literature http://rockhall.com/education/resources/lesson-plans/sti-lesson-27/

The Faust theme, that of risking eternal damnation by selling one’s soul to the devil in exchange for magical powers, can be found in virtually every genre of music as well as in literature and the visual arts. Examples utilizing this theme can be found as early as biblical times as a means of understanding humanity’s place in the universe and the struggle between good and evil. This interdisci- plinary lesson focuses on the life and music of bluesman Robert Johnson as a twentieth-century interpretation of this famous myth and demonstrates thematic connections between various art forms.

42 UMS 10-11 Guitar Is Everywhere! http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/6351/preview/

A quick activity (10-15 minutes) in which students watch a guitar performance and discuss the versatility of this amazing instru- ment.

What Does this Song Really Say? http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons/grade-3-4/What_does_this_song_say.aspx

Students listen to, sing, and read the lyrics to various African-American spirituals. They discuss the coded messages in the songs, and the purpose of these codes. Students then write original coded messages, and present their work in a performance format.

Twelve-Bar Blues: Examining the History of Blues http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons/grade-6-8/Twelve_Bar_Blues.aspx

Students will first learn about the history of blues music and important figures of this genre. Next, they will learn some of the key vocabulary and compositional techniques associated with the blues. Using what they have learned, students will compose a melody, using a 12-bar blues chord progression and present their melodies to the rest of the class.

UMS 10-11 43 EXPLORE

OTHER RESOURCES

Organizations Web Sites

University Musical Society Carolina Chocolate Drops 881 N University Ave www.carolinachocolatedrops.com Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1101 (734) 615-0122 [email protected] Rock and Roll Hall of Fame www.ums.org www.rockhall.com

The Ark Smithsonian Folkways 316 S Main St www.folkways.si.edu Ann Arbor, MI 48104 (734) 761-1818 www.theark.org Rolling Stone Magazine www.rollingstone.com

The Program in American Culture at the University of Michigan The Folk Alliance International 3700 Haven Hall www.folk.org Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1045 (734) 763-1460 [email protected] The American Folklife Center www.lsa.umich.edu/ac www.loc.gov/folklife

Zingerman’s Roadhouse (for a southern foodways dinner) 2501 Jackson Ave Ann Arbor, MI 48103 (734) 663-3663 www.zingermansroadhouse.com

44 UMS 10-11 ABOUT UMS

UMS 10-11 45 UMS WHAT IS UMS?

The University Musical Society (UMS) is committed to connecting audiences with performing artists from around the world in uncommon and engaging experiences.

One of the oldest performing arts presenters in the country, the University Musical Society is now in its 132nd season. With a program steeped in music, dance, and theater performed at the highest international standards of quality, UMS contributes to a vibrant cultural community by presenting approximately 60-75 performances and over 100 free educational and community activities each season.

UMS also commissions new work, sponsors artist residencies, and organizes collaborative projects with local, national, and international partners.

UMS Education and Community STAFF INTERNS Engagement Department Kenneth C. Fischer, Emily Barkakati UMS President MAILING ADDRESS Neal Kelley Claire C. Rice 100 Burton Memorial Tower Interim Director Matthew Mejía 881 North University Ave Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1011 Mary Roeder Emily Michels Residency Coordinator Bennett Stein Omari Rush Education Manager Sarah Suhadolnik

Britta Wilhelmsen

46 UMS 10-11 UMS

UMS YOUTH EDUCATION PROGRAM

10 THINGS TO KNOW

QUALITY ACCESSIBILITY K-12 SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS

Every student deserves access to Eliminating participation barriers Working directly with schools to “the best” experiences of world arts align our programs with classroom and culture • UMS subsidizes Youth Performance goals and objectives tickets to $6/student (average subsidy: • UMS presents the finest international $25/ticket) • 14-year official partnerships with the performing and cultural artists. Ann Arbor Public Schools and the Washt- • When possible, UMS reimburses bus- enaw Intermediate School District. • Performances are often exclusive to sing costs. Ann Arbor or touring to a small number • Superintendent of Ann Arbor Public of cities. • UMS Youth Education offers person- Schools is an ex officio member of the alized customer service to teachers in UMS Board of Directors. • UMS Youth Performances aim to order to respond to each school’s unique present to students the same perfor- needs. • UMS has significant relationships with mance that the public audiences see (no Detroit Public Schools’ dance and world watered-down content). • UMS actively seeks out schools with language programs and is developing economic and geographic challenges to relationships with other regional districts. ensure and facilitate participation. • UMS is building partnerships with or of- DIVERSITY fering specialized services to the region’s independent and home schools. Highlighting the cultural, artistic, ARTS EDUCATION LEADER and geographic diversity of the world One of the premier arts education • Programs represent world cultures and programs in the country UNIVERSITY EDUCATION mirror school/community demographics. PARTNERSHIPS • UMS’s peer arts education programs: Car- • Students see a variety of art forms: negie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center. Affecting educators’ teaching prac- classical music, dance, theater, jazz, tices at the developmental stage choral, global arts. • UMS has the largest youth education program of its type in the four-state region • UMS Youth Education is developing • UMS’s Global Arts program focuses and has consistent school/teacher participa- a partnership with the U-M School of on 4 distinct regions of the world— tion throughout southeastern Michigan. Education, which keeps UMS informed Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Arab of current research in educational theory • 20,000 students are engaged each sea- World—with a annual festival featuring and practice. the arts of one region. son by daytime performances, workshops and in-school visits. • University professors and staff are active program advisors and workshop • UMS Youth Education was awarded presenters. “Best Practices” by ArtServe Michigan and The Dana Foundation (2003). UMS 10-11 47 KENNEDY CENTER PARTNERSHIP TEACHER ADVISORY COMMITTEE

• UMS Youth Education has been a Meeting the actual needs of today’s member of the prestigious Kennedy educators in real time Center Partners in Education Program • UMS Youth Education works with a since 1997. 50-teacher committee that guides pro- • Partners in Education is a national con- gram decision-making. sortium of arts organization and public • The Committee meets throughout school partnerships. the season in large and small groups • The program networks over 100 na- regarding issues that affect teachers and tional partner teams and helps UMS stay their participation: ticket/bussing costs, on top of best practices in education and programming, future goals, etc. arts nationwide.

IN-SCHOOL VISITS & CURRICULUM PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENT

“I find your arts and culture work- Supporting teachers in the classroom shops to be one of the ‘Seven Won- • UMS Youth Education places interna- ders of Ann Arbor’!” tional artists and local arts educators/ –AAPS Teacher teaching artists in classes to help educa- • UMS Youth Education provides some tors teach a particular art form or model of the region’s most vital and responsive new/innovative teaching practices. professional development training. • UMS develops nationally-recognized • Over 300 teachers participate in our teacher curriculum materials to help educator workshops each season. teachers incorporate upcoming youth performances immediately in their daily • In most workshops, UMS utilizes and classroom instruction. engages resources of the regional com- UMS Youth Education Program munity: cultural experts and institutions, [email protected] | 734-615-0122 performing and teaching artists. www.ums.org/education

48 UMS 10-11 SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK! UMS wants to know what teachers and students think about this Youth Performance. We hope you’ll send us your thoughts, drawings, letters, or reviews.

UMS YOUTH EDUCATION PROGRAM Burton Memorial Tower • 881 N. University Ave. • Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1011 (734) 615-0122 phone • (734) 998-7526 fax • [email protected] www.ums.org/education

UMS 10-11 49