{"id":3024,"date":"2018-02-26T21:01:23","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T03:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=3024"},"modified":"2018-02-26T23:07:41","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T05:07:41","slug":"making-black-influence-in-bluegrass-visible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2018\/02\/26\/making-black-influence-in-bluegrass-visible\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Black Influence in Bluegrass Visible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neil Rosenberg\u2019s book <\/span>Bluegrass: A History <\/span><\/i>presents a greatly different idea of bluegrass history when being compared to <\/span>Rhiannon Giddens\u2019 keynote speech<\/a> at the International Bluegrass Music Association Business Conference. I took particular interest to Giddens\u2019 point that scholars and historians, which surely includes Rosenberg, have contributed the erasure of black history in bluegrass. This general lack of representation led me to wonder if there is anyone who has worked to include the black narrative into the history of country music and bluegrass. It is likely that some individuals, such as Rosenberg, would argue that there is a lack of written or recorded history of black people within these genres because they simply did not contribute a lot to this type of music. However, in searching for Black Appalachian music, I stumbled upon this album<\/a>, titled <\/span>Deep River of Song: Black Appalachia.<\/span><\/i> Although it is unclear as to why the album specifically refers to Appalachia (which perhaps should be a topic of research in itself), the songs in the album are labeled as \u201cCountry\u201d, with the sub-genres of \u201cOld Time\u201d and \u201cString Band\u201d. This album is from the Alan Lomax Collection, sparking my curiosity in Alan Lomax as an ethnomusicologist, since he seems to be one of the few people who has strived to record the history of black country music.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Something I find particularly interesting is a letter Lomax wrote to Joseph Hickerson at the Library of Congress, which is included in his manuscripts in <\/span>A Recorded Treasury of Black Folk Song, 1978-1981, Black Appalachia.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/i>In this letter, Lomax describes his account of recording Murphy Gribble, a black banjo player, and his band. Lomax highlights characteristics of their music, including the presence of polyphony, and the instrumentation of banjo and fiddle, that are often described as traits of bluegrass. Lomax even acknowledges:<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you listen carefully\u2026 you will hear the steady 3,3,2 complex measure of so-called Bluegrass. From before Earl Scruggs and his mentors were born.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here, Lomax clearly states the contradiction within the history of bluegrass. Earl Scruggs is the one credited with this core sonic marker of bluegrass, yet Lomax has recorded, physical proof that it existed <\/span>before <\/span><\/i>him.<\/span> Not only that, but Lomax found it in music performed by individuals part of a group that is virtually nonexistent in dominant bluegrass history. Listening to other performances by Murphy Gribble and his other band members, the similarity with bluegrass is undeniable.<\/span><\/p>\n