{"id":3910,"date":"2019-09-23T20:32:31","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T01:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=3910"},"modified":"2019-09-23T20:52:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T01:52:30","slug":"3910","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/09\/23\/3910\/","title":{"rendered":"Stavin’ Chain and the “Batson” Ballad"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I was drawn to this photo because it was one of the few in the Lomax collection that depicted black musicians performing. The photo is titled \u201cStavin\u2019 Chain playing guitar and singing the ballad \u201cBatson\u201d accompanied by a musician on violin, Lafayette, La,\u201d although notes later on clarify that this titled was devised by library staff. The picture is from June of 1934 and is part of the Lomax collection of photographs depicting folk musicians, a collection that focused on the southern United States and the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

The first question I had was what the ballad \u201cBatson\u201d sounded like. \u00a0While I eventually found the recording<\/a>, in my search I also happened to come across a particularly helpful three part series of blog posts\/essays<\/a> (blessays??) by Library of Congress researcher Stephen Winick<\/a>. Winick\u2019s analysis is a wonderfully detailed, albeit lengthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBatson\u201d is a ballad about a string of murders committed by Albert Edwin Batson in Lake George, Louisiana, and his subsequent trial and execution and subsequent trial. Winick examines how ambiguity in the song allows listeners to come to their own conclusions regarding Batson\u2019s innocence. He also compares the ballad presented by Stavin\u2019 Chain (Wilson Jones) and lesser-known versions collected by Robert Winslow Gordon, John Lomax\u2019s Library of Congress predecessor.<\/p>\n

Winick categorizes this ballad as an example of African American string bands, which Rhiannon Giddens<\/a> notes as an influence to the development of bluegrass. This photo supports her argument that black musicians were participating in many types of music generally assumed to be \u201cwhite.\u201d The photo dates from 1934, before \u201cbluegrass\u201d became its own genre but after the white-washing of country music began. Although perhaps obvious, it is valuable in its depiction that black musicians were engaging in the genre of string band ballads in the 1930s which ultimately helps modern musicians rewrite the notion that these genres do not exclusively \u201cbelong\u201d to white musicians.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of her speech, Giddens asserts that the question should not be \u201cHow do we get diversity into bluegrass?\u201d but rather \u201cHow do we get diversity BACK into bluegrass?\u201d As a primary source, this photo helps document Giddens’ claim that bluegrass emerged from diverse roots rather than belonging exclusively to white Americans.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

Caffery, Joshua C. Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana: The 1934 Lomax Recordings. <\/em>Featuring Wilson \u201cStavin\u2019 Chain\u201d Jones, Charles Gobert, and Octave Amos. \u201cBatson.\u201d https:\/\/vimeo.com\/145630722<\/a>.<\/p>\n

International Bluegrass Music Association. \u201cRhiannon Giddens \u2013 2017 IBMA Business Conference Keynote Address.\u201d 2017. https:\/\/vimeo.com\/237464669<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lomax, Alan. \u201c[Stavin\u2019 Chain playing guitar and singing the ballad \u2018Batson\u2019 accompanied by a musician on violin, Lafayette, La.]\u201d June 1934. https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/pictures\/item\/2007660071\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Winick, Steven. \u201c\u2019I Didn\u2019t Done the Crime\u2019: Stavin\u2019 Chain\u2019s \u2018Batson\u2019 and the Batson Case.\u201d Library of Folklife Today , <\/em>July 27, 2017, https:\/\/blogs.loc.gov\/folklife\/2017\/07\/i-didnt-done-the-crime-stavin-chains-batson-and-the-batson-case\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was drawn to this photo because it was one of the few in the Lomax collection that depicted black musicians performing. The photo is titled \u201cStavin\u2019 Chain playing guitar and singing the ballad \u201cBatson\u201d accompanied by a musician on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3321,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7jEhR-3910","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3910"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3929,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910\/revisions\/3929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}