Early Country Flashcards
Why would musicians sometimes drop a beat?
This happens in many early forms, but also “old time” hillbilly music
Musicians would sometimes “drop a beat” (play 3 beats instead of 4) or add an extra beat (playing 5 beats instead of 4). By the time string bands were adopting fiddle playing as a basis for their performance practices, the idea of dropping or adding beats was quite common.
> because It made dancing exciting. If you’re dancing to a consistent 4 beats, and there is a dropped beat or one added in, it forces you to make a quick adjustment (usually dancing with a partner), giving the music a quick lilt, and making it seem unpredictable.
Who were the Carter Family?
They had a recording career from 1927 to 1956. The Carter family was Alvin and his wife Sara, and Alvin’s sister-in-law Maybelle. (You may know June Carter. She was in Walk the Line, a recent movie on the life of Johnny Cash. June was Maybelle’s daughter.)
The Carters were from southwestern Virginia (yes, that cultural region of Appalachia). They were heavily influenced by ballads, early string bands, and shape-note singing! They weren’t professional musicians, but part of the music industry’s search for periphery musics in the 1920s. Ralph Peer (our talent scout from OKeh records—minor record label—who coined the terms “race” and “hillbilly” music), moved to Victor records by 1927 (major record label then merged with RCA). Peer recorded the Carter family in 1927, which started their prolific career (notice the number of recordings in your reading).
The Carter Family is considered a folk music group of early hillbilly music. Their music intersects with the tradition of ballads and string bands because of their popularization among hillbilly fans.
What was Carter Family Picking?
Maybelle developed a popular style of guitar playing, where she would play the melody notes on the lower bass strings, and chords in the higher-pitched strings. This is the inverse of what you’re used to. We usually hear a bass line of few notes, with chords on top, then the melody heard even higher than that. Maybelle’s way of playing the melody in the bass strings was called “Carter Family Picking,” and was very influential for folk and bluegrass music later one.
How did territory bands impact music via their regional nature?
There are two interesting musical things that emerged from territory bands of the 1930s. First, they were somewhat isolated from other regions (based on radio). Many of the bands developed a signature sound, something a little different than other bands. That is, the sound of territory bands wasn’t homogeneous throughout the USA, giving rise to a variety of different sounds.
Second, the hillbilly bands continued in the string band tradition but were required to play a lot of different styles of music. They would have jingles for advertising. Social dancing also required bands to play new “hits” from jazz, blues, Tin Pan Alley, and other novelty songs. String bands extended their repertoire and were heavily influenced by mainstream, and African American musics. The instrumentation generally stayed the same, but the bands grew larger. String bands still didn’t have drums (due to the Grand Ole Opry), and expanded to have more guitars, and sometimes a piano. What we hear is popular music filtered through a string band tradition, making jazz, blues, or Tin Pan Alley tunes sound “more white.”
What was western swing?
Jazz—specifically Swing music—was popular music in the 1930s. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys were a group that played a combination of different styles, and coined the term “Western Swing” as a new genre of hillbilly music. Hillbilly music moved across the Southern and Western states (thus the “Western” name), and absorbed the new Swing music (and dance styles) as important parts of the new genre.
Controversy emerges for who started Western Swing. Wills was the one who named it, but the music happened first. Wills was the fiddle player for the Light Crust Doughboys in Fort Worth, TX in 1931, which featured vocalist Milton Brown. In 1932, Brown started his own band, Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies, which sometimes featured Wills on fiddle until he started the Texas Playboys in 1934. In those two years, the Musical Brownies started the Western Swing genre (although it wasn’t called that), and are now considered its first group.
The Musical Brownies were also the first band to record the electric guitar in 1935. Bob Dunn was the guitarist. He played the guitar on his lap, and sometimes with a slide.
How did the term Country and Western come about?
The image of hillbilly music changed in the mid-1930s as well. The new “Western” music took on a cowboy look (specifically with the hats), which is how the image changed from the mountain “yokel” to the masculine, macho cowboy of the west. Eventually, the name dropped the “swing” label, and simply changed to “Country and Western.”
Who was Bob Wills?
Wills was the lead fiddle player. In the first image, we see him in front with a typical string band of the day: fiddles, guitars, a stand-up bass, and a piano (on the right). The second image is drastically different. The band is much larger. We have two singers (a man and woman on each side of the image), fiddles, guitar, bass, piano, a lap-steel guitar (on the left, played on its side), a saxophone behind him, and the large drum kit in the middle. Wills was the first to bring the drums into country. It met significant backlash from the Grand Ole Opry (and purist fans). Wills defied the drum ban at the Opry in 1944 with one performance (although the ban remained in effect for almost every other country band).
What was honky tonk?
One advancement of style was made around 1946 with Hank Williams Sr. That style, called honky-tonk, pointed towards more electric guitars and a driving beat (but without drums). Because drums weren’t part of the music, bands expanded to have many guitarists (“rhythm guitars”) to fill in the percussion role.
The guitarist will mute the strings with his hand and play a “dead string” technique to mimic the backbeat normally played by a snare drum.
And, what is a honky-tonk?: a drinking establishment in the deep South that usually included dancing.
Who was Chet Atkins?
Chet Atkins was a guitar virtuoso. He developed a highly-skilled technique where he could play a bass line on the low strings, chords in the middle strings, and a melody on the higher strings—all at the same time! He is regarded as one of the most influential guitarists for country, and for rock and roll styles of the 1950s.
Where is the Euro-American stream today?
Lined hymns, ballads, hillbilly music with fiddle tunes and string bands, Western Swing, Country and Western, and now just Country. You can listen to any country tune today and hear the deep roots of tradition.
Even bands that aren’t “country” carry this tradition. Mumford and Sons is a relatively new group. They are a string band with tunes that defy counting in bars They also have minimal drums except for the occasional bass drum
Even when the bass drum is heard, it isn’t seen until the end
