Folk Music and History

1. Folk Music and History Tanya Rowell Katzemba

2. “Every song has its story. The folk songs and ballads of early America describe life as experienced by the common people. They were sung within the family; mothers to daughters, fathers to sons, husbands and wives to each other. They were sung by neighbors and at gatherings of larger communities. The stories told were carried in the memories of those who heard them,” (Dzuris, 331). Folk music is an important medium for accessing the history of marginalized peoples. This exhibit is an attempt to expose folk music as a valuable historical source. In it we will explore various events and epochs of North American history through song and ballad.

3. Folk music is increasingly becoming accepted as a legitimate historical source among historians and history teachers. It is valuable for learning about what is sometimes referred to as “folk culture”. It also depicts histories that have been largely ignored in the academic field of history. Marybeth Hamilton, in her examination of blues in African American history, asserts that “historians have turned to blues as a key form of folk culture, echoing the voices of the inarticulate, with experiences that historians had for too long ignored,” (Hamilton, 18). Folk music can be an especially useful tool for making history accessible:“[…] Now that I teach United States history, I use an American song practically every day. I find songs one of the best motivators a teacher can employ. I use them to set the mood, to illustrate an aspect of history, to trace the history of popular culture, but especially as an important primary souce,” (Maxeiner, 1).

4. Folk music and the labour movement:“The Preacher and the Slave”-Utah Phillips“Joe Hill”-Paul Robeson“Casey Jones the Union Scab”-Pete Seeger and the Almanac Singers Left: an Industrial Workers of the World protest in Chicago, ca. 1930. Right above: the IWW logo. Below: the “Little Red Songbook”.

5. Folk music was instrumental in labor organizing in North America in the early and mid-twentieth century. One of the more infamous and radical labour unions, the Industrial Workers of the World (also known as the “Wobblies”, whose logo is pictured here) were called the “great singing union” and used song as their central organizing and publicity tool, (Notes to “Classic Labor Songs”, Smithsonian Folkways, SFW 40166). Pictured here is an image of their famous “Little Red Songbook”, from which many classic labour songs came and were used in protest. “Joe Hill”, one of the most well-known Wobblies songs, is about the great labour songwriter Joe Hill, who wrote, among many important labour songs, “Casey Jones the Union Scab” and “The Preacher and the Slave”, included in this portion of the exhibit.

6. Woody Guthrie: “1913 Massacre” Woody Guthrie (sticker on guitar reads: “This machine kills fascists”) Woody Guthrie album cover: released on Smithsonian Folkways

7. “In 1913, the Western Federation of Miners struck against the copper-mine owners in Calumet, Michigan, seeking safer working conditions. On Christmas eve of that year, company strikebreakers arrived at the miners’ Christmas party. They barred the doors and yelled ‘fire!’; in the panic that followed, 73 children were smothered or trampled to death,” (Logsdon, notes to “Classic Labor Songs”, Smithsonian Folkways, SFW 40166). Woody Guthrie was one of the most prolific singer/songwriters of the early twentieth century. His songs told stories of the poor and working class of the United States, of which he was part, and sang with feeling about their experiences as migrant workers, as poor, of living through the Dust Bowl and Great Depression of the 1930s, and of exploitation.

8. Historical Accuracy and Folk Music With Guthrie’s “1913 Massacre”, we have an example of an event that has not been heavily reported except for in the form of song. This brings up the issue of historical accuracy when using folk songs and ballads as legitimate historical sources. As noted by historian Linda Dzuris, “Exaggeration is a common technique used in the genre of folk music. […] ‘Ballad stories tend to be autonomous—that is, they contain in themselves the information they explore. They do not seek historical accuracy’, ” (Dzuris, 331). Why, then, would we choose to value these songs for what they can tell us about an event in history? Dzuris gives us a compelling argument for the use of folk music as a historical source despite its exaggerations. When working with any primary source, a historian is confronted with questions about accuracy and historical truth. Yet we still use these for what pieces of a historical puzzle they can fill in for us. “Even thus flawed, the snapshot image is worth looking at. Like diaries and letters, antiquated maps and period photographs, ballads are significant sources of information,” (Dzuris, 332).

9. Jean Ritchie: “Barbry Ellen” • Tracing the roots of Appalachian music to the British Isles “Barbry Ellen” is a ballad that has been found published as early as 1740 in the British Isles. It was first played as “Barbara Ellen” in the British Isles, then migrated to the United States with people who settled in the Appalachian Mountains. Jean Ritchie, born into a musical family of Kentucky in 1912, has made it part of her life’s work to trace the history of Appalachian people back to the British Isles and Ireland through studying folk songs, and their migration across the Atlantic Ocean. Jean Ritchie and her father outside their family home in Viper, Kentucky

10. Appalachian History • “Moonshiner”- Roscoe Holcomb This song is from Kentucky, and was most likely composed during the Prohibition era of United States history. The Appalachian Mountains had been settled by people of Scotch-Irish-Catholic descent, who had been historically opposed to the Temperance movement, which was largely motivated by Anglo-Saxon Protestants of the Northeastern states. This song gives an example of resistance to Prohibition among these communities, (Notes from “Classic Mountain Songs”, Smithsonian Folkways, SFW 40094).

11. Works Cited: • Maxeiner, Andrea. “Sing America! Using folk songs to teach American History”, Common Place 5(4) 2004. • Dzuris, Linda. “Using Folk Songs and Ballads in an Interdisciplinary Approach to American History”, History Teacher 36(3) 2003. • Hamilton, Marybeth. “The Blues, the Folk, and African American History”, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 11, 2001. • Various Artists, “Classic Labor Songs”, Smithsonian Folkways, SFW 40166. • Various Artists, “Classic Mountain Songs”, Smithsonian Folkways, SFW 40094. • Woody Guthrie, “Struggle”, Smithsonian Folkways, SFW 40025. • Images courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways.