[Scotch-Arsh]

From Purification to Protest
The Mountaineer Myth and Appalachian Folk Music

Living in isolation from looming industrialization and American progress, the mountaineer of the early twentieth century represented a “self reliant frontiersman who clung to Elizabethan ways.” This stereotype received emphasis from the popular pre-World War I novels of John Fox Jr. which encouraged readers to imagine mountaineers as “conservators of an archaic tradition.” (Nettl)

Bringing this romanticized vision to light was Cecil Sharp, an English folk dance authority, who visited the Appalachian territory to compile “English Folks songs from the Southern Appalachians” (1932). In this way, Sharp and researchers of his background, approached Appalachian songs as fossils of English tradition, omitting the recent religious ballads as irrelevant to their purpose.

This romanticization of Appalachian folk songs, while sacrificing a comprehensive perspective, may have allowed for their acceptance by the “genteel” population. Edna Thomas, clad in “plantation lady” garb, traveled across America performing Appalachian folk songs in a “semi classical” style.

Of course, the music of the mountains was anything but archaically homogeneous. Scotch Irish, Welsh, German, Native American heritages each resonated in the rich folk song tradition of South Appalachia; yet, it is interesting that even in the early decades of the twentieth century, Americans were on the hunt for a “bastion of racial purity,” a refuge from the threat of multi-culturalism and melting pot mentalities.

In this way, according to Henry Shapiro, Appalachia provided a “benchmark” with which Anglo-Saxon theorists could compare America in 1930 to its “essential self” (Shaprio, 34). The area was held on a pedestal of stunted progress, and triumphed for its supposed conservatism and magnified morality. But mountaineers had left their homes to fight in America’s wars, and industrialization had reached Appalachia through highways and railroads. Appalachian musicians wrote songs to express these new social and economic circumstances, but the musical theorists saw little value in any ballad which was not pastoral or of ancient origin. Although industrialization helped introduce folk music to a national audience, Anglo-Saxon theorists ignored the importance of the economic revolution in the movement’s own character. Despite these purification efforts, seedier lyrics escaped the gutter and entered the commercial radio scene, much to the Anglo-Saxon theorists chagrin.

A Case Study: The White Top Mountain Folk Festival Abingdon, Virginia, 1931.

"It seems they want to make it...a contest of old fashion music, folk music, I believe they call it," John Blakemore,
an official approving the festival

John Powell, a composer and classical pianist, believed in the use of Appalachian balladry for classical expression. He joined forces with Annabel Buchanan, director of the folk music section of the Federated Women’s Music Clubs of America. Together, they organized the White Top Mountain Folk Festival, deemed the first collaboration by “high-art people”. Powell and Buchanan allowed the native musicians to perform the old Appalachian ballads; yet, the songs were chosen according to conservative standards. Gospel hymnals and protest songs were unacceptable, as products of “the gutter”. (Nettl)

From the idea of a fiddler's contest in 1931, the Whitetop Festival grew. By 1933, it attracted the interest of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The First Lady's interest in social issues led her to write to Annabel about attendence; preparation for Eleanor's visit included the widening of roads, as well as the construction of a special festival pavilion. Twelve thousand local folks lined the streets. Mountaineers presented Mrs. Roosevelt with handiwork, maple and dogwood; she watched the performances of a "six year-old mandolin player and an eighty year-old dulcimer player" among others. (Whisant)

The paradox seems to exist in the Mrs. Roosevelt's interest in the Festival; she ventured to the small coal-mining town, primarily out of her interest for social action and workers' rights. But what she witnessed were songs from the Elizabethean folk tradition, not the hearts of angry workers. Journalists from nearby mining towns described the festival as an "anachronistic fantasy..Modernity and industrializtion in the mines and mills have more to do with the real lives of these people...than 'Cluck, Old Hen'" The "holy folk" receive praise, only if they conform to stringent musical codes; then, the poorest folk watch from outside the pavilion, unable to afford the price of a seat. (Seeger)

Puppet shows, Morris dances, and Punch and Judy shows eventually replaced the purist songs of the Whiteop Festival. By World War II, the festival was dead; today it stands as a prime example of America on the cusp of a great change, from purification onto protest.