American Folk Music

Music of the American South, conservative, mining songs
"nobody showed me how to play the banjo, I had to learn the hard way, on my own"
Uncle Dave Macon, handles a banjo like a monkey does a peanut

I'd rather ride a wagon all the way to heaven than hell in an automobile

Blind Lemon Jefferson, he spoke his soul through his guitar. blues, the "devil music"
the mississippi delta became the heart of the blues

music was his way out of the cotton fields, they dressed nicely, they want to be taken seriously as musicians
charlie had "cat eyes", piercing grey eyes, 100 yard stare, son of Irish immigrants. Charlie would "play till the son came up" people would dance, it was a catharsis for them after a hard day in the mills.

john hurt. whatever ills there was in the world, they were healed.

blue singer: ran away from the cotton fields, ride the rails all his life as a busker, could not settle down, could not fit in, because to fit in is to be in a situation close to slavery, and in some cases, worse than slavery

By the late 1920s, the word folk was being used more and more

Carter family, it's a mountain voice, you can tell in their voice where they come from. their first recording was "Bury me under the Weeping Willow Tree" in 1927

Jimmy Rodgers was regarded as the first country music artist. for him, it was about train songs. the beginning of the idea of the South. had a blues voice. "he was a nice friendly fella". with the wall street crash the rest of america had to endure the poverty the south had to endure for decades. How can a "when we get our grocery bill we feel like writing our will" How can a poor man stand such times and live.

"I'm going to the land where there is no depression" the capturing of country styles would never be done again. "I'm going where the water tastes like wine".

it was cold. Blind Lemon Jefferson, came back to Chicago and he froze to death.