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COUNTRY MUSIC PERFORMANCEIN NORTHERNNOVASCOTI A:

ANOCCUPATIONALSTUDYOFARTFITT.VERNACULARCRAFTSMAN

BY

JOHN WISDOM MACKAY, M. A.

Ath e s is submit t e d to th e Scho ol of Gra dua t e Studies in pa rtial fulfillment of th e requirements

for the degreeof Doct o r of Philo sophy

Department of Folklore Memo rial Univers ity ofNewfoundland

1995

St Joh n' s Newfoundland

ABSTRACT

This study of musical perfo rmance and it s context examines the local scenes in wh i c h i t occurs. ora\'ling on materials from academic and popular sources as well as fieldworkand interviews,the claim is madethat countrymusic is not only a ma s s me d i a t ed phen ome no n but also a highly me a n ing f ul form of locatedexpressionin the verna c u Larmilieu of wor ki ng class pictouCounty, Nova Scotia. The reflexive ethnographic presentationin the study alsous e s biographical de t a il to suggest the dilemmas of being anat i ve observer.

using the ballad and folksong study of w.Roy xa c ke na Lo (18ElJ-1957) as a startingpoint, the analysispointsto ways in whi ch contempora ry country mus i.c inherits elements of earliernarrative song forms and shows howthosefo rms take rootinonepla c e . In doing so, a distinct ionisma de betwee n the inclusivetermcountry mus i c and the categorieswithin it wh i c h are me a ni ng f ul to local residents and their musical taste conununities: bl ue grass , hanky tonk , o Ld- Edme, and count ry rock. Such categories are not genres in theua ue I sense, but togethermake acompl ex of musical canons.

The focus is on one country musiccraftsma nand his

i i

occ up a t i on al folklife. hisworkworld. A.ctFitt·s apprent i ceship ina musical coal mini ng family and at hou s e par t i e s inSte llarton providedearlyskills wh ic hhe later emp l oy ed in profe ssi o na l bandsacross Canada. Henowear ns hi s live lihood asaone manba nd andrunni ng talent contes ts for amateursinge rs. These performa nces are held at tave r n s , lounges, clubs and Legions, mostly inSt e ll a rto n , Westville . and New Glasgow. His pub.lLc performance iscontra ste d with hi s brother'smo r e domesticpe r f o rmanc e styl e.

The caree r of Art Fitt is shown to be substantially unliketha t of famous sta r s. His knowl e dg e of the cultur al envi ronme nt pr o v i de s himwit h specialskills whi c hheemp l oy ~ to su c c e e d in the business ofperf o rman ce . It is shownthat histi e sto hisaud ience, and tothe large r local communi t y, cond ition hi s rep erto i r e and make hi m an effective orga nic int e ll e ctua l.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

WheT) I movedto Newfoundlandto studyfo l k l o r ein1986, my first reason was to learn from Neil Rosenberg. Throughout my studies, Dr. Rosenberg has been patient, exa c ting, cooperative and stimulat ing. He is my mento r and friend: I could not have chosen a better advisor.

ThoughI rarely allowed themtime toperformtheir duties as members of my supervi s ory committ e e , Dr. Gerald Pociusand Dr. Peter Narv~ezhave guidedmein count lesswerys, always selflessly, andwi t h wonde rfulhumour. Myoth er ins t r ucto r s in folklore,Dr.Gillian Bennett,Dr.DavidBuchan, Dr.Diane Goldstein, Dr.NartinLove la ce , Dr. Paul Smith, and Dr.John wi ddowson, each had a singular passionfor theirworkwhich was infectious. As a te a c he r. I try to emu l at e Dr.

widdowson's stunning lectures and Dr. Buchan's way with a qu i z zic al silence.

r will always feel as thoughMelissa Ladenheimand Pat Byrneare family. Our gang of three, laterjo i ne d by Jamie Moreira in doctoral studies,shouldhaveknown betterthanto suffer as we did. Anita Best, Gebrehana Gebremedhin, Philip Hiscock, Celf Hohmann and Mic ha e l Taft each contributed in specialways to my understandi ngas well.

SharonCochranefielded my pz-obIems withequanimity and humour, and Dr. GeraldThomas usua llysmiled in the end .

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I am indebted to the School of Graduate Studies for a graduate fellowship during my full-time study, to the Folklore and Lenqueqe Archive for an assistantship, and to the Institute for Social and Economic Research for trying to give me research funds. Dr. Peter Sinclair made my teaching in the Sociology Department a good thing. Thanks also to CSC Radio in St. John's, especially Glen Tilley, for the opportunity to occasionallywork through their auspices.

It was Pat and Hugh Armstrong who lit a fire under me to do something like this; Andy Lawless and Linda James kept stoking it. Thanks also to Linda for the computer when mine crashed, Shirley for the meals, Padraig for encouragement.

Terry Ross, Juha Kastikainen, and Don Jackson have all pushed my project from the time it was a germ of an idea, while Don and Elayne computerized me at an opportunetime.

This study wouldhave been impossible without the warm cooperation and openness of Art Fitt,Pat Fitt, and Cathy Fitt Ross. I thank them deeply. Many others around pictou County, named and unnamed, helped me with information and suggestions. My family of origin and of procreation have been extremely patient, sometimes wondering, I think, what this study was all about. Dad, Mary Kay, Sandy, and David, this is what it' 5 all about. Little Alice, your papa's back.

Danielle, you do have a boyfriend.

DEDICATION

This one's forMum

Katharine Relief WilliamsMackay (1913-1994) who didn't believeme at first but continued to believe in me.

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TABLEOF CONTENTS

Abst ra c t ...•... ... ... .. ...•. ... ii

AcknowledO'emen ts tv

Dedication vi

Chap t e r 1 .. . ... .... • ... .. ... ... ... ... . HILLBIL LY ANDCOUNTRYMUSIC AS A SUBJ ECT OF FOLKLORE STUDY

1.1 The focus: Sou rce s of Knowled g e,Levels of

Analys i s .

1. 2 Ap p r oache s to Ethnographi cRefinement 1.3 Ge nres, Hit Parades,

andSingingcommunitie s 18

1.4 FolkloreStudy and

CountryMusi c Schola r s hip 24

Cha pter:2 ... .... ... •... . .. ... 34 ENTER INGTHEPICTOUCOUNTY VERNACULAR

2. 1 TheVerna c u lar FormandCountryMus i cFans 34 :2.2 In ters ec tionsof Biog r a ph yand Ethnogr a ph y 47 :2.3 Mackenzie's sin ger s and

pictou Cou n t y History ... .. 57 2.4 SomeLinks:FolktoCo u nt ry ,

Ballad to Lyric ... ... . .. 72

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Chapter3 89 CONTEMPORARYSONG TRADITIONSINPICTOU COUNTY

3.1 Categories of lo c al mus i c: Learning the Emic Taxonomy . .. .. ... . ... ... ... .... 89 3.2 bluegrass ... • .... .. . ... .. . .... .. 97

3.3 hanky tonk lOS

3.4 old-time 112

3.5 country rock ... . . ... 116

Chapter4 •... . . • .. . . .. .. ... .. . . .. . . ... .••.... 122 PAYINGDUES: OCCUPATIONAL FOLKLIFE OF A COUNTRY MUSICIAN

4.1 WorkingMl<sicians: Ranges of Influence, Levels of

Success 123

4.2 Biography: Family and Context 136 4.3 The working world of Art Fitt,

Entertainer 146

4.4 Th eTalentContests .. ..•... 156 4.5 TheLe i s u r e World of Pat pitt,

Entertainer 164

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Chapter 5 . . .. . . . ... . . .. . ... ...•••.•••.••....•••.• 17 7 -IT FEELS LIKEI'MCHEATING:· LEI SURE, LIVELIHOODANDCRAFT

5.1 Caree r Profilesin Popular

andCountryMu s i c ••••••.••..•. .. .••. 17 7 5.2 Mu s ica l Cottag eIndust ry:

Craft and C..:.ornmun i ty ••••• • ••••• • •• •• .184 5.3 ThePe rfo rma n c e Sc enes .• •. ••.• •.•• • •.•. .. 197 5.4 Of Ta v ern s andIntell e c tuals :

TheVerna cu l a ratWo t"k ..••... .•• .. 21 4

Bi bl iogra ph y •••....•...• ... . .••••.• . . • 225 Li st of Tap e s .. .. •..•. .•.. ... . . .... • .•.. • • .• • • • . • 256 SelectDiscography .. .... . . ..• .. •• . •• •• • •• . . .. ... 257 Append i xI:maps .... .. .. .. .. . • •••.• . • . ••. .... .. •... 260 AppendixII: pho tographs • . •.• . ... ••..• •....•.. . •••. 262

,&ppendi x III: pri nte d matter 269

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Chapter 1

HILLBILLYAND COUNT RYMUSICAS ASUBJECT OF FOLKLORE ST UDY

1.1 The Focus:Sources of Knowledge, Le v e ls of Analysis

Thisstudyof the working life of a coun trymus ic craftsmanispredicatedon a numberof knowledgesand p re sumpti.ona. some of thes eknowledgesand pr e sump t ion s are academi c, some are in everyday terrainswhich inv olvepeople and tr a dit i o ns opera tingat considera bleremove fro m academe. It is the connectionbetweenthese twore a l ms of understanding, the academi cand the everyda y ,which isone core focusof th i s analys is .

Anyan aly s i s of socia l life is u l t.Lmete Iy an acco un t of the intersubjectivitywhi chlinksthe analys t to the object of study, the"ta k e"wh ich is offered in the final report.

Yet inthe realm of popularmusicperformanceandin thatof the worl dofwork, participantstypically have a highly developedexplanatory system forth e i r activities. So me among these participantshave specialized inthe explication of technique, the collectionof memorabiliaand other artifacts, the recording of life stories orthe listing of important facts. The co-existence of th e s e formsof knowledge and the expertisewhich the yembody, on theone hand, withthe traditionof academicenq u i ry on the other,

is both apparentand ye t ofte n cverIooked.' A singular de li gh t of folklorestudy is the frequency with which, by comparison withother di s cip line s , the knowledgeof those withoutformal traini ngis taken as serious lyas the most pe da n t i c academic inqui ry.

The academic approach usedhe r e derives from a number of fields,disciplines , and schoolsof thought. It is centred on perspectives fromfol kl ore studybut inc l udes methods and insightsfromsocialhistory, sociology, ethno logy andmo re recent discourseswhich might beca ll e d culturalstudies . I hope that this broad ana lyticnetle nd s comprehensiveness rather than merely eclecticism.

I will also employ, in the following accoun t, certain everyday knowledges andpresumption s,which, ta k e n as a whole , amount to another perspective. Sucha perspectiveis comparablein some respects to an academi cdis cipline, though based concretelyin the country music worldand its developingeet e-conecdcuenees. " As withmanysubjects of

1 Such al t e r na t e or popular knowledges havebeen richlyused not onlyby folklorists butbysocial hi sto ri a ns . Probab lythe most important figure writingin English for a ne w readingof thepa s t using suchsources is E.P. Thompson, who died in 1993. Hi s Cust o msinCommon (1991) isamodel of such usage and shouldbe readbyall folklorists. Bryan Palmer (1993 - 94) provides an illuminatingoverviewof Thompson 's wo r k.

2 Mus i ci ans' ownusage of categories of occupationa l sta t us isabs tra cted into a modelby Neil Rosenbe rg in"Big Fish, Small Pond..• (1986) It is his usage, which

in te r e s t tofolk l o r i st s, countrymusic and itsperformanc e hasrepositoriesof information andinterpretation which continue to provide a certainbase of knowl edge for participants, both active pe r f orm ers and others involved in th e ·scene.·^J The s e repositories als o define in anongoing wayakind of emergent mythol ogy4aboutorigins, hi s t o ry, andmeaningin!l.given tradition.

Inthe firstin s tanc e ,suc h an emergentmythology tak e s the form of a rather complex account, rescuing expe riencein the form of oralhi s t ory , whichis the raw materialofc:. record of the tr ad i t i o n. Such in f o rma t i on and interpretat ionoften serve a practical pur posein theterrain itself and partly beca useofthi s practicalityare oftenoverlookedor disparage din academic

distinguishes amongappr ent ice , jour neyma n , crafts manend celebrity, that is empl oy e d throu gho utthis study, and elaboratedmore fully in cha pt e rs 4and 5.

l The' sc ene is meant here in thesense defined by SpradleyandMcCur dy: "A cuf turaI scene is the in formation sha redbytwo ormo r epe o p l e that defines someaspectof their experience ." (1 972 22)

4 Bymytho logy , I mea n of course a genera l fram ewor k of und erstand i ngbywhi ch thewo rld as presently known has come to be, throughwhich narra t i ve s of origin , cause and deve lopmentbecome compreh e nsible . Without meaning toente r definit i onal debates, I wiah at thisstageto simply mak e clearthatI do not mean mytholo gyto deno te falsehood.

treatments." The repositories towhi c h I refer here incl udeemeceur historians, col l ectors, media personalities, se n i o r craftsmenand theconcreteforms which their knowledge takes in their collections, publicati ons, work, and memories. As witheverycraftperformance,each competentpractitionerembod i e s a certaindistillation of such repositories, andpart of thejob of this studyisto cease out the form such embodimentsassumein the case of Ar t Fitt, aswe l l as their sourcesand reflections in his traditionand conte xt.

Exceptfor some book-lengthbi og r aph i e s of. well known stars, there areonly occasional treatments of professional musicianswhich combine academicpri ori t i e s and methods wit h a concrete use of biographical and other popularinformation sources." With the possible exceptionof Charles Keil's

~ Suchrepo si tories ofexp e r ti s e are conunonfor a rangeoffolk practices: printedguides, manuals, refere nce works and comparabl e accountsfo r variousforms of folk me d i c ine and folkbeli e f inthe shapeof wide l y distributed materials such asas t r ology charts, gui d e s tohomeopa t h i c medicine andnarrat ives of UFO experi ences ; the conscious repetition, collec t ionand publicationof jokes anddialect form s in la ngu a ge as formsof loc a l colourand el emen t s of reg iona l identit i es; th e amassing , classification, display and evaluationof antiqueand mat erialculture items,

" The Univers ityof Illinois Pr e s s seriesMusic in AmericanLife includesthemost no tab l e of such studies, incl ud ingTownsend (1976)i Porterfi eld (1979); Wi ll i a ms (1981);and most recentlySnow(199 4). Th i s las t book, Hank Snm'lby Han k Snow, asit wa s co-wr itt e nor se riously edi ted bytwo wri t e r s (see bibliography), shades towardthe next category , Most bi og ra ph ies ofwell-knownperformers are co-

Urban Blues (1965) and thework of Barry Lee Pears o n (1984 , 1990), there are no studiesafterwhi c h thepres entone could be said to be modeled. It ca n be noted that the studi esof blues musiciansby Keil and Pearson benefitted from a certain"pcIic Lce of appropr Lat.e nees" which count ry musichasrarel yenj oy e d in folklore circlesor elsewher e

(see1.3 and 1.4be l ow).

Inthe historyof No r t h Americanfolkso ng study certain forms and styles have been privilegedoverot he r s.

Aesthetic judgeme nt s bycol l e c t o r s and comment a t o r s as well as the politicsof tredit i.ona lity info lks o ng study and revivalhave skewed atte ntiona...ay frommusical fo r ms that appe a r to be ta i n t e d by modernity, professiona lism, or wi des p r e a d popularity. A longstand i ngset of presumptions have considered real folk music to be "of the people" and free of certain ty p e s of external contamination in the form of commercial distributionof musical items, active participation byprof ess ionalperformers,or the agenc yof publ i c traditionconservat ionsuch as happens throug h ministries of tourism, cheeoersof commerce, mun icipal governments, heritage commissionsand the like. The

writtenor ghost writ t en byprofessionaljo urna li s t s but ar e pre s e nt e d fOI:popular consumption to fans as

autob iog raphies, su chas is thecasewith Cash (1975); Haggar d (1981 ); Lynn (1976 ) ;Mand rell (1990) ; Nelson (1988)I and doze ns of others.

recogn itionthat suchexclusionary criteriawould limit folk mus ictoa la r ge l y domesticperformance contextha s allowed the tainted cousins of pure traditionto be today more commonlyta ke n as subjects of study.

Country music, as generallyunde rs t oo d , has fromits beginningas a recordedform in the 1920's,been commercial ly or g a n i z e d and isincr e a s i ng l y domi natedby profes siona l s,musi calandoth e r wis e. Onthes e two count s, its recordedform anditsdominancebyprofessi onals, countrymusi cis a particularly awkwa r d form of •fo lk musi c, ' comparable inthesere s pec ts to the blues.

Yet itha s been argued thatcon t empoz-er'y co untrymusic isth e onlyliving folk music inCana da today. in "Cou nt ry Musi c : The FolkMusicof Canada,~ (1 988) Greg Ma r q u is comments:

I believe that countrymusi c , one ofth e most pervasi ve Nort h Amer icanmusical forrns , is the mainstreamfolk music of contemporaryCanada. The

"f o l k , "the Canadianborn of Ang lo-Ce lticorigin, ha ve , with few exc e pt i o ns, ab a ndo ned traditional musi cto a smallnumber of performers, record collectors, and folklorists. (291)

...in an age wh e n the popularhit of la s t year is th i s we ek' s shopping mall music, country and we ster n is alsoone of our few musi cal link s to

the past. In this senseit is truly our modern folk music. (308)

Such a suggestiveoverstatementha s a la r g e component of truth and clearlychallenges the presumptionsno t e d above. Tote s t the claimthatcountrymusicis a folk music, a defini tionof folkmusi c is required, The study which follows is , in a eenee , an elaborationand reti.nement;

of sucha definition, in one specific local and regional context .

The studywill delineate the majorforms of vernacular musicin pictou County and th e contexts in which those musicsoperateas working idioms. Hist o r i cal sources for these vernacular styleswill show ways in which pictou Countyand the surrounding area of northernNova Scotia has re fl e c t e d larger currents in the evolutionof popularmus ic , many conunon tothe Maritime provinces and some corrunon to all of North America. Yet the areaha s simultaneouslyhadits own forms of selec tion, emphasis, and unique development.

Thekey focus for the presentationof contemporarycountry musicculture will be the work i nglife of the only individual in the area who makes a living fromhi s performanceof country music. Analysis wi ll include an

explorat ionof the venues and clients fo r Art Fitt's "gig s ,·

and a comparisonof his approach to musicto that of his br o t her Pa t, whois an amat e ur perfo rmer.

1.2 Approaches to EthnographicRefinement

From the point of view of most song co l Iectiora in North America, those with eitherecedemi.c or commercial intentions, the music of ordinary people has repeatedly come up short in its quotient of expected or desired types of musi c. Academic collectors, entrepreneurs and those concerned with the direction of culture have often approached the realmof folk performance with a set agenda, hoping to underscore certain kindsof theme, style, or form for the sake of intellectual, commercial or political gains.

Such expectationsderive from prioritiesof the academy, the state, pub.l i.aher-a or other sponsors, and perhaps most importantly, from the aesthetic of the collector, stated or unstar.ed •

A re-thinkingof such"e nt ry mentalities" is presently the subj ect of vigorousdeb a t e in all of the social sciences, nowheremore strenuouslythan in anthropology.

"The greatest disciplineof the twentieth century,"as folkloristHenry Glassie has called anthropo logy (1983 126) might be expected to confront the challenge of premeditated fieldwork, as an exercise in its own identity, for a number of reasons: anthropology has focused oncultures (and often through la ngua ge s ) very different from those of the

inv estiga to rs, the fie ldhas a lon gs t an d i ngprofe s si o nal expecta t i o n of hol i s t i c ethnograph icaccounts , and Lt s hig h l yde v e lopedandjeal ou sly gua rded "schools of tho ugh t "

are thestu ffof end l e s s and almostuna voidabledebate.

These factors, in additionto the culturalroleof imper ia lismand theEurocentricfocus whichthat imperia lism has fostered, have allcontributed to a massive body of cul tu ral in f or mationwhos e premisesand categoriesof analysisarelarg e l y of etic orig in.

This dilemmaover thetr ut h-va l ue ofant h r opo l og i cal evi dence is exemplifiedby the r::ontroversyover Margaret Mead 'searlyfieldwork which resu ltedin the classicComin g of Age in Samoa (1928). InMa rg a r etMe a d and Samoa, Derek Free man (1983)hassuggested that the young people in Samoa simp lydidnotliv e in the mannerwhichMe a dde s c ri bed . James Clifford (1986 102-03) c leimethat even th i s controversyamounts to two compet i ngyet equa llyeticand inadequateac coun t s overwrit i ngthelivesof youngSa moa ns , ea ch with its ownlesson to claim , two ge nerations apa r t.

Inher admirably candidrecollectionsof those ea r ly years in fieldwork,Mead he r self (1972) brings he r colleag u es up short for theircontinu ingunder -prepa rat ionof young anth ropolog istsheadingfor the field , and suggests, citing another fi e l dwo rke r : "Howanyone knowswho is anyb o dy'5 mo the r's brotheronl yGod andMali nowsk i know." (15 1 )

10 Wi t h out meaningto be especia l lymetaphorical,it appears, or to assert a linguistic para digmfor other soci al relations, Mead continues:

But at the same time onehas always to remember that the pattern one discerns is on lyone ofmany that mightbe workedout through different approachesto the same human situation.The grammaryou work out is not the grammar but a grammar of the language. But as it may be the onlygrammar anyone wi ll ever make, itis crucial that yo u liste nand recordas minutely and as careful lyas you can and, as far as possible, without refe renceto the grammaryo u are tentativelyputting into shape. (15 6 )

Folkloris ts have general lybeenmor e cautiousinthe i r int e r p r e t i v e schemesthanhave anthropologists. Perhaps the ancestry of fol k lore in literarystudyenco uragesa sati s fuction wi th the telli ng of sig nif icantdetail andwith text ualpr ecision. Perhaps th egeog raphicaccessibil i tyof the cu lture being describ ed made thenotes, queries, coll ecta ne a, and transcriptions mo r e caut ious in the domesticfie l d of folkloreth anthe foreignlands of ant hro pol o gy. What e v e r thecas e, gra ndios e theoryhas no t been thedi verti ng fo r c e in fo l k l ore thatit ha s beenin many ofthe social sciences; in fa c t it hasbeen sugge st ed

11 thatfolkloristshave neglected interp retivetheoryand concentrated on mere t.echn Lque ;" maki ngthe field more of a profession, onemight say, than an acade mic discipline.~

Yet the choice of arenas worthy of interest. the selection of some itemsand the neglectof others . the form and coloration of annotations and introductions , eventhe basis for a ta xonomyusingthe breakdowninto genre, type and version, allattest to ways in which folklore study slices the ken of itsin t e r e s t. Mos t crucial work in folklore analysis is based on fieldwork,where, as Bruce Ja c ks o n hasal l too honestly pointed out: ·Cha nging one' 5 defin itions is alwaysmore difficult than ignoring the evidence .' (1 9 66x)

Impulsesfrom postmodernist and discourse theoryha ve fed the rethink ingof fieldconclus ions in important ways and theemer gent focus is a muchmore refl e xiv e approachto field inve s tig a t i o n, one in whichthe researcher'saims, personal bias, individual manner, cultureof origin, and

7 Ros emary Zumwalt (1988) portraysthe developmen t of folklore in the u.s.as akind of ba tt Ie be tweenits anthropologica landits lite r a ry armsin which no head ever emerges. Cit ingBen- Amos'commentaryon Dorso n 'srundown of fo l k l or e theory , Zumwalt points to the "neglectof theories and philosoph ica lissues." (142)

8 Inth eUnitedStates th e sign ificanceof emp l oyme nt fo r fol k loris tsin the public sector outsi d eof academe ha s ledto anongoingdeba teandadj us tm e nt of the fiel dto its ec on omi c place. Pa ramet ersofempl oyme ntproba bly supplant ce rtain important theoretical fora ys.

12

"He i s e nb e r g uncertaintypri ndpleⁿ⁹ areexplicitly int roducedand seriouslyconsideredbothinthe mentality andcomportme nt thro u gh which the fieldis approachedas wellasin the eventual analysis.

ThE! idea at the base ofpost-modernistanalys is, current in the studyof literature. istha t there reallyis no text of a fi xe dsort. Rather a textis formed with each

"reading,"L;e.the act of encountering a sentence. aqui lt, a song, eventh e silenceof anotherperson, is the text.

withall of the fleeting and ephemeral suggestionswh ic h tha t connotes. Mea n ing ininte rpre tat i on emerges from the ga t h e r i n g of sigrlificant fr a gme n t s , capturing

reverberations, inc a n t i ng allusions,portrayingcontext. One of theeffectsof such style in analyticcommentary is to re su r r e c t thekind'of elitismwhich made intellectual de b a t e s beforethemi ddle of this century largelythe pr eserveof theprivatelytutored and a privileged upper middle class. However, aside from the fetishismof lan gu a ge andakind of competition for degrees ofsubtlety, thi s ne w codeof int e r p r e t a t i o n integrates the investigator's ex peri ence,insight, technique and object of study into a

9 Derivingfrom thedilemmainphys i c a l investigation bywhich one cannot simultaneouslymeasureth eloc a tion and veloci ty of an object,asto do eithermust distend the othe r,Werne r K.Hei s enb e r g'spr in cipl eha s cometo denote th e inevi tabl e impa c t of th eshadowof thein ve s t iga t o r on theobjec t of study.

13 kind of collapsed whole which is meantto be reflexive and dialogic:

Because post-modernethnography privileges

"discourse"over "text,· i t foregrounds dialogue as opposed to monologue, and emphasizes the cooperative and collaborative nature of the ethnographic situation in contrast to the ideology of the transcendental observer. In fact, i t rejects the ideology of "obser-ver observed." there being nothing observed and no one who is observer. There isins t e a d the mutual, dialogical production of a discourse, of a story of sorts. (Tyler 1986 126)

The precursors to such soEt techniqueswere often presented as a separate and complementary commentary, literally anotherbook. Marcus and Cushman (1982) refer to recent forms of these commentaries, especially those in which the investigator -we nc nat ive " as "conf ees ione l fieldwork literature- which is "a t best seldom more than tenuouslyrelated to theirauthors' ethnographic enterprises." (26) In the classical literature of anthropology, by contrast, the questions posed in the separate account, though perhaps occupying a more humanistic slant than the main study, stood at the very centreof methodological concerns in the field. There is Evans-

14 Pritchard's oft-citedshort "Introductory " to The Huer (1940), inwhich he recounts a conversationwith a tr i b e s man which driveshim crazy with its circularity and, complaining eventually of 'symptomsof 'nuerosis'.· {l3l leavesth e readerwo nd e r i ng , amongmany other things, what the tri b e s man thought of him. Ant hropologist Laura Bohannan, who wrote Return to Laughterasawork of "fi c tion"under thenom de plumeof Elenore Smith accennone theless introduced it thus:

I am anan t h r opol o gist. The tribe Ihave described

he r e doe .. exist. This book is the story of the

wayI didfield work among them. Theethnographic backgroundgivenhere is accurate, but it is neithercompletenorte c h nica l . He r e I have written simply as a human being, and the truth I have tried to tell concernsthe sea changein oneself tha~ comes from immersionin anotherand savage culture. (Bo·....en. 195 4 . xviv)

In Bohannan's case. she had herselfpub lishedethnographic treatmrmtsof thesamepeople, theTiv , as didher husband.

Paul Bohannan.^1/l In a traditio n reaching backto at least Malinowski , such persona l reactions to th e fieldexperience

10 Charles Kei l alsowo r k e d among theTiv, from which came Ti v Song(1979). One anecdotefromhi sfiel dworkwh i ch invo l ve d astoryt elli ng con test in wh ich hi s roleas host wasde t e r mi n ing is recountedbyBruceJackson (1987 73-74).

15 we r e consideredseparable writingtaskswh i ch wouldriak mutual contaminatio ni f integrated.

Thefo l k l o r epub li ca t i on swh i c hbe s t reflect this tr a d i t i o n of separatebut equallyint erestingcomme nt ar i e s are thoseof W. RoyMackenz ie (1919. 1928). whose work was carriedout in the same part ofNova Scotia as mycwn. Mackenzie'sclassicdescription in Th eQuest of the Ballad (1 91 9 ) . th oug h rifewith the sort of allusions one might expect fr om his trainingat Dalhous ieandHar va r d universit ies. is not onlya garden of contextual delights for ballad andfo lks o ng study , butan unparalleled ethnographicportrait of everyday lifefo r theelder deni zensalongthe No r t humbe rl a nd shore of Nova Scotia duringthe early years of this century. The ringof truthful detail whichinformsMa c ke nz i e ' s tJescription derives in part,I wo u l d suggest, fr o m the fact of his boyhoodspe nt in River Johnat theend of the last century on that same No r t h u n b e r l a nd shore inthe northwester ncorner of pictou County. His work and its rel evanceto, even impa c t on, my own study is elaborated in Chapt er2.

An appro ach wh i c h integratescollecteddata ,considered analysis, and insightbased on leng t h y personal experience re mai ns rare inacademictr eatments , th ou g h the increase d usag eof thefirst person infor mal pre s e n t a t i o n is an indica t.or of itsaccept a nce . The workof BascomLamar

16 Luns f o r d and Va nce Randolphmightbecons ideredpi<:lneering efforts for th e Ameri can Sou thin thattheywere both in many re spe c tsof the same peopleas they stud ied , and ne i t he r were aca demics. Mackenzie andlat er Helen Creighto n wcrked theirnativegeographicterri t ory ofNovaScotiain th e i r collecti onand therefore ne c essa ri l y had their work colouredby the personalexper Lences ofalifetime. In all of the abovecas es the collectorswere nat ive to the area, thoug h it seemsapparent(fromtheirle v e l of lite racy alon e) that clas sdifferencesbetween collectorand informant weregenera lly imme ns e.^1I

I do no twish to sugge s t throughthis commentary that most prev i ou s forays intothe fieldarefla we dby narrow vision s and eth no centri sm, and that -t his researcher- will escape such tr~pp i ng s. Rather the inte n tio nof st a ti ng the

;:oroblemis topr o vide acritical perspe ctive forthe rea de r th roughthest at e ment alone, and to eq u ipthestudywhi c h followswithsome of the mor epowerf u l recen t insightson th e dialec tic ofde pict ing cult ur al sc e nes .

Onemethod of trying to portray thesce ne s as vividly as possible in a mannerwhi ch is ethnographically sensible

11 For account sof the work of thesepioneers , see, respective ly: on Lunsford (Jones 1984 ) : Randol ph (Cochran 1985); Ma c ken z i e (Lovelace 1977 ) ; andCr ei gh t o n (Creighton 1975). For a depictionand crit i q ue of Creighton'S relationsto the collectingenvironmentwhich espec ia lly emphasizes classand political iss ues, se e McKay(1993 ) .

17 willbe to cast my own observations on the fieldworkprocess into the recounting of the materials which form the focus of the study. In doing so, occasionalpersonal recollections will also be offered as context for the linewhi c h links this text to the place being described.

18

1.3 Genres, Hit Parades, and singing Communities

Ordinary people who are musical have always been catholic in their taste. They take and keep what they like from whatever source to which they have access, they refashion old aonqn and make up new ones, they overlook others, and they shape, in each community. a syncretic amalgaminto a canonDrcanons, a circumscribed but undulating well into whichthey n:gularly dip (Bohlman 1988). In the singing communit.ies of North America, this well may include songs from American minstrelsy, classical ballads, local compositions . obscure ethnic songs, "parlour"

songs, church and gospelmusic. Tin Pan Alley and other popular sources (including country, rock, blues, rhythm and blues and easy listening pieces), even accessibleclassical music sources, all mixed up withapparent impunity. After all, it has been largely academics and corporate tabulators who have created respectively the genres of folksong and the categorized commercial popularity charts. Neither genres nor separate charts necessarily have a consistent pattern or set of criteria, either among themselves or across the academic/commercial gulf which separates the two. Yet everyone who encounters or pe r t.Lc i.pa t.ea in song performance employs some manner of distinguishing one form of song from

19 another, the firstdis-tinctionusually beinl'Jwhether the song is liked. , t.e,whether the song is sti mu l a t i n g, ple a s a nt. appealing, inte r e s t ing,good. or wor t hy. Whether a song is liked, inshor t, is a complex judgeme nt.

Folksongschola rs have longbe encon ce r ned wi t h the classificati on of song genres and types.Suc:"

cl a s s if i c a t i ons are characteristicallybasedon text.. theme, function, or mus ical style. Yet field collectorsha veoft en beenimp ressedwiththewa y in whic hlo c a l per forma ncecuts across suchca t e go r i e s , a classicalbaHed followin ga Hank Williamssong with apparentindiscrimina t i on . This is not to say that th e-fo l kees c n e t Ic- mak e s nodistinctions, ratherth at folk dist inct ion s have the irownimperati ve . Though he struggleswiththe natureof tha t imperative, Glass ie (l 9707; 52-5 3) , for examp le, offe rs a di z zy, tho ugh not unc ommonbr e adt h inthe reper t oire of Oaksvi l l e ,New York 'sDorran ceWei r, andcomnen tson thesel e c t i o n proc e s s:

The collectormust workin an environmentwhere th e same conservatismsuppo rtsat tractivethi ngs like the singing of old balla ds anduna t t r a ctive thingslik e racial prejudiceand a hatre dof educa tion. Too of t en whenhe encount ersthe bearers of traditionhe islike the Haitiun urba n romanticwho loved the co un t ry but resented the existenceof the peasantsin the co unt ryside:

20 wonde r ing ho w such degenerat epeop lecould know suc hbeaut ifu l folklore items, thecoll ector snatches the textshe wa s lookingfo r and retreats to civilizationbeforege tti n g to know the people;

inth esafety of his studyhe can assign numbers to the text and the text to a name in a headnote and to Redfie l d ianpuppetsina skim py introduction. (53)

In la r ge part, for themembe r s of a local communityand Lc s performers, a good songis a good song. Yet this formulationis too simplisticin itself . The canon or well into which loc a l peopleregularly dip may not have explicitlydefined criteria, but it does have criteria. More important l y, eachwellhas loc alrainfa lls, newus e r s, per iodic contamin a tions, and ant iseptictreatmentsthat are considerednecessary by it s users. At times. the wellmay apparentlygo dry. only to refill wi thfreshwate r . sometimes fr om runoff, sometimes from an invis i ble underground spring. Some users alsohave largerbuckets, somehave rain barrels at the cornerof theirhome. And.

tpex t e nd the rneuaphcz- czcndcak Iy, someof thede s c e nda nt s of for mer user s of thewellnow have runni ng water (r a d i o, te l ev ision, stereos) and there fo rehave no use for theold we .de n bucke t in theconununity wel l. Therewil l be time s . in anysong commun i t y .wh e n thedeep nar ro w we ll of folk

21 musical sourc esseemsinaccessiblefor want of te c hn i qu e sof recovery: •the pump don't work ca us e the vandalstook th e ha n dl e . "12 But only a true calamity wi ll causethe wa l l s of the we l l to cave in, forc ing th e dry local folks to move to anentirel ydifferentsource.

Though this wellme t a p h o r may be stretched a bit thin, the pointis that any particularmusical mixin a given geographicarea is a unique confluenceof synchronicand diachronic factors. Each such confluencecouldbe considered a canon, or, as suggested below,a set ofca no ns.

In makingsense of such canons. three important questions of cont emporaryfolklorestudy come into relief, na mely: (1) What is tradition, wha t is creativity, and how doe sthe int e r sec t i onbe t we e n the twooperate? Th e answe rs toth i s question lie prima r i l y inthe relation between an indi vidua l performer andthatperformer'scommunity, includingthat perfo rmer'scOlTUnunityofre f erenc e. (2) What is the relation be t wee n fol kloricprocessesand"ma s s- me d i a t i on"? As the issue is usuallyframe d , this que s t i on as k sabo u t th e nature of re l a t i o nsbe tweenfolkand popul a r culturerer• This multi -faceted pr ob l e m is ever-present and has no answer. It canbe said wit h confid e ncethat it is a rarefo lk l o r e study whi c his unaffectedby th i s qu estion;

I~ BobDylan. "Sub t err a nea n Homes i c kBlue s. · Bri ng ing It All Back Home.

22 the folk-massjuncture is a subtext not only of any study of our culture but of the culture itself. (3) What is the relation between genres and canons, and to what extent is the makeup of canons a conscious or directedprocess? Put more generally, how do communities shape and declare their treditLona , and how does the leadershipof that process operate?

Subsuming these questions are two political \economic axes which directly affect not onlythe processes of folklore but all cultural issues Those axes are class relations,and the relation between centres and peripheries.

This study speaks to each of these issues. sometimes directly, at other times not so directly, but primarily from the perspective of the role played by those whos-e occupation is in the cultural domain, specifically making a living from musical performancebefore small live audiences.

23

1.4 Folklore Study and Country Music Scholarship

sinceD.K. Wilgus placed hillbilly music on the main stage of folklorescholarship with his editing of the

"hillbilly issue"of theJou r n a l of American Folklore in 1965, that antiquatedform has received much attent ion fr o m folklorists. Most of that scholarly interest, which had been foreshadowed in occasional piecesby Herbert Halpert, Charles Seeger,and wilgushimself in earlieryears, wa s directed to the role which hillbilly recordings played, usually inadvertently, in the preservation of genuine folk songs, those which were presumed to have survived in the communities of origin of hillbilly performers, p r LmeriLy through oral transmission. The hillbilly recordings, then, could be thought of as modern broedsddes'? and as having similar effects on the continuation of their folk sourcesas the broadsheet form had on oral ballads, primarily that I)f freezing the versions into cardboard replicationsof the variation which was disseminatedthroughthe mass medium, so it was cIe imed , with respect toly r i c a l consistency,

n In his "I nt r od uc t i o n" to TransformingTradition, Neil Rosenberg (1993 12) attributesthe first explicit comparison of hillbilly records with broadsidesto a Wilgus article in 1951: "A Note on 'Songsfr om Rappahannock County." .!ll!..E 64 (1951) :320.

24 this was as true of the printed broadsheet as it was of recordings. This claimalsounder-scrr e s the fact that mass or popular culture did not ar r i.ve with the electronic media, but rather was endemic in any part of society where literate citizens had access to the printed form, a point which the scholarship inspired by Marshall McLuhan has fine-tuned.¹⁴

This early focus on hillbilly records brought interested academics to the realization that hillbilly music was not simplyan aberration (and to many an abominationl superimposed by commercial interests over the musical culture of isolated rural people. but rather that hillbilly recordings were in part a commercial means of reflecting and disseminating musical cultures, one which left a hard record ofit s content, just as had broadsides in earlier decades, of a complex living form. That automatic archive, accumulated without special intention. has proven to be a rich source for research and understanding.

Some of those scholars looking at hillbillymusic (who now include historians and sociologists,even

anthropologists) bemoaned the tardiness of academic act ent i.on to the hillbilly form and tried to recreate performance contexts as well as biographical and compositional detai lsseveral decades after their

14 Among important early forays into such McLuhanism, see Stearn (1968) and Theall (1971).

25 occurrence. Toobad. itwas suggested. that the valueof hillbillyperformances. repertoires, recordings and personal itieswas not recognized earlier. when the informationwas fresherand the participantsmore vibrantly active.'sOCcasionally older pe r f o rmers have beendr a g ge d out of semi-retiremen tor non-musicaljobs to performagain for renewedaudiencesafte r dec a de s of neglect ; typically suchperfo r manc e s are part living archive, pa r t en te r ta i nment. Success ions of med i a of tr an smis sion for songs (frombr oa ds ide th ro ug hcompact disc) and the mus i c a l styl es wh i c h they disseminate. rarely gainthe nodfrom folklor e scholarsin the periodduring whichthose media and styles become massivelyemployedbythe population. Norm Cohen has repeatedly alluded to theimpli c a t i ons of th i s oversight:

The generation that admitted broadsideballadry as possiblyrerevent to folksong closed its eyes to the sheet music of Tin Pan Alley. The collectors who openedthe canonstothos e nineteen th-cent ury parlor ballads ref us e d to accepthillb illy and

IS One coulddr awa pe.ra Ll eI be twe en the expansionof academic intere st fromsong as item tothe formof its per f o rma nceon theone hand, and the en la rg e d interest in conversati on al ana lys isand ethnog raphi e sof commun icat ions rathe r thanonl y esta blishe d genre s of oral lit e r a tu re, on theothe r . Thatis , thedevelopment of scholar shiparou nd co untry music has sha reda le.rg erdrift info lklore stud y.

26 blues music.Today the folk loristswho study hillbi llyend blues re c ords are slow to accept currentradio- andTV-di s s emi na t ed rock music

(1981 22).

Withspecificreferencetothe styleof music being considered in thepresent study, Cohen asserts:

.. .th e commercial deecendencsof hillbilly music are still thrivingin contemporarycountrymu s i c.

Althoughitmay not sound like folk music to most of us, itis indubitablytheco~tilluationof hillbilly tradit ion•.. It wou Ld be a sb-vne i f1118 lostin t e res t in one of the most accessible expe r i me n t s in folk pr o c e s s at thiscrucial momen t in itsdevel opme n t (1986 494).

PhilipNu s b a um (1974) has gone 50 far as to suggest that country music has actually displacedballadry in fu nc t i onal, textualandstylis ticterms (see 2.4below).

Nusbaumclaimsthat co unt ry musi c has stronger connections to ol derbe I Leds than does evencontemporary balladry. Of course, hillbilly recordings and contemporarycountrymusic ha ve drawnsubstantially not onlyfrom the narrative song tradi t ion, primaril y a 'd ome sti c ' one , but also froma numbe r of more public sty les or 'assembly' traditionssuch asdan ce andchu rch mus i c , travelli n gshowsand itinerant

27 performers16as wellas from any numbe r of popular sources which might inform a re gi ona l canonas noted in 1.3 above.

Yet there is a generalized presumption that folk music and country musicare two entirely different ent.ities. Revival folk performers will typically sneer at.any t h i ng associated with country music : it is seen as over ly formularized, musically pedestrian, right-wing in sentiment.

sexist in attitude, depressing in message, and generally as of littleinterest save as a source of parody. Count ry music is usually also seen as being • from" the southern United States, and its popularity elsewhere as a product of unrelenting commercial promotion of an alien low-b row culture which usurps local tradition.

Anita Best, for example, describes the country music which she heard on radio in Placentia. Bay during the 1950s and 1960s as appealingto the youth such as herself, but also as foreign, threatening, and somewhat treas onous . The adults in her familyand community were debating the

l~ This essential distinctionbetween domestic and public traditions is clearly delineated by Ives (1977) with special referenceto the repertoire which men developed through their exchanges at winter lumbercamps, a social and collective context, as againstthe 'domestic' repertoire, mostly of women, those narrative pieces sung chiefly to theirchildren. Wilgus and the Cohens made a compe r-ab.Le distinctionfor the roots of commercial hillbilly mus i c. Malone (198C': 421-25) provides a thoroughsum.mary of the literature on thislatter question. For a succi nct presentationof theissues see Cohenand Cohen (1977).

28 accuracyof radio versions of famili o!'r songs;

I list enedto thesemysterious de ba tes wi t h only one ear, becaus e r washop ing they ' dput on 'Roses are Bloomi ng ' or 'TheMoun t i e' s Prayer.' Pretty soon theCa r t e r Family andHan k Snow;Jave way to Patsyclin e andJim Re ev e s. We sang the Hank Williams songswit h the most intensedevotion, although therewa s always a vague uneeeinese onus - it wa s the kind of feeliuyyouget whenyou pr e t e nd not to re c ogn izesomeone youknow across th e street. tcr nerc c uc t rcn'' to Lehr,Come and I wi11Sin g Yo u , 1985 Xi)17

Que s t i o n s aroundthe formularizednatureof country music.

its simple mus i c a l form. and the content of itsme s s a ge s , lireaddressedin some measur ewhen I inv e s ti g a t e its operat ion as a vernacularform. But the question of the regional,or perhapsmore accurately. located characterof country mus i c , has becomean issue inthe critical li t e r a t u r e around country mus i c.

I'

In the complex of competing powers andst y leswhich cultural mix, hegemony , and syncretisminvolves, the very Placentia Bay traditionwhi c h Best sets againstimported countrymusicis it s e lf the sourceof re s e n tm ent ina southernshore (Newfoundland)communi tysuch as Calvert , whe r e "stageIris h and ccuntry andWe s t e r n ...rema i.r;the most po p ul ar music "but "fi ddl e musi c...andsongs about reset t l ement"ar e felt to be fo isted on th e m. (Poc ius, 1991 27 6- 277 )

29 Peter s o n and Davis (1975) have argued thatcountry music has be e n so dominatedbyar t i s t s from theAmer i c an south, espec i a l l y that str etch from Te nn e s seethr o ugh Texas, that themu s ic mustbe seen asa regiona1 form wh i c h has been diss eminatedelsewhe r e. Mal on e (197 9 ) makes muc h the samecl a im. Yet as ear lyas 1965 , wilg u s , ref e r ri ngtothe ori g i nof country musi c intheSou th as a -myt h in the best sense of the word, · point s out :

Early hillb i lly performerscamenot onlyfrom the lowlan d andup la ndSout h, bu t fromth e Grea t PlainsandtheMidwe s t -and eventua llyNew Englan d . Nov a Scot ia an dAlb e rt a . Th a t the first irnporto!l n thillbillyradio show originated in Chicaql') cannotbe expla inedsolely by thepresence of Southern migrants. It s manifestationwas of the Sout h; itsessence was of rural America.

Southe rnhillbilly music seems but a specialized and dominant fo r m of a widespread music... (1965, 1961

The re sona nteff ect of th~domi nan t hillbilly-co unt ry recordings on regi onalmusicsout si d e of the Americansout h isunden i a bl e ,as isthe tend e ncy toward regionalselecti on from thatdominan t repertoire . Inanareaof investigati on onl y now begi nning totakecoh e r e ntsha pe, th e study of

"nor thern " coun try musi cis nonethelessonfir m foot ing.

30 SimonBronnersuggests:

... countrymusicha d anind epend e n t and cont inuous de ve l opmen t in areasoutsidethe South incorporatingexisting fdktraditions.

surt .nermcre, regional cf.aracteristicsevolvedfrom a selectionof commerciall y disseminated music fr om contiguousareas in additionto popular sources (1978 2)

Theastou nd ingdirectimpact of therecordsand radio play of such artistsas JimmieRodge r s , Hank Williams, and Kitty Wellson the style and repertoireof musiciansinthe t1aritimes continues even today. Just as astounding and direct, however is the continuingimpact of co mme r c i a lly successful pe r f o r me r s fromth e region such as wilE Carter, HankSnow, and Don Messe r,whose regional influenceis multipliedbecause of theirroots inthe Maritime Pro vinc es. " The model whichRose nberg(1976) first developed to interpret there g i o na lmi x unde rscoresthe specialro l epla~'edbysuch celebrities in the creationand popularizationof stylesand songsin what is essentiallyan aesthetica llyconservativearena.

18 The most ccncveeeillust rationof the direct effect of one star's styleon a localpe rf o r me r inthe ;,"' antic region isMi ch a e l Taft'5 por:-raitof th e careerof JillU1lie Li nneqar' inNe weoundl and (191H), a career based on his abilit y tosou uc ju st like HankSnow, even to the poin t of replicati ng his mist akes.

) l

Somewhatclosertohome st ill .Cape Breton fiddler Winston ScottyFitzgerald ce eei.ns themod el for many fiddlers in ea sternNovaScotia, includi n gNedet ee• Art's fa ther, andtoa lesserext.en'; forfiddlersthroughout the Maritimes . Those insout h e r n New Brunswickmaypa t t ern th ei r fiddle-pllllyi ng after Ned Landryof SaintJohn, and so on down to qui tea loc al le ....el where the nuanceof tech nique and sty lemay be directlyob servedor eve n taug ht faceto fa c e . Mos t coun tryperform e rscitemembe r s of their fa mi ly, despit e the obscureperforma ncerecordof suc h kin , as primary influences . The patternis one of concen triccircles of influence. withocc a s i o na l segments at ta i n i otg disproportionateirnp.!lct duetothe i rau ra l accessibi lity througheithera pri vileged or a.wid~spreadmod e of dis semination. The criticalfactorin heav i nganimpacton oth e r s is literallytobe heard and app r ec iat e d. Impressio na bleyo u thwhoare acquiri ng their musicalskills will learnfromwhatever theyhe a r endli ke. Ke nne t h S. Golds tein (l98Z) ha sarguedthat inthe caseof theBritis h fo l ks ong reviva l, availablerecordingshavesupp l e mentedand augme nt e dthe sourcesofreper t oi r e and sty1eava i lable from rel atives andconmuni.t. y, rathe r than replaci ng those mo r e traditio nal sou r c e s. The reis every reasontobelie ve th at the sa mecomplementarityapplies toco unt ry music in Nova Scoti a.

32 Itis the syncre t ismtha t;countrymusic achieveswhich makesitso fascina t i ng. Count ry music islo cal , yet it is globa l. It is made up of recordedoriginals, their foreb e a r s and covers. yet the reis alwaysa richcultural statement "unde r the covers.· Beyond it s int r ins i c int e r e s t. country musichas become aki nd of synedoch e for North Americanrural and small town life. In nThe Hillb i lly Mov e me n t" (1968) , O.K.wilgus makesth e claim, often cited, that all folkl o r i st s who are interested incurrentor collect edfolksong in America shouldknow andunderstand hillbilly music. He continues: •...moreimpo r t a n t is the widerrecognitio nof the significanceof hillbillymusic in the total Americanculture.· (271) Without misplacinghis intention, it can rea d i l y be suggested that such canalso be said of country mu s i c in Canad ianculture.

The formal studyof country music. as wit h so many fie l d s of currentconcernin folklore, is compLema ntadby a vast popul a r lit e r a t ur e (ef. "supernatural" belief, fo l k art, contemporarylegend),especiallyin the form of

"fan zines·and commercia l biographies (portio ns of the repos itoriesreferred toin 1.1). As well, there are many ser i ousamateur collectorsanddocument ersof the ongoing coun trymusic phenomenon. Analystsfrom fields other than fol k lore ha v elook e d at aspects of count ry musicsuch as the economicsofth e ind us try , care ersof high-p rofile

33 performers,messagegcontained in the lyricsof the songs, re l a ti on s h i p s of co untrymusictoot h er popularmus ics. and stylistic currents ov e r time.

A handful ofinve s t i ga t o r s, most notablyWi lliamrvev, JamesP.Leary,George H.Lewis, Peter Narv&ez. Rich ard Peterson. Ji ll'lllieN.Rogers. NeilV.Rosenberg. andCharles Wolfeha ve recent l yconcent r atedonelementsof contemporary co unt ry mu s i c performance. Al lof thislitera t u r e is now coa l e s cing into a ki nd ofco un t ry mus i c stud ies movemen t wi th aske leta lorga n~zat i o n . The Country Mus i c Founda t i on in Nas hvil leand theannua l co nf e r e nc e in Jimmie Rodge rs' hometown of Meridian. Mississ ippiare two st r o ng legs for such a skeleton inthe American context. Asa formwhich cl e a r l yha sbot"folk and popularelement s,country music has be e n shownto havea powe rfulcap a cityto fo l d patterns together, withmed i a, regional,corrmunity,c1;'l.d personal factors all affecting ongoing re pe rt o ires, th e mi:l<

reflec ti ng boththe exposure to certain forms and the cult ural concernsof partic i pants . The working language th atis countrymusicis awide s p r e ad vernacula r wit h its pr omot e r s, it s nay-saye rs, its or d inarypa rt i cip an t s andnow finallyits serious st u dent s.

Cha pter2

E:NTE:RINGTHE: PTC'l'OU COUNTY VE:RNACULAR

2.1 Th e Vernacular Form and Country MusicFans

Inherre ve al ing studyof theuse of the "corrunonplace"

in Newfoundlandballad singing, Debo r a Kadishnot only presents recurrentthe me s whichmus t be undressedfrom the refrains of the localballad repertoireinordertor meaning to become cl ear,butalsosuggests a kind of oral formulation in performancewhich drawson commonly useful descrip tive ph r a s e s . In thecourseof th is textual surgery, Ka dish makesthela r ge r point of suggesting the po we r, inclusiveness, and apparent contradictions of the role which thevernacular pl a y s:

... at the coreof thevernacularis the doub le no tion of indigenousandun f r e e. Po s s e s s e d of its ownlogic,in dialoguewith the other voices of it s time andplac e, nativebutno t free. The vernacularstresses mixtur ewhe r e mostusece a of the term"f olk l o r e" ha ve stressedpure ness. It is thereforeusef u l to draw upon thissense of the ver nacular fo r considera tion of songs that are themselv es mixe d ,loc a l reshapings of popularor Lneemeercnat songs, and thatare realized in different ways byNewfou ndla nd me n andwomen . (19B3 132 )

Der iv ingfrom theLa t i n -ve rne cutue- rne en i.n c native, the no ti on of ve rn a c u l a rwa s first applied to loca l spoken lang uages , often unwrit tenones, into which holy texts were eve ntually tr a ns l atedin or.rer fo r relativel yun l e ttere d

35 masses to gainacquaintancewi t h learnedmessages. Inthis usage, vernacularmeantmuch the samethingaspa t oi s or argo t. Ca r r i e d across genres,vernac ularhas come to ref er in architecture to thepolyglot creation s of folkbuilding, andin music to referto what happens "on the ground." i.e. the mu sicwhichordinarypeoplemake, regardlessof the va r i e d originsof that music.

The termvernacula r has gatheredst.atueasa ki nd of buzzwordof relevance in its recentus a ge , but the idea of vernacu lari tycontainskeyemphases for understa ndi ngany strongwo r ki n g idiom whichlives andgrows in regular performance among ordinary peop l e . Such a vernacularid i om ha s almost no formal record or cohort of criticalli t e r a t i to givei ta formandstructure with explicit etLc defin it ion. Vernacularmusic is a sort of amorphous clamour t.cwacddialogue ,refracting thepit c h of th e street toward theears of thosewho wouldde i g n to li s t e n fromth eshelter of establishedcriti ca l veh i c l e s. Vernacul ar forms take shape in process and rare l y ecc cnmc det e existingtaxonomies. By dlffin i ti o n , all verna c ul a r fo r ms challenge theperimeters of de f i nedgenres and are th eembodiment of cul tural exp r ess ions wh i c h demand generic refinemen t.

Country mus icis a rich example of a vernacular discourse in th a t it is a fluid and multi.vari.ateterm fu nc tioni ng as a shellfor a varietyof musical expressions.

36 The contou rsof countrymusiccha n g ewi t hthe vagariesof style as theyva ry over timeand acrossre gions, with the aest he t icpredilect ionsof agiven pe r f o rmer.andwith that performer'sprefe r redrepertoi re. Country music is finally, inany given per f o rma nc e, what anaudienceacceptsas ap p roprialo::!and legitimate inthe con tex t, despit ewildly dif f e r en t stylisticchar a ct e rist ics1 it is this final form of inclu sionand exclu s ion . tha t decfer-cd byen ",udience.

which shapesDohe g emonicvehicleove r time . The over- archingdo min a t i onwh i ch hege mony impliesis, inthe ca s e of country mu s i c . limited bu t rea l. Notwithstandi ng my dis c o veri e s aboutthe lim it e d scope of theterm coun try musicin Pi c t o u County (whichare reported inthene xt chapte r), country music isth e keyide n t ify i ng concep t for a wide musical terrain, anditstopographic feature sare colla ps ed into e ·bndscape~ when a heoefl'Onic form spreads wid e l yand inclusively. Such hegemonic forms frame up over time and cons o lida t ewit htheir popularity. For exa mpl e, thesmooth, innovative, rel a x ed but polishedsoundof the lat e fif ties and ear l y six tie s ,ep itomi ze dbyJimReeve s and Pa tsy Clin e, becamethe hegemonic fo rm of the Nashvi lle scund;' Thisst y li s t i c umbrella suc ceededthe honky- t onk form of a few yea r sear lierrepres en t e dby Hank Williams and

I Thebest succinc t ov e r viewof the ri seanddecline of theNa s hvi lleSound is Ivey(19821.

31 Ki t t y We l l s.

The repert oi r e s and st yli s t i ccharac teris tics of each popu l a rmusic fo rm, wi th rock andjazz asmuc has with country , hav e takensha pe infits and l'ltarts,withdra mat ic addi ti o nstothefea turesof thecanon atcertai n s':.agesin the his toryof the form as well asperiodsofsta g na t i o n and con s ol ida t ion interve ningbetweenimport a nt inno va t i ons.~ Hegemonic formswithineachidiom act as broad sweeping gesturestowardvernacularmus i c s and thereby form one powerful input ecwarc the definition of acommunity's musical cano ns.

But bey o ndthe s e gen er i c.hegemon i c and literal aspects of avern a c ula r music. aperva s i ve vehiclesuchas co untry music no t onl yoccupi esa br o a dsectionof musical terra i n bu t alsofa llsout as a comrronpartof conversa t iona l rh eto ri c. InPictouCountyone canfrequently enco u nt e r li nes from count ry songs and ref erenc e s to well-know n coun t ry music persona liti e s in or dina ryconve rsati o namong personswho havenodirect co nnecti onto profes sional co un t ry mus i cperformanc e . Aknowledgeof countrymusic he r e mightbe compared to a knowledgeof certain

2 The relativelycomplicatedpatternbywhich some sense can be made of waves inthe historyof each•named system"in a vernacularmusical tradit ionwasfor some years an ongoing challenge forRichard Peterson 11972,1975).Th e name "named system" is from Rosenberg ,Transforming Trad i t i o n 177-182.

38 pr o fe s sionalst~·.tsin some malecompa niesor of soa p operas or popu l armovies and the ir st a r sinot her circles ,serving as a part of theeveryday voca bulary. part of a dialog i c code inwhichthecont e n t of a popul ar cul t ur e systemis the basis for idioms, all e go ri e s and ana logies ineveryday life.

To interpretsuch a vernacular discourse in it s own or other va li d terms requiresa th ickacquaintancewithits forms and fo i ble s as they operate among participants. To pretend knowledge of theseparticulars duringconversation ina study of thissortislikel y to eve ntuallybecome se!f- defeating or emba r r a s s i ng . Even in themidstof conversat ion,an easyacquaint anceon the researcher's part with names , musical forms and songs can be as important as wouldbe suchacquaintance with specificlocal geography for a re g ional study. This kindof information is, is ShOI:t,a kind of insider knowledgewit h whichen effectiveobserver must ha ve at least a passing acquaintance.

Thestudyoffan s is itselfa developing fieldof study whichcommonlyunites te xtual, ethno graphicand semiotic in s ight s . ! In his usefu l delineat i on of forms offan

·p r od uc t i vity ,· JohnFiskedist inguishesamong the semiotic,

) Arecent treatmentof fans which takes the i ractive engagement wit ha communi t y of admirers as a basepoint is Jen kins (1992). Lewis (1 992) is a representativecollection ofrecent, la rgel y Bri t i sh scholars hip on fans in the form of elevenshortstudies.

39 the enunciative,and the textual ways of makingme a n i ng from the texts of a popular cultureform. The enunciativeis a form of meaning-creation or meaning-enhancementwhichmay actuallybe generative in the formationof the fan and might often be most adequately depicted in ethnographic ways, but alwaysacts directly in a shared social and usually oral milieu :

'rhe talk of women soap-opera fans has been widely studied ...to show how the meanings and evaluations of characters and t.heir-behaviour in the soap-opera are relatedmore or less directly to the everydayli ve s of the fans. Indeed. much of the pleasure of Eendorn lies in the fan talk thatit produces. and many fans report that their choice of their object of fandomwas determined at least as much by the oral community they wished to join asbyany of its inherent characteristics. If colleagues at work or at school are constantly talking about a particular program, band, team or performer, many peoplebe c ome drawn into fandom as a means of joining that particular social group (Fiske 1992 , 38).4

Typically,however, :nusic fans do not adopt an attachment to a cultural item through a bald social motivation such as Fiske sllgges.:s,but rather select songs, singers and styles from the welter of forms available according to a complex of aesthetic, regional and biographicalcriteria. The resulting mix functions to prcvrde solace and ide n t i t y for the fan in personal terms and a form of meaning in cognitive

4 GerdldThomas (1980) providesa fascinatingaccount of the interactive effects of soap opera fa ndom and traditional oral narratives i.n the case of French Newfound1o!ind.

40 terms. Themeaningmaybe equivocal. the solace temporary, and th e id e nti t yborr owed, yet the IfIUsicholdsan emot i onal impor t ance for the fanwhich mayalsoserve as a foilin soci a l interacti on .

Fa n s ofcount rymus ic, asof otherforms ofpopular expression . vary in the intens ityof thei r commitment to . degrees of participllotion in, and ext en t of knowledge about, their preferred styl e of music. Theextreme end of this variation is i.llustrated in a numbe r of colourfulst or i e s about fans, and descriptionsof their commi t me nt to certain ar t i s t s andthe i r work .⁵ Thepopularity of Mo eBandy's

ve r sionof "HankWil liams. YouWroteMy Life" couldserve as an illustrat ion of the sent imen t.

But co un t ry music fan s arewi de l y reputedto beamong the mos t loy a l . Onc e es tabl i s hed. the countrymus i c perf ormer canenjoy quite a stable career compa r e d tothos e inother forms ofpopular ar t . Onewidely known song ca n propel an arti st to ce l eb rity status. AsRose nbe r g (1986) has point.edou t, thisstatusis rever sibl e , thoughsuc h

~ One of themost entertainingstor i e s of fan commitment in countrymusic istha t of theJo hnny Cash fan, Bill PlItchof Oklahoma, who cr af tedtheca r descri be din -on e Piece at a Time. · The song tell s of an autopla nt wo rke rwho smuggles an entir eCadi llacout ofthe plant over a period ofyears, The resu lt ing composite model, made of partsdating from1949 to1973, is a rather odd-looking vehicle. After the fan presented Cash withthevehicle, a filmof th e presentationwas used in Cash ' s stageshow. Se e DellarandWoot ton (1984112).

41 re ve r s al seems le s s conmon for country mu sic i a ns than £01:

ot he rs. Manycountry mus i c i an s successfully continue profe ssionalperformancefordec a d es , th ough mos t fansknow them only fo r one bighit, their ·signature song: "Dave Dudleyfor ·six Days on the Road;- Lynn Andersonfor "Rose Garden;"FreddyHart for "Easy Lovin'0" The more cynical pop culture critics refer to such arti s t s as one-h i.t;

wonders. But these country music performers, i tshouldbe pointedout, arecharacteristicallyseasoned professionals wi.thpolishedroad shows and a broadrepertoire.

Perhapsmoreimportantthan such commitmentto lesser known celebrities,however, isthe loyalty thatmany country fans have toth e idiom,or the qen r e,eventhough, as we will see in Chapter 3, that loya l tymay take an even more del i mited fo rm. In count lesslounges and tav e rns across NorthAmerica, countrymusic is the staplefor bar bandsas well as fo r celebrit ieswithlocal, regional or national st a tus. Ev e ry such venue is likelyto sponsor discussions among patr o ns as to what is "r aa Lj.y country.- For them, music ispr i mar i lycountrymus i c , the axis aroundwhic h all ot h er musicstur n. ~1he na sub-set of thelarge vehicl eof countrymusictakesa hegemonicrole,lo ya lt i e s maybecome muc h more specifican d pr e ci se , defininga special form in termsof regio n, gender,mu s i ca l style, orevenlanguage. Thevery seriousfanmay be thepersonwho willdrive

42 hundreds of milesto see a performance, garner an encyclopaedic kno wl e dg e of thepe r s o na l lifeof a favourite pe r f orme r or collect theircompleterecordedworks. quarrel withfamilyor friends over the position of the radiodi al , or adopt an imitativedresscode, in particular that of the stylizedcowboy or cowgi rl. This kind of devotion to a romantically conceived lifestyle or to a particular artist can easily be seen as a mania. where passion for the object of identity or admirationsupplants that for work, family, or community. When one's "Day d r e a ms About Night Things· are focused on someone (or something) one has not met or touched, the form of attachment whichitexpresses deserves a commentarywhic h separates the average fan and casual young "wannabe" from true fan-aticism.

A fulldevotionto such anidealized figureor lifestyle, as sometimes happenswi t h fans of popular culture forms and its heroes, could be unde r s coodas reflecting a kind of impotence. The grandeurof the idol thriveson the projected energy ofthe idol a t r ou s . The impa c t of the star is proportional to the selflessness of the fan. As Buck Owens remarked inhi s recorded Carnegie Hall concert: -It takespeopl e lik eyou to makepeople like me . ·

The Frankfurtschool of critica l analys is, usi nga creativecombination of Marxist andFreud iannotions. sees insuchprojective idolatry acommon need to find real human

43 contact in a harshimrJ~rsona lworld, co n t a c t whichengenders meaning and asserts control. if onlyvicariously. For such analysts, the object of admiration becomesa kind of vessel into whichis poured the alienatedene r gie s of a subordinatedpopulace. class. or class fragment." Access to such an object is possible th r o ug h obsequiousadoration, fortunate socialplacement, thepaymentof a fee , or ...rnitetion . Whethe r such an obj e c t is a livinghuman bei ng , a deadone,or altogether inan imateisof li t tl e consequence. The importantelement is the attachment, the dependence, the project ionof potency. InOne-Dimens ional Man, HerbertMa r c us e points out how people·find theirsou l in their automobile, hi-fi set, split -level ho rne , kit chen equipment. The verymec ha ni sm which tiesthe individual to his society has changed...• (1 9649) Suchconenodities are the objective embodiment of relat ions among people. This embodiment of relationsmay be inre ve r e d commodities, it could be channelled toward a cultish social group or identity, but may just as easily, perhaps more readily, be embodiedin revered persons . Car and star may not be very different fr om each other. The project.ionof special powers or exaltedstatus,ev e n charisma ,ontothe "o t.he rr"j'e it

• See especially, among many releva nt wo rk s using thi s foc us, Ado rn o (l941) , Fromm(1955), keich (194 6, 1948), and Marcuse (1 964 ) for the key ideasandmo s t importa n t statements .

44 deity, idol, lover, or star is a profound statement of the self-perceivedinadequacy ofth e worshipper or maniacal fan. Erich Fromm draws t.heae connections in The Sane Society:

Just as in the case of religiousido l a t ry , he has projected all his richness into the other person, and experiences this richness110tany more as someth ingwhich is his, but as something alien fromhims e l f,deposited in somebody else, with which he can get in touch onlyby submission to, orsubmergence in, th e other person. The same phenomenonexists in the worshipping submissionto a political leader, or to the state. (113)

One Newfoundlandfan, after driving200miles to see a 1988 Merle Haggard concert in St.John's at which "The Hag"

performed for exactly an hour. remarked in a local radio interview that he had oftenwondered whetherhe would ever get the chance to be close to a guy like Merle Haggard.

-Toda yis the day!"he exclaimed. providing a lucid illustration of the kindof "contagiousmagic" on which highlycommittedfandom depends. The incorporationof popular musicitems into the individual psycheand the ensuing "ownership" of a performance item or the performing personality by a fa n through the experiential "flash" of recognition. so succinctlyoutlinedby Ado r no over fifty years ago sti ll makes sense incases like this.

But such formulations spea kof extreme, though perhaps archetypalcases . Not all countrymusic fans enter Dolly Par tonor Hank Willia msJr.look-alikecontests (though such