Use the link below to read what we added. We used the "Music of North Carolina" Wikipedia page and added the section "Folk Music."
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Here is what we added to this site!
Folk music is a unique genre of music that represents familial connections and emotional relationships between artists and the subjects about which they are singing. Specifically in Western North Carolina, this genre represents much of the culture and experiences of these people. While there are many different variations of folk music, all of them seek to build communities in an attempt to enhance cultural conversations and gatherings.[15] The Appalachian area is notorious for its ability to bring people together through the transmission of folk classics and authentic voices. These connections also form to share more about a particular region through song that depicts different cultural elements and interests of the people and time.[16]
Folk music is extremely important to the history and culture of Western North Carolina. Most notably, the Appalachian Mountains contain a record of folk music being recited and passed down from generation to generation. Much of this information relating to the vibrant folk music culture in this area of North Carolina comes from The Frank Clyde Brown Collection[17] located at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. This archive gives historians insight into the various artists and songs that were commonly being performed during this time. For example, Frank Proffitt and others constantly performed the infamous song "Tom Dooley (song)" as a way to show their regional pride.[18] These performances show the popularity that folk music held throughout Western North Carolina, especially during its revitalization in the 1950s.[19]
A unique aspect of folk music is its dependence on being orally transmitted.[20] This occurred for many different reasons, many of which deal with the lack of accessibility in Western North Carolina to other places. There was very little communication between these tiny towns and other North Carolina areas, especially when discussing the lack of railroads connecting urban areas to these rural towns; because of that, other expression styles could not be transferred easily.[21] Therefore, it relied solely on the artists to ensure that their favorite renditions of particular folk songs were passed on from one generation to the next. With this ability placed on the artists, there is definitely an impact on the accuracy of the words when transmitting these lyrics over and over again. However, this has often been seen as the beauty and pride of various folk music artists in North Carolina.[22]
For example, tiny western mountainous areas such as Elk Park, North Carolina host a plethora of folk music artists whose memory still lives on in the Frank Clyde Brown Collection. The Church family, headed by Erleen and her husband Truman, epitomize the intentionality of folk singers through their authentic renditions of songs and commitment to bringing communities together in song.[23] Music recorded such as Black Jack Davy and The Sinking of the Titanic show the importance of continuing the tradition of old time folk songs to be orally transmitted into future generations.[24] This idea of a family unit performing folk music together further supports the mission of this genre to connect communities through a shared culture.
A common practice within folk music is to bring an artist's personal dialect into the respective song or ballad.[25] Plenty of times, specific words and phrases will be altered depending on from which region the Appalachian folk music singer performed. To focus on a specific song to give a more clear example, the folk ballad Black Jack Davyhas many different variations, solely based on how the song was transmitted from one region of North Carolina to the next. As many different variations of this ballad have been sung, many of them classify as different names. Within the Ozark Folksong Collection, Black Jack Davy has titles ranging from "Gypsy Davy" and "Black Jack Daisy."[26] This shows the power of the artist in transmitting the words and themes from one artist to the next.
The Frank Clyde Brown Collection is arguably the largest compilation of North Carolina folk music in the nation. This collection includes various versions of songs, artists, and styles of reciting this cultural element. Charles Bond, a former Duke University undergraduate student, accidentally fell upon this collection of archives.[27] Ever since, he has been delving into them to learn about the history of Appalachia folk music and the impact it had on families all around this area. With the discovery of this archive, families along Western North Carolina have recently been able to obtain copies of their beloved family members singing local music.
Through the study of folk music, people today are able to reconnect to the rich cultural history of North Carolina of the past. The projects of the Frank Clyde BrownCollection and other folk music initiatives are introducing the people of the present to a popular form of expression in the past. Going forward, Duke University students are looking to explore a plethora of these archives to learn more about the history surrounding folk music in North Carolina. Through an Archives Alive course currently taught by Professor Trudi Abel, seven students have engaged in a Bass Connections project to uncover more information about this folk music.[28] These projects have culminated into online, digitized sources of knowledge about various folk artists, their hometowns, and the songs they have performed.
Folk music is extremely important to the history and culture of Western North Carolina. Most notably, the Appalachian Mountains contain a record of folk music being recited and passed down from generation to generation. Much of this information relating to the vibrant folk music culture in this area of North Carolina comes from The Frank Clyde Brown Collection[17] located at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. This archive gives historians insight into the various artists and songs that were commonly being performed during this time. For example, Frank Proffitt and others constantly performed the infamous song "Tom Dooley (song)" as a way to show their regional pride.[18] These performances show the popularity that folk music held throughout Western North Carolina, especially during its revitalization in the 1950s.[19]
A unique aspect of folk music is its dependence on being orally transmitted.[20] This occurred for many different reasons, many of which deal with the lack of accessibility in Western North Carolina to other places. There was very little communication between these tiny towns and other North Carolina areas, especially when discussing the lack of railroads connecting urban areas to these rural towns; because of that, other expression styles could not be transferred easily.[21] Therefore, it relied solely on the artists to ensure that their favorite renditions of particular folk songs were passed on from one generation to the next. With this ability placed on the artists, there is definitely an impact on the accuracy of the words when transmitting these lyrics over and over again. However, this has often been seen as the beauty and pride of various folk music artists in North Carolina.[22]
For example, tiny western mountainous areas such as Elk Park, North Carolina host a plethora of folk music artists whose memory still lives on in the Frank Clyde Brown Collection. The Church family, headed by Erleen and her husband Truman, epitomize the intentionality of folk singers through their authentic renditions of songs and commitment to bringing communities together in song.[23] Music recorded such as Black Jack Davy and The Sinking of the Titanic show the importance of continuing the tradition of old time folk songs to be orally transmitted into future generations.[24] This idea of a family unit performing folk music together further supports the mission of this genre to connect communities through a shared culture.
A common practice within folk music is to bring an artist's personal dialect into the respective song or ballad.[25] Plenty of times, specific words and phrases will be altered depending on from which region the Appalachian folk music singer performed. To focus on a specific song to give a more clear example, the folk ballad Black Jack Davyhas many different variations, solely based on how the song was transmitted from one region of North Carolina to the next. As many different variations of this ballad have been sung, many of them classify as different names. Within the Ozark Folksong Collection, Black Jack Davy has titles ranging from "Gypsy Davy" and "Black Jack Daisy."[26] This shows the power of the artist in transmitting the words and themes from one artist to the next.
The Frank Clyde Brown Collection is arguably the largest compilation of North Carolina folk music in the nation. This collection includes various versions of songs, artists, and styles of reciting this cultural element. Charles Bond, a former Duke University undergraduate student, accidentally fell upon this collection of archives.[27] Ever since, he has been delving into them to learn about the history of Appalachia folk music and the impact it had on families all around this area. With the discovery of this archive, families along Western North Carolina have recently been able to obtain copies of their beloved family members singing local music.
Through the study of folk music, people today are able to reconnect to the rich cultural history of North Carolina of the past. The projects of the Frank Clyde BrownCollection and other folk music initiatives are introducing the people of the present to a popular form of expression in the past. Going forward, Duke University students are looking to explore a plethora of these archives to learn more about the history surrounding folk music in North Carolina. Through an Archives Alive course currently taught by Professor Trudi Abel, seven students have engaged in a Bass Connections project to uncover more information about this folk music.[28] These projects have culminated into online, digitized sources of knowledge about various folk artists, their hometowns, and the songs they have performed.