#MUSIC COLLECTOR APPALACHIAN MUSIC FULL#

Finally, after the Civil War and during the expansion of roads and rail into the mountains, Southern blacks came in as workers, helping to open up Appalachia to broader cultural influences. Moreover, urban centers attracted substantial black populations, and blues thrived in Birmingham, Alabama, Spartanburg and Greenville, South Carolina, and Chattanooga, Knoxville and Kingsport, Tennessee. First, in regard to demographics, the black population varied significantly from Alabama to West Virginia, and while whites may have outnumbered blacks across the region as a whole, the ratio was by no means uniform. One result of this bias was to associate the region almost exclusively with the country-music industry, which historically excluded black musical participation.Ī closer look at the region and its history reveals a more complicated story. Common wisdom held that there wasn't a sufficient black population in the mountains to sustain a viable blues tradition, in contrast with the cotton belt of the Deep South. Another factor has to do with demographics.

#MUSIC COLLECTOR APPALACHIAN MUSIC FULL#

The Appalachian Mountain chain cuts diagonally across the Eastern United States from New York to Mississippi, with Appalachian counties in a full thirteen states. Part of the answer lies in the sheer size of the region. Why, with such an array of blues legends-the Empress of the blues, the Queen of the blues, and the Godfather of soul-has the region's blues tradition received so little attention? Gary Davis, Jaybird Coleman, Luke Jordan, Dinah Washington, and James Brown.

Moreover, it includes such celebrated artists as Bessie Smith, Cripple Clarence Lofton, Cow Cow Davenport, Pinetop Smith, Josh White, Rev. Appalachian blues comes in a variety of styles-vaudeville blues, piano blues and boogie, string-band dance blues, guitar and harmonica-based down-home blues, ragtime blues, East Coast rhythm and blues, and so-called white mountain blues. The Appalachian Mountains are only now beginning to be recognized as one of the primary incubators of African-American music, especially the blues tradition.

Music collector appalachian music