The traditional music of the Appalachians was nearly killed off in the 20th century by the rise of radio, television, and the phonograph, which all but replaced the social function of homemade music in the Southern mountains, while hot new musical forms like bluegrass and rock & roll drew young players away from the music of their parents and grandparents, breaking the chain that saw the old songs and melodies get passed down hand to hand through the oral folk process. Powerful as these modern forces were, however, they ...
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The traditional music of the Appalachians was nearly killed off in the 20th century by the rise of radio, television, and the phonograph, which all but replaced the social function of homemade music in the Southern mountains, while hot new musical forms like bluegrass and rock & roll drew young players away from the music of their parents and grandparents, breaking the chain that saw the old songs and melodies get passed down hand to hand through the oral folk process. Powerful as these modern forces were, however, they were also the same forces that helped preserve the Appalachian tradition in amber, as young musicians, many of them from the big cities, bought old-time records and took them to heart during the folk revival of the 1960s, learning to play and replicate the music itself. No longer learned so much at the feet of elders, but learned instead from Surround Sound speakers, the old-time music of the Southern mountains is arguably more accessible now than at any other time in the past 60 years, thanks in part to the old-time soundtracks of two hugely popular movies, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Cold Mountain. One of the record labels at the center of all this is Rounder Records, which, starting with its first release by banjo picker George Pegram in the early '70s, has been steadfast in supporting the music through numerous album releases. Mountain Journey is a well-sequenced sampler disc of several of these releases, concentrating on the last purveyors of the original folk process. Among the many highlights are Ola Belle Reed's stirring and intelligent "My Epitaph," sung in stark fashion with just acoustic guitar accompaniment. Also worth noting are Pegram's propulsive banjo on the old dance tune "Cindy" and two pieces by Etta Baker, one that finds her playing gorgeous modal five-string banjo runs on "Cripple Creek" (with Mike Seeger on fiddle) and another that features Baker's virtuoso guitar playing on what has become her signature tune, "Bully of the Town." Another gem is Dry Branch Fire Squad leader Ron Thomason's solo banjo reading of a G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter classic, "He's Coming to Us Dead," which reminds listeners that the price of war is perhaps most costly for the poor. That the old-time music of the mountains has survived so well into the 21st century is somewhat of a miracle, and that it occasionally even flirts with the pop charts (thanks to certain successful soundtracks) is even more of a miracle, but then, perhaps not, because these sturdy, ancient songs deal with joy, innocence, anguish, anger, seduction, lust, heartbreak, hope, despair, death, and love with an uncommon directness that defies both time and place even as they help form its definition. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi
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