Charles Todd and Robert Sonkin’s records from the Arvin migrant camp in California are invaluable to understanding folk music in a transient environment. I chose to pull my sound from the “Voices of the Dust Bowl” project through the Library of Congress. Music, and folk music has always been very fascinating for me, because folk music is very regional. It’s a good way to see the uniqueness of different areas around the country. The music may only be slightly different between say, West Virginia and Oklahoma, but they are different.
The recording is called “Come Sit By My Side, Little Darlin“1and it was sung by Nathan Judd, and recorded by Charles Todd and Robert Sonkin in 1940. The location was the Arvin FSA Camp in California. Arvin was a camp for refugees from the Dustbowl, mostly people from Oklahoma (20% of migrants were Okies)2. Charles Todd and Robert Sonkin made a variety of records at Arvin. They took photos, made recordings of music, and recorded interviews. These records are invaluable, because they give us awesome primary sources for folk music examples, and it becomes easier to pick out cultural influences.
Migration reached an all time high during the Great Depression. Unemployment was high, and so were foreclosure rates. People moved away from their home bases in search of work. Many went to California, specifically the Arvin camp. The Arvin camp had people from all over the Midwest and Southwest living there, which meant you got a large spread of folk music with different cultural significance and influences. The collection of recordings that Todd and Sonkin made gives access to many different influences.
In our reading “Sounds of the New Deal: The Federal Music Project in the West”, music is shown to be motivating, and spirit lifting. “It makes me feel as if life is not yet over for me.”3 Music provides an outlet.
- Todd, Charles L, Robert Sonkin, and Nathan Judd. Come Sit By My Side, Little Darlin’. Arvin FSA Camp, 1940. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/toddbib000016/>.
- The Migrant Experience, Library of Congress
- Sounds of the New Deal: The Federal Music Project in the West”page 2https://www-jstor-org.mutex.gmu.edu/stable/10.5406/j.ctt130jtfw.5?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents
