The Digital Past Course Blog – Page 5

Skill 7 Blog 9

For centuries music has been an autobiographical tool to remember. It has been used to pass on information, gather support, or to lament the passage of time and what once was. This was particularly apparent when perusing the Library of Congress Archives. All of the music I listened to was a part of the California Gold collection, an anthology of folk music from Northern California from the 1930s, which highlighted the migrant experience.

During this time period music became a powerful political statement that captured the ideas of the Popular Front. This was a coalition of left leaning organizations that was under girded by the communist party, socialists and independent leftists. When this political movement eventually crumbled and dissolved its underlining tenets remained embedded in the literature, movies, and music of the time. This Cultural Front was led by “black, left, and labor dissenters-who-organized in a newly conducive climate”¹
and eventually led the country into the long civil rights era.

A majority of folk music from this time is a direct reflection of the lives those people lived, the hope they had, the hardships they faced, the religions they clung to² , and their homesickness. The dust bowl drove a lot of people west in hopes of work and that was reflected in the music that was recorded. A number of songs ” depicting California as a veritable promised land“³ ⁴
enticed workers and the mythology surrounding the west became a part of the popular culture.

Having these more personal moments shared through music had a unifying cultural effect because it underscored that many people were experiencing the same things. Although it was well known that impacts of the great Depression were widespread, hearing it sung to you has a different effect. In this way folk music was both a mirror, reflecting the shared trials of life, and a magnifying glass, broadcasting the widespread problems of inequality, dislocation, and joblessness.

Beyond immortalizing the pain of a generation, music was also used to bolster the spirits of the people. Migrants living in labor camps were able to recount stories of their homes, and commune with others. In current popular culture you can see direct link to how music way used back then. At times music is a tool with which to disrupt the system, while at other times music becomes a little bit of oblivion to make life a bit more tolerable.

Sunny California

Does politically influenced music polarize or unite? More specifically, was the impact of politically influenced folk music in the 1930’s a polarizing or uniting factor? From slave songs sang in the fields to politically influenced raps heard on the radio, music has been and remained a prevalent form of expression used to convey personal struggles in a way that others can relate to. Mary Sullivan’s “Sunny California” is a story of a migrant worker leaving Texas to find work in California, a story many Americans found solidarity in at the time. It shares the struggles of homeless dust bowl migrants left out in the rain, their optimism washed away with their“rag houses”

“Sunny California” shares a perspective not uncommon to the many destitute migrant workers suffering the economic effects of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Music like Mary’s was a way to relate to another, to share in their struggles and try to find relief through community. Mary’s experience was collected as a field recording at the Shafter FSA Camp in 1941. She shares in the recording that she wrote the song four years prior, when she arrived in California. The Federal Music Project did the important work of collecting these narratives through the form of folk music, to preserve traditional music, and unintentionally stirring a pot of controversy when music was composed for the purpose of expressing political dissent.⁵ Like today, the country was politically polarized, and was brought together through music that spoke to common experiences.⁶

Musicians in the 1930’s sought to create ways that they could express their experiences in the changing times, in a way that the masses experiencing the same struggles could identify with and come together either for relief or for change. This hope perseveres today for modern musicians who strive to create music that people can find refuge in and be encouraged to action together. In regards to his most recent album, artist Hozier says, “I wanted to write a song that was hopeful and grounded in solidarity, grounded in love, in what can be achieved though organization, through the common respect of the dignity of people. It was the decision to write something that was not cynical, when it was so easy to write something that kind of rolled its eyes at global politics.”⁷

This perspective, in conjunction with Mary Sullivan’s, shows that even without placing blame or cynicism, and perhaps most effectively when done this way, politically influenced music can unite people through the expression of shared experiences and struggles. In this way, music can help work towards healing a nation.

Skill 7/Blog 9

For this skill and blog assignment, I chose to focus on folk music. During the 1930’s, folk music was very important. Most ‘sophisticated’ styles of music during the Great Depression became associated with the elites and the upper classes, such as jazz and opera. They were disconnected from the average American. Folk music, however, was relatable, did not put on airs, and was usually created by average people.

In the 1930’s, when the United States sought to unify itself through shared culture, folk music became a unifying factor. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spent $27,315,217 in order to “rediscover and define American culture” ⁸. One part of this massive undertaking was the upliftment and preservation of folk music. The president and the first lady invited folk musicians to play at official events, and they also “sponsored as series of nine concerts of folk music and dance in the White House between 1934 and 1942”⁹. Their tactics worked. By their efforts, folk music grew popular among average Americans, and folk music became a style of music that was distinctly American.

Since the 1930s, folk music has evolved and gone through many transformations. Today, most would likely consider modern country music to be folk music. However, it is interesting to take a glance back at what folk music was initially like in the 1930’s when it became popular.

As I went through the audio collections in the Library of Congress, I began to realize why folk music became so popular and widespread. Unlike jazz or opera, folk music felt disconnected from what could be considered “the elite”. The feel of the music I listened to was casual, warm, and inviting. The tuneslisten were simpler and easy to remember, as well as easy to hum or whistle ¹⁰. And the singers sang about things that were also simple, easy to remember, and easily relatable and familiarlisten to the average non-elite American ¹¹.

Before I took the time to actually listen to old style folk music, I had no idea what it sounded like. I’d seen pictures of folk artists with guitars and banjos, but I couldn’t picture the music they played. I imagined something similar to country music, with songs that typically focused on lost love and sorrow. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by how cheerful and mellow folk music could be. When describing music, I think it is important to include actual audio of the music as well. Without the audio, describing music is like describing color to someone who is blind.

The Effect of the Federal Writers Project on American Culture

The Federal Writers Project worked hard to promote and represent the cultural diversity that is present in the United States. The writers that worked on the project made it a goal to showcase those who are underrepresented and discriminated against in the United States.

Let’s start off with something as simple as writing about food. In the project known as “America Eats,¹²” the authors wrote about different food cultures around the U.S. in order to represent the different food pathways of America and to discover if there are actual “American foods.” In doing this, they discovered that much of the underrepresented cuisines, most namely African American and Mexican cuisines, were quite delicious.

Previously, white Americans ridiculed African American cuisine and claimed it was “primitive” and “unrefined.” However, white Americans came to learn that their food was quite delicious because it didn’t fall under their “refined” taste. They were able to create many delicious dishes ¹³ that white Americans had not even thought of.

By refined I’m assuming they mean “bland,” but I digress.

In addition to this, white Americans began to also love Mexican food because if men could handle the spice, then that was a good indicator of the manliness they had.

Secondly, one of the most prevalent and impactful projects of the FWP were the ex-slave narratives. Through this, ex-slaves were able to tell their story in a government funded project. This project revealed another cultural difference in America, the dialect¹⁴. The interviewers of the project had some difficulty understanding what the interviewees were saying because of the difference in speech ¹⁵and lack of access to a formal education.

The ex-slave narratives brought light to the lives that were underrepresented and discriminated against for hundreds of years. America was able to see what kind of lives they lived and through the audio recordings, the feeling and emotion of the interviewee comes to life.

How Did The Great Depression Shape Religion?

The Great Depression was the worst economic downfall in the history of the industrialized world. This economic downfall has a large impact on the United States populations, more specifically those in the southern regions. President Roosevelt saw these conditions and according to Paul Sparrow, director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum “He had never seen poverty like that. He saw a family of eight living in a tar paper shack, farming on depleted soil” (Kaufman, 2019). Roosevelt had seen that the sorrows in the South specifically had become pervasive after the Great Depression set in.

From my perspective, I perceive that the South turned to religion in this dire time. I feel that because of this, religion was greatly influenced by the Great Depression as it was seen as an escape and not only that, but a sign of hope as well. From my understanding, the South turned to religion mainly in the form of song.

For this assignment, I chose two different audio sources and chose one clip from each. I did this because I felt it served a vast perspective on my research question, “how did the Great Depression shape religion in the south?”. I feel that those in the South felt that there was a sort of “light” at the end of this depression. and when they felt that light was reached or they had been given a sign that the “light” was near, they were overcome with a sense of joy as their hope grew due to their religious beliefs. It can be concluded that because of the Great Depression, religion was greatly influenced as it served as an escape from the sadness and despair. While religion provided an escape, I believe it also had the potential to create a community, in turn creating the music that is seen used in this assignment.

I feel that embedding audio in text analysis adds a sense of interaction with the text. I feel that by incorporating more than one of your senses, it brings the reader a better understanding of the text because they are appealed in more than one aspect, one through sight and another through sound. I also feel that embedding audio is a very unique way to provide analysis on an argument in the sense that it is more dimensional than the two-dimensional visual an image or text provides.

Green New Deal: Historians on the immense scale required to succeed. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2019, from https://mashable.com/article/green-new-deal-historians/

“Daniel Saw The Stone”, Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938 to 1943, Library of Congress, https://stream-media.loc.gov/afc/fortvalley/afc1941035_afs05148a1.mp3

“Jesus Touched Me”, Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938 to 1943, Library of Congress, https://stream-media.loc.gov/afc/fortvalley/afc1944003_afs07039a1.mp3

Dustbowl Soundcite

When thinking about the Dust Bowl or Great Depression my mind always goes to the iconic 1936 photo taken by Dorothea Lange titled Migrant Mother. This photo depicts a middle-aged mother and her young children, all dressed in rags, the mother with a look in her eyes that makes you feel her pain and worry. I had always known what this photo looked like, but it wasn’t until recently that I learned the story behind it.

Like many others during this time, this mother of seven was migrating west from her home in Oklahoma where the dust bowl had made life almost impossible. She and so many others traveled to California in hopes of finding a better life. These people were nicknamed “Okies” and when they arrived in California were probably saddened to find that it was not the land, they thought it would be. The Great Depression had taken its toll their too and jobs were not as abundant as they had originally thought.

This made me wonder how the Okie’s much have felt before and after this journey. I wondered if they ever regretting leaving the great plains. I found my answer in the Library of Congress’s Collection of Voices from the Dust Bowl in a two-part interview with a man named Tom Higginbotham. Higginbotham was also an Okie who spoke about his experience both in Oklahoma and California. He spoke about how he left Oklahoma because he didn’t want his family dying of starvation like his livestock. He didn’t exactly want to leave his land but he listen. It seems like Higginbotham and so many others saw life in California as hard but nowhere near as bad as living on the dust covered plains.

My research brought me to think that although life didn’t get much easier the Okies were incredibly grateful for the opportunities they were given in California. Higginbotham himself had said listen. Life was rough in Oklahoma and it wasn’t too much better in California, but these people were so appreciative of the government FSA camps. They were grateful for the opportunity to work hard and try to make life even a little better for their families.

Citations:

1. Dana Cochran et al., “The Great Depression,” Matthew Downs, ed., in The American Yawp, eds. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018).

2. “The Migrant Experience”, Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/collections/todd-and-sonkin-migrant-workers-from-1940-to-1941/articles-and-essays/the-migrant-experience/

3. “Interview about life in Oklahoma and how and why he came to California part 1 of 2”, Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/toddbib000198/.

4. “Interview about life in Oklahoma and how and why he came to California part 2 of 2”,Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/toddbib000199/.

Citing A 1930 Original, Right? (Blogpost 9)

Music has long been used to document the emotion of a certain era. But, all too often, we forget what story it can tell about the emotional struggle of the age. And, more importantly, how people were able to use music to express emotion through their or another person’s story. Sometimes these songs will only be shared within a family, community, or just another person. The creation of folk music, in particular, told a great story through much of the 1930s

¹⁶

.Though we understand how people can process through another, we have to question, what role does “artistic credit” play in folk music of the 1930s?

It’s clear that music has done its job of showing joy and sorrow of a time, but John A. McCready challenged this idea through a set of songs about a drunkard. However, these songs, though performed by McCready, are written by different people. And, without clear distinctions, we can interpret the recordings as his original work if not for a description to follow.

The Drunkard’s Dream

¹⁷

is an interesting example. There are many versions of this song that were created before McCready and many versions that would follow. However, there are many names by the same title but don’t hold the same tune or lyrics. But, some truly are covers that mirror the original. Most recently, a 1966 version by the Stanley Brothers. We have to wonder, which is the original? Or, has it never been published?

McCready croons out another tune, The Drunkard’s Child

¹⁸

that tells more of the drunkard from before. Through the metadata we learn that the original song was by J.W. Ferrell. Yet, in the description, Sidney Robertson Cowell discusses the significance of the dog barking in the background. Robertson Cowell explains, that dog belongs to the “drunken mother” the song preaches about. So again, we are left wondering, did McCready know Ferrell? Is that Ferrell’s dog? Or, does McCready sing about his own mother simply through Ferrell’s lyrics? The 1930s isn’t the first time songs have been covered. But, they weren’t reprimanded for the lack of credit that the 1930s singers or a more modern 1966 singers did not give credit to so, today, a copyright attack has been put on the singers of the 2000s, questioning their every move, demanding original content

¹⁹

. But, how original can we be? There’s only so many options and permutations of music that one can create. But, musicians who are redoing the work of someone before them should certainly give credit where credit is due. It allows us to cycle back and see the original creator and how it made them feel first.

The lonesome cowboy of the dustbowl

Every form of art, communication, and documentation has its limits. There are benefits of having a photograph or a in situ document of an event always offers information that is arguably the most important to many historians. However, in the case of more recent history, sources are much more variable than the odd document. Viable sources within the last century or so now include things like more abundant personalized statements, letters, biographies, and video, audio, and radio recordings. Audio recordings in particular offer a special kind of insight into the past. Providing all the necessary surroundings to recreate the same experience, the lack of visual representation allows one to create an environment from their own knowledge and imagination, while maintaining the real presence of the event.

One of the most special, and valuable places that I think historic audio sources come into play, is within the documentation of otherwise all but forgotten people. Some of the most important, and most populous peoples in the early 1900s, were farmers, agricultural workers, and cowboys. In a 1940 recording, called “Untitled cowboy song”, the performer recounts the journey of finding work, in order to gain the hand of a woman in marriage. While it’s unclear if the song documented the performer’s personal story, or if it was simply a draw upon a common cowboy experience, the recording is transporting.

The background of the audio is detailed with the sounds and voices surrounding the performer. The beginnings of the performance, the people surrounding the singer and the person recording the clip, detail normal, daily life. The beauty in having such clips and audio sources available for historic purposes, is that we are given every aspect of the time from which it came. As a historian, being able to immerse yourself in the sounds of the time, and the audible documentation of an event, you’re able to grasp the tone, the feeling, and the real emotion of the event. Given the aura of the 1930s, and the WPA and Federal One recovery projects, audio sources are so very important in being able to bring that time even more alive, and give more meaning to it’s preservation.

Citations:

“Untitled cowboy song”, Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941 (533), Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/toddbib000080/.

Folk Music and the Dust Bowl

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“²⁰and 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)²¹. 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.”²² Music provides an outlet.

Blog Post #9-Sound Analysis

For this assignment, I chose to ask about how John Lomax was able to capture the cultures and lifestyles of Americans as he traveled across the country, recording their different songs and sounds. Traveling the southern states with his wife Ruby, John recorded nearly 25 hours worth of folk music of the different people from Texas to the Library of Congress encased in over 700 recordings, ²³ using “improved recording equipment.” A goal of the Lomaxes was to introduce folk (vernacular) music into popular culture. ²⁴ This shows as an example of welcoming music for all the people, created by the people, a foundation block of the Federal Music Project. ²⁵

While in Houston, Lomax made multiple recordings of a man named John B. Jones. Interestingly, he was able to capture the essence of an instrument that hunters used to communicate with their dogs while in the field. The hunting horns were created from a cow’s horn, and emitted a high-pitched sound, called a hunting horn call. From the audio file, this seemed to be an early rendition of a dog whistle. Lomax notes in the recording that these sounds were able to potentially alter signals from other hunters, but that the dogs only knew of this sound and one other, used to alert the dog back to the hunter when it may have strayed away, in a sort of effort to say come back here you [fools]. ²⁶

As a visual learner, it can be very effective to read a description of any time period and create a picture of the story in your mind. However, when reading about audio, there is a disconnect when analyzing a work. Embedding an audio file directly into the text makes it possible for the reader to experience the story in a number of ways, which can help to believe the argument of the author. I feel that this was an extremely effective way to understand what was being addressed. By including these audio files into our blog posts, we are continuing to pass on the recordings of the folk music in the 1930s, preventing it from disappearance, in a way helping the influential figures of the Federal Music Project preserve history. ²⁷