Appalachian folk Music

While the Appalachian Mountain range is located along the east coast of the United States, Appalachian Folk music has a wide variety of cultural influences that give it it’s characteristic sound. Its musical roots can be traced all over the world, specifically to Northern England, Africa and Scotland.

Thanks to English colonists settling along the east coast, many popular Appalachian Folk melodies and ballads are strikingly similar to those of Northern England. As the 13 colonies began to grow, so did the musical influences of this genre. African American music tradition introduced different harmonies, sliding tones, vocal dexterity, syncopation and even one of Appalachia's most important and iconic instruments, the banjo. In Africa, the banjo was made using gourds and animal hide. It got a bit of make over by the mountaineers and quickly became very popular amongst the genre. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the numbers of Irish and Scottish immigrants began to rise. Naturally, their musical traditions began to influence Appalachian folk as well.  Scotland’s Neil Gow had developed a style of fiddling, characterized by a rhythmic and powerful short bow saw stroke technique. It soon became standard to play the banjo and fiddle together and this technique ended up being the foundation for Appalachian Fiddling. Here's a video that demonstrates some of the above influences.

Some other important instruments of Appalachian folk music include the Spoons, Washboard, and Washtub bass. That’s not a typo…these common household items were resourceful ways to make music! To play the spoons, all you need is two spoons pinched between your fingers and a sense of rhythm. Armed with these tools, you can now add a unique clicking sound to your tune. The Washboard bass is a little more complicated to make comparatively, but still relatively user friendly. According to the  West Virginia Tourism website, “You simply attach a thin cord to the middle underside of a big metal washtub and tie the other end to a broomstick. Brace the stick on the ground and hold it like the neck of a bass, then pluck the single string while you keep a foot on the tub to adjust the tension and pitch.” this is a resourceful, innovative and much cheaper way to add a bass drum beat to your music. The Washboard is a no assembly required instrument that added a drawn out “raspy” timbre to the mix. The washboard it played by dragging a thimble or your fingers across the ridges of the board.  As immigration continued and people began searching for work, they continued to interact and blend their music with others. Appalachian Folk music was practically built for traveling, as its standard instruments are portable making  it much easier to take your music on the road. You may even be able to do a whole load of laundry after your set!

A typical Appalachian song is an Anglo-Celtic folk ballad or instrumental dance tune. It wasn’t common to formally compose these works as most people were busy traveling to find work or taking care of themselves, homes and families. Instead, songs were often passed down through family and oral tradition, allowing the music to survive generation to generation. John Jacob Niles was one of the first people to start searching for and collecting these tunes. In 1960, The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles was published. He collected music from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee! The individuals in the video below discuss their heritage and experiences with Appalachian Ballad singing as well as sing some wonderful examples. 

The "Cuckoo" Bird song, sang by Clarence Ashley above is originally a traditional English folk song that has also appeared in places like  Ireland, Scotland, the United States and Canada as well. It also may be called "The Coo-Coo", "The Coo-Coo Bird", "The Cuckoo Bird", "The Cuckoo Is a Pretty Bird", "The Evening Meeting", "The Unconstraint Lover", "Bunclody" and "Going to Georgia". There are some variations on the lyrics region to region however they're typically along the lines of  "The cuckoo is a pretty bird, she sings as she flies; she brings us glad tidings, and she tells us no lies." The "Cuckoo bird song" is a very popular example of Appalachian mountain music. The first version of it was recorded in 1926 and was sung long before that. About 150+ recording have been made since. In the video below, David Hoffman explains when and why people were making this style of music. He also shows clips of what it actually would have looked and sounded like then!! 

One of the things that makes Appalachian folk music so unique is it's roots from just about everywhere. That may be a bit of a hyperbole, but it did take a lot of different musical hands to create this versatile genre. I hope you enjoyed learning about Appalachian folk as I did researching it. Thanks for reading this far :)

Ferrell, J. (2022, March 2). Spoons and other weird Appalachian instruments (and where to hear them). Almost Heaven - West Virginia. Retrieved January 17, 2023, from https://wvtourism.com/appalachian-music-instrument/

Smith, W. (2016, June 22). Discovering the roots of Appalachian Music. The North Carolina Arboretum. Retrieved January 17, 2023, from https://www.ncarboretum.org/2016/06/22/discovering-roots-appalachian-music/

U.S. Department of the Interior. (2021, May). African American southern Appalachian music. National         Parks Service. Retrieved January 17, 2023, from https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/                                  historyculture/african-american -southern-appalachian-music.htm

Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, January 3). Appalachian music. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 17, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_music 

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, October 31). The cuckoo (song). Wikipedia. Retrieved January 18, 2023,         from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo_(song) 

YouTube. (2022). Where did Appalachain Music come from YouTube. Retrieved January 17, 2023,                from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRIkXGlttyg.