In Pursuit of Authenticity: The New Lost City Ramblers and the Postwar Folk Music Revival

RAY ALLEN

doi:10.1017/S1752196310000155

In Pursuit of Authenticity: The New Lost City Ramblers and the Postwar Folk Music Revival

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 July 2010

RAY ALLEN

Show author details

RAY ALLEN*: Affiliation:
raylaur@earthlink.net

Article contents

Abstract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Abstract

This article explores the discourse of authenticity, which has become central to our understanding of twentieth-century folk music revivals in the United States. The process of musical revival, that is, the self-conscious restoration of musical systems deemed in danger of decline or extinction, has been closely tied to perceptions of exactly what constitutes authentic, or genuine, folk tradition. The term tradition, like authenticity, is a slippery concept based on a self-conscious interpretation and selective editing of the past. The complex mechanism of cultural editing that undergirds the authentication process is fleshed out by focusing on the efforts of one band, the New Lost City Ramblers. During the 1960s the Ramblers introduced northern audiences to what they judged to be authentic southern string-band and bluegrass styles at a time when the urban revival was dominated by popular and artsy interpreters of folk music. The Ramblers' struggles to render accurately southern rural instrumental and singing styles, while maintaining their own distinctive sound, offer insight into the challenges authenticity posed for mid-century folk musicians and their urban audiences, and continues to pose for scholars and cultural workers today.

Type: Research Article
Information: Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , August 2010 , pp. 277 - 305

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1752196310000155 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society for American Music 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, Ray. Gone to the Country: The New Lost City Ramblers and the Folk Music Revival. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010.Google Scholar

Allen, Ray. “Staging the Folk: New York City's Friends of Old Time Music.” Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter 35/2 (Spring 2006): 1–2, 14–15.Google Scholar

Ancelet, Barry Jean, and Morgan, Elemore Jr. Cajun and Creole Music Makers. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999.Google Scholar

Baron, Robert, and Spitzer, Nicholas, eds. Public Folklore. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.Google Scholar

Bendix, Regina. In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997.Google Scholar

Bohlman, Philip. The Study of Folk Music in the Modern World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.Google Scholar

Brunvand, Jan. Folklore: A Study and Research Guide. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1976.Google Scholar

Cantwell, Robert. “Feasts of the Unnaming: Folk Festivals and the Representation of Folklife.” In Public Folklore, ed. Baron, Robert and Spitzer, Nicholas, 263–305. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.Google Scholar

Cantwell, Robert. When We Were Good: The Folk Revival. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996.Google Scholar

Cohen, Ronald, ed. Alan Lomax: Selected Writings 1934–1997. New York: Routledge, 2003.Google Scholar

Cohen, Ronald. Rainbow Quest: The Folk Music Revival and American Society, 1940–1970. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2002.Google Scholar

Crawford Seeger, Ruth. Animal Folk Songs for Children. New York: Doubleday, 1950.Google Scholar

Crawford Seeger, Ruth. “Music Preface.” In Our Singing Country: Folk Songs and Ballads, ed. Lomax, John A. and Lomax, Alan, xxxi–xxxii. New York: Macmillan, 1941.Google Scholar

Cray, Ed. “Folk Song Discography.” Western Folklore 17 (July 1959): 275.CrossRef Google Scholar

DeWitt, Mark. Cajun and Zydeco Dance Music in Northern California: Modern Pleasures in Postmodern World. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008.CrossRef Google Scholar

Evans, David. “Record Reviews: Folk Music Revival.” Journal of American Folklore 92 (1979): 108–109.CrossRef Google Scholar

Feintuch, Burt. “Musical Revival and Musical Transformation.” In Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined, ed. Rosenberg, Neil, 183–93. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.Google Scholar

Feintuch, Burt, ed. The Conservation of Culture: Folklorists and the Public Sector. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1988.Google Scholar

Filene, Benjamin. Romancing the Folk: Public Memory and American Roots Music. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.Google Scholar

Gerrard, Alice. “Colby Street to New York & Points South: The Highwoods Stringband.” The Old-Time Herald (Summer 1992): 26–33.Google Scholar

Greenstein, Mike. “New York Stringbands: The Highwoods & Cranberry Lake.” Bluegrass Unlimited (February 1979): 36–41.Google Scholar

Gura, Philip. “Roots and Branches: Forty Years of the New Lost City Ramblers, Part II.” The Old-Time Herald (Spring 2000): 18–24.CrossRef Google Scholar

Hicks, Bill. “The Original Red Clay Ramblers: Blurred Times, Blurred Time.” www.originalredclayramblers.com.Google Scholar

Hobsbawm, Eric, and Ranger, Terrence, eds. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.Google Scholar

Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “The Future of Folklore Studies in America: The Urban Frontier.” Folklore Forum 16/2 (1983): 175–234.Google Scholar

Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “Sound and Sensibility.” In American Klezmer: Its Roots and Offshoots, ed. Slobin, Mark, 129–73. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.Google Scholar

Kurin, Richard. Reflections of a Cultural Broker: A View from the Smithsonian. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997.Google Scholar

Lass, Roger. “The Art of the Urban Folk Singer.” Caravan (October/November 1958): 20–23.Google Scholar

Lass, Roger. “Chronicle of the Urban Folksinger.” Caravan (March 1958): 11–17.Google Scholar

Livingston, Tamara. “Musical Revivals: Towards a General Theory.” Ethnomusicology 43/1 (Winter 1999): 66–85.CrossRef Google Scholar

Lomax, Alan. “The Folkniks—and the Songs They Sing.” Sing Out! 9 (Summer 1959): 30–31.Google Scholar

Lomax, Alan. Folk Song Style and Culture. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, 1968.Google Scholar

Lomax, Alan. “A List of American Folk Songs on Commercial Records.” In Report of the Committee of the Conference on Inter-American Relations in the Field of Music, Washington, D.C.: Department of State, 1940.Google Scholar

Malone, Bill. Country Music U.S.A. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968.Google Scholar

Miller, Rebecca. “Our Own Little Isle: Irish Traditional Music in New York.” New York Folklore Quarterly 14 (Summer/Fall 1988): 101–16.Google Scholar

Moloney, Mick. Far from the Shamrock Shore: The Story of Irish-American Immigration through Song. New York: Crown Books, 2002.Google Scholar

Nestsky, Hankus. “American Klezmer: A Brief History.” In American Klezmer, ed. Slobin, Mark, 13–23. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.Google Scholar

Rinzler, Ralph. “Festival of American Folklife.” In the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife Program Booklet, 1971.Google Scholar

Rosenberg, Neil, ed. Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.Google Scholar

Schwarz, Tracy. “Letter.” Old-Time Herald 2 (Winter 1989–90): 27.Google Scholar

Scully, Michael. The Never-Ending Revival: Rounder Records and the Folk Alliance. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008.Google Scholar

Seeger, Charles. “Folk Music in the Schools of a Highly Industrialized Society.” Journal of International Folk Music Council 5 (1953): 40–44. Reprinted in Charles Seeger, Studies in Musicology, 1935–1975. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.CrossRef Google Scholar

Seeger, Charles. “Singing Style.” Western Folklore 17 (1958): 3–11.CrossRef Google Scholar

Slobin, Mark. Fiddler on the Move: Exploring the Klezmer World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.Google Scholar

Slobin, Mark. “Rethinking ‘Revival’ of American Ethnic Music.” New York Folklore 9 (Winter 1983): 37–44.Google Scholar

Stekert, Ellen. “Autobiography of a Woman Folklorist.” Journal of American Folklore 100 (1987): 579–85.CrossRef Google Scholar

Stekert, Ellen. “Cents and Nonsense in the Urban Folk Song Movement: 1930–66.” In Transforming Tradition, ed. Rosenberg, Neil, 84–106. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.Google Scholar

Welding, Peter. “Crusaders for Old-Time Music: The New Lost City Ramblers.” Sing Out! 11 (December/January 1961–62): 7.Google Scholar

Wilgus, D. K. “From the Record Review Editor: Revival and Traditional.” Journal of American Folklore 81 (1968): 173.CrossRef Google Scholar

Alden, Ray. Notes to The Young Fogies. Heritage Records 056, 1985.Google Scholar

The Anthology of American Folk Music. Smithsonian Folkways CD SFW40090, 1997/1952.Google Scholar

Fiddlin’ John Carson Volume IV: Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, 17 March 1926 to 11 October 1927. Document Records DOCD 8017, 1998.Google Scholar

New Lost City Ramblers live concert recording and stage commentary by Ralph Rinzler, 3 July 1970, Festival of American Folklife, Washington, D.C. Un-numbered tape courtesy of the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar

New Lost City Ramblers live concert recording and stage commentary by Archie Green, 10 August 1966, Washington D.C. Tapes FT-9789-FT9793 of the Mike Seeger holdings, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Google Scholar

New Lost City Ramblers live radio recording and commentary by host John Dildine, 25 May 1958. Tape FT-9786 of the Mike Seeger holdings, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Google Scholar

The New Lost City Ramblers. Folkways FA 2369, 1958.Google Scholar

The New Lost City Ramblers Old Timey Songs for Children, Folkways Records FW 07064, 1959.Google Scholar

The New Lost City Ramblers Volume 3. Folkways Records FA 2398, 1961.Google Scholar

The New Lost City Ramblers Volume 4. Folkways Records FA 2399, 1962.Google Scholar

The New Lost City Ramblers, Rural Delivery Number One. Folkways Records FA 2496, 1964.Google Scholar

The New Lost City Ramblers: Where Do You Come From? Where Do You Go? Smithsonian Folkways CD SF 40180, 2009.Google Scholar

Pankake, Jon. Notes to The New Lost City Ramblers: The Early Years, 1958–1962. Smithsonian Folkways CD SF 40036, 1991.Google Scholar

Texas: Black Country Dance Music, 1927–1935. Document Records DOCD 5162, 1994.Google Scholar

Thompson, Tommy. Notes to The Red Clay Ramblers with Fiddlin’ Al McCanless. Folkways FTS31039, 1974.Google Scholar