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The Urban History of Rural

Country Music

Transition of Rural Music from Urban Roots (Paperback - 23 Nov 2010)

 

Robert D. Morritt

 

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          The title of this book was selected to specifically distinguish it as ‘not another book about Nashville music, which would be an accurate statement.

 

          The author collected early ‘rural recordings’ for many years. From listening to their lyrics he noticed their structure betrayed a much earlier provenance. Many had they had evolved into American ballads, their British origin long forgotten. Many of these ballads resurfaced on early recordings originating from rural Appalachia where they had orally been preserved in the hills. Other influences noted were that of urban recordings purchased by rural people from mail order catalogues contained Victorian or earlier songs.

 

          This book identifies many of these obscure ballads and in retrospect a more apt book ‘title’ may have been, “The migration of urban Songs into early Country Records which an accurate description of the contents. The book represents the author’s journeys (for many years) into rural Barns, and flea markets during vacation ‘stops’ in Appalachia to forage for early recordings and is enhanced from his discography compilations over the years and his sizeable vintage record collection which assisted him to collate this information into some semblance of order.

 

          Examples of the transition of early songs and ballads include the following:  An original 18th century ballad sheet from England was found in a ‘flea market’ it was called, ‘The Valiant Sailor’ the author he compared it to an ‘Country’ recording made in 1927 of ‘Charles Guiteau’ (Guiteau shot President James A. Garfield in 1881) he discovered that the song parodied the song  ‘Valiant Sailor’.

 

          The book includes   examples of similar ballads “The Boston Burglar’, which became a Country recording, ‘The Louisville Burglar'. The listings go on with many other examples including   ‘Tin Pan Alley’ songs reincarnated as  ‘Country Music’ In depth disco graphical information is included.