Tuesday, February 27, 2018

African American music traditions recorded in the Tennessee Virtual Archive

By Heather Adkins

Music traditions are fundamental to record-keeping in African-American communities. Profoundly unique, these traditions take the shape of storytelling and shared experience across one of the largest cultural populations in the United States. They are often characterized by the use of polyrhythms and rhyme and are passed from generation to generation.

Oak Grove Church of Christ Gospel Group, Chester County, July 20, 1980.
Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.
Image online: http://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15138coll21/id/826/rec/104




Excerpt from Andrew Jones’ interview, relating a story about his Model T Ford, recorded July 14, 1981.
Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.


One such tradition is the “toast.” A toast is performed narrative poetry. Similar to tall tales and ballads, toasts celebrate heroic deeds. The tradition is mostly performed by men, and improvisation of stories is highly valued. The recitations can be traced back to the Reconstruction Era in both rural and urban communities. Toasts are considered a precursor of rap and hip-hop and are still performed today.



Toast “Boll Weevil” performed by Ed Harris at the Chickasaw State Park Festival, recorded May 6, 1980.
Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.


Another tradition, not necessarily including spoken word, is fife and drum music. Fife and drum bands became popular in black communities in the South after the Civil War. Loosely based on militia bands, fife and drum music is a fusion of the Euro-American military drum tradition and African polyrhythms. “Talking drum” influence and call and response patterns are characteristic of the music. Black fife and drum bands are still prevalent in the South, in areas stretching across Northern Georgia to Northern Mississippi and covering the southern border of Tennessee.



Unidentified fife and drum song, performed by Ed Harris and others at the Chickasaw State Park Festival, recorded May 6, 1980.
Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.


Call and response is also typical of spirituals. The tradition of spirituals is most closely associated with the enslavement of African people in the American South. Spirituals developed in the late 1700s and remained a unique form of expression up through the abolition of slavery in the 1860s. Introduction to and uptake of Christianity in the 1600s and 1700s by Africans enslaved in the American colonies was slow; however, the enslaved Africans eventually became fascinated by certain parallels drawn between biblical stories and their own lives. These parallels, combined with African traditions of music and dance, eventually resulted in the creation of spirituals. This “Africanized Christianity” expressed the community’s new faith, in addition to its sorrow. Spirituals are the precursor to African-American Gospel music, which became popular in the 1930s. Both spirituals and Gospel were significant vehicles of protest for civil rights activists.



Unidentified spiritual, performed by Ed Harris, Emmanuel Dupree, James Tatum and Annie Marie Valentine, recorded Aug. 6, 1980.
Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.


Blues is a secular African-American music genre that developed from earlier traditions such as work songs, field hollers, spirituals and minstrelsy. Noted for its focus on emotion and experience, blues derived from the American South by the 1890s. Memphis composer W.C. Handy lent the genre national (and eventually international) popularity when he began publishing sheet music adaptations of blues songs in 1912. Blues artists and musicians recorded and entertained regularly by the 1940s. Like spirituals and gospel, blues became another mode of protest over civil rights, war and prison labor. The genre also boasts its own dance tradition, complete with style-specific aesthetics. Modern blues includes a broad range of styles due to developments in technology and instrumentation (many developed by black blues musicians) and regional influences.


“Low down blues,” slide guitar and vocals performed by Lottie “Wolf” Murrell at the Chickasaw State Park Festival, recorded May 6, 1980.
Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.


If you are interested in these music traditions and more, check out the Tennessee State Park Folklife Project records, available on the Tennessee Virtual Archive: http://tsla.tnsosfiles.com/digital/teva/sites/tnstateparksfolklife/index.htm. The records include an invaluable array of images, oral histories and musical recordings.


“Milk Cow Blues,” vocals and fife performed by Ed Harris, Emmanuel Dupree, James Tatum and Annie Marie Valentine, recorded Aug. 6, 1980.
Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.



The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett
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