9 Ozark Music
Justin R. Hunter
The United States of America is home to a variety of regional and culturally significant music forms. From hip hop scenes in Los Angeles, to mariachi in San Antonio, to Cajun music in New Orleans, music represents more than just sounds. Music is also a marker of identity.
The Ozark Region of the United States is home to regional music transplanted from Appalachia and the British Isles. Ozark music, to some, would sound nothing more than “bluegrass” or “Appalachian folk tunes”, but this music is specific to the region and pulls on its ancestry from other traditions. Sonically it may be difficult to hear any difference, but lyrically, there are some important elements that American balladry uses versus Irish/Scottish balladry. Ozark-specific American ballads distinguish themselves even further.
“Relief map of the Ozarks” by Tosborn is licensed under Public Domain.
The Ozarks stretch from St. Louis, Missouri, south and west to Mountain View, Arkansas, and Northwest Arkansas. Ozarksmusic includes many musics imported through time, but also has local characteristics demonstrated below. A common element to American folk music and prevalent in the Ozarks are ballads. For popular music produced today, a ballad is typically a slow love song, but traditionally a ballad is narrative song. Similar to the poetic “ballad form,” balladry is defined by particular rhyming and couplet schemes. Most ballads in the Americas and their Irish/Scottish ancestors, follow a strict ABAB couplet form. Note that the four-line couplets are set with a rhyme on the second and fourth lines. This pattern continues throughout the song.
Couplets
Couplets in music are similar to couplets used in poetry. These lines of text/lyrics often appear as paired lines that usually rhyme and employ the same meter. These rhyming lines are often arranged as “closed” or “open.” Closed couplets include grammatical pauses between lines indicated by periods or other punctuation. Open couples often carry the idea of line one into line two.
BALLAD FORM
Title: | “Barbara Allen” |
Artist: | Pete Seeger |
Link: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9-YK798oU0 |
Year: | 2015 |
Language: | English |
Origin: | United States / British Isles |
Lyrics: | In Scarlet town where I was born |
There was a fair maid dwellin’ | |
Made many a youth cry well a day | |
And her name was Barbara Allen | |
Twas in the merry month of May | |
When greenbuds they were swellin’ | |
Sweet William came from the west country | |
And he courted Barabara Allen | |
He set his servant unto her | |
To the place she was dwellin’ | |
Said my master’s sick, bids me call for you | |
If your name be Barbara Allen | |
Well slowly, slowly got she up | |
And slowly went she nigh him | |
But all she said as she passed his bed | |
Young man I think your dyin’ | |
Then likely tripped she down the stairs | |
She heard those church bells tolin’ | |
And each bell seemed to say as it told | |
Hard hearted Barbara Allen | |
Oh mother mother go make your bed | |
And make it long and narrow | |
Sweet William died for me today | |
I’ll day for him tomorrow | |
They buried Barabara in the old church yard | |
They buried sweet William beside her | |
Out of his grave grew a red red rose | |
And out of her’s a briar | |
They grew and grew up the old church wall | |
Till they could grow no higher | |
And at the top twined in a lover’s knot | |
The red rose and the briar |
“Barbara Allen” is an example of old-world balladry. Full of vague references but vivid with imagery and poetic understanding. The “Scarlet town” is not a specific place, and for that matter, neither is Barabara Allen a specific person in history. The story is meant to use the imagery of the rose and briar as any couple that may have lovers who may be unrequited or who may be sweet and difficult. This vagary helps the tradition to bring the music anywhere and at any time, the songs become timeless.
New world balladry are songs that came with Irish and Scottish settlers to the Americas and are either newly composed or reinterpretations of old-world ballads. A key difference is the inclusion of specific details on time, place, and people. For example, the song below is a beloved Ozark tune. If you are from Northwest Arkansas, you will know many of the towns described. If you are not from that area, you can trace the towns on a map as the singer describes the story.
Title: | “Harrison Town” |
Artist: | Wayne Cantwell |
Link: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vbWZZi2nzA |
Year: | 2015 |
Language: | English |
Origin: | United States of America |
Lyrics: | All you rambling, gambling boys |
Wherever you may be | |
Come listen to my story | |
Shun bad company | |
I know I’ve been a curious lad | |
I know I’ve broke the law | |
But I’ll stand by to hear them shout | |
For me in Arkansas | |
As I rode down to Harrison town | |
A couple of days ago | |
I turned my face toward the west | |
To Eureka I did go | |
The Harrison crowd that followed me | |
They knew I’d have no doubt, | |
I will lye in the Berryville jail | |
Before the week was out | |
They captured me on Kings River, boys | |
I might have killed the crowd | |
If it had not been for the ball and chain | |
That rang so clear and loud | |
My ma, she came and scorned at me | |
She said to shut my jaw | |
There’s never been a worser man | |
In the hills of Arkansas | |
They took me down to Berryville, boys | |
Stood before the courts of law | |
I took my ride by the marshal’s side | |
Down to Little Rock, Arkansas | |
Oh you rambling gambling boys | |
Here what stands over my case | |
That is a horse, a big bay horse | |
That I rode in the race | |
There is one thing that I’ve left out | |
To you I’m going to tell | |
And that is the girl, the pretty little girl | |
That I did love so well | |
If ever I gain my liberty | |
Have bread and meat to chaw | |
I’ll settle down with a blue-eyed girl | |
from Carroll County, Arkansas |
INSTRUMENTS
While balladry is very important in American folk music and in Ozark traditions, these musics are more commonly associated with instrumental music. There are three main instruments of Ozark music: the fiddle, banjo, and mountain dulcimer. The fiddle and banjo are often accompanied by guitars, basses, and other incidental instruments while the dulcimer is often a solo instrument, an accompaniment instrument to songs, or used in a dulcimer ensemble.
The fiddle is a transplant from Irish and Scottish culture brought to North America. Fiddles are constructed in the same manner as violins, but the playing style, musical characteristics, and social aspects of the instrument are different. The banjo is also a transplant instrument based on an instrument of West Africa. As African slaves were brought to the Americas, the akonting of the Jola people (now predominantly from Gambia), is likely the ancestor to the American banjo. Finally, the mountain dulcimer is a wholly unique American-made instrument. This zither, played on the lap or a tabletop, developed as a rural instrument in the mountains of Appalachia.
Mountain Dulcimer
Title: | “I’ll Fly Away” |
Artist: | David Durrence |
Link: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZWZ7KpB5Zg |
Year: | 2011 |
Language: | n/a |
Origin: | United States of America |