Transcripts For CSPAN3 C-SPAN Cities Tour- Music Of A Nation 20240711

Country musics grand old opery. Today we are at the historic Ryman Auditorium in downtown nashville, tennessee. The nickname of the Ryman Auditorium was the Mother Church of Country Music, which definitely tells the history of both things that it is famous for. It was built by a river boat captain who was famously converted under a tent in downtown nashville in may of 1865, and after his conversion, he believed that traveling ministers should have a permanent home inside that was large enough to take the large crowds of the traveling ministers who came to town. Captain ryman built the Ryman Auditorium and it opened at first in 1892 as a tabernacle. That is the church part of the history. The music part of the history, the Country Music part deals with the grand ole opry, which came here in 1943 after being in many different homes in nashville and stayed here until 1974 when the new opry house was built. During the run of the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, some of the most famous people in all of Country Music history debuted here at the grand ole opry, including hank williams, george jones, dolly parton, all of these brand names of Country Music cut their teeth and got their start in this wonderful building. The Ryman Auditorium almost didnt happen because of the 1884 president ial race, Grover Cleveland versus blaine. The democrats had lost literally six president ial races and had not won since 1856. Tom ryman who was a riverboat captain was a bad gambler and he was walking the streets of downtown nashville and he was goaded to bet on the president ial election. The blaine people were all out thinking that blaine would win and ryman took the bets for the people that thought blaine would win, he said i will bet 100 for you, 1000 for you, and before captain ryman knew what he was doing, he had bet his entire wealth on the outcome of the president ial election in 1884. Fortunately for us, in nashville, Grover Cleveland won. If not, captain ryman would have been penniless and would not have built this grand building. During his life, he envisioned the building as a whole for all types of religious denominations, and it could be rendered for anybody. It did not have a slant for religion, it was available for anyone. It was the Largest Convention hall when it was built south of the ohio river. Nashville got a lot of groups and people who had events here because it was an incredible indoor space. Around 1925, the grand ole opry started in another building in downtown nashville near the state capital, but during that era we had fiddling contests at the Ryman Auditorium. One of the fiddlers competed in a fiddling contest here at the ryman. The fiddling contests were early versions of Country Music. It was interesting that the ryman had been around about 50 years when the grand ole opry came calling in 1943. The building had seen better days from a physical standpoint. It did not have any aircondition, of course, and it didnt have proper heating at the time. Newer buildings were being built in nashville. The War Memorial Auditorium across from the capital, and other venues for concerts. When the grand ole opry move from the War Memorial Auditorium to the ryman, it was perfect marriage. We needed weekly events for this building and the grand ole opry saved the building, in my opinion. If it werent for the weekly concerts every saturday night, the building would not have had the revenue to support it and would have been torn down long ago. But the opry provided new energy to the building and provided a place where literally 3 or 4 or 5000 people a week got to hear the most popular and oldest Country Music show in the world. Interestingly enough, there was a Teddy Roosevelt story relating to the assassination attempt in 1912, related to the Ryman Auditorium. Teddy roosevelt was in the milwaukee wisconsin and campaigning for president after he left office, campaigning again. An assassin shoots him and the bullet enters his chest. He has this long speech of about 50 pages that slowed down the bullet, but it still enters his chest. Teddy roosevelt goes out and gives the speech anyway. One of the things he says is i have just been shot and shows the audience. He gives his long speech in the goes to the hospital. The person who assassinated him tracked him down, stayed in a hotel a few blocks away from the ryman. In 1912, Teddy Roosevelt had been to memphis, chattanooga and knoxville and was supposed to come to nashville, but an antiTeddy Roosevelt group had booked the ryman and only 200 people showed up. This assassin was down the street thinking that the president would be here, and probably the reason Teddy Roosevelt did not come to nashville is this other group had booked ryman. Only 200 people showed up, including the congressman. I kept Teddy Roosevelt from nashville. When they can the assassin in milwaukee after he shot him, the plans he had to shoot Teddy Roosevelt and follow him around were on the back of the hotel stationary from nashville, tennessee two blocks away from the ryman. The Ryman Auditorium played a very key point in the Womens Suffrage Movement and passing the 19th amendment that gave 27 million women the right to vote. Tennessee was the last state to ratify that on august 18, 1920. Before that, susan b. Anthony spoke in this building in 1897, when tennessee was celebrating their 100th anniversary as a state with the tennessee centennial exposition. That was the first time women were able to hear from this National Leader and get involved in the movement. In 1914, tennessee had the first womens suffrage parade in the south, and based on that and what the local women did, the National Womens Suffrage Convention that susan b. Anthony started had their convention right here at the ryman. Many people have been to conventions that had more free time than work time. The women that came here in the fall of 1914, they wanted the right to vote, they were going to work hard and the sessions lasted until 3 00 a. M. The ryman has always been a little too large for Convention State parties. Democratic party in the republican party. In 1921 it was time to select delegates to go to the Democratic National Convention Held in San Francisco, they met here at the Ryman Auditorium. For the first time, tennessee sent two women delegates to that convention, which was historic. That was months before they passed the 19th amendment so the women could get the right to vote. History was made here even at the ryman before the right to vote was granted. The Civil Rights Movement was very important in nashville, tennessee. A few blocks from here, Young Students from fisk university, tennessee a i, now Tennessee State university, all did lunch counter sittings, including congressman john lewis. They got arrested here, they challenge the system of what was going on in nashville, tennessee and the conscience of the country. In 1962, Martin Luther king was here at the ryman to present an award of scholarship money to some of the freedom rider students. One of those students was john lewis. Part of the history of the ryman is also Martin Luther king was here and spoke as well. Jackie robinson spoke a few years later here on the Civil Rights Movement as well. Even before that, booker t. Washington came to the ryman and spoke about three different times, sometimes for graduations. He had a crowd of about 5000 people, which was the capacity back then. If you wanted to hear one of the leading voices in america during any time of the rymans history, they came to the Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman Auditorium is the most interesting place to hear a speech or music in america. It is part home of the grand ole opry, a museum, but today it is a thriving concert venue which has over 200 bookings. In the last five or 10 years, people like diana ross, paul simon, aretha franklin, the foo fighters, mumford and sons, the list goes on and on. Some people who normally play arenas 15,000 or 20,000 play the ryman because it is such an interesting building that people want to perform in. The acoustics in the ryman are some of the best in america. Most people think the mormon tabernacle in utah has better acoustics. The reason people like the Ryman Auditorium is because it is unique, its a small venue, there is not a bad seat in this whole place. The great thing about seeing a concert is you get to see one of your favorite performers, but you get to see them in a much smaller space. When you go to a concert now, most performers think their band and think their fans. When you walk across the stage at the ryman, you pay homage to the building. Most people, their first words out of their mouth is saying something about the building and how wonderful it is to be in here. I talked to former face the nation host bob schaffer during the president ial debates in 2008 that were at belmont university. Gaylord entertainment, now Ryman Hospitality group, had a special performance of the grand ole opry in this building, and they invited bob schaffer, who has a country band, to perform, and brad paisley was hosting the opry that night. I talked to bob schaffer about that because later on, he was moderating another president ial debate that cycle of president obama and john mccain. I asked him, where you more nervous moderating the debate or playing at the ryman . It was an easy answer, he said i was more nervous at the ryman, it was my childhood dream and just as excited as i thought it would be. The rymans legacy on a National Level is a venue that has literally had speeches of president s, organized parties here. We have had famous politicians, even in the 20th century. Al gore senior and al gore junior. Another name people may not know is joe burns, speaker of the house during president roosevelts time. He had many debates for congress here at the ryman. When joe burns died, his funeral was in nashville and fdr came to that. The legacy of the ryman is tied to the legacy of the opry. The opry is now heard world why worldwide because of the internet. It is the oldest show in the world music show in the world. It comes back here in the winter for a few months and you can still see it where it was famous, in the Ryman Auditorium. As the Ryman Auditorium reflects 20th century history, in the mid19th century, a Musical Group called the hutchinson family singers became the most famous entertainers in america as they traveled the country singing about freedom for enslaved african americans. music music [singing] music their 1844 song, get off the track, one of their most popular songs. It became the anthem of the Antislavery Movement in the 1840s and 1850s. music the book is on the hutchinson family singers, this group of antislavery singers born in New Hampshire in the late 1810s and early 1820s. They are a family group, thus the name. Three brothers and one sister. They are antislavery singers who are one of the most popular musical acts of the 1840s and 1850s. I wrote it because the uniqueness of the hutchinsons and their story, but also one really big question how does a group that sings for social reform, musical social activists, how does this group become so popular . Initially there is the three brothers. They are somewhat captivated by this idea of music. They come from a large farming family in milford, New Hampshire, on the southern border of New Hampshire, the southern border with massachusetts. A large farming family, mainly male children. It is a family of 11 boys and two girls. One of the things that happens in the family, the two oldest brothers will split the family farm, are in line to split the farm and the next brothers move into what is the west at that time, into ohio and illinois. The next series of brothers will form a three quarters of the hutchinson family singers and they moved to lynn, massachusetts, and early industrialized area. In lynn, the hutchinsons connect background in music developed in the baptist church. They come from a family that was very active in the Baptist Community in New Hampshire. The church taught them how to sing, how to read music. Music is a little bit problematic, particularly in rural new england at the time. It is dangerous. People who are musicians are seen as a immoral in some way. The church provided a moral space to sing because they are singing the word of god. The hutchinson family is active in the Musical Community in New Hampshire through the baptist church. One of the brothers is the choral director of the church and provides Music Lessons for the community. The hutchinsons tried to run with that in lynn and they get the idea that maybe we could become a performing troop. In 1841, they decide to try their luck as three brothers and they tour new england and upstate new york and it is a complete flop. They grew up, they claimed, in the mountains of the old granite state, the White Mountains, even though the hutchinsons milford, New Hampshire, i think the highest point is only a couple hundred feet and they dont visit the White Mountains in New Hampshire until 1843. But they present themselves as coming from the mountains of the old granite state. They try and experiment. Which is, they bring their youngest sister, 12yearold Abby Hutchinson onto stage with them the stage with impthem. Connecting with new england and the soil along with abby creates a family that instantly resonates with audiences. This quartet creates the foundation for the hutchinson family singers that begins to work. One example, in 1842, they play at dartmouth college. This is one of the early concerts with Abby Hutchinson. The first night, they play to the audience and it is all men. They applaud, it is all great. The next night, they come out and it is a mixed vendor audience with children, right . Men, wives and their children. The first night, the men are literally checking this out will this concert be acceptable for my wife and children to experience . This is the kind of gender dynamic the hutchinsons are playing around with in their stage presentation at this moment in time. In 1842, there is an important event in the fall that starts to push the hutchinsons in new directions. In october of 1842, a fugitive slave and his wife arrive in boston. Seven days later, they are recognized by a friend of their virginian master, who then contacts the master, who contacts the u. S. Marshall and boston, and they are immediately thrown into jail as fugitive slaves and there is going to be a trial over whether or not the latimers are fugitive slaves and should be reenslaved under the fugitive slave laws. The hutchinsons are living in lynn, massachusetts at the time and they begin their steps toward perhaps becoming antislavery singers. The idea of immediatism, which they pick up from their christian background, is a factor in play. Social betterment that connects also to a youth movement. Many of their fans from what we can tell were a younger generation, a generation increasingly mobile. Socially and geographically mobile. They are moving to cities from rural areas. The u. S. At this time is predominantly a rural nation. Its not until the 1890s and after that we consider the u. S. An urban population. Itinerant ministers were traveling from town to town, they would stay for one or two weeks, create a revival. They would have a variety of celebrations, spiritual awakenings. In many ways, these revivals are the earliest example of a kind of Popular Culture in the u. S. Thousands of people of the largest ones would show up. These kind of very personal live performances, whether they be of religion or music are one of the earliest sites of entertainment in the u. S. And the hutchinsons branched the divide for these two areas. The religious realm and the musical realm. The hutchinsons will bear witness to the great antislavery sensation, the antislavery circuit, the sensation of antislavery circuit of 1842, who is frederick douglass. He is one of the most notable persons through his speeches at antislavery meetings in 1842. So the latimer incident and seeing frederick douglass, perhaps seeing him speak, the hutchinsons decide to take this up. They perform in boston, their first foray into antislavery singing, and they do this in very formal meeting settings. They do it brilliantly. The hutchinsons would use tunes other people were using. They often come from revival tent songs people were singing in a church setting. Or, in certain cases, there would be tunes that are circulating in popular consciousness. This is an era of blackface minstrel who are creating popular tunes, and they would borrow from those and create kind of antiminstrel music. One example of a minstrel tune that they borrowed from was oldan tucker. Its their 1844 song, get off the track, the first antislavery song in u. S. History. It becomes the anthem of the Antislavery Movement in the 1840s and 1850s. It is oldan tucker sped up. They used a tune that everybody recognized and put their lyrics on top of it. They refused to sing to segregated audiences, concert spaces in the 1840s and 1850s and of course certainly throughout the 19th century and into the 20th century almost always, except for the hutchinson family shows and a few others, were segregated. Africanamericans are given the seats on the way back, a special section. At the very least, whites and blacks were not to sit together in the same rows, not interspersed. The hutchinson family tried their best to promote a desegregated audience. This gives them a lot of criticism in boston. This creates a famous mob incident in philadelphia, where a mob threatens to shut them down where they are playing. The mob dictates to the theater owners that if the the hutchinsons play to blacks and whites together, they will literally burn down the hall. This is a somewhat Common Threat that has been played out in pennsylvania and philadelphia in particular on several occasions where buildings have been burnt down for antislavery kind of activism. By and large after the civil war, the hutchinson family singers, asa moves out west and then to colorado. Asa would live out west for the rest of his life, john would remain in lynn, abby would remain in new york and in orange, new jersey, and travel the world. She will be in egypt and a variety of other places. She married a man who was extorted nearly wealthy to whome she weds. The hutchinsons wont be that social voice they were in the 1840s and 1850s. By and large, they will be what a lot of singers from the 1960s are today. They make money off of what they once were. They are hadbeens in many ways. They are not creating new music, but going on stage as a relic. People wanted to remember the older age in many ways, and younger generations are curious about all these stories their parents had about this moment. We used to listen to soandso, and you share the legacy that way. But they never reach the fame and celebrity they once had during the 1840s and 1850s. Almost 100 years after the hutchinsons sang for reform, singer and songwriter bob dylan began achieving fame in the early 1960s for his music urging political change in america. Do you consider yourself a politician . Do i consider myself a politician . I guess so. I have my own party, though. There is no president in the party, no Vice President or secretary or anything like that. So it makes it hard to get in. Is it rightwing or leftwing . It is more or less in the center. Most people think that bob dylan is leftist or somehow associated with the Hippie Movement of the 1960s or Something Like that, the voice of a generation in the 1960s, which was a label he detested. They would look at him as perhaps a great leader of the antiwar movement. He never went to an antiwar march. In fact, bob dylan is certainly not partisan. You cant stick him in democrats or republicans. I would also say that you really cannot say he is exactly left or right. There are certain themes that come through throughout bob dylans life about his politics, and those subjects are social justice, support for the underdog, suspicion of institutions and authority, and concern about abuse of power. But those things are not necessarily the domain of the right or the left. I think most people have a misconception about what bob dylan is. Bob dylan grew up in northern minnesota in a town called hibbing, in a portion of minnesota known as the iron range. That is a kind of special place in minnesota. If a person had gone there in the late 1800s, early 1900s, it would have been a hotbed of radicalism. You would have run into socialists, communists. These are folks working deep underground in iron mines, and this is part of the Labor Movement that existed in america at this time. Dylan himself at one time said he was more suspicious of bankers growing up than communists. Of course, bob dylan grew up in a jewish household and that made him a minority on the iron range as well, and that would have an impact too on his support for the underdog and that sort of thing. How many times must a cannonball fly before the answer, my friend is blowing in the wind the answer is blowing in the wind music in the early 1960s, 1950s as well, the Folk Movement in america sprung up. It was certainly, by and large, a leftist kind of movement. Interest in civil rights, antiwar, that sort of thing. When you look at the early songs of bob dylan, we have things like Everybody Knows blowing in the wind. Masters of war would be another one. There were more topical songs. Songs about emmett till, for example. You should all remember well the color of his music these type of songs were written by many other folk singers as well and so what happens is dylan sort of progresses beyond that and by the mid1960s, then he is writing songs that are not exactly songs you can put your finger on. It is all right to my am only bleeding. Like a rolling stone, with almost hallucinatory lyrics. As American Society is changing, people start to read in a heavy political message in dylan at a time where if you are really looking at it objectively, you could not say the songs are necessarily overtly political. A diplomat who carries on his shoulder a siamese cat, resist me, what does this mean. There must be a message. Nixon on the payment, thing about the government. You, the listener inject meaning into that. He is not really offering answers for this time. This voice of a generation thing. He says the answer is blowing in the wind. It is a great song and if i were to make a playlist of 1960s music, that song would be on there, but the answer is blowing in the wind is not particularly helpful if you are searching for answers. So i think that is how we have to understand his political output. Again, thats what i mean when i say it is not exactly what people think. That isnt a equivalent photograph. It means something. It has a philosophy in it. Id like to now officially what it represents to you because you are part of that. I havent really looked at it that much. Ive thought about it a great deal. When people are looking to bob dylan for the answers, it is a great thing to Youtube Bob Dylan press conference 1965. Whichever one you hit, it is going to be great. When you think about what it must be like to have every little thing you do or say looked at so intently. How many times does someone say what is the meaning of the shirt you are wearing right now . Well, you know, what are you going to do with that . It has to great on a person. Any thinking person that was in his situation i think would find a lot of this inane. I think thats a big reason why he really got away from that voice of a generation protest music. He saw it as, in my opinion anyway, as a prison. Once he got locked into being this one thing, he could never get out. In 1965, he went electric, started playing electric guitar instead of just acoustic and harmonica. People would come to his concert and yell judas and booed him and how dare he . And that sort of thing. I think he looked at all of that and said no thanks. music and so by 1966, he is out of there, he goes to upstate new york. And starts having children and starts writing love songs. Domestic bliss in all of that. It is a whole new dylan. The irony is in the 1990s when he becomes a bornagain christian, he is telling his audience he has the answer but people are not very interested in what his answer is. The public reaction to the new dylan in the 1980s, you have to remember we are a whole new generation from the 1960s. There is a whole group of kids growing up in the 1980s, and i would have been one of them, who were watching mtv. Bob dylan, for as great as a songwriter as he is, is maybe not the most mtv friendly persona for a 14yearold. It really depends on which public at this point. The baby boomers are now adults. They have mortgages, they have jobs, are not following music as closely. In some ways, dylan is slipping through the cracks a little bit. On the roll comes out, he sings on that. He is not forgotten but he is not quite the same public figure he had been. When people find out i am a dylan fan, some people say i like his songs but not his voice. Listen deeper. By the way, his voice is often very good. It is like a leather coat. It is broken in, and that is when it fits best. He really is a remarkable artist. It might not necessarily be everyones favorite style of music, but something he has said will resonate with you. music in july of 1966, bob dylan suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident, forcing him to decline an invitation to a musical festival the following summer in monterey, california that would help to define 1967s summer of love in america. Monterey is very groovy, man. This is our generation, man and we are altogether together and it is groovy. music it was a three day musical event in 1967 and kicked off the summer of love. It was the first big rock nroll musical festival that happened here. The city of monterey was a pretty conservative community at that point and there was a concern about the beatniks. There was this young, Hippie Movement. There is a lot of things in the news about, the summer of love was happening in San Francisco and no one really understood what that was about. The boys with long hair and the drug thing, and so they were really concerned about that. The chief of police was so confident about this group here, these kids causing problems, that he released a number of police to go down to cannery row because there was there was a fire. He felt violence could go on at the festival that night. The festival was not just rocknroll music. They brought in all different genres of music. There was african jazz, soul music from lou rawls. One of the biggest hits of the festival was otis redding. Most of the audience honestly had no idea who otis redding was he had been singing for many years. He blew the whole place away. Ive been loving you too long music he died a few months after that festival in a plane crash. They brought a lot of different ideas of music to the festival. I think it opened up peoples eyes, not just the people here but the people in the monterey area. One of the musicians Paul Mccartney suggested was a young africanamerican man who was not very well known in this country but was well known in london. By the name jimi hendrix. He was stationed in the army here in monterey, so he had been here. He had played at the monterey festival and no pun intended, he ignited the place. He poured lighter fluid on his guitar and lit it on fire, and then he smashed it and threw it into the audience. People just were stunned by this. There were guitar parts on the stage. It was part of pop mythology. The story was that jimi hendrix came down the next day and carved his name, but the truth is they had a wooden covering. They came in and took it away after he carved his name. The monterey pop festival was different, a different kind of audience. It opened eyes that we could combine these cultures together. They were very unsure about it but once they saw there was not a lot of problems, i think it was really good for monterey. Seven of the 10 musicians and bands who played at the 1967 monterey pop festival went on to be inducted in the rock and roll hall of fame. The museum illustrates the impact of music on american politics. music were not gonna take it music all i want to say is they dont really care about us music we are excited to have you at the exhibit. It is a new exhibit at the rock and roll hall of fame that looks at culture, our history and how we process things through the lens of rocknroll. A look of what we do here at the rock and roll hall of fame looks at artists and genres and the impact of music, of course, when you step back and look at rocks ability to shape how we view things, how we process things, how people understand things, this notion of rock as a very powerful artform that really has tremendous impact on some of the most important conversations we have in our culture. All i want to say is they dont really care about us music weve been talking about this exhibit for a number of years. We thought it was a fruitful topic. We are partnering with a museum in d. C. To open this in summer 2016 as the rnc comes to town, but also to travel to the museum in d. C. For the next president ial inauguration. We organize the exhibit to look at topics like lgbt issues, freedom, protest songs, rocks use in political campaigns, rocks ability to coalesce and create a movement. Look at those different topics and organize them by president ial administration, from eisenhower through today with obama, and see how our perspective has changed over time, how issues have evolved through lyrics, the artform of rocknroll, and how our society has reacted as a result, and how music has also reacted as society has changed. A big part of what we are doing at the rock and roll hall of fame is telling stories. People come here for these talisman artifacts, just to see an object that has so much power and history embedded that it is magical. This is a sacred object for us, Jimi Hendrixs electric guitar. It is also the guitar that he used on stage when he infamously played the starspangled banner at woodstock. music [the starspangled banner] music a lot of people were considering a rocknroll distorted guitar version of the starspangled banner just short of burning a flag. In a time when a lot of people were frustrated with protests going on and the turbulence being created by these hippies. When hendrix talks about this, he says this is not a protest. This is a tribute. When you write your nasty letters and nasty letters. When you play the National Anthem and play it in unorthodox way, you automatically get hate mail. It is not unorthodox. It is not unorthodox . I thought it was beautiful. He used his ability to connect his passion with the new sound of rocknroll and demonstrate his patriotism and love for the country. 50 years later, it is not uncommon for someone to play an electric guitar version of the starspangled banner at a ballpark, but at the time it was controversial. It was also a moment in time where the performance captured the turbulence of the time, the juxtaposition of patriotism and a love for the country with a change that says we will not do things the same way. Hendrix did not do the starspangled banner the same way. He did it his own way. We have a couple artifacts here, including the 45 from the ballad of the green berets, and a letter from vietnam. This is johnny cashs shirt. When you look at these artists, it is great to look back and see everyone was against the vietnam war. But there are also surprises we forget about, like the ballad of the green berets. The green berets music theres a lot of time throughout history where we see it is not just what we remember, what gets elevated in pop culture. Vietnam is a story that it is very clear that we know rock played a role there, but when you dig deep, there are surprises and alternative perspectives and some stories that sometimes get lost. We also have examples of artists like neil young and southern man, criticizing political views in the south. music Lynyrd Skynyrd responding with i hope neil young will remember. music dont need him around anyhow music you have the debate actually happening with the songs that people release. And compare what is happening now to what has happened in the past, it provides some insights, perspective and way of moving forward. We have artifacts from d snider. He wore these items when he testified at the u. S. Senate Committee Hearing on a censorship. You say your song under the blade is about surgery. Have you ever had surgery with your hands tied and your legs strapped . The song was written about my guitar player having polyps removed from his throat and he was fearful of the operation. I said i will write a song for you. Congress put together the list of the filthy 15, songs public enemies one through 15 in terms of making the case rockn roll has to be controlled, censored. This led to warning labels being put on cds. These songs, if you talk to artists, were not that outrageous. When they it is easy to understand why they wanted d snider there. He was this metalhead, lug, he was a character. It is not a wild jump. I think songs should have imagination, experience and dreams into the lyrics. People can interpret in many ways. She was looking for sadomasochism and bondage and found it. He was chosen to be the one to testify in front of the senate. What they did not know, that this was a sober, articulate family man who was passionate about the subject and helped make the case about the reason rockn roll as an artform should not be censored. There is a couple of instances where the government starts to get involved. There is the pmcrc hearings where one person was arrested for a payola scandal. It is time again for another rockn roll session. For all the gang in the moon dog kingdom. On the surface that is a story about a guy who is corrupt, and he is taking money to play music. The moon dog show. music but it was much more than that. They were operating under the assumption that no one would play what they called at the time race music. No one would play this to white kids without some sinister motivation behind it and clearly there was some financial gain. It was not about this concern for corruption on the radio waves. It was a concern this nascent genre of rockn roll was starting to take root and get into our kidstransistor radios and starting to introduce new ideas that challenged the status quo and create questions and challenge authority. That was a threat to the government. Later on the fbi sends a letter to the nwa for their song fuck the police. They said you cant do this. When Martin Luther king was assassinated the dame after that, james brown had a concert in boston. music i want you to know music how music boston was one of the few cities that did not have riots after kings assassination because james brown kept it cool. Other artists said be careful. You may be a target because now the government knows if you can stop a riot, you can start one. Several times in our history we had situations where the status quo looked at rockn roll and said it is making our kids do bad things. It is promoting illicit sexual activity, advocating drug use. It is not really music. It should be stopped. That happened with elvis, that happens with the beatles, that happens with twisted sister, for example, frank zappa, nwa. The status quo has the understanding that this music has the power to create tremendous unrest or calm people. They got to get involved and control it. This is one of my favorite displays i the rock and roll politics exhibit. These are the original costumes worn by the Village People. They represent a time when our society is starting to change how they view homosexuality and the gay culture. The song ymca is very controversial but also part of the american songbook. It is late played everywhere and accepted. That represents an important time for history because it starts to be where these artists are literally coming out and making it ok. There is a couple of Different Things that are happening in the general time frame. If you think about the disco sucks movement, that was a passionate, powerful, Grassroots Movement where people were protesting a type of music. In hindsight, ridiculous. Why do you need to protest what someone listens to . That might have been not only understood at the time but in some ways a dog whistle from the conservatives saying we are not ok. We are not ok with studio 54 and the Village People and the gay culture being out. Throughout history you see examples of artists, especially in Race Relations, making a statement. Sometimes it is nina simone talking about rage. Sugar boy cops they tried to say communist slop my system, my brother, and me music that also, the history and it to today when you look at the Race Relations in our country. Janel monets writing songs about trayvon martin, michael brown, using her popularity and her voice to make a statement. Be all right music Kendrick Lamar at the b. E. T. Awards had this awards had this politically overt song that used his popularity to get movement to the black lives matter movement. Still today the music and artists provide a voice to people who might not always be heard otherwise. We are presenting this exhibit not as a look at artists or genre but our culture through rockn roll. You want people to understand this is a powerful artform that has the ability to help us process things, to bring a voice to people that might not otherwise have been heard, to help us work through the most important conversations in american culture. There are over 700 inductees in the rockn roll hall of fame. We continue our look at the intersection of music and American History with james brown and the first class of inductees. I feel good i knew that i would, i feel good i knew that i would so good so good i got you music we are in the Augusta Museum of history in augusta, g. A. We call this exhibit james brown, the godfather of soul. The man, the music, his messages of his music. Beautiful memorabilia, a beautiful grand cake he designed as well as instruments from his home. It is a great way to learn about godfather from visiting his exhibit at the Augusta Museum of history. I am one of the daughters of mr. James browned, the godfather of soul. I am president of the Family Foundation and founder of the james Brown Academy of music pupils, known as jam. I would call him a native son. He was born across the bridge in South Carolina. This area is called the csra, central Savannah River area. It borders the Savannah River, South Carolina as well as georgia. He was born right across the bridge a little bit down in barnwell county. But he grew up in augustine. So thats why he made the beautiful song georgialina because he had a good heart for both areas. Georgialina georgialina i was raised in georgia born in carolina georgialina georgialina music my grandmother and my grandfather were poor. So he grew up in the augusta downtown area which at that time was called the terry for the territory of where the black low income people, very poor people lived. His days were growing up in aunt honeys place. There were some things going on. It was a prohibition house so the military gentleman came down to visit the ladies of the evening. As a young boy he got a chance to see some things. That is the area and the surroundings he grew up in. He met bobby byrd, which i call uncle bobby. He met uncle bobby in detention home in rome, georgia. And uncle bobby was part of a gospel group, gospel star lighters. They came and performed in the boys home. Dad was there as an inmate. They met there. They became friends because in order for dad to get out of that detention home for boys, he needed a home and place to go. Somebody had to take them in. On bobby talked his mom into taking in as a young boy so he could get out of the detention home he was in. From that point on they started making music together. They started doing gospel music. That changed when dad started bringing in some of his favorite songs at that time like caledonia and a lot of choo choo voodoo songs, back in the early 1950s. They begin to start doing r b as we know it. The first big hit was please, please, please in 1956. Please dont go please dont im begging you music from the early 1950s on to the late 1990s, dad used to always be really amazed by how people were so in to him and his music. He would be so amazed especially when he traveled across the country. He would call me sometimes when i did radio. He would be in china, he would be in prague. He would be in these places, and these people did not even speak english, but then you so much about him. They loved his music. It amazed him how his reach was so far, so deep to people who did not even speak english. It amazed him, especially being where he came from. I think sometimes he wrestled with trying to understand that. It was baffling, like how how could a poor young boy from South Carolina come into such grace and favor from god to be able to make this music, never went to school, never finished high school, never went to college, never went to a music school. It just came to him. He always wanted to be for the common man, somebody who would go and work the 13, 14 hours and still dont make enough. But still go and do it each and every day. He wanted to speak for the common man because he did not forget being in that position when my grandfather had to walk from South Carolina to augusta just to find a little bit of work for a little bit of money but a lot of time spent. He always spoke with president s starting with lyndon b. Johnson all the way up about opportunity for africanamericans, job opportunity, education and housing in the inner cities, for families to live in. Dad did some things that was way ahead of his time in the 1960s and 1970s. In bibb county, he had a restaurant called the platter. It would be like walmart today. You could go grocery shopping, but you could also have a meal there. There was a restaurant. You go to walmart now, you can do anything, eat, shop, get your hair done. He was really way ahead of his time. He created a system where people could have food stamps so they could be able to purchase the food in the stores. He was so far ahead of his time trying to help his community. music to make a three minute song, that three minute song has so much power for generations to come, i dont even think my dad realized what he was doing at the time. He realized the impact it would make at that time during the Civil Rights Movement, but had we even come out of that movement, to what is going today, happening in ferguson and new york with young black men being shot down . Have we left that movement . It may appear we are not, that we are still in a Civil Rights Movement. Still to this day, that song is relevant, and it means a lot because now it is introduced to a new generation who needs to understand, to be black and to be proud. Dad would always tell me when i play that song, to expand it because we are in a different day and time. He made it for that purpose, but he would always say come back behind that with reminding people that whatever it is you are you come from, be proud of it. If you are a woman, be proud. If you are indian, german, whatever it is, wherever you are from, whatever your culture, you be proud. music music james browns legacy for me is the james Brown Academy of music, jam. These students are awesome. When dad used to talk about the importance of Music Education in schools, his biggest gripe was students needed to continue learning how to play. You put an instrument in a childs hand, you change their life. I have seen that literally happen with the students i work with. Never in a million years thought i would be doing it, but what i have seen is the exact thing my dad told me. These children have embraced his music. They have learned theory, composition. They learned a lot of songs and a lot of artists who have used it. They cling to that. From the georgia home of the godfather of soul, we travel further southward the New Orleans Jazz Museum features this unique form of music. People say jazz is the only original american artform. It is the most famous and worldrenowned, changed the world kind of music. Im leaving here today going back home to stay walking to new orleans something the country and be proud of, something that has defined america not only for americans but for people outside of america and like any great art it has spoken to the truths and the great issues of our time. Right now we are on the second floor of the New Orleans Jazz Museum in the us mint. The jazz museum has been in this building since 1983. After Hurricane Katrina the jazz exhibit was moved out and put in storage until basically now. We have slowly but surely started taking the instruments and the artifacts out of the archive and putting them back. Having the instrument cases behind me, the fountain exhibit, the women of note, the gonzales mural, we have been getting it out. There is actually a jazz museum. The plan is to turn the entire second floor into an 8000 foot history of new orleans jazz exhibit. New orleans jazz is a kind of collectively improvised dance music, influenced by blues and spirituals and ragtime and assorted other things that have come through the crescent city. music jazz starts in new orleans for a lot of different reasons. One is that new orleans is a huge port town, so lots of different cultures, that contributed to jazz, came here through the port, through people bringing goods either from europe or from the caribbean or from the northern parts down in mississippi. There also was a large presence of enslaved africans here and yet the laws governing how you treated the enslaved africans were much more lenient than any other place in the country. I am not at all saying it was easy to be a slave here. It was as difficult as you can expect, but enslaves had it a little easier here. They had a day off, you could not split up families when you sold slaves, they could own their own property and could have their own businesses. It was a little more lenient for them and that meant the kind of things they brought from africa, the cultural troupes stayed around here longer than other places. In terms of things coming together for jazz, you could start seeing it in the early 1890s. Then by the 1900s, 1910, you can start hearing something that if you heard it today you would go, okay that is jazz. music in new Orleans Music had always been an essential part of the culture. They say the first opera performed in america was performed here. Several opera houses, lots of dance halls, lots of places to hear music. Music has always been a inherit part of the culture. Because of that, music is a part of every kind of cultural tradition. There is always music at your parades, your parties, christenings, funerals. Anything you generally hire a band for. We have the largest collection in the world related to new orleans jazz, the jewel of the collection this cornet is what Louis Armstrong learned to play on. It was the cornet provided to him by the place where he was shooting off a pistol on new years eve. music Louis Armstrong was born on jane ally which is now where the Municipal Traffic Court is. He was born about as poor as you could probably be in this country. He started out kind of running the streets and singing in asinging group with his friends and being like one of those kids with the bottle caps on the bottom of their shoes on bourbon street with a hat in front of them. Very resourceful kid. Played a little bit, sang, then he was arrested new years eve when he was about seven or so for shooting off his moms boyfriends pistol in the air and was sentenced to a year and a half in the waifs home. That is where the bandleader got him in the band and he started playing. By time he got out of there he had some idea he wanted to be a musician and started playing among the other jobs he had. Story bill and his mentor, the father figure, he and oliver and his wife would have lewis home for dinner and stuff like that. It is pretty beaten up, played by kids not only during the time armstrong was there but for many years afterwards. Peter davis, the superintendent of the waifs home, presented it to Louis Armstrong and as a gift to the jazz museum in 1965. Louis armstrong confirmed this was the organ, not just the. You can see the notches today. Louis felt that it gave him more of a group with his mouth and his lips on the instrument. So now we move into the area where we have a number of instruments on display. This one is a particular interesting trumpet that was owned by Dave Bartholomew. music he is still living, in his 90s. He was a prolific producer and arranger, writer and bandleader. He was really fundamental in fats dominos career. He helped produce and arrange some of his works. He is one of the earliest in the development of rockn roll. So Dave Bartholomew transitioned from jazz to rockn roll. This is one of his pianos that was in his home on catherine street. Fats, despite being internationally known, one of the creators of rock nroll, he returned to his home and wanted to live in new orleans. His home was damaged by katrina. His piano floated above water, once the water had receded, it was damaged. The legs had broken off and the entire piano was in really horrible condition. It has been conserved. It is not playable but it has been brought back close to its original appearance. The conservators and repair folks tried to make it liable, it would not be the same piano. We did not want to lose the historical nature of the piano. When you see it goodbye aint that a shame i still feel that music fats domino was from new orleans. He influenced all of early rockn roll. The beatles were some of his biggest fans. When they came here in 1965, they asked if they could meet with fats domino. There is a famous photo of the beatles with fats domino. He had many, many friends and many musicians he performed with stayed with him his career and they influenced many others and create their own music and band. He had a very Strong Influence among them, the music in new orleans and in the world. Fats passing less than a year ago was a major blow to the city and his family. He left a wonderful legacy and he influenced so many people with his warmth and with his music. Sweet emma berry was born in 1897 and died in 1983. She was a true new orleans character. She was really well known by the bells she wore on her ankles. She was a wonderful musician. In her later years, beginning in the 60s, she began playing at preservation hall and was a well sought out musician. Sweet emma was selftaught. It is evident inher style but her style is a true new orleans style. music so now we have moved into the collection storage area. Come this way. This is a really neat drum set here. This was a drum set of hall and you can see he was a longterm drummer for the creole dixieland band. There is some wonderful footage of this being played. music so this would have been a jazz band that was led by kid that came to us six years ago as a donation. Over here we have a drum, snare shell there that is one of baby doddsdrums. music many drummers think of baby dodds as the father of modern drumming and it came with this full, beautiful white pearl that dobbs played with in the latter half of his career. When folks come to the museum, i would like for them to take away several things. I would like for them to take away the deep history of the music here. It is a living, breathing art form still in new orleans and most of the country. It is a part of everything that goes on around here. Even people who dont know jazz, know just songs. It is a part of your life even if you dont realize it. music as jazz reflects new orleans and its africanamerican roots, the mountain music archive in asheville, North Carolina provides a window into the lives of those living in the Appalachian Mountains through musical and spoken word recordings. Was there a particular time when you learned songs or just hear and there . Just here in there. Its in short life in trouble a short life in trouble with a bible and a broken heart music these were people who came of age before selfdoubt was invented. These were really wise, knowledgeable people, educated in the natural world, educated in the musical world, in their own folklore. So it was just something deep and wise. music standing in your mamas backdoor Music Mountain music is a catchall term for the traditional music of the southern appalachians. music and it would involve oldtime music which could be dance music, banjo and fiddle, balance and folksongs or dulcimer music, bluegrass music, so it is people use the term generally to refer to traditional music of the southern appalachians. Mountain music is english, scotch irish and africanamerican together. We had a hybrid that busted loose. This was around really in a way the banjo kicked things into gear, in the late 1800s. That was the black influence from africa. Bluesy notes on the banjo. The rhythm changed the way the music was played. That is one of the things he did along with dancing. That combination of english, scotch irish and africanamerican made this incredibly powerful hybrid of music effective to this day. music the mountain music archives is a part of our special collections, housed in the library. It consists of a number of items, recordings, photographs and other ephemera related to music makers of this region, western North Carolina. A lot of the collection was collected in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1969i came back from the southern mountains and was going to college at new california. I had fallen in love with the sound of the banjo. I met ralph stanley. He was doing a concert. I asked where i could go to learn this old banjo claw hammer style. He said go back to asheville. So i left that summer. We traveled through the southern mountains from georgia to west virginia, going to Fiddlers Convention every weekend. I fell in love with the music and culture. To me it was like stepping into the lost world because at this time, 1969 to 1973 or something, a lot of these oldtimers, all of them were born in the late 1800s. These people that were closely connected to our pioneer ancestors more than modern people. I thought this was fascinating and the music so great and the people so wonderful. They would not give you lessons, but you listen, try to figure it out and build a repertoire. music it became important for individuals to start collecting mountain music in the 1960s and 1970s. There is a variety of reasons. In the 1960s, you had folk music boom you could call it or a explosion of interest in folk music. This manifested itself in performing groups like the kingston trio, but along with that people who were interested in folk music again exploring the origins, where these songs came from. Some individuals became very fascinated with those origin stories to the point of tracking down individuals who had originally recorded a lot of this is again the 20s and 30s. music the folks at the college decided it would be great to have a program where the students could learn instruments, not just the folk aspects of it but to actually learn to play the instruments. I was new in town. I moved here in 1973. Talking about 1975 when they started this program, i was a guy from the outside and the only guy in town collecting music. So i had contacts with these different aspects, the balancing, the oldtime players. They were mad at each other. I was kind of a perfect person to go in between and bring them all together and have them, out to the college to teach them come out to the college to teach. The collection is about 110 reel to reel and cassette tapes. That was about as best equipment we could find. At Wilson College they have a work program. Students collected music from these oldtimers. I came home the other night as drunk as i could be and i saw a horse in the stable where my horse ought to be music there became a critical need to document these people who were at this point entering the Twilight Years of their lives before they passed away. music it was really in the 1960s and 1970s when you saw an explosion of field recordings, people going to remote parts of the country and tracking down musicians and recording them as a way to preserve their music and document it for the Public Record before they may pass away and it be unavailable. music david holds started the traditional music here in the 1970s. I started teaching in the 1990s. After he had had left. And i was aware that he had recorded concerts back in the 1970s. The recordings were in the archives and they were on reel to reel tapes. I realized they were not accessible. If i had a student who wanted to listen, who knew what was on those things. It was not a good set up. I wanted to make them available to our students. I had one student who took the tapes, and we got a reel to reel player and digitized them, then looked at what was on these and picked out appropriate cuts to add to this online resource. So now we have these resources, we can let students listen to them. In the case of a fiddler, learn the repertoire and the nuances they are playing. In the case of a shape note singing group, what types of songs were popular at that point in time and to hear the nuance in their singing styles. music so it gives us a way to keep an old tradition going where the actual culture bearers might not be with us anymore. Shape note singing is a tradition of sacred music making unique to america. It originated in the early 19th century. Really what shape note refers to is the literal shape of the notes that appear on a page. What individuals were experimenting with around 1800 were developing a system of notation that could make it easier for people to learn how to read music. In the 19th century it became so popular as a way for individuals to learn how to sing that singing schoolmasters would travel around the region and teach singing schools where they would have a class of 20, 30 individuals in a community. Everyone would get together and for two weeks, learn how to read shape note notation. After it was over, the singing schoolmaster would move on to another community and the community the person left would have a book, get together and sing out of this book of tunes. You had a blossoming of shape note singing in the region. There were a number of books published. In our western North Carolina the book that stayed was called the christian harmony. It was compiled by William Walker who was from spartanburg, South Carolina. There is a continuous christian harmony singing that has been going on in western North Carolina for over 100 years. The ballad singing tradition goes way back to the earliest settlers who came from the british isles. Some of the ballads in the mountains, you can date them back to the 1500s of scotland and ireland. music thomas is waiting or stayathome and mourn music in the days before recorded music this was how your past music along. Madison county north of asheville still has people who have been singing the ballads for six or seven generations, and they have been passed along. You will find people singing about lords and ladies and bloody daggers and castles and things even though they are in the mountains of western North Carolina. But if it is the last thing i ever do lord thomaswedding, ill go to lord thomaswedding, ill go music ballads usually have some narrative going on and usually something happens and there is some moral to the story at the end. They are important for passing along the customs and beliefs and the fears of a culture. And buried there in my arms and the brown girl at my feet and the brown girl at my feet music we use the mountain music archive to help us show current students the ways that certain types of mountain music were performed and presented by individuals who were really doing it 100 years ago. So it creates a critical resource and a window back in time. Recordings offer an Excellent Way to hear the nuance of somebodies playing or the ornaments in somebodies singing you really could not get otherwise. This music is important. It is american folk music. When i have traveled to other parts of the world and i tell people i play american folk music, they say what . We did not know there was anything other than commercialized music. Every country has a folk music tradition. Even though it is western North Carolina, this is folk music. It is important to preserve it, document it, make it available because it is part of our nations history. These tunes are little bits of wisdom being passed down from other generations that it is not an essay, not a book, it is something encapsulated in a tune, and it cant be put any other way. There is power and wisdom, when you run it through your body or a group of people like here at the college, it informs them in a different way. I think a lot of it is very uplifting. I think it just makes people healthy. Good medicine. music cspans cities tour travels the country exploring the american story with the support of local cable providers we bring you the history and literary life of a different history on book tv and American History tv. To watch videos of any of the places we have been, go to cities tour on the website and follow us on twitter. Coming up we are visiting Congress Hall, Congress Hall held power since 17 wouldnt philadelphia served as a temporary capital of the united states