Mountain Music Miscellany, Vol. 1, Ch. 2: Dirt farmers
I have often encountered the opinion that formal education ruins a folk musician’s ability to truly ‘feel’ his connection to folk music.
The idea, I guess, is that if you want to play the music of historically illiterate dirt farmers you ought to be trying your darnedest to live that life yourself. Well, I’m thinking there were more than a few dirt farming fiddlers who scraped together enough schoolhouse dances and county fairs and grand ol’ opry appearances and recording contracts so as to move beyond the constant threat of sunstroke, foreclosure and finger-crushing farm machinery accidents.
Not that a degree in music is a surefire ticket to fame and fortune. No sir. Likely, I’ll just add enough
knowledge to make freelance jazz gigs and symphony work possible.
And of course I still want to compose the film soundtrack for that Cormac McCarthy movie that Hollywood will have to make after the success of “No Country for Old Men.” Anybody out there hiring opinionated musicians to write shuddery, rough-hewn, folk music oriented film scores? Or ballet music? Or pop music ditties?
And there we have it – the true motivation for my further musical education: I think the music of dirt-farmers, whether they be farming Appalachia, or the Levant, or Uganda, or Amazonia, deserves to be recognized and engaged by the world at large. The dominant culture has tried so hard to distance itself from dirt, and from the people that grow their food, that the music you hear on the radio, in the movies and down each aisle in the grocery store is reflective of it: it sounds plastic and rootless and disinfected and hollow.
Hopefully, a music education is not somehow guaranteed to inflict that curse upon one’s sensibilities but may instead enable one to transmit it more effectively. We’ll see. I’ll keep you posted.
Ian Moore is a musician who lives in Sylva. He was featured as a part of our “Southern Highlanders” series, here.
Tags: cormac mccarthy, Cullowhee, dances, Film, Music, Western Carolina University
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