Appalachian Mountains find a musical voice

When the Appalachian region was settled by European immigrants (around the late 1700s), music in the area was largely a combination of anglo-celtic folk ballads and instrumental dance tunes.

The vocal improvisation found in many Celtic ballads also led to the particularly tonal, nasal quality preferred by many traditional Appalachian singers. The music of this region grew from the earth – literally in most cases – as daily activities such as coal mining, railroads, agricultural and farming trades, and family traditions became the “landscapes” painted poignantly by Appalachian musicians.  Additionally, spiritual expression of daily life was prevalent in many early songs.  Just as the church’s influence on American society grew, and became more Puritan in nature, many of the song lyrics were softened and cleaned up.  Thus, religious music (most commonly ballads, hymns, and revival spirituals) became one of the prevalent forms of music in the area.

Appalachian instrumentation draws from multiple influences

In the 1740s, Neil Gow, a Scottish fiddler, developed the powerful and rhythmic short bow sawstroke technique that eventually defined Appalachian Mountain fiddling. And when this style came to the area, the fiddle was the prevalent, and often the only, instrument used. Why? Because pianos and more complicated instruments were simply too expensive to purchase.

Irish immigration also added to the mix, as fiddlers began using a double-stop, two-string technique to mimic the sound of pipes and their drones. But with the emergence of popular—and specifically ragtime—music, fiddlers started “rocking the bow,” another distinctive Appalachian feature. Players began to alter standard classical tunings to heighten the “high lonesome” sound.

Though early tunes tended to be more rhythmic (with the fiddler playing alone), the addition of new instruments allowed more elaborate and melodic sounds. This was especially true with the advent of another popular instrument: the guitar, which began to gain popularity shortly after the turn of the 20th Century. The industrialization of this age brought about a newfound mobility, which helped to spread music throughout the mountains. Similarly, mail-order and mass production made instruments more accessible, and “old-time” music became prominent.

And with the Great Depression in the 1930s, the popularity of old-time music was overshadowed by a new individual “star” system with people like Hank Williams and brother groups like the Louvins and Stanleys, as well as the introduction of swing, horns, electricity, and bluegrass. But old-time continued to thrive at square dances, and on the back porches and dusty sidewalks of the Appalachian Mountains.