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Alabama's Musical Heritage: Notes for Teachers

Notes on Alabama Indian Music

• Most Alabama Indians, including Creeks, Chickasaws, and Choctaws spoke a language from the Muscogean family. Cherokee is in the Iroquian language family.

• American Indians in Alabama lived in contact with European-Americans and African-Americans for three centuries prior to Indian removal in the 1830’s. The tradition of metered hymn singing was practiced on the early Alabama frontier by Baptist and Methodist churches.

• During this time, Indians adopted some non-Indian traditions, including the practice of Christianity. The presence of Christian hymns in the music of Southeastern Indians is a result of centuries of contact with western cultures prior to their removal to Oklahoma in the 1830s.

• The adoption of European practices and languages led many to refer to southern Indians as “the five civilized tribes.”

• Alabama Indians took their culture with them when they were removed to Oklahoma.

• These selections are examples of both traditional Creek music and also an adaptation to the non-Indian, Christian tradition of hymn singing. Stomp dance tunes are also available on some Indian House recordings and could be used in an examination of the “square ground” and native religious beliefs. These examples illustrate the removal and cultural adaptation.

• In Oklahoma, ethnomusicologists have recently recorded Creek Indians singing a style of metered “lined-out” hymns. This tradition was brought along the Trail of Tears from Alabama. The hymns are sung in the Muscogean language.

Notes on recordings*—Alabama Indian Music:

1. Creek hymn and lullaby, sung by Woodrow Haney. From: Songs of Indian Territory, Center for the American Indian, Oklahoma City. These traditional Creek songs were brought from Alabama and Georgia to Oklahoma, where they remain in the repertoire of tribal elders. The hymn lyrics translated read, “Do not get tired. Do not get discouraged. Be determined. To all, come on, we will go on to the highest place.” The second song is an old lullaby sung to children. (This recording made possible courtesy of the Oklahoma Arts Council.)

2. Creek hymn, sung by George Bunny. From: Songs of Indian Territory, Center for the American Indian, Oklahoma City. The hymn is called “Must this Body Die?” Some of the translated lyrics are: “When my body dies; where will it go? When my body dies; where will it go? When my body dies, what will I do? Will I inherit the kingdom of God?” (This recording made possible courtesy of the Oklahoma Arts Council.)

For more information—Alabama Indian Music:

• Hudson, Charles M. The Southeastern Indians. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1976.

• Songs of Indian Territory, a cassette tape with accompanying book of essays produced by the Oklahoma Arts Council, P.O. Box 52001-2001, Oklahoma City, OK 73152-2001; (405) 521-2931; www.oklaosf.state.ok.us/~arts/.

Notes on Early African-American Music in Alabama

• African-American music was based on west African notions of music. There were many different west African cultural groups subjected to slavery in the South.

• The music made by slaves was also influenced by their contact with European Americans. Some African-derived music was discouraged, such as drumming, because masters thought that slaves could communicate and plan uprisings that way. Other forms of music, such as singing or banjo and fiddle music, were actually encouraged. Some slaves were trained by their masters to perform at social functions.

• West African music traditions included group work songs or chants, the use of the banjo (or banjar), and religious forms such as the “ring shout.”

Notes on recordings*—Early African-American Music in Alabama:

3. “Black Woman,” sung by Rich Amerson. From: Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Volume 1, Smithsonian Folkways Cassette Series: 04417. This “field blues” piece was recorded in Livingston, Ala., in 1950 and represents an early style of blues sung solo and outdoors. This genre probably derived from old plantation-era field calls like the ones appearing on track # 5.

4. “Tall Angel at the Bar,” sung by Rev. Alex Fountain. From: Cornbread Crumbled In Gravy: Historical Field Recordings from the Byron Arnold Collection of Traditional Tunes, Alabama Traditions, 104. “Tall Angel At the Bar” is a “ring shout,” a religious dance and song ceremony which has its origins in West Africa and was an important part of religious practice before emancipation. The participants would line up in a ring and move in a circle, shuffling but never crossing their feet (this was because dancing was prohibited in church). A song leader would provide the chant. Today, ring shouts are rare and happen mostly on the sea islands of South Carolina. This song was recorded in 1947 in Florence by University of Alabama folklorist Byron Arnold.

5. Field calls, Annie Grace Horn Dodson and Enoch Brown. From: Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Volume 1, Smithsonian Folkways Cassette Series: 04417. Field calls were developed as a communication between slaves while working in the fields since they were not allowed to mingle and socialize freely. They consisted of greetings, calls for children and spouses, and complaint calls.

6. Railroad call, John Henry Mealing; recorded by Brenda and Steve McCallum, March 16, 1983, Pratt City, Ala. From: "Spirit of Steel”: Music of the Mines, Railroads and Mills of the Birmingham District, Sloss Furnaces. This field recording was one of many by Brenda and Steve McCallum for the AGRS, or Afro-American Gospel Radio Series, which was produced at the University of Alabama. Before railroad work was completely mechanized in the 1950s, railroad calls were an everyday part of the track worker’s ritual. Most of these “gandy dancers”—the label applied to railway line workers who maintained railroad tracks and kept the rails straight—were African Americans who adapted the work call to railroad work.

For more information—Early African-American Music in Alabama:

• Arnold, Byron. Folksongs of Alabama. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1950.

• Botkin, B. A., ed. Lay My Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery. 1945. reprint, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989.

• Epstein, Dena J. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

• Holtzberg, Maggie. “Gandy Dancers.” In “Spirit of Steel”: Music of the Mines, Railroads and Mills of the Birmingham District. Birmingham: Sloss Furnaces, 1998.

Notes on Early Alabama Hymnody

• Metered unaccompanied hymn singing, like that found in Primitive Baptist Churches and other denominations, is the state’s earliest form of non-aboriginal religious music. The tenacity by which Primitive Baptists have clung to this style of unaccompanied music is in large part a statement of religious doctrine setting them apart from those Baptists and other denominations that do not accept the doctrine of predestined salvation by grace. Their preference of music is based on scriptural interpretations and an ongoing debate about the role of musical instruments in church. Many of these congregations also participate in the well-studied shaped-note traditions of the South.

• In the black church many of these songs, sung in a slower style as devotionals, have survived as a formal portion of the service. Sometimes called “Dr. Watts” or “lining out,” the style expresses even more than the words, which are sung so slowly they are almost unintelligible.

• Tune books with shape-notes such as the Sacred Harp reflect an American attempt to improve the teaching and performance of music. This movement began in New England and spread onto the southern frontier during the early nineteenth century. Once musical notation was written down, the tunes that hymns were sung with became documented.

• The shaped notes stand for the fa-sol-la-mi syllables that are sung at the beginning of each hymn. The singers sit according to the four voices (bass, tenor, alto, soprano) in an inward-facing square. Shaped-note singing is also called “fa-sol-la” singing, old book singing, and Sacred Harp singing. Both white and black congregations participated in Sacred Harp singing.

Notes on recordings*—Early Alabama Hymnody

7. “That Doleful Night Before His Death,” the congregation at Mt. Pilgrim Primitive Baptist Church, Livingston, Ala.; recorded on September 13, 1998; # 241 in Benjamin Lloyd’s Primitive Hymns. From: Benjamin Lloyd’s Hymn Book, Alabama Folklife Association.

8. “Hungry, and faint, and poor,” the congregation at Little Hope Primitive Baptist Church, Livingston, Ala.; recorded on November 19, 1995; # 492 in Benjamin Lloyd’s Primitive Hymns. From: Benjamin Lloyd’s Hymn Book, Alabama Folklife Association.

9. “Arbacoochee,” the congregation at Antioch Baptist Church near Ider, Ala. From: Bound For Canaan: Sacred Harp Singing From Sand Mountain, Alabama, Hollow Square Productions. Sacred Harp tunes were often named in honor of the place in which they were written. Although Englishman Isaac Watts wrote this hymn in 1719, Mr. S. M. Denson penned the tune, Arbacoochee,” much later—in 1908. Arbacoochee, the Talladega County site of the 1840s Alabama gold rush, is named for a Creek town.

10. “Amazing Grace,” The Wiregrass Sacred Harp Singers. From: Wiregrass Notes: Black Sacred Harp-Singing from Southeast Alabama, Alabama Traditions 102. The adaptation of Sacred Harp in the black community and the inherent changes are obvious in this rendition of “Amazing Grace.” (Note: partial song; recording ends in the middle.)

For more information—Early Alabama Hymnody:

• Bealle, John. Public Worship, Private Faith: Sacred Harp and American Folksong. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997.

• __________. “New Strings on the ‘Old Harp’.” Tributaries Summer 1994: 23-44.

• Cobb, Buell. The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1978; 1989.

• Heyrman, Christine Leigh. Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt, New York: Knopf, 1997.

• Patterson, Beverly Bush. The Sound of the Dove: Singing in Appalachian Primitive Baptist Churches. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.

• Sweet is the Day, 2000. Documentary about Sacred Harp singing on Sand Mountain. For more information, write Joey Brackner, c/o Alabama State Council on the Arts, 210 Monroe Street, Montgomery, AL 36104; Joey.brackner@arts.alabama.gov.

Notes on 19th Century Alabama Sheet Music

• The publication of non-religious music in the United States expanded greatly at the end of the eighteenth century.

• The sheet music industry catered to wealthier families who owned keyboard instruments such as piano fortes.

• Printed sheet music was available to monied Alabamians from the earliest period of statehood.

• For the most part, sheet music helped expose Alabamians to types of popular music not from the local community. Sometimes these “greatest hits” of their day became part of the repertoire of local folk musicians.

Notes on recordings*—19th Century Alabama Sheet Music:

11. “Rose of Alabama,” performed by Dr. William Craig Mann. From: Dr. Bill’s Front Porch Sampler. “Rose of Alabama” was written in 1840s or 1855 (sources differ on the date) and was one of the most popular songs of Southern soldiers during the Civil War.

12. “The Mesopotamia Waltz Mazurka,” performed by Bruce Parsons. This sheet music was written in 1855 by Anne B. Hatfield for the Mesopotamia girl’s school of Eutaw, Alabama.

13. “The Alabama State March,” performed by Bruce Parsons. This is a tune written by Armand P. Pfister of Tuscaloosa, circa 1840. The cover of this sheet music shows the state capitol in Tuscaloosa and is inscribed, “Composed and respectfully dedicated to His Excellency, Arthur P. Bagby, Governor of the State of Alabama.”

For more information—19th Century Alabama Sheet Music:

• Chase, Gilbert. America’s Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966.

• Wells, Paul. American Music/Cultural Traditions, Glencoe (McGraw-Hill) ISBN 0-02-823805-2, 1996. Offers a teacher’s guide, student activities and two audiocassettes connecting American music with American history.

• The tradition of using a violin to play folk music was common among American settlers from the British Isles.

• When the violin is used to play folk tunes, it is called a fiddle.

• The fiddle is an instrument of secular folk music. Sometimes the fiddle was referred to as the “devil’s box” due to its connection with dancing and merriment.

• Fiddle tunes were popular with both black and white musicians in the nineteenth century. Today, this type of music is associated with “old-time” and “bluegrass” music played by white musicians.

Notes on recordings*—Alabama Fiddle Music:

14. “Walking In The Parlor,” played by D. Dix Hollis. From: Possum Up A Gum Stump: Home, Field, & Commercial Recordings of Alabama Fiddlers; Past and Present, Alabama Traditions 103. This recording of Hollis (1861–1927), made in 1924 in New York and released by Paramount Records, is one of the first commercial recordings by a southern fiddler. Hollis was taught to play as a child in the 1870s by a former slave in Sulligent.

15. “Coal Valley,” Charlie Stripling; recorded on March 12, 1936, in New Orleans; Decca 5547. From: "Spirit of Steel”: Music of the Mines, Railroads and Mills of the Birmingham District, Sloss Furnaces. (Charlie Stripling appears courtesy of MCA Records, Inc., under license from Universal Music Special Markets, Inc.)

For more information—Alabama Fiddle Music:

• Cauthen, Joyce. With Fiddle and Well-Rosined Bow: Old-Time Fiddling in Alabama. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1989.

• __________. Possum Up a Gum Stump: Home, Commercial and Field Recordings of Alabama Fiddlers. A compact disc and cassette with liner notes, produced by Tannehill Furnace & Foundry Commission, McCalla, Alabama.

• Many genres of African-American music, including spirituals, jazz, and blues, have developed from a combination of African and European musical influences and have been influenced by the environments of slavery, poverty, and prejudice.

• Blues music features phrases and often three-line stanzas that are plaintive and deal with melancholy subjects.

• The recording industry of the early twentieth century produced tens of thousands of “race records” of blues artists. These recordings made blues music widely available beyond the black community.

16. “Coal Mountain Blues,” Sonny Scott, accompanied by Walter Roland on piano, 1933; Vocalion 25012 (13555-1). From: “Spirit of Steel”: Music of the Mines, Railroads and Mills of the Birmingham District, Sloss Furnaces. (Sonny Scott appears courtesy of Legacy Recordings/SONY Music Entertainment, Inc.) This Birmingham bluesman’s first recorded vocal selection. Scott was best known as the guitar accompanist for Birmingham pianist Walter Roland. Birmingham was known for producing quality blues piano players such as Roland. “Boogie Woogie” piano blues had an early Birmingham connection. A Birmingham piano blues player named “Lost John” brought the left-handed rolling bass figures of boogie woogie to Chicago for the first time about 1908. Alabama blues pianists, such as Pinetop Smith, “Cow-Cow” Davenport, and Chief Ellis, continued the tradition in Birmingham and later began touring, all eventually leaving the state.

17. “Jim Crow Blues,” Cow-Cow Davenport (4085-3). From: Spirit of Steel”: Music of the Mines, Railroads and Mills of the Birmingham District, Sloss Furnaces. Charles “Cow-Cow” Davenport was born in the industrial community of Anniston, Alabama, and briefly attended a seminary in Selma before coming to Birmingham and becoming the city’s best-known piano player. He left Birmingham for Atlanta in 1915 and later migrated from the South entirely. He died in Cleveland in 1955, having moved there from Chicago in 1930. His often-quoted “Jim Crow Blues” gives the obvious reason for the significant exodus of blacks to the North:

                     I’m tired of this Jim Crow, gonna leave this Jim Crow town.
                     Doggone my black soul, I’m sweet Chicago bound,
                     Yes I’m leavin’ here from this ole Jim Crow town.

                     I’m goin’ up north where they say money grows on trees,
                     I don’t give a dog-gone if my black soul leaves,
                     I’m goin’ where I don’t need no BVD’s.

18. “New Cow-Cow Blues,” Cow-Cow Davenport (C-2063-A and 2063-B). From: Spirit of Steel”: Music of the Mines, Railroads and Mills of the Birmingham District, Sloss Furnaces. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Davenport helped invent, and coined the term, “boogie woogie” piano. “New Cow-Cow Blues” is his most famous “boogie woogie” piano recording reflecting the more urban industrialized tempo of New South Anniston and Birmingham.

For more information—Blues in Alabama:

• Barlow, William. “Looking Up At Down”: The Emergence of Blues Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.

• Bastin, Bruce. Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986.

• Titon, Jeff Todd. Early Downhome Blues. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977.

Notes on Jubilee Gospel Singing in Alabama

• Jubilee,” a capella, four-part harmony gospel singing was a regional African-American style of music that flourished in Birmingham during the twentieth century. Many black Alabamians moved to Birmingham from rural areas to work in the mines and mills. This concentration of people created a vibrant sacred music scene featuring talented quartets who developed a distinctly Birmingham sound.

• The quartets were composed of laborers who were involved in the unions. Some quartets were officially connected to unions. Usually their songs contained religious texts, but the following examples are songs that also have a pro-union message.

19. “Good Evening Everybody,” Bessemer Big Four, 1941. From: "Spirit of Steel”: Music of the Mines, Railroads and Mills of the Birmingham District, Sloss Furnaces. Field recording made in Bessemer, Alabama. The Library of Congress folklorists who made this recording told the singers that their recording would be a good contribution to the national defense effort. Consequently, one of the singers comments at the end, “I hope you are not going to play this for Mr. Hitler; if singing would stop him, I would sing all night.”

20. “The Spirit of Phil Murray,” CIO Singers, 1952; Tiger Records 100. From: "Spirit of Steel”: Music of the Mines, Railroads and Mills of the Birmingham District, Sloss Furnaces. A tribute to the late AFL-CIO president, Phil Murray.

For more information—Jubilee Gospel Singing in Alabama:

• Funk, Ray. “Birmingham Quartets Celebrate the Union Movement.” "Spirit of Steel”: Music of the Mines, Railroads and Mills of the Birmingham District. Sloss Furnaces, 1998.

• McCallum, Brenda. “Songs of Work and Songs of Worship: Sanctifying Black Unionism in the Southern City of Steel.” New York Folklore 14.1-2 (1988): 9–34. reprint, Tributaries Summer 1994: 45–71.