Roots and Revival: Two Recorded Perspectives of American Folk Music

Abstract

Given the exceptional range and variety of forms of musical expression that are found in this country, it is little wonder that we have difficulty comprehending the totality of American music. Finding suitable terms and conceptual groupings to aid in the categorization and discussion of our musics is a related and continuing problem. Folklorist Archie Green summarized the challenge in a recent article in these pages: Faced with old and new sounds, pure or mixed, we thrash about for adequate descriptive language: pop, folk, traditional, native, local, regional, indigenous, vernacular. No particular locution keeps pace with music's flexibility.' Green notes Charles Seeger's tripartite division of the musical world into folk, and art musics, and this construct has informed a great deal of our thinking and writing about music. Precise definitions of the terms and popular, however, remain elusive. To casual fans and members of the general public, the phrase connotes certain stylistic characteristics. One expects music performed on acoustic instruments, often by a solo artist, or perhaps by a small group. More well-informed aficionados and folklorists, however, recognize a plurality of musical genres that occupy similar niches in various regional, ethnic, religious, or occupational groups. This recognition has led to a definition of folk based on function or process. Folk music, in this model, is music that exists primarily in oral tradition, with little or no intervention of commercial media. Continuing the construct, popular music lies on the opposite