Music of Tennessee
Music of the United States |
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The story of
Bristol: "Birthplace of Country Music"
See also: Bristol sessions and Appalachian music
Bristol is best known for being the site of the first commercial recordings of
In 1927, Ralph Peer of Victor Records began recording local musicians in Bristol to capture the local sound of traditional 'folk' music of the region. One of these local sounds was created by the Carter Family. The Carter Family got their start on July 31, 1927, when A.P. Carter and his family journeyed from Maces Spring, Virginia, to Bristol, Tennessee, to audition for record producer Ralph Peer who was seeking new talent for the relatively embryonic recording industry. They received $50 for each song they recorded.
The
Nashville: "Music City, U.S.A."
Nashville, the most populous city and
In a tour of Great Britain and Europe in 1873, the
WSM (AM) signed on in 1925, the same year launching WSM Barndance soon known as Grand Ole Opry. The weekly stage show and broadcast would play an important role in the popularization of country music and is today the longest running radio program in the world.[2]
By the late 1950s, the city's record labels dominated the country music genre with slick pop-country (Nashville sound), overtaking honky-tonk in the charts. Performers reacting against the Nashville sound formed their own scenes in Lubbock, Texas and Bakersfield, California, the latter of which (Bakersfield sound) became the most popular type of country by the late 1960s, led by Merle Haggard. Progressive country and outlaw country emerged to challenge the prevailing Nashville sound. Nashville's predominance in country music was regained by the early 1980s, when Dwight Yoakam and other neo-traditionalists entered the charts.
Even as country music became central to Nashville's identity and music commerce, a string of clubs on Jefferson Street played host to electrifying rhythm and blues. It's where Jimi Hendrix cut his teeth and where Etta James 'Rocked The House' on her 1964 live recording from the New Era Club. Meanwhile, white and black met in Printer's Alley, where Music Row studio musicians gathered at day's end to play jazz[4] and rock and roll. Nashville's WLAC radio was a vital source for R&B from the mid-1940s through the 1960s. The 2004 compilation album Night Train to Nashville, spawned by an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame, showcased and celebrated this history.[5]
In 1966,
Exit/In is a long-time Nashville club, opened in 1971, having played host to many rock legends and locals including Jason & the Scorchers and featured in Robert Altman's Nashville.
Outsider music greats from Nashville include R. Stevie Moore and Dave Cloud.
Today, there is still a thriving country music scene in Nashville, however there are other scenes and genres gaining in outside attention, such as indie, rock, and metalcore.
Murfreesboro
Murfreesboro hosts several music-oriented events annually, such as the Main Street Jazzfest presented by MTSU's School of Music and the Main Street Association each May. For over 30 years, Uncle Dave Macon Days has celebrated the musical tradition of Uncle Dave Macon.[9] This annual July event includes national competitions for old-time music and dancing.[9]
Because of Middle Tennessee State University's large recording industry program, the city has fostered a number of bands and songwriters, including: A Plea for Purging, Self, Fluid Ounces, The Katies, The Features, Count Bass D, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, Destroy Destroy Destroy, De Novo Dahl, The Protomen, and Those Darlins.[9]
Artist Wayne White, from Chattanooga, received a BFA from MTSU in 1979.
Spongebath Records was a key force in the Murfreesboro indie music scene in the late 1990s.[10]
Old-time music
The state of Tennessee once had a strong Old-time music tradition. In its earliest days the Grand Ole Opry featured banjo players, fiddle players, and string bands from Middle Tennessee such as Uncle Jimmy Thompson, Uncle Dave Macon, Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, Sid Harkreader, the McGee Brothers, Humphrey Bate and his Possum Hunters, Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers, the Gully Jumpers, the Fruit Jar Drinkers, and The Crook Brothers String Band. East Tennessee old-time artists include Clarence Ashley, Charlie Bowman, Uncle Am Stuart, Theron Hale, Curly Fox, and G. B. Grayson.[9]
Tennessee also has a strong history of Appalachian ballad singers. Collectors like Cecil Sharp, Artus Moser, C P Cambiaire, Edwin Kirkland, Lillian Crabtree, and George Boswell all included TN ballads in their collections. Notable TN ballad singers include Dee and Delta Hicks, Carmen McCord Hicks, May Ray, Tillman Cadle, Sam Harmon, J B Cantrell, Marianna Schaupp, Linnie Johnson and Jesse Robinson, and Jeff Stockton.
Blues
Memphis blues
Memphis' most significant musical claims to fame are as "Home of the
Memphis was a center of blues music for much of the 20th century. Pianist and singer Booker T. Laury was born in Memphis in 1914 and Blues Hall of Famers Johnny Shines and Memphis Slim were born there in 1915. During the 1940s and 1950s, Memphis was the home of B. B. King, Bobby Bland, Rosco Gordon, Junior Parker, Johnny Ace, Willie Nix, and Joe Hill Louis. Duke Records was started in Memphis in 1952. Also in 1952, Sam Phillips started Sun Records, an early rock and roll and electric blues label. Among the artists who made some of their recordings on Sun were Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis,[11] Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Ike Turner, Carl Perkins, and Charlie Rich.[7]
Country blues
Country blues is one of the earliest types of blues. Country blues artists from Tennessee include Memphis Jug Band,[12] The Two Poor Boys, Howard Armstrong, Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Hammie Nixon, Son Bonds, Noah Lewis, DeFord Bailey, John Henry Barbee, Memphis Willie B., Hattie Hart, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Brownie McGhee, Blind James Campbell, Hambone Willie Newbern, Sonny Boy Williamson I, and Terry Garland.[11]
Jazz
Memphis-born
Legendary blues singer
Trumpeter
Current large jazz orchestras from Tennessee that have notable recordings are the Jazz Orchestra of the Delta (Memphis), the Memphis Jazz Orchestra, the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, the Nashville Jazz Orchestra, the Duffy Jackson Big Band (Nashville), Tyler Mire Big Band (Nashville), and the Music City Big Band (Nashville).[4]
R&B, soul, and funk
Memphis soul
In the 1960s and 1970s, the city was home to
Hi Records' peak was in the early 1970s, due to the highly creative work of Al Green, whose hits on the label included "Tired of Being Alone", "Let's Stay Together", "I'm Still in Love with You", and "Call Me". Other artists on the label, including O. V. Wright, Don Bryant, Otis Clay, and Ann Peebles released soul singles or albums.[11] Goldwax Records introduced James Carr, Spencer Wiggins, and the Ovations.[14]
Funk Band, Ebonee Webb, released "Something About You" which peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot R&B/ hip-Hop charts on December 5, 1981.[15]
Hip-hop
See also: Southern hip hop § Tennessee, and Memphis rap
Despite not always being on the forefront of the national Hip-Hop scene, the
Southern rock
Both
The
Other notable musicians include Knoxville's Jerry Riggs, Nashville's Barefoot Jerry, and the Nashville band Area Code 615. Kings of Leon were formed in Tennessee in 1999. Their early music was closely associated with this genre. The Kings had a #1 hit on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 with "Use Somebody". This song was also #1 on the Alternative chart and Adult Top 40 Chart in 2009. Kings of Leon had a #1 Billboard 200 album with Walls in 2016.
The Dirty Guv'nahs is an American Southern rock band from Knoxville, Tennessee. Known for enthusiastic live shows, the band was continually named the Best Band in Knoxville by readers of the alternative newspaper, Metro Pulse.
Punk rock and hardcore
Punk rock has had active scenes in Tennessee, such as the scenes in Nashville, Knoxville, and Memphis's River City Hardcore scene in the 1980s and 1990s. A few hardcore punk bands gained a following, including His Hero Is Gone (Memphis), Nashville's Love Is Red, From Ashes Rise, and Committee for Public Safety, and Knoxville's Johnny Five, The Malignmen, The Splinters and STD.
Knoxville's punk scene began in the late 1970s with Terry Hill's Balboa, and took off in the early 1980s with bands such as the Five Twins, The Real Hostages, Candy Creme and the Wet Dream, and the hardcore bands Koro and UXB. During that era the scene was based in a series of short-lived nightclubs such as The Place, Hobos, Uncle Sam's, and Bundulees. Later in the 1980s several Knoxville bands such as the
The early 1970s power pop band
Heavy metal
Gospel and Christian music
Tennessee's location in the
An
Nashboro Records was a gospel record label active in Nashville in the 1950s-60s. Christian rock band Skillet, from Memphis, had a #2 album on the Billboard 200 with Awake in 2009. Nashville Christian hard rock band Red had a #2 album on the Billboard 200 in 2011.
Classical music
Tennessee cities are home to several symphony orchestras:[19]
- Bryan Symphony Orchestra, Cookeville, Tennessee[20]
- Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra
- Jackson Symphony Orchestra, Jackson, Tennessee
- Johnson City Symphony Orchestra, Johnson City, Tennessee
- Knoxville Symphony Orchestra
- Memphis Symphony Orchestra
- IRIS Orchestra
- Nashville Symphony Orchestra
- Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
- Symphony of the Mountains, Kingsport, Tennessee
Each summer,
Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud from Memphis played with the Kronos Quartet from 1978 to 1999 and has since pursued a solo career.
Notable music festivals in Tennessee
- Bonnaroo Music Festival (lasts for 4 days) in Manchester, Tennessee each June since 2002. Nashville's Kings of Leon played there in 2010
- Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee
- Memphis in May in Memphis, Tennessee
- CMA Music Festival in Nashville, Tennessee[21]
See also
- Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville
- Grand Ole Opry in Nashville
- Music City Walk of Fame in Nashville, honors contributors to Nashville's musical heritage
- Memphis Rock N' Soul Museum on Beale Street
- Memphis Music Hall of Fame
- Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis
- Highlander Folk School
- List of songs about Nashville, Tennessee
- Music of East Tennessee
References
- ^ "Birthplace of Country Music". Americaslibrary.gov. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ a b c "The History of Live Music". Visit Nashville TN. 2019-02-28. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ a b "Our History". Fisk Jubilee Singers. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ a b c Randal Rust. "Jazz in Tennessee". Tennessee Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ "Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues". Country Music Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ "Looking back on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, the record that changed Nashville". Nashville Scene. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ a b "Remembering Dylan/Cash Producer Bob Johnston, Who Ushered Nashville Into the Rock Era". Nashville Scene. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ "A Dog's Life". Nashville Scene. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ a b c d "Uncle Dave Macon Days celebrates 36 years". The Murfreesboro Post. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ "MainStreet Murfreesboro releases lineup for JazzFest". 2014-03-10. Archived from the original on 2014-03-10. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ a b c d e f Randal Rust. "Memphis Music Scene". Tennessee Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ a b "River of Song: Music Along the River". Pbs.org. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ Tim, Brooks (2004). Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry 1890-1919.
- ^ "Goldwax Album Discography". Bsnpubs.com. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
- ^ "Ebonee Webb". Billboard.
- ^ a b "Music". ChristianityToday.com. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ Lewis, Andy. "My Cross to Bear". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
- ^ Morris, Chris. "Gregg Allman, Southern Rock Pioneer, Dies at 69". Variety. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
- ^ "TN Encyclopedia: SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS". archive.is. 2007-06-10. Archived from the original on 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ^ "Professional Symphony | Bryan Symphony Orchestra | Cookeville, TN". BryanSymphony. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
- ISBN 978-1-61238-150-3.