Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South

by Patrick Huber

Contrary to popular belief, the roots of American country music do not lie solely on southern farms or in mountain hollows. Rather, much of this music recorded before World War II emerged from the bustling cities and towns of the Piedmont South. No group contributed more to the commercialization of early country music than southern factory workers. Huber explores the origins and development of this music in the Piedmont's mill villages and offers vivid portraits of a colorful cast of Piedmont millhand musicians, including Fiddlin' John Carson, Charlie Poole, Dave McCarn, and the Dixon Brothers.

Genres: History, Music, Nonfiction, Southern

440 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[William Guerrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the most important artists who during the 1920's and 1930's created the music then called "hillbilly" and today called "old time" emerged from the textile mills of the Piedmont South. In this excellent book Patrick Huber tells their story. With separate chapters devoted to Fiddlin' John Carson, Charlie Poole, Dave McCarn and the Dixon Brothers, the book focuses on them, but is stuffed with fascinating details of the lives and careers of many other artists as well. In telling his story the author also discusses (with the care to be expected of a professional historian) the history and social conditions of life as early 20th century millworkers in the Piedmont South. Highly recommended for those with any existing interest in those subjects.

[Ted Lehmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South by Patrick Huber (University of North Carolina Press, 2008, 440 pages, $35.99/19.99) tells the story of how workers in cotton mills and other industrial settings in the Piedmont were essential to the development of what we know as country and bluegrass music just after World War II. Focusing on the lives of four seminal mill hands during the 1920's and 1930's, Linthead Stomp argues persuasively that without the intermediary insertion of the factory experience, country and bluegrass music could not have developed. The legend says that the music grew and developed on the back porches and parlors of farms in the mountains of Appalachia. This myth has been ably reinforced by the heavy emphasis upon the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers important recordings during the 1927 Bristol sessions held by Ralph Peer of the Victor Recording Company, whose newspaper advertisements invited country musicians to come make recordings, many of which soon became "Hillbilly" hits. This book emphasizes that Peer also made field recordings at sessions in the Piedmont regions of North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama in Charlotte, Atlanta, and Birmingham which featured many old-time musicians whose skills had been developed in the environment of the mill villages surrounding textile mills in that region.

In his priceless introduction, Huber develops the ideas surrounding the upwelling of musical expression in which men and women migrating to the industrializing South after post Civil War reconstruction were housed in mill villages, employed in the menial drudgery of factory work, and paid near starvation wages which were still better than what the way they were able to live on their subsistence farms back in the mountains and on marginal farms. These workers were exposed to a range of musical influences previously unavailable to them which included radio, vaudeville, minstrel shows, and African-American Piedmont blues, jazz, and the popular music of Tin Pan Alley. Even in the rigidly segregated society of this time, the songs of Appalachia, many handed down for generations from their English, Scottish, and Irish origins, were able to merge and be influenced by a broad cultural mix. Many of the mills provided educational programs, particularly in home-making skills, athletics, and music, which served to provide recreation for the mill hands, largely in order to forestall labor unrest and discourage organized labor from becoming influential in the South during the post WW I era. The availability of cheap, factory made instruments was also crucial in this development. Using four emergent musicians as representatives of this influence, Huber concentrates on biographical portraits of Fiddlin' John Carson, Charlie Poole, Dave McCarn, and Dorsey Dixon, each of whose contributions were significant while representing different strains that found their voice as country music and its offshoot, bluegrass, developed and dominated. The remainder of this review can be read on my blog, which also contains YouTube samples of each major singer/composer profiled at www.tedlehman.blogspot.com

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be honest, i like this kind of music (old time) and I was born and lived most of my life in this area. That's probably what tipped this review from 4 to 5 stars. The book covers Charlie Poole, the Dixon Brothers, Fiddlin' John Carson, Dave McCarn - all who did old time music in the 20s-30s. It explains how their lives and music were affected by their experiences working in Textile Mills.

[Joe Vess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really, really fascinating book. Untold history about the evolution of hillbilly/old time music and how it led to and affected country, and it also had some deeply affecting individual stories, especially that of Dorsey Dixon. I can't wait to find some of his music.

[Frank Hoppe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing could have been better, but the stories of the old-time artists it chronicles were wonderful, especially the story of Charlie Poole.