Southern Music: The Jukebox & Your Readings

The first week of November will be devoted to Southern Music. I'd like you to go ahead and listen to the songs I've compiled and the readings I've posted. Check out T-Square: read the introduction to Malone's Southern Music/American Music and the Wells article, and spend some time with Miller's long Dirty South essay.

At the bottom of the blog, you'll find a jukebox loaded up with playlist that introduces 20th-21st Century Southern Music. How'd I select what's there? Difficult choices were made....and as Malone and others suggest, almost all of American music (and thus, much of global pop music) is rooted in the curious collision that occurred in the South--the musical conversation and exchange that included English & Scots-Irish ballads, Protestant hymns, and the polyrhythms of African music . The blues were born down here, and all of it--from country, jazz, bluegrass, rap, and rock of all stripes--are rooted in that tradition.

So, here's what I did: I selected the central movements in popular southern music in the 20th and 21st Centuries, and then I picked the handfull of artists most critical to or representative of these movements. The majority of them grew up in the South, toured the South, and recorded on southern labels.

Let me explain the organizational pattern: I've organized the songs in both a chronological and geographic pattern--one that I hope is neither reductive nor too complicated too follow. Artists are grouped in movements, and the central cities of those movements and the years they occured are listed.

Certainly, I've left out many significant artists and movements. For instance, how could I produce a southern music compilation without BB King? Or Ludacris? Or Little Feat! And I'm so light on folk music....Ugh--I disappoint me! To remedy this, please post links to relevant artists, genres, etc., in the comments section bellow.

Finally, I'd like you to think about the racial dichotomy that is reinforced by my organizational plan. Particularly after the '60s, the categories I've enumerated fall into either white or black music. Is this accurate? If so, what different directions did white and black folks take the blues over the course of the 20th Century? If not, what do I need to do to correct it?

Here we go:

1-3: Mississippi Delta Blues (1920s-'30s)

• Robert Johnson - "Crossroads" (1936)
  
• Leadbelly - "The Boll Weevil" (1934)
  
• Bessie Smith - "Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl" (ca. 1930s)
  

4-5: New Orleans (1940s-'50s) ~ jazz & gospel

• Jazz: Louis Armstrong - "Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans?" (1947)
  
• Mahalia Jackson - "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jerico" (ca. 1950s)
  

6-8: Nashville/Country Music of the 1930s-1950s

• The Carter Family - "Will/Can the Circle Be Unbroken" (1935)
• Hank Williams - "Lost Highway" (1949)
• Bill Monroe - "Mule Skinner Blues"(1939)

9-17: Early Rock (1950s) ~ Mississippi Delta, Memphis, and elsewhere...

• Muddy Waters - "Mannish Boy" (1955)
• Bo Diddley - "Bo Diddley" (1955)
• Jackie Brentson with Ike Turner - "Rocket 88" (1951)
• Big Mama Thornton - "Hound Dog" (1952)
• Elvis Presley - "Hound Dog" (1956)
• Little Richard - "Long Tall Sally" (1956)
• Jerry Lee Lewis - "Wild One" (1958)
• Johnny Cash - "Cry! Cry! Cry!" (1955)
• Ray Charles - "Mess Around" (1953)

18-20: The Rhythm & Blues of the 1960s ~ Memphis, etc.

• Otis Redding - "Try a Little Tenderness" (1966)
• Booker T & the MGs - "Green Onions" (1962)
• Nina Simone - "Mississippi Goddamn" (1963)

21-23: Nashville in the late '60s & '70s ~ Countrypolitan & the Backlash

• Loretta Lynn - "Fist City" (1968)
• Dolly Parton - "Jolene" (1974)
• Waylon Jennings - "Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way?" (1975)

24-28: Funk in the '70s & Beyond ~ Memphis, New Orleans, etc.

• James Brown - "Super Bad"(1970)
• The Staples Singers - "Respect Yourself" (1971)
• Al Green - "Take Me to the River" (1974)
• The Meters - "Cissy Strut" (1969)
• The Dirty Dozen Brass Band - "Do Whatcha Want" (1991)

29-30: Southern Rock of the 1970s ~ Atlanta, etc.

• Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Free Bird" (1974)
• Allman Brothers Band - "Whipping Post" (live, 1971)

31-34: Dirty South Hip Hop (1990s-2000s) ~ Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans, etc.

• Goodie Mob - "Dirty South" (1995)
• OutKast - "ATLiens" (1996)
• Lil Wayne - "Grown Man" (2005)
• David Banner - "Saints Row" (2008)

35-39: Roots Rock & Alt. Country (late '80s - 2000s) ~ Nashville, Athens, Austin, etc.

• R.E.M. - "Driver 8"(1985)
• Steve Earle - "Someday" (live, 1986)
• Lucinda Williams - "Pineola" (1992)
• Drive-By Truckers - "The Southern Thing" (live, 2001)
• Drive-By Truckers - "Let There Be Rock" (live, 2001)

40. THE BIG FINALE

• Elvis Presley - "American Trilogy" (live)