| Subject: |
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Show me that mountain music |
| Name: |
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Jim Myrick |
| Date Posted: |
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Dec 28, 04 - 1:53 PM |
| Email: |
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myrick52@hotmail.com |
| Instant Messenger: |
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 Jim Myrick |
| web site |
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http://www.tisba.net |
| web site |
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http://www.wmox.net |
| Message: |
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Show me that mountain music
Museum a history of country singers, tunes
By MORGAN SIMMONS, simmonsm@knews.com
December 27, 2004
BRISTOL - It was a cold winter morning when Jim Webb hopped in his car and drove 30 miles from his horse farm near Blountville, Tenn., to the Bristol Mall. His objective was two-fold: to do some Christmas shopping and to see one of his grandfather's banjos on display at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.
Wearing a wool hat and faded canvas jacket, Webb entered the museum on the first floor of the mall and made a beeline for the banjo exhibit. Among the four banjos on display was a fretless model with a cat-hide head made in the early 1900s by James Webb, Jim's grandfather.
"I heard it was here," Webb said. "He made me one just like it, except mine has frets."
For almost six years, the Birthplace of Country Music Museum has been telling the story of how country music sprang out of the rich musical melting pot of East Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and the surrounding Southern Appalachians.
In 2004 the museum and gift shop drew visitors from every state in the country. Many of the items on display are donated by local families, and according to Bill Hartley, executive director of the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance, the museum is running out of room.
"What you see on display is just the tip of the iceberg," Hartley said. "People are constantly bringing us old songbooks and records. We're glad to help preserve and tell their story."
The museum is located in the Bristol Mall, but plans are to move the facility downtown to a building one block away from the famous warehouse where, in 1927, a talent scout for the Victor Talking Machine Co. named Ralph Peer first recorded Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, thus laying the groundwork for the commercial music industry.
Not surprisingly, the museum gives these so-called "Bristol Sessions" the royal treatment. In a corner are black and white photos of the original Carter Family - A.P., Sara and Maybelle Carter - as well as photos of the singing brakeman himself, Jimmie Rodgers. Local newspaper clippings from August 1927 hang on the wall, as do various 78s of the music made during those sessions.
Hartley said the Bristol Sessions marked the first time electronic microphones had been used to record old-time and traditional music.
"Prior to this they recorded acoustically, and the musicians had to play into a big horn," he said. "The electrical recording process picked up nuances in the singing and playing that otherwise would have been lost. The technology might seem quaint today, but it was high-tech back then."
Knoxville is well represented in the museum. There's a display devoted to the golden age of radio in the 1940s and 1950s, when stations like WNOX in Knoxville played the Stanley Brothers, Flatt and Scruggs, and other pioneers of bluegrass.
Local jam sessions are celebrated, and where else but the Birthplace of Country Music Museum will you find the jackets and cowboy hats worn by bluegrass great and Sneedville, Tenn., native Jimmy Martin, along with a beautifully crafted dulcimer built by Bob Mize, of Blountville?
Hartley said the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance makes a special effort to relay the message that traditional music is still alive and well.
"We let people know this music isn't just in the past - it's a living tradition," he said. "If you draw a circle around Bristol, within a 100 mile radius you'll find 150 venues that host old-time music on a regular basis. And in that same circle, you'll find about 200 bluegrass festivals.
"There's still a lot of music in the mountains of southwest Virginia, northwest North Carolina, and East Tennessee."
Hartley said the new museum hopefully will be completed in 2007, the 80th anniversary of the original Bristol Sessions. He said the new facility will feature interactive displays along with videos and music recordings.
"A new generation is discovering traditional music," Hartley said. "All of a sudden Ralph Stanley is an overnight success, even though he's been playing bluegrass for 50 years. We're getting more and more visitors from overseas. It's a niche market, but when you're talking about the whole world, that's a pretty big niche."
Morgan Simmons may be reached at 865-342-6321.
Copyright 2004, KnoxNews. All Rights Reserved. |
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