--- Missouri’s two largest cities – Kansas City and St. Louis – are renowned for their indispensable contributions to American roots music, past and present.

--- However, the present discussion will focus on roots music of rural Missouri, because rural communities are the focus of the Museum on Main Street program, and because plenty of good information about the musical histories of St. Louis and Kansas City is readily available from other sources.

--- Does anyone know what Missouri’s official state instrument is? It’s the fiddle.

--- Old-time fiddling – i.e., vernacular fiddle music that reflects traditions that predate the advent of radio and recordings – in Missouri bespeaks the state’s status as a cultural crossroads.

--- Scholars of Anglo-American old-time fiddling have identified three (or four) broadly conceived regions within Missouri on the basis of style and repertoire. (If you’re interested in knowing about the definitive characteristics of each regional style, ask me sometime, and I’ll do my best to explain them.) The stylistic regions are…

--- Ozark

--- I’m inclined to believe that the Ozark stylistic region could be divided into at least two
sub-regions. In any case, a good example of the fiddling style prevalent in much of the
western half of the Missouri Ozarks is Bob Holt’s rendition of “Wolves A-Howling”;
Other excellent examples are these videos from the website of Ashley Hall, a young southwest
Missouri fiddler who studied with Bob Holt. (The only exception is “South,” which is
performed very well but isn’t typical of the repertoire and style most closely associated with
southwest Missouri.)

--- A good example of fiddling from the eastern half of the Missouri Ozarks is Gene
Goforth’s performance of “Sail Away Ladies,” from the Missouri Traditional Fiddle and
Dance Network website. See also the discussion of John Hartford below (to be added later).

--- Little Dixie (example: Pete McMahan, “Fiddler’s Dream,” from the Missouri Traditional
Fiddle and Dance Network website);

--- North Missouri – often subdivided into…

--- North-central (example: Nile Wilson, “Tie Hacker #1,” from the Missouri Traditional
Fiddle and Dance Network website);

--- Missouri Valley (example: Cyril Stinnett, “Lantern in a Ditch,” from the Missouri
Traditional Fiddle and Dance Network website).

There are a number of other ethnic fiddling traditions in Missouri, including…

--- African-American

--- Several African-American old-time fiddlers were active in the Little Dixie region several
decades ago; one of them, Bill Caton (also spelled “Katon”), is the namesake of a tune that is still
played occasionally, “Caton’s Hornpipe.” At present, there are no widely known African-
American old-time fiddlers in Missouri, but I would not be surprised if I were to learn that there
are black old-time fiddlers in the Bootheel or in Little Dixie who continue to play but do so in
private contexts and have not come to the attention of aficionados of traditional fiddling in
Missouri. If that is the case, it would be very interesting to compare their styles both with those
of other Missouri fiddlers and with those of other African-American fiddlers from elsewhere.

--- German-American

--- German-Americans who settled in Missouri in the mid-19th century, most numerously in the
Mississippi and Missouri valleys, introduced many central European dance tunes to the fiddle
repertoire. Waltzes, polkas, and schottisches are often played throughout the state today, not
only by German-Americans but by other fiddlers, as well. Waltzes are especially popular among
old-time fiddlers; an example is “Goodnight Waltz,” performed by Billy Lee, a fiddler with both
German-American and Anglo-American roots from Wright City.

--- French Creole

--- The fiddle was a part of Missouri culture long before the arrival of Anglo-Americans; it was
introduced to the region by French colonial settlers. Some of the repertoire that was played here
when Missouri was part of French Upper Louisiana remains in circulation in such places as Ste.
Genevieve and Old Mines. A particularly accomplished performer and interpreter of French
Creole fiddle music of Missouri is Dennis Stroughmatt, who is from southern Illinois but became
an expert on this music while a college student in southeast Missouri. You can hear excerpts
from his album, The Gambler’s Fiddle, which features French Creole fiddle music of Upper
Louisiana and the Illinois Country, here.

--- Old-time fiddling traditions, especially Anglo-American traditions, are closely related to the string band tradition (in the broadest sense of the term).

--- Music-making by a string band in south-central Missouri (or north-central Arkansas; it isn’t entirely clear) might have played at least a nebulous role in inspiring George D. Hay (“The Solemn Old Judge”) to establish the Grand Ole Opry. An organizationbased in West Plains commemorates Hay and the influence of traditional music-making in the Ozarks upon his career.

--- In the 1920s and ‘30s, string band music – often described as “hillbilly music” at the time – was transmitted by radio and recordings. A commercial music industry based on vernacular music of the rural South and Midwest began to develop, and Missourians were among those who contributed to it. One Missouri string band that made recordings during this period was the Grinnell Giggers from New Madrid County. Here’s an excerpt from one of their recordings, “Ruth’s Rag.”

--- The Grinnell Giggers’ rendition of “Ruth’s Rag” illustrates the influence upon Anglo-American string band music of an African-American genre closely associated with Missouri: ragtime.

--- Ragtime evolved in the late 19th century when black musicians incorporated harmonic and especially rhythmic characteristics of African-American folk music into middle-class white popular forms such as two-step dances and marches.

--- The Missouri Valley was one of the foremost centers of ragtime music early in the history of the genre.

--- The most influential innovator of ragtime was pianist and composer Scott Joplin, who lived in Sedalia in the 1890s and early 1900s. His “Maple Leaf Rag” (1899) is named for an African-American social club there.

--- Another important innovator of ragtime from Missouri was Warrensburg’s own Blind Boone. Part of a performance of a Blind Boone composition entitled “Sparks,” performed by Frank Townsell, is available on the homepage of this Wiki site.

--- Interestingly, a number of Blind Boone’s compositions are waltzes or polkas, further indicating the influence of German-American music in the Missouri Valley and the hybridization of black and white musical genres.

--- Before we delve further into African-American music, let’s discuss another important genre of Anglo-American vernacular music: ballads.

--- Some of the ballads sung in Missouri originated in England or Scotland and have been circulating in oral/aural tradition for centuries. Others were composed here in the United States but belong to the same tradition with respect to poetic and musical style.

--- Traditionally, Anglo-American ballads were (and are) sung with little or no instrumental accompaniment. Scholars believe that it was not until sometime in the 19th century that the combining of singing with instrumental music became a regular practice among Anglo-American musicians in the Upland South. (Of course, there were numerous precedents in other European-American and African-American vernacular genres, as well as in popular and classical music.) Unaccompanied ballad singing was practiced in the Missouri Ozarks well into the 20th century (and occasionally still is).

--- One of the largest and best archives of recordings of traditional Anglo-American ballad singing in the United States is the Max Hunter Collection, located at Missouri State University in Springfield. The entire collection has been digitized and is now available online. A good example of the content of the Max Hunter Collection is a rendition of “The Gypsy Davy,” Child ballad no. 20, by Mrs. George Ripley of Milford, Missouri, recorded in 1959.

--- Several significant latter-day ballads either originated in Missouri or commemorate events in Missouri history. They include “Jesse James” and “Sweet Betsy from Pike,” the latter of which apparently refers to Pike County, Missouri, and was written by John A. Stone, a native of that county.

--- A number of Missouri musicians who are currently active are avid collectors of ballads and other folk songs associated with our state. Among them are Cathy Barton and Dave Para of Boonville, who were strongly influenced by the folk revival of the 1960s, and Judy Domeny of Rogersville.

--- All of the musical traditions that we’ve discussed so far, as well as others, contributed to the development of bluegrass.

--- Bluegrass music is named for one of Missouri’s neighbors to the southeast (and one of the states from which many of Missouri’s settlers came), Kentucky. It was the home state of Bill Monroe, the principal originator of the genre.

--- Monroe developed a distinctive musical idiom within the Upland Southern string band tradition in the late 1930s and ‘40s. His stylistic innovations, especially with regard to ensemble configuration and technique, generated renewed interest in traditional string band music and enabled it to remain competitive within the rapidly changing country music marketplace. Monroe’s version of traditional Upland Southern string band music became known as bluegrass.

--- String band musicians throughout the South and Midwest recognized bluegrass as a close cousin to their own music and began to adapt some of Monroe’s stylistic innovations or to “convert” to bluegrass altogether.

--- Among them were musicians in Shannon County, Missouri, which became an important center of bluegrass early in the history of the genre. The Current River Opry in Eminence and other local venues hosted performances by Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys, Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, and other now-famous pioneers of bluegrass.

--- A number of musicians in and near Shannon County still play very well in a first-generation bluegrass style. They include Jim Orchard and the Bressler Brothers.

--- Since the early 1960s, a substantial proportion of the most accomplished and best-known musicians in bluegrass have been Missouri natives. Among them are…

--- The Dillards

--- Originally from Salem, the Dillards moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s and rapidly
achieved national prominence through their recordings on Elektra Records and especially their
appearances as the Darling Family on the Andy Griffith Show.

--- Lonnie Hoppers

--- Originally from southwest Missouri, banjoist Lonnie Hoppers began his career performing at
the Ozark Opry near Lake of the Ozarks. He was a member of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in
the early 1960s. He later made a series of recordings with virtuoso flatpicking guitarist Dan Crary
of Kansas City (Kansas, alas). He still performs frequently with his own band, New Union.

--- Dale Sledd

--- Dale Sledd (third from left in the photograph), like Lonnie Hoppers, is a veteran of the Ozark
Opry. He was the guitarist and third singer (and frequently also a composer) in the Osborne
Brothers’ band in the late 1960s and ‘70s. He lives near Springfield and continues to perform
and record.

--- Two of the most renowned musicians in bluegrass today are Missourians. They are…

--- Rhonda Vincent (from Kirksville and closely associated with the Sally Mountain Park and Festival at Queen City), and

--- Valerie Smith (from Holt).

--- Many bluegrass festivals take place in Missouri each year. They include (among many others)…
--- Starvy Creek Bluegrass Festival (near Conway)
--- Bluegrass Pickin’ Time (near Dixon)
--- Fourche Creek Festival (near Doniphan)
--- Sally Mountain Festival (near Queen City)
--- Old Grassy Spring Festival (near Grassy, rural Bollinger County).

--- Missouri – Kirksville, specifically – is also home to the Society for the Preservation ofBluegrass Music of America.

--- Missouri has also been well represented in Nashville. Several of the most renowned “classic” country performers are natives of the Show-Me State. They include…

--- Jan Howard (from West Plains)

--- Porter Wagoner (also from West Plains)

--- Leroy Van Dyke (from Mora; he now lives in the Sedalia area)

--- Ferlin Husky (from Flat River, now a part of Park Hills; he now lives in the Vienna area); here
is a performance by Ferlin Husky of “Wings of a Dove,” composed by Bob Ferguson, a native of
Willow Springs, Missouri, who was successful as a songwriter and producer of recordings in
Nashville.

--- TO BE CONTINUED...