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What's
a Honky Tonk Anyway?
The origin of "honky-tonk"
is unknown, according to Merriam-Webster. But The New York
Times' Ed Boland reports "... many musicians say the term,
which can mean a type of ragtime music or a tawdry nightclub,
stems from Tin Pan Alley.
In the early 1900's, every music production company had a piano
in the office, and from the street you could hear people
banging away. Many of these pianos were made by William Tonk
& Brothers at 10th Avenue and 35th Street. The pianos
and the sounds they made soon became known as honky tonk."
Q+A
in FYI Section of New York Times' City Section
Sunday, July 6, 2003
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Honky Tonk Women: The Changing Role of Women in Country Music
 Honky
tonks sprang up around east Texas oil fields in the 1930s as places
for hard-drinking, tough-talking men to get loose after a long day’s
work. Hank Williams’ country hit “Honky Tonkin” could
have been their theme song. But, in 1952 country singer Kitty Wells
looked like somebody’s aunt when she debuted, "It Wasn't God Who
Made Honky Tonk Angels". Wearing a lady-like gingham dress, but daring
to sing about adultery and divorce from a woman’s point of view,
she captured the nation's attention and started a revolution in country
music. Interviews include performers Pam Tillis and Jean Shepard and
the music of Kitty Wells, Hank Thompson and Pam Tillis. Production by
David C. Barnett.
 Listen
to Part 1
Country Guitar:
The Music Meets Technology and Changing Times
Cowboy hats and
guitars symbolize ‘Country Music’ today, but a hundred years ago you wouldn’t
have heard much guitar picking on the porches of rural America. The banjo
and fiddle were the primary voices of early American roots music; the guitar
was a plaything of the rich and elite. It wasn’t until the late 1880s that
guitars gained popularity, as a parlor instrument played by women. Fueled
by mass-production and mail-order catalogs, guitars became a staple that
slowly moved into the mainstream. But, the parlor roots ran deep: all the
early country guitarists said they learned guitar style from a mother. So
it’s no surprise that “Mother” Maybelle Carter would be one of the first
innovators of the ‘Country’ guitar. The segment features the archive interviews
and music of Maybelle Carter and Etta Baker. Production by Tom Cole and
Jesse Boggs.
Listen
to Part 2
A Pure Sound: Country
Music and the Moral Message
There may be far fewer Sunday churchgoers
than a generation ago, but millions of Americans have been drawn to
rural southern gospel music through the popular soundtrack of the film,
O Brother Where Art Thou. Concert tours and ‘follow-up’
albums have found audiences eager to buy traditional songs about “old-time
religion”. Is this just musical fashion or does their moral message
resonate with today’s audiences? Interviews include Charlie Louvin
and Grammy ® winner Ricky Skaggs and music by the Louvin Brothers,
Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch. Production by David C. Barnett.
Listen
to Part 3
Thomas A. Dorsey:
From "Georgia Tom" to the Father of Gospel Music
‘Barrelhouse
Tommy’ was famous for raunchy records he made in the 1920s. Thomas
A. Dorsey wrote “Precious Lord”, one of the most popular
and powerful hymns of all time. Both styles came from the same man
at opposite poles of his life. Dorsey combined sacred lyrics and
secular style in a new kind of church music. His American black
gospel was a musical revolution. We hear from gospel artist Walter
Hawkins, and the music of Thomas Dorsey as sung by Kansas City
Kitty, Mahalia Jackson, and Elvis Presley. Production by Jacquie
Gales Webb.
Listen
to Part 4
The Rise of the
Country Blues
In
the first third of the 20th century, these itinerant singers played
in Delta juke joints, on street corners in Texas’ big cities,
and on railroad platforms in dusty Alabama towns. They had colorful
names like “Blind Lemon” Jefferson, “Mississippi John”
Hurt and “Leadbelly” --or simple ones like Robert Johnson
and Charley Patton. The lines of their guitars etched the foundation
of rock and roll. They wrote songs about the devil, women and jail,
and harnessed them to earthy music that could lift the spirit.
Just what makes a song a blues? Is it a feeling, a musical form,
or a way of looking at life? Interviews with Honeyboy Edwards,
Son House and Taj Mahal; Music by Charley Patton, Son House and
Bukka White. Production by Tom Cole, Barrett Golding, and Larry
Massett.
Listen
to Part 5
Jimmie Rodgers: Birth
of the Country Superstar
What we call country songs today, three minute tales of faithless
love, restless traveling or sentimental ballads about “momma,”
owe a part of their heritage to the old mountain ballads and one
part to the phonograph records that made an icon of Jimmie Rodgers.
In a life as colorful as the songs he sang, the "father of country
music," rose from obscurity to create a new level of international
stardom for American music. Interviews with Merle Haggard and
the only living person to have played with Jimmie Rodgers, Hoyt 'Slim' Bryant;
music of Gene Austin and Jimmie Rodgers. Production by Jesse
Boggs and David C. Barnett.
Listen
to Part 6
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Bob Wills, King of Western
Swing, in a publicity photograph from the late 1940s.
Riding the Rails to
Stardom: The Maddox Brothers and Rose
They would do anything
to escape the relentless sun and bone- wearying work of the Alabama
cotton fields. Offered a chance to sing on radio, the Maddox Brothers
and their 12-year old sister, Rose, jumped into that new medium.
For four decades their talent, humor and brilliant synthesis
of popular and traditional music captured the imagination of hard-working
people across America. Interviews with Don Maddox and Emmylou
Harris; music of the Maddox Brothers and Rose. Production by
Paul Brown with Leda Hartman.
Listen
to Part 7
Música Norteña:
Accordion on the Texas Border
When German immigrants of the 19th century,
settled in the Rio Grande Valley they found ground that was fertile
for both crops and culture. Their beautiful button accordions
would seed a new Conjunto, (combination) music along Mexico’s northern
border. Through melodic and nimble playing, Narciso Martinez a
son of migrant farm workers would become the of “Father of Conjunto.”
This segment includes interviews with accordion legends Flaco
Jimenez and Juan Tejeda; and music by Narciso Martinez, Santiago
Jimenez Sr., and Pearly Sowell. Production by Lex Gillespie
Listen
to Part 8 .
Country
Fiddling: From Back Porch to Big City
Like
a butterfly, the small and light violin came to America with early
colonists. It went from musical culture to culture, and it carried
their elements like pollen. Circuit-riding preachers, peddlers
and schoolteachers all spread their tunes and styles to the most isolated
areas. Even in the deepest rural hamlet, a fiddler was never
alone. Then these sounds were amplified by talking machines and
radio to become powerful agents of change in disparate musical
styles. Lately they have reappeared as popular music with the
success of the film O Brother Were Art Thou and its traditional
music soundtrack. Modern fiddlers Mark O’Connor and Alison Krauss
help tell the story with music by them Eck Robertson, and others.
Production by David C. Barnett.
Listen
to Part 9
Lone Star Swing: Bob
Wills and the Texas Tradition
FAs
sharecroppers working in Texas cotton camps, Bob Wills’ family
supplemented their meager income by playing for dances. Their music
reflected the diverse population of the Southwest -- with German
polkas, and waltzes, Spanish guitar and violins, and bits of blues
and jazz from the black sharecroppers that they had worked beside
in the fields. As young workers left the farms and ranches for
the more lucrative oilfields a new music was heard from the raucous
roadhouses where they spent their pay. Combining old-time dance
music with jazz, Bob Wills created Western Swing. This segment
includes Wills own recollections, “Asleep at the Wheel’s” Ray
Benson and music by Wills and Martie Seidel and more. Production
by David C. Barnett.
Listen
to Part 10
Black and White:
Crossing the Border, Closing the Gap
For
more than half of the 20th century, segregation was the law in parts
of America. But musicians rarely let race get in the way of making
good music. The evidence in commercial recordings and in the
stories of musicians is undeniable. Black and white players inspired
and influenced each other, creating a common, musical culture
though sometimes underground musical culture. This final segment
of Honky Tonks Hymns and the Blues explores the crossovers of
style and content, the “race records” that brought black music
to all of America, and the racial divisions that remain in the
music industry today. Interviews with Doug Wamble, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown,
and Stax Records’ Memphis studio musicians; and the music of Lesley
Riddle and the Carter Family. Production by Leda Hartmann.
Listen
to Part 11
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