Bluegrass in Protest
It's commonly believed that music has an innate power over the average human. Music, especially song, helps us feel deeply to understand, experience, and contemplate the complexities of life. So it’s not shocking that the civil rights movement has music heavily intertwined in its history. This means a lot of folk songs are closely related to protest. When people speak on protest music, civil rights are the most common image produced. More recently Hip Hop might be seen as protest music. In general, we commonly think of a call to chant such as, “We will overcome” or even, “F— The Police”. However, there is a lot of music out there that is part of a movement for social change that is more diverse and not just chanted at rallies. As a definition, protest music is that which is attached to a message in a movement for social change and has lyrics to disperse the message. Genres famous for protest are folk, punk, and rap. In contrast to the popular conception of Bluegrass music, protest plays a largely ignored function within the genre.
Although protest music comes in many varieties and genres1, there are clear common purposes with each approach. Some of it is motivational, with a short but clear call to action, or they are educational— teaching untold histories. Others are ballads or stories of struggles that unite the oppressed, but all of them are attached to a movement of social change and have lyrics that disperse a message. In Bluegrass music, many protest songs are sorrowful tales of the oppressed, while others detail a path to resiliency, and others still detail complaints.
Bluegrass is a bit trickier to define. As Murphy Hicks said, “All night discussions can be launched with the simple question, “What is Bluegrass?”2 She also tells us that it began in the 1940s. Bluegrass for this paper shall be described as “elevated hillbilly music”3. Songs are composed of acoustic string instrumentation, often centering the banjo and including the mandolin. Melodies utilize the “high and lonesome”, vocal sound with shout harmonies. Also important is a mix of Irish, Scottish, and African-American approaches to arranging both voices and instrumentation.
In the past, being that Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys coined the term, his band was designed as the blueprint for all Bluegrass Bands. Now more than ever, there is a call to redefine Bluegrass and protest music to enjoy all that does not fit neatly within the margins. Also, there is good reason to highlight the protest works of some artists, to better understand the community that follows Bluegrass. Many consider it a white male-dominated genre, and in fact, L. Mayne Smith used those terms to define Bluegrass in his American Folklore article in 1965. That said, Bill Monroe is known to have credited the Black fiddle and guitar player Arnold Schultz for helping him to develop his style.4 This is not to mention the plethora of women who played with him, and especially those who played in a very similar fashion during the same period, yet are considered Old Timey rather than Bluegrass. It even has been recently stated, by Guardian Journalist Emma John,
“ Bluegrass has no history of protest music. Or rather, its protest has always been a passive, melancholic one, the sound of displaced workers longing for their home in the Blue Ridge Mountains far away.”5
With this statement in mind, quite a few songs and artists are thrown out of the Bluegrass catalog. Firstly, by way of stating that “passive, melancholic” isn’t a great way to deliver the message of oppression. Secondly, by ignoring more than a few artists who have protested through educating/telling histories, uniting the oppressed, calling out injustices, and those who express a form of resistance through their mere existence.
If one doesn’t throw all the less popular, less rage-filled examples and follows my definition as designated above, there are more than a handful of both modern and historic protest songs. The first round is the more obvious, tales of oppression and warning.
One of the most important artists that have written Bluegrass protest music is Hazel Dickens. Raised in West Virginia and having lost 3 brothers to mining-related illnesses Hazel Dickens took on the work of writing calls to action for the coal miners union.6
“United we stand, divided we fall
For every dime they give us a battle must be fought
So working people use your power as the key to liberty
Don't support the rich man's style of luxury”
Those are the powerful lyrics to the song, “They’ll Never Keep Us Down” which states the atrocities of working in the mine and supports the actions of the union.7
“He's had more hard luck than most men could stand
The mines was his first love but never his friend
He's lived a hard life and hard he'll die
Black lung's done got him his time is nigh
Black lung, black lung, oh you're just bidin' your time
Soon all of this sufferin' I'll leave behind
But I can't help but wonder what God had in mind
To send such a devil to claim this soul of mine”
”Black Lung”, a song detailing the ailments of the coal miners who were paid very poorly just to die young of respiratory illnesses8.
Dickens was so fantastic at protesting the troubles of the coal miners that she was chosen to produce songs for both the Oscar-winning documentary “Harlan County U.S.A.” (1976) and John Sayles’s 1987 coal-mining drama “Matewan.”
Not only did she support the coal mining union, but she also supported women, specifically feminists. Dickens wrote songs explaining the troubles of women and calling out men’s bad behavior:
You pull the string
She's your plaything
You can make her or break her, it's true
You abuse her, accuse her
Turn her round and use her
Then forsake her any time it suits you
There's more to her than powder and paint
Than her peroxided bleached-out hair
And if she acts that way
It's 'cause you've had your day
Don't put her down, you helped put her there9
Another band, The Bluegrass Alliance famously covered an anti-war song, “One Tin Soldier”10 which made the charts in Canada and the U.S.10 The Bluegrass Alliance, led by Tony Rice and now famous, Vince Gill made their stance on war-profiteering known by playing their version of this song at festivals all over the U.S:11
Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away12
More recent songs could be said to be more subtle, criticizing right-wing governments through sarcasm and sweet harmonies. The Punch Brothers’, “JUMBO”, is one such song.
Well, here comes Jumbo with a phone in his hand
Bet it’s been a while since you seen a real man
Grown up strong on the fat of the land of the free
Sure, I guess he got off to a hell of a start
With his grandpa’s money and his daddy’s heart
But you oughta know privileged is a pretty hard thing to be
You know?13
As best stated on genius.com
“Jumbo is a satirical song about America––more specifically President Donald Trump. The song makes fun of American politics by creating a caricature ‘Jumbo’ that portrays questionable morals and ignorance.”
The Punch Brothers aren’t known for being a largely political band. On politics, lead singer and mandolinist, Chris Thile has said (In Garden&Gun Magazine no less), “I went through a political shift when I was nineteen or twenty. I felt a certain way, and after the shift, I felt the opposite way. And never once did someone yelling at me or making me feel stupid do anything other than reinforce the convictions I had.”14 Which isn’t a strong stance for either side of the political spectrum/divide. They of course make a case softly and beautifully on “JUMBO”. That case for this one song is clearly anti-capitalism and anti-fascism.
Another harmonious call to tell truth is by the band, Che Apalache in their song, "The Wall":
Come sisters, brothers gather near
For we’ve come to share our worries
We fear what some folks have been saying
About Latin Americans
The truth’s been misconstrued
There’s all kinds of talk ‘bout building a wall
Down along the Southern border
‘bout building a wall between me and you
Lord, and if such nonsense should come true
Then we’ll have to knock it down15
According to their website, the band has combined Bluegrass and Latin influences and currently resides in Argentina. This song is a strong yet beautiful taunt towards racists and fascists that want the Americas to become further divided.
Then there are those artists, bands, and songs that make little ripples look like waves. The following artists are all currently considered broadly Bluegrass. Some have even won awards at the international bluegrass festival. I consider the following to be considered protest as resistance through existence.
Firstly and possibly most importantly is Banjo Picking Girl as performed by The Coon Creek Girls as early as 1938. That is, of course, before Bill Monroe coined the term Bluegrass. However, all of the elements exist. High, lonesome shout harmonies, a string band with banjo and mandolin featured, and lyrics to tell the tale of these young mountain gals set out for freedom. The original melody and lyrics were from a variety of sources including “Going Round the World, Baby Mine” by Charles Mackay and Archibald Johnson in 1874.17 One might not consider “I’m going round’ the world, I’m a Banjo Pickin Girl” to be lyrics of protest.18 If one considers, though, the fact that at that time not only was money scarce for travel, and therefore a musician’s life difficult, but women were meant only for women’s work. Traveling was dangerous and intended for men. Playing instruments was intended for men. Even today we still rarely see women in Bluegrass bands, so at that time it was revolutionary. They did end up traveling and playing for British Royalty and The White House!19
A newer and sometimes more political group is the Grammy-winning, all-female band, Della Mae.20 They have a great tune that speaks against capitalism, greed, and racism. Both resistance through existence and also a bold statement of leftist politics.
“Now I'm scrolling though the headlines my screen
another black man crying out that he can't breathe
why am I surprised it's happening again
Isn't this the way its always been?
It don't even matter if there was a crime
The system works exactly how it was designed
And the indifference is so deeply ingrained
That means I'm the one that needs make a change
We can't go back to the way it was before
the in-justice can no longer be ignored
none of us are free, until we all can be
we can't just go back to the way it was before”21
Note the line, “We can’t go back”, arguably a direct hit against Trump saying “Make America Great Again”. Marginalized folks that have made strides in the years since the 1950s know what “Great Again” potentially means; great for middle-to-upper-class cis-gendered, straight, white, Christian men. This song reminds us, “none of us are free until we all can be”.
Jake Blount is the epitome of resistance through existence, the 2020 winner of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize and two-time winner of the Appalachian String Band Music Festival, better known as Clifftop22 Blount a Black, Queer, Afrofuturist, which is “a cultural aesthetic, and philosophy of science and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology.”23 He is progressive in his musical approach as well as his song choices. Most of his songs are covers of traditional music, reimagined with a progressive “folk” or one could say, Bluegrass aesthetic. Considering that many of his songs feature banjo and violin and are usually acoustic, it's at least old-time. The fact that the music is progressive in its arrangement gives it a jazz feel. That to me says Bluegrass and is the reason for including his version of the song, “Once There Was No Sun”.25 Not only is the sparse instrumentation and multilayered rhythm giving a free-jazz feel, but the video also signifies Black freedom and flow with it’s flowing outfits, and mix of Afro-jazz dance on the beach and other US Southeastern looking locations.
Blount is also found speaking on his left-leaning yet respectful-of-hillbilly-music political stances on the youtube show “Get Up in the Cool” where he promoted his “Reparations” album.25 He gets more into detail on countryqueer.com,
“For me, the term ‘old time,’ and really any synonymous term, is this racist fabrication of what the musical landscape of the South really was. And I don’t view old-time and blues and gospel and bluegrass as being these neatly separable categories. For me, it’s really about different ways of voicing some of the same musical themes and same lyrical themes that you find throughout all of those genres.”26
Every song he covers, every album he produces, is honoring the Black folk (erm, Bluegrass! Ha!) artists of the past who never got their due, and also the rebellious activists of the present and future. Blount has many more opinions in that article about “cheerful” music and the microaggressions that may result from it even today:
“This older white woman with a blue streak in her hair and all that stuff came up to me and was just like, ‘it’s so good to see a young black person learning from the older generations because today’s black people are just too angry.”
So Blount decided to make his point absolutely clear. After the show, the pair learned “The Angels Done Bowed Down” to show that Blount was not going to be shoehorned as “one of the good ones.”27
The “Angels Done Bowed Down” is tongue in cheek for a non-christian it says,
when jesus was a hangin’ up on the cross
the angels kept silent till god went off
then the angels hung their harps on the willow trees
to give satisfaction till god was pleased28
One way to look at this is that “the Angels” let Jesus die to please God. They did nothing to protect the man who was making great miracles and teaching peace and love among his followers. Singing this would be very offensive to Christians, and not at all the behavior of a “good one”. This also speaks to a modern sensibility of being woke among sleeping sheep who pretend to be “good Christians”.
Thoughts from a community member
“Most of the first generation Bluegrass musicians were conservative.
But I also don't know about that, because what I do know is that Ralph Stanley
voted Democrat his whole life and he voted for Obama” -Mark Kilianski
Mark Kilianski is a flat-picking guitar and banjo player from New Jersey. He says he fell in love with Bluegrass through the mainstream film, “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” And he has been putting in hours playing and attending festivals and studying old-time and bluegrass music. He and I met, playing together for a Bluegrass ensemble at Berklee College of Music in the mid-2000s.
On diversity in the IBMAS (International Bluegrass Music Association), he said:
“(Its) definitely Bluegrass but it's I think in the past five years or
so. They've really been uh pretty intentional about widening the umbrella you know? I mean if you only do traditional bluegrass you're really limiting yourself you know? Especially (since) Bluegrass has been around for like 80 years right? And so yeah there's a lot of different “grass” represented at ibma”
On Bluegrass at protest events:
“I did also go to a protest, my friend Brian Farrow and he plays in Gangstagrass (Hip Hop Bluegrass Band)…and he was involved in some work trying to save, like, a historic Cemetery in a historically black neighborhood. But there was Trump that developed condos or something and a lot of the people who were organizing were part of that 60s protest culture so they involved some of those old songs and I played some old-time (Bluegrass) music with Brian at that protest”
On protesting in Bluegrass music:
“I don't know it's a weird question but hopefully I'm all for it!
I mean pretty much I've come to approach songwriting with a political lens whether it's just a total protest song or not really potentially political at all but just kind of editing songs with a political lens. Because whether you choose to be political or not everything is political. All art is political. All work is political. So my feeling is I might as well at least edit something with that lens to try and have whatever I'm putting out there be constructive. In terms of (songs of) mine and then just in terms of Bluegrass in general. Like, yeah, politics and protests are not traditionally part of the genre but it's also a progressive genre of music. It's kind of a weird thing because it's a very traditional form of music but it's also progressive because original Bluegrass music was kind of this new innovative mix of different styles. Then each band and each generation has kind of added its own kind of innovation to the music. It's very much like jazz in that the musicians are always pushing the boundaries, right? So I don't see any reason why protests shouldn't be part of Bluegrass music and I think that goes for conservatives as well as people on the left.”
My Conclusions:
To be completely honest I wasn’t sure how much of this music I was going to find. I thought I was going to have an extremely difficult time. But as Murphey Hicks Henry titled her “1990s and Beyond” chapter there are “Too Many To Count” as far as women in Bluegrass. But there are also many artists and songs that are now speaking to movements of social change whether through storytelling, calls to action, or resistance through existence. I have found that I had to cut some notable artists for the sake of brevity and the more I searched the more I found new artists. These are just the artists that have an online presence. I’m lucky to have found the one live performance of Bluegrass Unlimited’s “One Tin Soldier” cover. But no discussion of why they chose the song or any other political stances they were willing to take.
When it came to some artists there was so much political information that I wanted to share as much as possible (thus why there are two songs mentioned and quotes from Jake Blount). Hazel Dickens has an entire biography that includes her activist work that I couldn’t get my hands on and therefore didn’t cite. Not to mention that I didn’t cite the Dixie Chicks who have really leaned hard into the “pop’ genre but have more than a few feminist and anti-fascist songs due to the political leanings of Natalie Maines.
The fact is that there is a lot more work to do here for both the past (can we discuss The Coon Creek Girls some more?) and the present (Too Many!). I also feel like I should quickly mention Rhiannon Giddens whose work with “Our Native Daughters” was phenomenal and genre-blending as much as Jake Blount's work. Additionally, I think it would further alleviate any preconceived notions about the Bluegrass community in the US (let’s not get started on European acts). Do more research, and publish more papers about the diversity of Bluegrass and its important role (as much as folk, if it is even a different genre) in protest.
Murphy Hicks Henry, Pretty Good for a Girl: Women in Bluegrass (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2013) pp 9
L. Mayne Smith, An Introduction to Bluegrass ( Journal of American Folklore, Jul.-Sept 1965, Vol 78, No. 309, Hillbilly Issue) pp 245
Hazel Dickens, “They’ll Never Keep Us Down” Solo EP, Rounder Records, Date Published Unknown, https://youtu.be/4HwP3f2oaA8
Hazel Dickens, “Black Lung” Harlan County USA, Rounder Records, 2006 https://youtu.be/ODg9gW-ZTJI
Hazel Dickens, “Don’t Put Her Down (You Helped Put Her There)” Hazel& Alice, Rounder Records, 1973 https://youtu.be/VZZn-o8Dto8
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-bluegrass-alliance-mn0000762322/biography
Dennis Lambert, Brian Potter, “One Tin Soldier”, Live for Tomorrow, TA Records, 1969 covered by Bluegrass Alliance https://youtu.be/f_Q_fkvCLnY
Punch Brothers, “Jumbo”, All Ashore, Nonesuch Records, 2018 https://youtu.be/cA4H7_d9q20
Che Apalache, “The Wall”, Rearrange My Heart, Free Dirt Records, 2019 https://youtu.be/i8jJ1ssW3Jc
http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/banjo-pickin-girl--coon-creek-girls-.aspx
Charles Mackay, Archibald Johnson, Lily May Ledbetter, “Banjo Pickin’ Girl” Vocalion 04413, 1938 https://youtu.be/8XKLPIS3CFA
Celia Woodsmith, Mark Erelli, “The Way It Was Before” Family Reunion, Self-Released, 2021 https://youtu.be/I8fwnCa9oo8
https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/bgs-wraps-taylor-ashton-santas-song-i-dont-believe-in-myself/
Get Up In The Cool Ft. Jake Blount (interview) https://youtu.be/jvAU1RjEi9Y
Traditional Folk, “Once There Was No Sun”, https://youtu.be/0hfI8dhgElc
https://countryqueer.com/stories/interview/jake-blounts-genrequeer-vision/
https://countryqueer.com/stories/interview/jake-blounts-genrequeer-vision/
Traditional Folk, “Angels Done Bowed Down”, Spider Tales, Rusting Earth Music, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwGWl39wn7I
