Yankee Twang: Country and Western Music in New England PDF
Preview Yankee Twang: Country and Western Music in New England
country and western music in new england yankee twang Murphy_text.indd 1 6/11/14 8:39 AM music in american life A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book. Murphy_text.indd 2 6/11/14 8:39 AM Yankee Twang Country and western Music in new england clifford r. murphy university of illinois press Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield Murphy_text.indd 3 6/11/14 8:39 AM Publication of this book was supported by a grant from the L. J. and Mary C. Skaggs Folklore Fund. © 2014 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America c 5 4 3 2 1 ∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Murphy, Clifford R., author. Yankee twang: country and western music in New England / Clifford R. Murphy. pages cm. — (Music in American life) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-252-03867-9 (cloth: alk. paper) isbn 978-0-252-09661-7 (ebook) 1. Country music—New England—History and criticism. I. Title. ml3524.m87 2014 781.6420974—dc23 2014012436 Murphy_text.indd 4 6/11/14 8:39 AM To the many women and men of New England country and western music: this book is for you, that the world should know you, your music, and your contribution to the character of New England community life. To the memories of those who contributed so generously to this work and who have traveled on before seeing their names in print: Wendell Austin, Angelo Boncore, Vinny Calderone, Bill Chinnock, Jerry Devine, Doug Garon, Flo Cody Hooper, Gene Hooper, Clyde Joy, Herb LeBlanc, Paul Roberts Metivier, John Penny, Rusty Rogers, Jim Senter, Johnny Smith, Rex Trailer, John Lincoln Wright, and Richie Zack. To the memory of my late father, Gordon D. Murphy, Jr., who always dreamed of publishing a book: this one’s for you. To Mom and Peter, for always encouraging me to follow my muse. And, finally, to my wife, Monica, without whom my life would be so very empty. You are profoundly beautiful by every measure. I love you so much. Murphy_text.indd 5 6/11/14 8:39 AM Murphy_text.indd 6 6/11/14 8:39 AM Contents Acknowledgments ix Prologue. Fieldnotes on the Dick Philbrook and the Frye Mountain Band Show xiii Introduction. Reintroducing New England to the Country Music World 1 1 New England Country and Western Music and the Myth of Southern Authenticity 11 2 A History of New England Country and Western Music, 1925–1975 37 3 Finding Community in the New England Country and Western Event 105 4 Home on the Grange: The Frontier between “American” and “Immigrant” Worldviews in New England Country and Western 124 5 “It Beats Digging Clams”: The Working Life of Country and Western Musicians in the Barnstorming Era 145 6 The New England Cowboy: Regional Resistance to National Culture 167 Epilogue. “Oh, You’re Canadian”: My Night as a Canadian American in Watertown, Massachusetts 183 References 187 Index 199 Photos follow page 89. Murphy_text.indd 7 6/11/14 8:39 AM Murphy_text.indd 8 6/11/14 8:39 AM acknowledgments My ethnographic and historical research was informed by—and shaped by—my having been a resident of New England from 1978 until 2008, my family heritage in Massachusetts and Maine that stretches back in parts some two centuries, and my having traveled extensively throughout the region as an itinerant rock and country and western musician from 1988 through 2003. Formal research for this project began in 2004. As a bi- musical participant-observer, I carried out ethnographic fieldwork with country and western musicians and fans in the states of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, as well as in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. I conducted oral histories with performers active (and formerly active) in all six New England states and with pertinent persons who now reside in the states of Tennessee, Colorado, Oklahoma, Florida, and Ohio and in the Ca- nadian province of Nova Scotia. Oral histories were all conducted under the auspices of the Maine Folklife Center, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the American Folklife Center. Copies of fieldnotes, sound recordings, photographs, transcriptions of interviews, and signed release/consent forms have all been deposited in those archives as noted. Research in historical primary sources—field recordings, commercial recordings, photographs, oral histories, print media, radio transcriptions, recording contracts, show posters, advertisements, fan mail, and business documents—was conducted in the archives of the New England Country Music Historical Society in Watertown, Massachusetts; the Maine Folklife Center at the University of Maine, Orono; the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress; the Folklife and Heritage Archives of the Mas- sachusetts Cultural Council; the New England Folk Music Archives at the Passim Center; the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum; and the John Murphy_text.indd 9 6/11/14 8:39 AM
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