Music Through the Decades - The Fiddle Sings the Blues

Music Through the Decades – The Fiddle Sings the Blues

Beneath one of the grandest courthouses in the state of Tennessee, our city sidewalks express a built beauty—brilliantly poetic, sophisticated. Facades abound around the world, but none are as steadfast, substantial or stately as the Rutherford County Courthouse. On these late summer days, against a soft blue sky, our courthouse is backlit by golden brilliance. Communing with the surreal, an almost artificial scene is the best antidote to the flurry of 21st-century life.

Even as Murfreesboro sprawls into the landscape of Rutherford County, one can only imagine the town in bygone days, a Murfreesboro of hand-hewn log structures and houses of block and fired brick. As one experiences our unique downtown, the centerpiece of our cultural heritage emerges in a spot where, only two centuries ago, settlers cut their way through heavily timbered forests, cane and grape vines.

Images from long ago reveal a surreal scene. From the downtown wells, buckets of water were tossed into the air, minimizing the gravel and dirt from the many wagons and buggies, not to mention those stirring clouds of powdery dust rising from those on horseback. Today, one of the wells is still visible on the north side of the Square, where slave auctions were held more than 150 years ago.

Prior to the Civil War, Rutherford County had become one of the most prosperous areas in the South, but a field slave could work all day, every day through the fall. Cotton pickin’ produced achy backs and rough hands scarred from years of picking bolls. But the audacious songs that emerged from an attitude of accomplishment were perhaps driven by a goal—a victorious battle for freedom. The songs and musical styles were a loving retreat from the oppression and drudgery of slavery. The music for the slave became a wall of protection from the unfair practices of bondage, nourishing their souls. Posed in their story could be a buried treasure with wisdom and direction for modern times.

One old fella once said, “Ya just get a little bit, not enough to feed ya family, but ya do what ya can to get by. It really matters to do a good job for my massa. No rocks in my cotton bag!”
Wisely, an ole granny with a life lesson once surmised, “Ya can learn a lesson about life from a cotton boll. In God, you are soft and safe, out of harm’s way—all wrapped up in the things that prick your life!”

Solomon Northup, a free man from New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana, later described how his ordeal was mitigated by his ability to play the fiddle. In his book, published in 1853, which was adapted into a recent motion picture, Twelve Years a Slave, Northup wrote: “Alas! had it not been for my beloved violin, I scarcely can conceive how I could have endured the long years of bondage.”

It was the American Civil War which brought the use of brass instruments and drums into common use. But also, the migration of African-American slaves brought cultural diversity, mixing musical styles across the land. Nevertheless, it was the fiddle that captured the imagination of the slave long before the guitar, replicating the human voice. Before the 20th century, there is no doubt that the fiddle, along with the banjo, played a significant role in the early history of string band music and recorded roots music, eclipsing even the guitar.

In a string band, the fiddle is by nature a lead instrument that can replicate vocal expressions through the use of vibrato and sliding notes. Many black fiddle artists developed techniques on the fiddle that were later applied to guitar, creating the interplay of voice and instrument that is a prime ingredient of the blues. Many slave fiddlers played European instruments, but others used homemade devices fashioned from gourds, much like the African banjo, only bowed instead of plucked. It is likely that some slaves imported from areas of West Africa took more readily to the European violin because of their experience with native instruments that resembled the fiddle.

Many black musicians prior to the 20th century were playing the blues on the fiddle and banjo even if it did not conform to the specific harmonic sequences and verse patterns of actual blues. No doubt these creative musical expressions were stylistically distinguishable from white artists even though there was a long history of exchange between races at social events. The interplay between the white and African American slave was complex, as both were influenced by the integration of cultures.
The antebellum era was filled with turmoil and social upheaval. The issue of states’ rights and slavery became contentious, resulting in a divided community here in Murfreesboro. Our central location, accessibility to rail and good roads made the community desirable for both the North and the South. Notably in the 1850s and 1860s, Rutherford County had grown prosperous economically, becoming a leading producer of corn and cotton, all supported by slave labor. It was in this social and cultural disorder that musicians gathered to exchange songs and tunes with each other. Throughout the 19th century, well after the Civil War, the “fiddle” remained the most common instrument heard at barn dances, grange halls, theaters, schools and churches. It remained the most common and favored instrument along with the banjo, due in part to their portability and low cost.

In the antebellum South, including Rutherford County, slave fiddlers provided music at plantation balls and other entertainments for whites, and were often encouraged by their masters to play for the dances of fellow slaves. The music of Africa was absorbed by black musicians into the polkas, marches, jigs and reels of the European tradition, applying syncopated rhythms and minor tonalities derived from their African tradition.

Murfreesboro’s affluent were completely Southern in ideology and mannerisms. Most had become acclimated to the finer things in American life both in fashion and music, their women decked with wide gowns and fancy crinolines, parasols and frilly lace. But it was the authentic string band sounds that resonated along with the joy of fiddle sounds that stood at the core of a complex musical revolution evolving and influencing the stages of American popular music today.

There are rare recordings demonstrating the depth and diversity of African-American fiddle music, not only in the popular blues music of the day, but also in the string band traditions that came before. In 1942, one of those players—Frank Patterson, along with banjo artist Nathan Frazier—was recorded by Fisk University professor and musicologist John Work III. It has since been archived in the Library of Congress. It seems that Patterson’s styles and songs were learned from an old slave here in the area. In the recordings, Nathan Frazier’s clawhammer banjo style mimics Uncle Dave Macon’s freewheeling banjo style.

Frank Patterson was born in around 1880 in the Walter Hill community. He developed into a leading square-dance fiddler living as a sharecropper near Antioch, Tenn. He influenced the fiddle styles for many string bands that appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in its early days, including the Tomberlain Family Band, highlighting the fact that both white and blacks shared a common tradition of fiddle and banjo music on the WSM Barn Dance. Apparently his influence was evident on the early Opry through several string bands, but he never appeared on the Opry.

Black fiddlers and string bands, still common in the South throughout the 1920s, were not entirely ignored by the record industry, but were they were sadly underrepresented. Record executives were reluctant to take a chance on those early artists, although the popularity of blues music by black string bands was becoming extremely popular wherever it could be heard.

This marginalized, underestimated and unexplored music from the 19th century continued to be passed over. Well into the 20th century, the musical styles of this neglected music can be detected in American recorded music, indirectly affecting other artists across the land. In addition, it continues to be uncultivated, its roots still remaining unacknowledged. Today, the music industry has cross-pollinated these styles and often fails to recognize the lasting power and legacy of the “roots” music tradition; however, the countless artists who have drawn influences from the deep well left behind by black innovators know the truth and display it in their work.

From “Roots to Popular Music”
Frazier and Patterson (fiddle and banjo player from Middle Tennessee in old-time style), from recordings captured in 1942 by John Work III