Tennessee and Kentucky Reginald D Hunter's Songs of the South

# Oh, I wish I was

# In the land of cotton

# Old times there are not forgotten

# Look away

# Look away

# Look away

# Dixieland... #

When you think of American music,

what you're really thinking about is the South.

# LA... #

Blues, soul, jazz and rock and roll, they all emerged from the swamps,

mountains, cities and racial ferment of the southern states of America.

# He's leavin'

# Leavin'

# On that midnight train to Georgia

# Leavin' on the midnight train

# Mm, yes

# Said he's goin' back... #

I was born in Albany, Georgia.

And I grew up in the post-civil rights era.

And even though segregation was officially over,

there were racial barriers that still had to be contended with.

# I'm goin' down south I'm goin' down south

# I'm goin' down south

# I'm goin' down south

# The chilly wind... #

By the time I swapped Georgia for Britain, when I left America,

I hated the South.

Now I've returned to rediscover my homeland

through its most famous export.

Via the songs of the South,

I will take a look at where the South has been

and try to get a sense, a little bit, probably, maybe,

of where the South is going.

Come with me.

# I am a man

# Of constant sorrow

# I've seen trouble all my days... #

Appalachia - beautiful.

This is the South of the moonshining hillbilly,

the poor white mountain folk whose ancient banjo and fiddle tunes

are at the root of American music.

I'm taking a trip into the high lonesome sound of the mid South,

through Tennessee and Kentucky,

on the trail of music that came over with America's first settlers.

I'm here to figure out how and why

it has trickled down from the mountain

and become part of the cultural melting pot

of American popular music.

Hell, I may even discover I've got some hillbilly in me.

Come on, let's go.

# Tennessee

-# Tennessee

-Tennessee

# Tennessee

# Lord, I've really been real stressed

# Down and out, losing ground

# Although I am black and proud

# Problems got me pessimistic

# Brothers and sisters keep messin' up... #

I haven't spent much time in Tennessee,

but when I hear the name, the things that pop in my head

are lots of letters...

..college football,

world-class barbecue,

Elvis Presley,

the end of the road for Martin Luther King,

Smoky Mountains.

Beautiful mountain range here.

Oh...and...and hillbillies.

The deadly kind.

-What's happening, brother?

-Welcome to Tennessee.

Thank you, we just got here.

-Have a good time.

-You're the first Tennessee people we spoke to.

Now, those were nice people and I hate my own sense of prejudice

but I have to say, I'm glad I was talking to them

while there was a camera on me.

CHUCKLES

Clan feuding, moonshining, and inbred.

For some, hillbilly has become a put-down.

But I want to go beyond the stereotype

and explore the rich and ancient culture of Southern mountain folk.

First stop is the Smoky Mountains

to pay my respects to the queen of the hillbillies herself.

Now it's time for the beautiful little lady

to do a great song of hers, I think,

that she wrote about her home back in the eastern part of Tennessee,

over in the Tennessee mountains.

It's called My Tennessee Mountain Home. Miss Dolly Parton.

APPLAUSE

# Sittin' on the front porch

# On a summer afternoon

# In a straightback chair on two legs

# Leaned against the wall

# As I watch the kids a-playin'

# With June bugs on a string

# And chase the glowin' fireflies

# When evenin' shadows fall

# In my Tennessee mountain home

# Life is as peaceful as a baby's sigh

# In my Tennessee mountain home

# Crickets sing in the fields nearby... #

My Tennessee Mountain Home is very personal to me.

It's one of the first songs I wrote

after I moved to Nashville

thinking about being back home because I was homesick.

But I have all those memories of my growing-up days there

in the Smoky Mountains in that one particular little place

where we lived that I called the Tennessee mountain home.

# In my Tennessee mountain home

# Life is as peaceful as... #

Of course, there were a lot of hard times there as well,

but I do remember all those precious days and you have a tendency

to only pick out the very good stuff

and the days you remember as children,

like chasing fireflies and June bugs on the string,

chasing butterflies, all the things I've mentioned,

but most people back there in those mountains

lived basically the same way.

We were just part of nature, and that's the kind of stuff

that gets embedded in your DNA and in your psyche.

# In my Tennessee mountain home

# Life is as peaceful as a baby's sigh... #

My, my, my, this is Dolly Parton's Tennessee mountain childhood home.

Spam, a Southern staple - at least when I was growing up.

No-one's really sure what it's made of.

Well, some people are, but they don't like to think about it.

If you grew up in this, how do you be anything but down to earth?

In a place this small, with one bedroom,

how did two people get together and make 12 kids?

HE CHUCKLES

I'm guessing the kids slept on the floor.

In actuality, this is not Dolly Parton's home,

it is a recreation of, because we are here, in Dollywood.

Hello! Hey!

CHEERING

# Tumble outta bed and I stumble to the kitchen

# Pour myself a cup of ambition... #

Dollywood embodies what the new South has done with its heritage.

Bottled it up and served it back to a paying public.

# ..the traffic starts jumpin' with folks like me... #

But it also looks fun.

# Workin' 9 to 5

# What a way to make a livin'... #

Dollywood is the embodiment of several American narratives.

The ones that we like. Local girl done good.

Local girl brings her family along to enjoy the fruits of her success.

But the most popular American narrative is local girl makes money.

Dolly done good!

Maybe Dolly wouldn't... and maybe Dolly would.

These people, the people I call hillbillies,

back in the day they were legendary for their moonshine they distilled.

Oh, yes, moonshine!

I'm hopeful of having a sip of that soon.

The best moonshine is as clear as water.

It can put you on your ass.

You don't need to drink a lot of it.

I don't know if you could live if you drank a lot of it.

The distillation of white whisky by the light of the moon

goes hand in hand with hillbilly culture.

It was mysterious, magical and illegal.

Come on, girl. Swing around for me. Yep.

We have just arrived in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

And I have to say, it's warm and friendly so far.

-What's happening, cool breeze?

-Whoo!

Goddamn, this is more lively than I could have ever gave Tennessee credit for.

I'm glad I came.

All the way from Britain. Say hello to Britain.

CHEERING

LAUGHS

What the hell...?

Why the hell not?

HE LAUGHS

We're from England, all the way from England.

-You're from England?

-England.

-So are we.

-Oh, are you?

-BBC right here, baby.

-Oh, God! Well, we're from England.

-Nice to see you.

-The cavalry is here, you're safe.

-Whoo!

It's been a long trip. Looks like some lovely people.

I think I'm going to stop and have me a tasty beverage.

Things have come a long way from the days of a still in a mountain shack.

Shine is now a taxable commodity and everyone's invited to the party.

Is that there John?

-Yes, sir, how you doin'?

-Pleased to make your acquaintance.

-Let me give you a bit of...

-Wait a minute now,

moonshine's supposed to be clear and white, ain't it?

This is our 105 proof charred moonshine.

Did you say 5%?

-No, 105 proof.

-105 proof?

-105 proof.

-Man, you could start a car with this!

-Yes, sir, you can.

-I'm going to knock this back now.

Go on, you do it to it.

I feel like it's going to give my chest hairs a perm.

Give me some of old faithful.

You want to give this one a shot?

Yeah, man, I've been thinking about this all day.

-What did you think of that?

-I can tell you right now

that that one is coming back to England with me.

I don't blame you there one bit.

# Ooh, white lightnin'... #

I don't believe it's going to hurt me,

-it's too pretty to hurt somebody.

-Just wait.

# Well, I asked my old pappy why he called his brew

# White lightnin' 'stead of mountain dew... #

He needs a white lightnin'.

He needs a white lightnin'.

-You recommend a white lightnin'?

-Yes.

I will be in spirit, so to speak.

Ah! That went down as smooth as white linen.

Oh!

Oh, man, but I'm sweating like I'm in a sauna now.

He's in a sauna!

Oh, man!

# Ten years ago

# On a cold, dark night

# There was someone killed

# 'Neath the town hall light

# There were few at the scene

# But they all agreed

# That the slayer who ran

# Looked a lot like me... #

It is not an uncommon thing in the history of humanity worldwide,

the impulse to murder something beautiful.

In Appalachia, it is called Southern Gothic.

I'm off to Knoxville, Tennessee, to learn more about this.

# She walks these hills

# In a long black veil

# She visits my grave

# When the night winds wail... #

The term "hillbilly" possibly derives

from Scotch-Irish followers of King William III,

amongst the first to colonise Appalachia in the 18th century.

Life was hard, remote and at times brutal for these Old World settlers.

You might argue that the people that came to America were perhaps

people who were outsiders, socially inept, sociopaths perhaps?

Our country is founded by people who couldn't fit in, in Europe.

When I think about what is American Gothic,

I think it's the American tendency

to be much more comfortable with violence than we are with sexuality.

Much more comfortable with death than with love.

The city of Knoxville is the gateway to the southern Appalachians

and the setting of the classic murder ballad Knoxville Girl.

# I met a little girl in Knoxville

# A town we all know well

# And every Sunday evening

# Out in her home I'd dwell

# We went to take an evening walk

# About a mile from town

# I picked a stick up off the ground

# And knocked that fair girl down... #

Lauren, ma'am, thanks for agreeing to see me.

What type of things done in Knoxville makes Knoxville dark?

Well, the murder rate has always been very high.

-Really?

-In fact, in 1907 we had

a rate, a murder rate, higher than Los Angeles in the 1990s.

-No!

-It's quite true.

-So y'all kill good?

We do a lot of killing, good or bad.

So, what's the name of this beautiful place?

How's it relevant to what we're talking about?

We are standing right in the mouth of First Creek.

Towards this end of First Creek, down towards the river,

was the red light district,

so the ladies of, shall we say, negotiable affection

plied their trade on the banks of this creek.

-And if they managed to anger a lover, or a friend...

-Customer.

-..or a customer, their body might end up in this creek.

-No!

And it would float down this way towards the river.

And so naturally that would filter into the music as well.

Oh, yes, there is definitely

a dark side of the music that developed here.

We have a very rich musical heritage

and you can almost feel the shadows of the hills in many of those songs.

# She fell down on her bended knees

# For mercy she did cry

# Said, Willard, dear Don't kill me here

# I'm unprepared to die

# She never spoke another word

# I only beat her more

# Until the ground around me

# Within her blood did flow... #

The song itself, The Knoxville Girl,

which is a very old song that came across the water with the settlers

who came from England and the British Isles,

a lot of them settled here in this area.

They came from North Carolina, down through the mountains.

I believe, as it travelled through the mountains,

the mountains changed the song.

Something about the dark mountain passes,

and the forest in every direction

gives you a claustrophobic feeling.

Somehow, in Appalachian songs,

you can almost see where they were written

because they're dark, and you get that sadness, that mournful tune.

Oh, baby, I'm so sad I've got to kill you.

-You're so beautiful, you have to die.

-They regret it, you know.

Even in The Knoxville Girl,

his last words are that he really loved that Knoxville girl.

He regretted what he had done.

And he never makes brilliant excuses for himself.

He killed her.

# I took her by her golden curls

# And I drug her round and round

# Throwing her into the river

# That runs through Knoxville town... #

What's resonant about the song

is the fact that it's removed from reality,

-there is no cause given for why this murder happens.

-Right.

He just says I love her and then he kills her.

# Dear Knoxville girl

# You can never be my one... #

It's, "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die."

You know, it's just...

"This is what I do, I'm a force of nature, I kill."

But there's a real sensuality to the death...

The woman has no body until she's been killed,

then she has golden curls and she has blood and she's got a body

that can be dragged through the dirt. Her corpse seems gorgeous.

# They carried me down to Knoxville

# And put me in a cell

# My friends all tried to get me out

# But none could call my bail

# I'm here to waste my life away

# Down here in this dirty old jail

# Because I murdered that Knoxville girl

# The girl I loved so well. #

I couldn't visit Tennessee without a quick stop

at the home of country music.

I have a place in my heart for people like Conway Twitty

or Johnny Cash.

Or, um...Mac Davis.

I think, before the last 10-15 years,

I think country music was deep and rich

and had very textured, multi-layered stories.

I found them fascinating.

And I feel like country, like the way of a lot of things now,

whether it's R'n'B or sitcoms,

I feel like it's become more about spectacle and money.

And here we are -

Nashville, Tennessee! The home of country music.

Oh, man!

From a distance it looks like a mixture of crime and Christmas.

That sounds like a Dickens novel that never got written -

Crime And Christmas.

My, my, my!

I don't know why I'm surprised, but I mean...

I am.

Cos, like, of course it's aware it's the home of country music.

Of course it is.

Nashville owes its position to happy coincidence.

In the 1920s, an insurance company created a radio station.

Its flagship show played local music.

Thanks to a large transmitter, soon 28 states were able to tune in

to the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday night

to get their dose of hillbilly.

Everyone knew the Grand Ole Opry came from Nashville,

it's kind of all the people that want to be on Broadway,

it's like, you want to go to New York.

So if you're a country singer, you want to go to Nashville.

# Back through the years I go wanderin' once again

# Back to the seasons of my youth... #

Thank you.

It's the home of my music, the home of my soul, actually,

because that's where I knew my dreams were going to come true.

If they were to come true at all, they were gonna start there.

# There were rags of many colours

# But every piece was small... #

I love Nashville now as much as ever.

It has changed, it's growing,

but people are moving from everywhere coming to Nashville.

It's a wonderful, wonderful city.

And I call it home, have since 1964.

# ..Coat of many colours that I was so proud of... #

The original name for country music was hillbilly.

Nashville took the music from the mountains,

knocked the rough edges off and served it up to America as commerce.

# I go out walkin'

# After midnight

# Out in the moonlight

# Just like we used to do... #

It turns out that the trickle off the mountain has become

a billion dollar colossus known as country music.

It never expected to be involved with record sales or tours...

..or stars, all that it's become.

It was intended to pass on history, to entertain, to have fellowship

and to cause community cohesiveness.

-Did you grow up in London?

-No, I'm from Georgia, actually.

-Really?

I grew up in Georgia and I went there to study drama...

-You're an actor?

-I went as an actor and now I'm a stand-up comedian.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Tell us a joke.

-No.

-We've put you on the spot, I know.

-No.

HE LAUGHS

The values that this music contains -

of inclusiveness, of resilience,

of hospitality...are human values.

And it's yet another part of America

that keeps threatening to live up to its creed.

# Somewhere a-walkin'

# After midnight

# Searchin' for me. #

Kentucky, full of bourbon, derby and bluegrass.

I don't know what bluegrass is, never seen it be blue.

But we're 'bout to find out. Come on.

Here's Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys.

Let her go, boys.

APPLAUSE

Bluegrass is the modern offspring of the Old World folk traditions

that English and Scotch-Irish settlers brought to Appalachia.

Its invention can be pinpointed to one man, Bill Monroe.

# Oh, the people would come from far away

# The nights don't light till the break of day

# When the caller was hollerin' doh-si-do

# You knew Uncle Finn was ready to go... #

It should first be said about Bill Monroe

that he was from Western Kentucky

where you have all these rivers coming together -

the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi -

the most amount of navigable rivers in the entire world

right here in western Kentucky, bringing culture in,

flowing like veins.

You have the Scots-Irish Celtic traditions

trickling down the Ohio River

and you have the blues and jazz of New Orleans and Memphis

flowing backwards through the veins of the Mississippi delta

and coming together right here in Western Kentucky.

I'd say bluegrass is just as much river music as it is mountain music.

Del McCoury made his name as Bill Monroe's guitarist

before becoming a star in his own right.

# Blue moon of Kentucky

# Keep on shinin'

# Shine on the one that's gone and proved untrue

# Blue moon of Kentucky

# Keep on shinin'

# Shine on the one that's gone

# And left me blue

# It was on a moonlight night... #

-What town are you from, Reg?

-A place called Albany, Georgia.

Albany, yeah, I know where it's at. I know.

My family's old,

and by old I mean it's like

they ain't too impressed with a lot of new music here lately.

-Sure.

-They're a bit underwhelmed.

I know, my folks would be too.

Louis Armstrong famously said,

when asked to explain jazz to someone who had never heard it,

he said that some folks,

if they don't know already, you can't tell them.

Now, I'm going to ask you to do for bluegrass

what Louis couldn't do for jazz.

What is bluegrass? What's it about?

To describe to somebody that's never heard it,

I wouldn't know how to really describe it.

It's a really hard-driving music, you know?

Bill Monroe was the father of bluegrass.

The only way that we knew it was bluegrass was it was Bill Monroe

and the Bluegrass Boys because he was from Kentucky.

And he named the band that, but the music wasn't named until 1963.

Then they set the blueprint for all bands that came after -

you know, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, bass fiddle and guitar.

# I said, blue moon of Kentucky keep on shining

# Shine on the one that's gone and proved untrue

# Blue moon of Kentucky keep on shinin'

# Shine on the one that's gone and left me blue... #

I never realised that I would ever work for Bill Monroe

because he was a big star then, you know?

In my mind, he was like one in a million, you know?

Blue Moon Of Kentucky, tell me, what does that song mean to you?

Well, I got sick of it, I'll tell you the truth.

Cos he sung it every night, you know?

But, you know, he had a lot of love affairs, Bill Monroe did.

And this one went wrong.

You see, there's only three things you've got to remember in there.

"Proved untrue."

"Left me blue."

"Said goodbye."

That's at the end of every line...every chorus, you know?

THEY LAUGH

# Blue moon of Kentucky keep on shinin'

# Shine on the one that's gone and said goodbye. #

# Oh, Southern man where he gonna run to?

# Southern man where you gonna run to...? #

Well...

..I thoroughly liked Del McCoury.

I mean, some people just make other people feel all right

when they're around, you know, like an ice cube in a drink.

I couldn't tell if it was him or me or us,

but I got a strong suspicion that it was him.

CHUCKLES

When I was younger, I attended a Catholic school

that also happened to be 98% white.

It opened up a whole new world for me,

but there was one particular activity that I loathed.

Somehow, I have been persuaded to revisit my youth, here, in Paducah.

-Hi!

-Hello there.

-How are you doing? Welcome.

-How are you doing?

-Hi, I'm Jessica.

-Hello, Jessica. I'm Reginald.

-I'm pleased to make your acquaintance.

-Nice to meet you.

-Are you ready for this?

-If you are.

-All right, let's go.

-All right.

# Promenade in one big set Promenade around the set

# Promenade in one big set

# Promenade in one big circle

# You promenade two by two... #

-I don't think we're doing this right!

-When in doubt!

# Promenade four by four

# Circle left a little bit more Circle left in one big ring

# Stretch it out and fill the room... #

Square Dancing is another ancient musical tradition that the

first American settlers brought with them from the old country.

Square dances are kind of an offshoot of the English or Irish ceilidh.

It was like the old barn dances y'all have over there,

or even the German polkas. A lot of folks, you know,

in a barn, holding hands, swinging their partners round and round,

you know. I'm sure there's a lot of whisky involved, and there's some

loose morals at the old square dances,

but, over the years, square dances kind of became a dance snob's

preoccupation, but its original intent

was to be a friendly, uh, moment

of fellowship between, you know, the sexes - let's be honest.

It's not about the dancing as it is getting to, like, touch girls, so...

'My dance partner sure is fine, but I still feel the same.'

MUSIC ENDS THEY CHEER

Oh...

Yes, uh...

That was...I'm glad I did it,

I'm glad it's done. It was hot.

It was...it wasn't...

It reminded me of the third, fourth and fifth grade when it was

a PE elective.

I think square dancing is good for people who are unaccustomed

to the opposite sex, or maybe just got to town.

I think it's old time speed dating.

But...

..I don't have any desire to ever do that again.

I'm going deeper into the white South than I've ever been.

When I lived here, I think, I see

now that I lived primarily in the black South,

and those were two different Souths.

I have a feeling that at the end of this trip,

I will be able to truly call myself a southerner, through and through.

# I wish I was in Dixie-land Hooray hooray

While I'm in Kentucky, I'm going to explore a completely different early

American music, that originated mainly in the north,

but was based upon visions of the South.

# Oh, the Camptown ladies sing this song

# Doo-dah doo-dah...#

Minstrelsy was a long moment in American musical history,

that many would like to forget.

# I went down there with my hat caved in

# Doo-dah doo-dah...#

Minstrel songs are regarded by many

as America's earliest form of pop music.

They emerged around the mid-19th century,

and they were performed by white people in blackface.

Minstrelsy took great delight in depicting black people as lazy,

happy-go-lucky and stupid, and, as such,

they were immensely popular.

Despite their overt racism, or perhaps even because of it,

minstrelsy lasted well into the 20th century,

with many of its old tunes surviving as melodies we remember to this day.

# Way down upon the Swannee River

# Far, far away

# Is where my heart is turning ever

# That's where the old folks stay

# All up and down the whole creation

# Sadly I roam

# Still longing for the old plantation

# And for the old folks at home... #

Old Folks At Home. It works on several levels.

On one level it's about the isolation of the human condition,

how all of us are wanderers looking for a home.

So I think it's timeless in that sense.

But it's also a blackface tragic song that was meant to be sung

with a blacked up face,

by a white man pretending to be a slave longing to be a slave again.

An ex-slave who's been freed from the plantation who wants to

return, which is such a strange conceit.

So it's a horrifying song but it's also a gorgeous song

at the same time.

# All round the little farm I wander

# When I was young... #

Picking endless bales of cotton in this heat for masters must have

been a special kind of hell.

And the idea that some former slave pined for this life

seems like some kind of sick joke. But it ain't inconceivable.

# When I was... #

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation

that set the slaves free.

Free to what?

Free to have no homes, no health care and no education.

And under such conditions it is easy to imagine that more than

a few slaves would have pined for the security of the old plantation.

# All the world is sad and dreary

# Everywhere I roam

# Oh, darkies, how my heart grows weary

# Far from the old folks at home... #

I mean, "darkies", you just can't get rid of it, it has to be sung

because if you take it out, it changes the whole tenor of the song.

You know, you can say "Oh, brothers, how my heart is weary"

but it's not the same thing.

It's like, "Oh, darkies, how my heart grows weary,"

it's like he is addressing, you know, people of his race

and his community. But it isn't!

It's written by Stephen Foster, it's like, it's just so weird

on so many levels.

# Oh, darkies, how my heart grows weary

# Far from the old folks at home. #

Old Folks At Home was written by Stephen Foster, a man known as

the father of American music for the many famous melodies he wrote.

I've come to a plantation in Bardstown that is associated with

another of Foster's famous minstrel tunes, My Old Kentucky Home.

Oh, this Southern finery.

Look at all of this.

Hey there, how you all doing? Looks like a good day to get married.

-Oh, beautiful.

-All right, all right.

Nowadays, places like this, places that were thriving

plantations of varying security and futility, they have become

places to play golf and get married.

HE CHUCKLES

# The sun shines bright

# On my old Kentucky home

# 'Tis summer, the children are gay

# The corn top's ripe and the meadows in their bloom

# While the birds make music all the day... #

Taking a stroll to the big house.

This is supposed to be the home that inspired Stephen Foster to create

the song My Old Kentucky Home.

Big old plantation house.

I didn't know what to expect I'd feel when I walked up - anger,

or the ghosts of the hurt and the dismissed,

but I didn't feel none of that.

I see a more or less modern looking home that would have been super

modern in the 1840s and 1850s.

And even 200 years later,

it still seems worth living in.

# All merry, all happy and bright

# By 'n' by hard times come a-knocking at my door

# Then my old Kentucky home good night... #

This is the cast of The Stephen Foster Story,

a musical that has run for over 50 years here in Bardstown.

They've been kind enough to perform My Old Kentucky Home just for me.

# Weep no more, my lady

# Oh, weep no more today

# We will sing one song for my old Kentucky home

# For my old Kentucky home

# For my old Kentucky home

# Far away. #

-Ooh!

-There you go!

-I got to tilt it.

THEY LAUGH

Three, two, one.

CAMERA FLASH Thank you very much.

-Thank you, all, thank you, all.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, sir.

It's just nice to be standing next to people dressed this way.

Sort of fun. I feel like a cupcake.

You ARE a cupcake, darling. Don't ever lose that.

You were a cupcake before you put that dress on!

Minstrelsy, what did it used to mean and

what does it mean now, can you say?

Well, it was the first way that popular music travelled

across the country, in minstrel shows people would be humming

Stephen Foster songs, for instance, because they would go out

to the theatre to see a minstrel show.

It was the first form of popular entertainment, really.

And vaudeville came out of that, musical theatre came out of that,

and here we are today sort of going back to the beginning

with the songs that started it.

Both of you, can you say whether or not you believe that minstrelsy

has been misunderstood and if so, why?

I mean, it's offensive any way you slice it.

It's not... It's not a thing you would sit there

and comfortably watch.

And it's so strange to think that that was entertainment,

people went and that's just what you saw

and no-one thought, "Oh, this is in very poor taste."

It was just what you went and saw.

Stephen Foster as a composer anyhow saw a little bit of the darkness

in minstrelsy and the way people were being portrayed.

Him being a northerner, essentially,

seeing all the slavery that was going on in the South,

turned it more towards compassion, heartfelt music.

Nelly Was A Lady was one of his songs

and no-one had really referred to a slave as a lady,

it was different.

Frederick Douglass even lauded Stephen Foster's music as turning

the feeling in minstrel shows from like from laughing at people

to feeling compassion for them.

He felt that it evoked compassion in slave people.

-A type of empathy. They're humans too.

-Yes, definitely.

Minstrel songs were very popular in America for a very long time.

80 years, that's longer than rock and roll.

It's a big part of our history and it needs to be looked at.

I think minstrel shows are who we were and who we are,

it's part of the American legacy and it's just like the word nigger,

where pretending that the word doesn't exist is somehow supposed

to eradicate history we don't like.

I don't like what the minstrel songs originally set out to do,

and I realise that many people came since to sort of lend dignity

to a fiction created by white men,

but it's my heritage, their heritage, it's real.

And if we are able to get over anything like that,

then we have to begin by acknowledging it.

And I don't know any better way of acknowledging something

than by acknowledging it to music.

# Hear that lonesome whippoorwill

# She sounds too blue to fly

# The midnight train is whining low

# And I'm so lonesome I could cry

# Have you ever seen a robin weep... #

Wow, look at that sky. Look at those clouds. Amazing.

I love this part of the day in the South, during the summer.

The handover time between the day and night.

The handover times, whether it's dawn or dusk,

I don't know, it always felt like pleasant cooperation.

HARMONICA ECHOES

# Whoo-whoo!

# Look a-yonder comin'

# Comin' down that railroad track

# Hey, look a-yonder comin'

# Comin' down that railroad track. #

Railroads.

In the South, we have more railroads than real roads.

And in Southern music, you can find trains anywhere,

from Jimmie Rodgers to REM.

Trains in Southern music

speak to migration and dislocation,

to sadness and the mystique of going into the unknown,

and just plain old wanting to go home.

HARMONICA CONTINUES

When I see old trains, I have mixed feelings.

I think of the black labour that went into building the railroads,

and that before the Civil Rights Movement,

I would not have been allowed to sit in any carriage.

But in the South, trains were also the means of escape

for black people fleeing from segregation and poverty

to the hope and prosperity in the north.

-This, right here?

-Just pull it back.

HORN BLOWS

HE LAUGHS HYSTERICALLY

That was goddamn satisfying,

I don't care how childish I look.

I'd do this every day if I could.

This here train ain't no ordinary train,

it's the Chattanooga Choo Choo.

'Chattanooga Choo Choo, run it down again. Let's go.'

MUSIC: Chattanooga Choo Choo by Glenn Miller And His Orchestra

This song is closely associated with big band leader Glen Miller,

and while he wasn't from the South,

the song speaks to the peculiarly Southern condition of missing home.

The rhythm of the song is inspired by the rhythm of the train,

and the rhythm of the train comes from right here.

-# Pardon me, boys

-Yes, yes

# Is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?

# That's the Chattanooga Choo Choo

-# On track 29

-29?

-# Uh-huh

-That's on the Tennessee Line

# She said the Tennessee Line

# She means that she can afford

# I can afford to board the Chattanooga Choo Choo

# What have you got in there?

-# I've got my fare

-You say you have?

# Uh-huh, but not a nickel to spare

# Well, I do declare

# You leave the Pennsylvania Station 'bout a quarter to four

# Read a magazine and then you're in Baltimore

# Dinner in the diner

# Nothing could be finer

# Than to have your ham an' eggs in Carolina

# When you hear the whistle blowin' eight to the bar

# Then you know that Tennessee is not... #

We're now arriving at East Chattanooga.

# Shovel all the coal in

# Gotta keep it rollin'

# Whoo, whoo, Chattanooga, there you are. #

The Tennessee Valley Railroad is just for tourists,

but it gets me hankering for that slow Southern pace of life.

This is the way it should be.

This is the true speed of the South.

# She's gonna cry

# Until I tell her that I'll never roam. #

We're looking at a bygone era.

But the windows open.

I cannot begin to tell you

how many hotels and trains I've been in

where you can't open a window,

where you can't be trusted to regulate your own fresh air.

# Train I ride

# 16 coaches long

# Train I ride

# 16 coaches long. #

So far, this trip has been a musical exploration

of the white South,

and I have to say that I had some apprehension going in.

It's even fair to say that I was a bit hyper-vigilant,

expecting...

I don't know, something more harsh,

less welcoming.

And I'm pleased to say that no-one

has come anywhere near my worst fears.

I've never been happier to be wrong.

# Lord, I was born a ramblin' man

# Trying to make a livin' and doing the best I can

# And when it's time... #

I love driving in the South,

not just for the wide, open roads and the space,

but it's good thinking time.

See in Britain, especially in London,

driving is a purely functional activity,

to get from point A to B.

But here, you know,

you're sick of your kids, you're sick of your woman,

you're sick of hearing about Jesus,

you get in your car and you just drive.

# And I was born in the back-seat of a Greyhound bus

# Rollin' down highway 41. #

I'm driving here in Mount Airy, North Carolina,

heading to the 43rd Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention.

I don't know exactly what I'm going to find here,

but fiddling and fiddlers is what I expect.

Hey, what's happening? Good to see you.

All right.

Now, there is a car!

-Welcome to Mount Airy.

-Thanks very much.

BANJO MUSIC TWANGS

# I can see the hemlock reaching for the sky

# Prayin' against the colour of mountains up so high

# Woodsfolk in the morning drifting across the way

# October in the canyon... #

This is the last stop of my journey and I'm in for a treat.

The festival promises to offer an authentic experience,

as close as I can get to the original old-time

string band music of Appalachia.

BANJO MUSIC TWANGS

# Oh, lambie, poor black sheep ain't got no mammy

# Sheep and the goat, they went to the pasture

# Sheep said, "Goat, you better get a little faster"

# Wake, snake, day's a-breaking

# Peas in the pot and hoecakes bakin'

# All I want from this creation

# Three weeks' work, five vacation

# Tell the boss, he'll do just fine

# Daytime's his, night-time's mine. #

Tell me about old-time string band music.

Well, you know, it's one of these types of music

that grew out of a mixture of things.

There was music from Europe that came over,

England, Ireland, Scotland.

Also stuff that came from Canada, coming down.

All these different fiddling traditions came together

-to make kind of a conglomerate sound.

-Mm-hm.

And then, when the slaves came over from Africa,

they brought with them early versions of the banjo.

And then the banjo itself developed in the United States.

Fiddle and banjo mixed together

and it became the type of music that became

the root of all popular music in America.

When this ancient music originally developed in Appalachia,

it wasn't about stars or record sales.

Music was something you did together

and it brought the best out of people.

It was an expression of home and love,

and it still is today.

It's not really for the audience,

it's a benefit if they like it.

But it's for them, it's spiritual.

It's connection.

It doesn't matter who you are.

See, I'm from this part of the world

and we overlook stuff like this all the time,

the way people in London never go to the tourist sights.

But this is my home

and I didn't know it was this rich.

HE CHUCKLES

-Hey, brother, pleased to meet you.

-Bosco.

-Bosco?

Bosco, pleased to meet you, sir. All right.

That is a righteous beard.

-I like your hair.

-You like my hair?

THEY LAUGH

We understand each other based on hair.

You play... You and your group,

y'all play old-time music.

-Well, it's roots music.

-Roots music.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, roots music.

Banjo is from Africa.

-Say it one more time.

-Banjo is from Africa.

Thank you very much, please, continue.

This is the place

that the old music's from,

the old-time music.

So, it's almost like a Mecca, of sorts?

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

So, if I come here,

I can meet all my friends.

Yeah, it's like a family reunion.

Yeah, right. REG LAUGHS

This is unreal.

I'm encountering music that came over

with the first settlers of Appalachia, as they did,

and I'm starting to become hillbilly.

-Having a good time?

-Better than I deserve, brother. How about you?

This is no longer just a remote Southern thing.

There are people here from all walks of life

and they're keeping this music alive.

How you doing? Just say hello, ma'am.

Hi, how are you?

We just love these washtub bass players.

Of course, I've been one for 40 years.

She's encouraging me to play.

She's telling me that my instinct to want to play,

she's telling me to just go do it.

She's been playing 40 years. What else do I need?

What else do I need?!

THEY CHANT ALONG

What does it mean to people playing music,

this music, these instruments, in the South today?

Well, I mean, you know, history all aside,

it's great music and it was made to last.

And it's one of these things, especially in the South...

It's like corn bread in a cast iron skillet,

it's one of those things that people want to make it right

and they do it right.

That's why they come together, so they can all play

this wonderful music that's been made to last for hundreds of years.

I'd like to think that in my encounters with

string band festivals, bluegrass legends,

folk songs and square dances,

that I've had a glimpse of a hillbilly culture

that values music as a part of society.

At its purest, this music transcends issues of race, class and prejudice.

It's certainly something that America

could still learn from today.

Next time,

I return home to the Deep South to explore the interplay between

black and white music in times when black and white people didn't mix.

Georgia and Alabama have given the world some of the greatest soul,

gospel, rock and hip-hop.

The South, we've been fighting for a long time.

We're going to get our music out there one way or another,

and we demand our respect, not only from the rest of the country,

but the rest of the world.