0:00:02 > 0:00:06This is the story of a musical migration,
0:00:06 > 0:00:10unfolded over many generations and many journeys.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16It's taken me from Scotland
0:00:16 > 0:00:18to the northern part of Ireland,
0:00:18 > 0:00:22as I've explored an enduring musical relationship.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27I've followed in the footsteps of 17th-century Scottish migrants,
0:00:27 > 0:00:32whose traditions became a vital part of the music of Ulster.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34THEY SING A HYMN
0:00:41 > 0:00:45Their descendants would become migrants again 100 years later,
0:00:45 > 0:00:48when up to a quarter of a million Ulster Scots left Ireland
0:00:48 > 0:00:52for what they hoped would be the promised land - America.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57# Oh, my brother, take this warning
0:00:59 > 0:01:05# Don't let old Satan hold your hand... #
0:01:05 > 0:01:09They would leave their mark on religion, politics,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12education, and on a new nation's democracy.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15But I'm here to trace and to celebrate their influence
0:01:15 > 0:01:18on what I would consider to be one of America's greatest gifts
0:01:18 > 0:01:20to the world - the music.
0:01:39 > 0:01:44# I am on my way to Canaan's land
0:01:44 > 0:01:48# Where the soul never dies
0:01:48 > 0:01:53# And there will be no parting hand
0:01:53 > 0:01:57# Where the soul of man never dies
0:01:57 > 0:02:02# Dear friends, there'll be no sad farewell
0:02:02 > 0:02:08# There'll be no tear-dimmed eyes
0:02:08 > 0:02:12# Where all is peace and joy and love
0:02:12 > 0:02:16# And the soul of man never dies... #
0:02:19 > 0:02:23Granny always said that we came from the border country.
0:02:23 > 0:02:28She said, "But do you know? They loaded us up on a ship
0:02:28 > 0:02:31"and shipped us off over to Northern Arlan,"
0:02:31 > 0:02:34and wanted me to find that on the globe.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39So I went looking for Northern Arlan - A-R-L-A-N -
0:02:39 > 0:02:42never found it.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45Finally, Daddy said, "Lookee there, it's right next to England."
0:02:45 > 0:02:48THEY CHUCKLE
0:02:52 > 0:02:56# ..I'm on my way to that fair land
0:02:56 > 0:03:01# Where the soul of man never dies
0:03:01 > 0:03:05# And there will be no parting hand
0:03:05 > 0:03:10# Where the soul of man never dies
0:03:10 > 0:03:15BOTH: # Dear friends, there'll be no sad farewell
0:03:15 > 0:03:20# There'll be no tear-dimmed eyes
0:03:20 > 0:03:25# Where all is peace and joy and love
0:03:25 > 0:03:30# And the soul of man never dies... #
0:03:30 > 0:03:31That was great.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33SHIP'S HORN BLARES
0:03:33 > 0:03:36- RADIO:- WSM Nashville.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42Now, from America's music city...
0:03:42 > 0:03:46# WSM Nashville... #
0:03:48 > 0:03:53# I've got a feeling called the blues, oh, Lord... #
0:03:53 > 0:03:55# Blue moon keep on shining bright
0:03:55 > 0:03:58# You're gonna bring me back my baby tonight... #
0:03:58 > 0:04:01The Hall of Fame, Nashville, Tennessee.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04# I'll sail my ship alone
0:04:04 > 0:04:07# With all the dreams I own... #
0:04:07 > 0:04:10Every year, hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world
0:04:10 > 0:04:14come here to pay homage to country music's brightest stars.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18# ..Good morning... #
0:04:18 > 0:04:20..many of whom have Scotch Irish roots.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23# ..I had a friend named Rambling Bob... #
0:04:23 > 0:04:26The taproot of this music
0:04:26 > 0:04:29is deep enough to go back centuries,
0:04:29 > 0:04:31generations, across seas, across continents.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33# ..Jolene, Jolene
0:04:33 > 0:04:36# Jolene, Jolene... #
0:04:36 > 0:04:39Whether it's rock and roll or bluegrass or country music,
0:04:39 > 0:04:44one way or another, it goes back to old-time Appalachian music.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48# ..Oh, can the circle be unbroken? #
0:04:48 > 0:04:53The contribution of those who came from Ulster can never be taken away.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55It's a foundational element.
0:04:55 > 0:05:00# ..I saw the light I saw the light... #
0:05:00 > 0:05:04The first layer of the music
0:05:04 > 0:05:05that would be built upon
0:05:05 > 0:05:08by successive generations.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13# ..Concerning a great speckled bird... #
0:05:13 > 0:05:16It's part of a continuous line, you know?
0:05:16 > 0:05:18Its tradition is a step-by-step process.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20Is it important?
0:05:20 > 0:05:21It's beyond that.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23It's just part of its fabric.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28But I've come here to look behind the rhinestones,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30in search of a forgotten treasure
0:05:30 > 0:05:34from country music's earliest history.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36CRACKLING RECORDING OF FIDDLE MUSIC
0:05:36 > 0:05:40This is a relic of an epic migration,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43carried here to America by one of the hundreds of thousands of people
0:05:43 > 0:05:47who left the north of Ireland during the 18th century.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51It sang to the South lands
0:05:51 > 0:05:54in the hands of one of America's earliest radio stars.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58It was played on country music's very first hit record.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Ah, if only this fiddle could talk.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05I bet it could tell great stories of its life here in America.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08Tales of restless pioneers, of slavery and civil war,
0:06:08 > 0:06:12of a great depression and of a grand ole opry.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14But it might tell another story too -
0:06:14 > 0:06:18of a trade in strangers and a dream of liberty.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22# Our ship, it is lying
0:06:22 > 0:06:26# On fair Derry harbour
0:06:26 > 0:06:29# Just waiting to take us
0:06:29 > 0:06:33# Safe over the main
0:06:33 > 0:06:37# So heaven be our pilot
0:06:37 > 0:06:40# Aye, and bring us strong breezes
0:06:40 > 0:06:48# Till we reach the green fields of Amerikay
0:06:48 > 0:06:56# Come to the land where we will live and be
0:06:56 > 0:07:00# Don't be afraid of the storm or the sea
0:07:00 > 0:07:03# For it's when we get over
0:07:03 > 0:07:07# We will surely discover
0:07:07 > 0:07:14# That this is the land of sweet liberty. #
0:07:14 > 0:07:17I just love that song, The Green Fields Of Amerikay.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20It's the story of a wayfaring Ulsterman back in the 18th century.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22He most probably would have made landfall right here,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25as so many others did, in Philadelphia,
0:07:25 > 0:07:27the City of Brotherly Love.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36These Ulster setters knew all about mobility and change.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40Mostly Presbyterians, many of them had suffered economic hardship
0:07:40 > 0:07:42and religious discrimination.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46Migration from Scotland had happened within living memory.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54They knew what it meant to call more than one country home.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56Though they referred to themselves as Irish,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59when they came here to America they got a new name.
0:07:59 > 0:08:00They were known as the Scotch Irish,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04although nowadays we call them the Ulster Scots.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06They came looking for land and freedom.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11Philadelphia was just the starting point for the road to the frontier.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13Right here on this very street was
0:08:13 > 0:08:16where their American adventure really began.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44These are two of America's finest country gentlemen.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48Their family stories are part of that great migration from Ulster
0:08:48 > 0:08:51and Scotland that helped shape America's music.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56The first Douglas came in through Philadelphia
0:08:56 > 0:09:00and was put on a wagon road south in about 1748.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04They loved to drink, they loved to dance and to play music.
0:09:04 > 0:09:09It's what I've heard about all of the Douglases back before me.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16My mother was a Thomson,
0:09:16 > 0:09:18my grandmother was a Ferguson.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21Our whole life was built around music.
0:09:25 > 0:09:30If you see a piece of beautiful fabric that American music is,
0:09:30 > 0:09:36the fiddle tunes, the lyrics, the songs, the old hymns,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39that red thread that's in there, and you can see it so plain,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42to me that would be Scots Irish music.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48My grandfather, I know, was a fiddle player.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52And I think his father was a fiddle player.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56So it goes back at least 150 years in this country,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59so I can only imagine that it went back further.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25It was a rough world that these Ulster Scots immigrants came into.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30Most of the land they went into was covered with oak trees
0:10:30 > 0:10:35and elm trees and nut trees, and you had to cut 'em down.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39It was a rough place to be.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46I think one word that may describe these settlers is perseverance.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48But it was indeed a hard life,
0:10:48 > 0:10:53not exactly like it was portrayed by some of the agents back in Ulster,
0:10:53 > 0:10:57or the old country, who were trying to sell opportunity in America,
0:10:57 > 0:11:01that land of honey, and it was in some ways,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04but it was also a much harder life than they ever could have imagined.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18The promised land wasn't what they expected.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21One settler wrote to his brother that there was nothing here
0:11:21 > 0:11:23"but trees and a wheen of Injuns".
0:11:27 > 0:11:31The first settlers from Ulster came to the Pennsylvania backcountry
0:11:31 > 0:11:33in 1719.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37They named their settlements for the homes they'd left behind in Ireland.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42And as they tried to make sense of their new lives in this harsh land,
0:11:42 > 0:11:47the clung to familiar traditions and the old ways of worship.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53By 1721, in a log cabin on this site,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56they had built a Presbyterian meeting house.
0:11:56 > 0:12:02# ..By thy salvation... #
0:12:02 > 0:12:05The Presbyterian Church really was the centre of their lives
0:12:05 > 0:12:07in those days.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09That was their educational institution,
0:12:09 > 0:12:11the focal point of their religion,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15their whole world view revolved around the Presbyterian Church,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18and the musical tradition was extremely important.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20The early Presbyterians believed in worshipping God
0:12:20 > 0:12:24with the tools that were provided in the Old Testament,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27which means the Psalms of David.
0:12:27 > 0:12:32When they first got here, they were isolated. Culturally isolated.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35The Scotch Irish were distinctive in holding to
0:12:35 > 0:12:38the old Scottish Psalter, and they fought over that,
0:12:38 > 0:12:41if anybody tried to come in and sing something differently.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44It's an icon of Scots Irish culture.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55The faith of their Scottish forefathers helped them define
0:12:55 > 0:12:58the new community, as the sons and daughters of Ulster
0:12:58 > 0:13:00became American pioneers.
0:13:03 > 0:13:04Beholden to no-one,
0:13:04 > 0:13:08they came to embody the spirit of an age of revolution.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16The children of those first settlers headed south to where
0:13:16 > 0:13:18land was cheap and plentiful,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22and they were joined by waves of new immigrants from Ulster.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30Music has taken me down many, many roads in my life,
0:13:30 > 0:13:33I can tell you, but this road that I'm on today
0:13:33 > 0:13:36winds its way through thousands of years of history.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55A natural corridor that stretched from New England
0:13:55 > 0:14:00to the Southern Appalachians, this was once known as the Warrior Path,
0:14:00 > 0:14:02a Native American trail
0:14:02 > 0:14:06that, in the 18th century, became the settlers' Great Wagon Road.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14Cutting through the mighty Shenandoah Valley,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17the Wagon Road and the routes that grew from it
0:14:17 > 0:14:19brought the settlers south and west.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23Countless migrants from Scotland, Ulster, and their descendants
0:14:23 > 0:14:26would have travelled this road before me,
0:14:26 > 0:14:29and I suppose their stories and their journeys have become
0:14:29 > 0:14:31a part of the legend of this historic highway.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35And one of these journeys has been reimagined by my old pal,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38bluegrass musician Tim O'Brien.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45# I'm one of the few
0:14:45 > 0:14:47# I'm proud to be standing
0:14:47 > 0:14:49# I walked up the pier
0:14:49 > 0:14:52# From the coffin ships landing
0:14:52 > 0:14:54# My clothes were just rags
0:14:54 > 0:14:56# No use for this weather
0:14:56 > 0:14:58# But my back was strong
0:14:58 > 0:15:00# My hands tough as leather
0:15:00 > 0:15:02# I climbed these hills
0:15:02 > 0:15:06# Till I came to the spot where I stand
0:15:07 > 0:15:09# I cleared these fields
0:15:09 > 0:15:13# And I pulled up the stones with my hands
0:15:13 > 0:15:16# No more a wanderer
0:15:16 > 0:15:20# No more a refugee
0:15:20 > 0:15:23# A mountaineer is always free. #
0:15:23 > 0:15:27I was actually consciously trying to write songs that dealt with
0:15:27 > 0:15:31the immigrant experience in my home state of West Virginia.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34# ..I took a Cherokee bride
0:15:34 > 0:15:37# She gave me five babies
0:15:37 > 0:15:39# And I sang at their wakes
0:15:39 > 0:15:41# And I cried at their weddings
0:15:41 > 0:15:45# I taught all my children the songs of my youth... #
0:15:45 > 0:15:48You can imagine someone fleeing oppression,
0:15:48 > 0:15:53either religious persecution or taxation
0:15:53 > 0:15:56or just kind of getting away from a landlord or anything like that,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59and going to the new land and making your own thing,
0:15:59 > 0:16:03just building it with your own hands, clearing the field,
0:16:03 > 0:16:07and then having your new family and showing them everything
0:16:07 > 0:16:10around here is yours, and you don't need to bow down to anybody.
0:16:10 > 0:16:15# ..A mountaineer is always free
0:16:17 > 0:16:23# No kings or landlords to treat us like beggars and thieves
0:16:23 > 0:16:30# No-one but God here to fear or look down on me
0:16:30 > 0:16:33# No more a wanderer
0:16:33 > 0:16:37# No more a refugee
0:16:37 > 0:16:41# A mountaineer is always free. #
0:16:43 > 0:16:48Every year, musicians and music lovers gather at Mount Airy
0:16:48 > 0:16:51to celebrate the traditional music of North Carolina.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04The old tunes still ring out round the campsites,
0:17:04 > 0:17:07just as they must have done along the Wagon Road a long time ago.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17I have imagined it a lot, because my family came down that wagon road,
0:17:17 > 0:17:19all the way to North Carolina.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22I think music was incredibly important because it was
0:17:22 > 0:17:26something everybody could unite around. Everybody understands music.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29Everybody understands the community feeling that it builds.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35That was how people entertained themselves back then.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39There was no other thing, really, to do, except maybe tell stories,
0:17:39 > 0:17:41so music was incredibly important.
0:17:43 > 0:17:49# ..Does my love Willie sail on board with you? #
0:17:49 > 0:17:53As pioneers, travelling with a fiddle or something small
0:17:53 > 0:17:57like that, it was a way of just bringing some joy to your heart
0:17:57 > 0:18:01after a long day or after sorrow or whatever, you know?
0:18:01 > 0:18:03Joy kills sorrow, you know?
0:18:03 > 0:18:05If you're joyful, you're not going to be sorrowful.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09Those two things can live in the same moment.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12# ..Well, preaching and praying
0:18:12 > 0:18:14# Singing everywhere
0:18:14 > 0:18:19# Shouting the praises of his loving care... #
0:18:19 > 0:18:24In November 1736, the Virginia Gazette carried what may well
0:18:24 > 0:18:29have been the first reference to country music in America.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32Some merry-disposed gentlemen from Hanover County,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36who must have been of Scots or Ulster Scots descent,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39announced their plans to celebrate St Andrew's Day
0:18:39 > 0:18:43with a festival of music - a great fiddling contest.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53The prize was to be a Cremona fiddle,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56and it would be competed for by any amount of country fiddlers.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59And isn't it nice to think that, 250 years down the line,
0:18:59 > 0:19:02that country fiddling tradition is still alive and kicking
0:19:02 > 0:19:04in the Blue Ridge Mountains?
0:19:11 > 0:19:12The fiddle built community.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15It certainly did on the crossing, on the boats coming over
0:19:15 > 0:19:17and in the gatherings along the way,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21and in the midst of hardship, the fiddle was at the core,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24I think, of sustaining and building community.
0:19:29 > 0:19:30Thank you.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44Back home, we call this tune The Fairy Dance.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46I've known it all my life.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50But to Virginia fiddler Eddie Bond and his friends,
0:19:50 > 0:19:52it's known as Old Molly Hare.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06When this old Scots tune came to America,
0:20:06 > 0:20:08it didn't just acquire a new name.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10It got words too.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13# Old Molly Hare, what you doing there?
0:20:13 > 0:20:15# Running down the road just as hard as I can tear
0:20:15 > 0:20:17# Step back, step back Daddy shot a bear
0:20:17 > 0:20:19# Got him in the eye and never lost a hair... #
0:20:22 > 0:20:27It was the hot new instrument of this new republic.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31New styles of playing instrumental music,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34a new repertory,
0:20:34 > 0:20:35a new world,
0:20:35 > 0:20:39it was an amazing revolutionary symbol.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:20:45 > 0:20:52Of course, some religious people found it troubling and problematic,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56and so the fiddle has this dual role, you know,
0:20:56 > 0:21:00powerfully important to many people,
0:21:00 > 0:21:05but also scary and maybe evil to others,
0:21:05 > 0:21:10associated with drinking, carousing, unruliness,
0:21:10 > 0:21:16so it had this dual character, as the community did...
0:21:19 > 0:21:25..both good and upstanding and a little loud and dissolute
0:21:25 > 0:21:27all at the same time.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42And without the fiddler, no dance.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55The dances that came with the Scots Irish settlers,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58they would refer to them as jigs and, back then,
0:21:58 > 0:22:02"jig" did not mean six-eight time, it just meant a fast, lively dance.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08They also did reels that could be done in
0:22:08 > 0:22:12a small cabin or tavern or whatever, and those are, really,
0:22:12 > 0:22:15the basis for our Southern square dances that developed later on.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29Dance was hugely important in society at the time,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33and when people from different worlds come together
0:22:33 > 0:22:35in the same physical community,
0:22:35 > 0:22:41the dance helps to seal that physical community as
0:22:41 > 0:22:45a spiritual community, because when you're dancing together,
0:22:45 > 0:22:47you're meeting and getting acquainted,
0:22:47 > 0:22:50and you're really functioning together.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06Ah, good stuff.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16The dances that developed in frontier society grew out of
0:23:16 > 0:23:18many different traditions -
0:23:18 > 0:23:22European, Native American and African too.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29America was a cultural melting pot,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33where the Scotch Irish were just one people among many.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36And as they encountered different musical cultures,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39their own music began to change too.
0:23:48 > 0:23:49There's no finer example of
0:23:49 > 0:23:53different traditions coming together than this.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56The musical conversation between the fiddle and the banjo
0:23:56 > 0:23:59began at least 200 years ago.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15There's a lot of rhythm and wisdom in the banjo.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17The fiddle can imitate it or join in with it,
0:24:17 > 0:24:21and those two rhythms together are incredibly powerful.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26The hybrid of those two things just made this rocking dance music
0:24:26 > 0:24:29that really never had been heard before.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32When that African American influence got in there,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35it just sent it into overdrive.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40# Where'd you get your whisky? Where'd you get your dram?
0:24:40 > 0:24:44# Where'd you get your whisky at? Way down in Rockingham
0:24:44 > 0:24:46# Come on home, Cindy, Cindy
0:24:46 > 0:24:48# Come on home, Cindy
0:24:48 > 0:24:51# Come on home, Cindy, Cindy Sure do love you, girl. #
0:25:00 > 0:25:02Thank you.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04HE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE
0:25:04 > 0:25:06The American banjo began life
0:25:06 > 0:25:10as a folk instrument with the deepest African roots.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18Africans introduced a totally new approach to rhythm and melody,
0:25:18 > 0:25:20and they had a huge impact on
0:25:20 > 0:25:22America's developing musical culture.
0:25:25 > 0:25:31Music was helping to connect the culture across racial lines.
0:25:37 > 0:25:42It's harder and harder to treat a person as a kind of a nonperson
0:25:42 > 0:25:46when you see them making music
0:25:46 > 0:25:50that makes you lift up your feet and dance.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59That's what happened with African music,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02banjo being a key part of it.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10Thank you. Merci beaucoup. Yeah.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18Music is always a two-way street.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21White musicians fell in love with the banjo,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25but African musicians also began to play European fiddles,
0:26:25 > 0:26:28finding new ways to play the old tunes that had crossed over
0:26:28 > 0:26:30from Scotland and Ireland.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Around about the time of the Revolutionary War
0:26:39 > 0:26:40in the United States,
0:26:40 > 0:26:43half of the fiddle players in the South were African American,
0:26:43 > 0:26:46so there was a tremendous sharing of traditions.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48They were picking up the fiddle and the tunes,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51but they were playing it in a way that recalled
0:26:51 > 0:26:54their instrumentation on the banjo.
0:26:59 > 0:27:04You might have a tune that sounds kind of like the chords of an
0:27:04 > 0:27:09Irish tune, but yet it has kind of the bluesy slides and inflections
0:27:09 > 0:27:13of what you might find from African American practice.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17I could just show you very quickly what one of these would be like.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19So, this is a tune that's called Midnight.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42The basic music track of Appalachian music started with the Scotch Irish,
0:27:42 > 0:27:45but then it became a tapestry and an even richer story
0:27:45 > 0:27:48of many other ethnic influences.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58Just like their music, the Scotch Irish were changing too,
0:27:58 > 0:28:00adapting to meet the challenges
0:28:00 > 0:28:03of life on the frontier and forging a new American identity for
0:28:03 > 0:28:05themselves and their children.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12But in that century of restless, continuous migration,
0:28:12 > 0:28:14an awful lot was lost.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17Whole family histories, the stories of who they were
0:28:17 > 0:28:20and where they once belonged were forgotten.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25But, thankfully, some clues were written in stone.
0:28:25 > 0:28:27In this kirkyard at Old Waxhaw, in South Carolina,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30there are some very unique grave markers,
0:28:30 > 0:28:34the earliest surviving art of British settlers in the Carolinas.
0:28:34 > 0:28:39Between here and Pennsylvania, there are at least 1,000 similar stones.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43I discovered who the carvers were -
0:28:43 > 0:28:46the family named Bigham, B-I-G-H-A-M, Bigham,
0:28:46 > 0:28:51who arrived in Pennsylvania and began carving about 1738.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55In fact, I was able even able to take it back to County Antrim.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58When we searched over there to see if we could find the antecedents
0:28:58 > 0:29:02of these stone carvers, it seemed to be that Larne was the source area.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06This is a stone from the Bigham workshop.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09It says here, "In memory of John Crockett,
0:29:09 > 0:29:12"who died December 16th 1800."
0:29:12 > 0:29:16But if you look round the back, it would seem that our dear Mr Crockett
0:29:16 > 0:29:20was actually born in a ship on the way here in the year 1730.
0:29:20 > 0:29:26# But I am in the house of God
0:29:26 > 0:29:29# Like to an olive green... #
0:29:29 > 0:29:32Many of the stones feature the metrical psalms
0:29:32 > 0:29:34from the Scottish Psalter of 1650.
0:29:34 > 0:29:39# ..My confidence for ever hath
0:29:39 > 0:29:42# Upon God's mercy... #
0:29:42 > 0:29:45I've held the actual Psalter from 1650 in my own hands,
0:29:45 > 0:29:48and to see words from it carved here in stone
0:29:48 > 0:29:50by the hands of an Ulsterman,
0:29:50 > 0:29:53it's a very powerful thing indeed, I can tell you.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56What a long, hard journey they must have made to get here.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10But the challenges of life on the frontier
0:30:10 > 0:30:12made it harder to hold on to the old world
0:30:12 > 0:30:15and the old ways of worship.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19It had a lot to do with the stresses of life in the backwoods and
0:30:19 > 0:30:22of making a new identity
0:30:22 > 0:30:24in a place where you had people scattered over these wide
0:30:24 > 0:30:26territories and moving so much.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32So the music reflects all this change
0:30:32 > 0:30:34and these shifts in identity.
0:30:39 > 0:30:44You must be born again - it was a simple message but a powerful one.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48Many Presbyterians experienced intense religious revivals
0:30:48 > 0:30:52that inspired a freer and much more emotional expression of faith.
0:30:52 > 0:30:58# I stand
0:30:58 > 0:31:00# And cast a wishful eye... #
0:31:00 > 0:31:02Thousands came together along the frontier
0:31:02 > 0:31:06at great outdoor gatherings that became known as camp meetings.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18The first one of these took place in Kentucky
0:31:18 > 0:31:20and it was called the Great Revival,
0:31:20 > 0:31:25and it was held outside of a Presbyterian meeting house,
0:31:25 > 0:31:28but the ministers involved represented Baptists,
0:31:28 > 0:31:30Presbyterians and Methodists,
0:31:30 > 0:31:35and so the idea was not to represent church doctrine.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38But rather to emphasis the religiosity,
0:31:38 > 0:31:39the sacredness of the events,
0:31:39 > 0:31:42and to get people really to experience,
0:31:42 > 0:31:46you know, the power of God or the power of Christ.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52Thousands came seeking salvation
0:31:52 > 0:31:55and music would play a central and very powerful role
0:31:55 > 0:31:58in these great gatherings.
0:31:58 > 0:32:06# ..and scatters night... #
0:32:08 > 0:32:11What you're talking about is basically Woodstock
0:32:11 > 0:32:13of the 18th century, right?
0:32:13 > 0:32:16But obviously it's not Woodstock and it's a religious event,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19so what do you do with 20,000 people
0:32:19 > 0:32:22and you want them all to do the same thing...
0:32:22 > 0:32:25and there's no books
0:32:25 > 0:32:29and you can't even guarantee that the people are literate?
0:32:29 > 0:32:32So you have to come up with something else.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36They discovered that if they sang songs with repeated lines -
0:32:36 > 0:32:38"My Lord, what a morning
0:32:38 > 0:32:41"My Lord, what a morning My Lord, what a morning
0:32:41 > 0:32:44"When the stars begin to fall
0:32:44 > 0:32:47"Rocks and mountains" - now you could pick it up from that point on.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50All the mothers want to go, they want to go up to heaven
0:32:50 > 0:32:53and experience God - OK, that's the first verse.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55So what do you do for the second verse?
0:32:55 > 0:32:57Well, instead of mothers, let's do fathers.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59So it's all the same words, except fathers.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01And then what do you do for the third verse?
0:33:01 > 0:33:03Well, let's do sisters.
0:33:03 > 0:33:05Fourth verse - brothers.
0:33:05 > 0:33:06And then fifth verse - everyone.
0:33:07 > 0:33:15# Beneath the sacred throne of God... #
0:33:16 > 0:33:19So the camp meeting tradition really emphasised
0:33:19 > 0:33:24the idea of emotion and the power of emotion and communicating
0:33:24 > 0:33:28with the personal role that religion could have in people's lives.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38The experience of singing these simple hymns became part of
0:33:38 > 0:33:40everyday life throughout the South.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46Something that would have a profound impact on the development
0:33:46 > 0:33:47of modern popular music.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52SHAPE NOTE SINGING
0:34:03 > 0:34:05In the early 19th century,
0:34:05 > 0:34:07the desire to improve congregational singing
0:34:07 > 0:34:11led to the development of a uniquely American tradition -
0:34:11 > 0:34:13shape note singing.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16This music has never been owned
0:34:16 > 0:34:19by any particular congregation or church.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22People are free to get from it what they get from it -
0:34:22 > 0:34:23that varies by the person -
0:34:23 > 0:34:27so there's no-one telling them that this is how you have to believe.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31# I am a poor wayfaring stranger
0:34:31 > 0:34:36# I journey through this world of woe... #
0:34:36 > 0:34:41We're singing for ourselves and for God.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44We're not singing for an audience.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47When we're singing, we're seeing each other's faces
0:34:47 > 0:34:51and there's a type of bonding and fellowship in that singing,
0:34:51 > 0:34:53just as there is with people
0:34:53 > 0:34:56when they gather and break bread together.
0:34:56 > 0:35:01# I want to wear a crown of glory
0:35:01 > 0:35:06# When I get home to that good land
0:35:06 > 0:35:10# I want to shout salvation's story
0:35:10 > 0:35:15# In concert with the blood-washed band. #
0:35:19 > 0:35:22We start the music with a note,
0:35:22 > 0:35:24not with a rest,
0:35:24 > 0:35:28and so we will start singing the laws when our arm is headed down.
0:35:28 > 0:35:29There...
0:35:29 > 0:35:31about two-thirds of the way down.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33Not all the way up, not all the way down,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36but about two-thirds of the way down. About four o'clock.
0:35:36 > 0:35:41Shape note singing was designed to help those who couldn't read music.
0:35:41 > 0:35:42It was a simple system,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45where the notes were represented by geometric shapes,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48which anyone could follow.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52SINGING
0:35:53 > 0:35:57Singing schools became very popular and soon song leaders began
0:35:57 > 0:35:59to produce the first shape note song books,
0:35:59 > 0:36:04the most popular of which was called The Sacred Harp.
0:36:08 > 0:36:09Good.
0:36:09 > 0:36:14The shape note books are anthologies of a great variety of music,
0:36:14 > 0:36:17so the tunebook's compilers, who were self-taught musicians,
0:36:17 > 0:36:20who went to the little singing schools and learnt how to do it
0:36:20 > 0:36:23and then compiled the books and wrote pieces and...
0:36:23 > 0:36:26and took in things they knew from oral tradition.
0:36:27 > 0:36:28It really was a popular music.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31The story is that, in the decades around the civil war,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35The Sacred Harp was the book most often found in Southern homes
0:36:35 > 0:36:38outside of The Bible.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42# Farewell, my friend
0:36:42 > 0:36:47# I'm bound for Canaan
0:36:47 > 0:36:54# I'm travelling through the wilderness... #
0:36:54 > 0:36:59The Sacred Harp was also, of course, a way of describing the human voice.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03For believers, it was God's gift -
0:37:03 > 0:37:06their first and best musical instrument.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11Certainly among the Scotch-Irish, we have song leaders
0:37:11 > 0:37:13and one of the most prominent in this area was William Walker,
0:37:13 > 0:37:16who is known to history as Singing Billy.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26And he was a song teacher,
0:37:26 > 0:37:27and he went from town to town
0:37:27 > 0:37:31teaching people how to sing secular hymns in worship services.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35When he was 18, William Walker wrote his first song,
0:37:35 > 0:37:37supposedly, called Solemn Call.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39He ran a bookstore in Spartanburg
0:37:39 > 0:37:43and he also worked for the Spartanburg newspaper -
0:37:43 > 0:37:45called the Carolina Spartan -
0:37:45 > 0:37:47so it's kind of interesting when you can find little blips
0:37:47 > 0:37:49from newspapers back then,
0:37:49 > 0:37:51where he has ads for his books.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54This thing that says, "Just out. Best book ever. Buy it."
0:37:54 > 0:37:55You know, this kind of thing -
0:37:55 > 0:37:58which I think I have for you in the hand-out.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01Singing Billy drew his source material from popular culture,
0:38:01 > 0:38:03the songs and tunes he'd grown up with,
0:38:03 > 0:38:05and it struck a chord.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09His songbook, The Southern Harmony, sold more than 500,000 copies.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15William Walker said, "Why should the devil have all the good tunes?"
0:38:15 > 0:38:17We think of this music now as traditional, historic music.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20At the time, it was popular, current music.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24SINGING
0:38:27 > 0:38:30Songs of the day, many of which were field tunes,
0:38:30 > 0:38:33many of which were perhaps played by a fifer...
0:38:34 > 0:38:37..or even ballads, these songs that were in the air,
0:38:37 > 0:38:41were good musical material to arrange with harmony parts
0:38:41 > 0:38:42and to set to hymn texts.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54Pop and tradition were not separate categories of music at that time -
0:38:54 > 0:38:56it was just all music -
0:38:56 > 0:38:59so whatever was a good source of a tune,
0:38:59 > 0:39:03whether it was from a ballad singer or from a piece of sheet music,
0:39:03 > 0:39:04it was all fair game.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11THEY HARMONISE
0:39:42 > 0:39:44# Glory, glory, hallelujah
0:39:44 > 0:39:45# Praise God
0:39:45 > 0:39:46# I'm heaven bound
0:39:46 > 0:39:48Amen
0:39:48 > 0:39:49# When he hard my prayer
0:39:49 > 0:39:51# When he heard my prayer and he answered me
0:39:51 > 0:39:52# Yes, he answered me
0:39:52 > 0:39:53# Glory, glory... #
0:39:53 > 0:39:56This is coal mining country, Central Appalachia,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59on the border between Virginia and Kentucky,
0:39:59 > 0:40:01where old-time religion is still strong.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08When the Scotch Irish pushed on into new territory like this,
0:40:08 > 0:40:11where Presbyterian ministers were in short supply,
0:40:11 > 0:40:14many among them turned to the Baptist church.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18# I often kneel with friends and pray... #
0:40:22 > 0:40:25Traditional Baptist congregations here still hold on to the way
0:40:25 > 0:40:28of unaccompanied singing in their worship.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31THEY SING
0:40:41 > 0:40:47This musical tradition reaches back to Presbyterian psalm singing...
0:40:47 > 0:40:49to old tunes and folk songs
0:40:49 > 0:40:52and the revival choruses of the camp meetings.
0:40:55 > 0:40:57At its heart is a powerful singing style
0:40:57 > 0:41:02that has shaped the voices of generations of country singers.
0:41:02 > 0:41:07THEY SING
0:41:13 > 0:41:16# The Lord has promised good to me... #
0:41:16 > 0:41:19Most of them old-time songs, Amazing Grace,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22if you sit down and go through that
0:41:22 > 0:41:24and look at it and read it,
0:41:24 > 0:41:27it will tell you about a man that's went through a travel...
0:41:27 > 0:41:29from nature to grace.
0:41:30 > 0:41:32That the love...
0:41:32 > 0:41:36When you're born again, God borns you with his love.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40Working in the old coal mines,
0:41:40 > 0:41:43my heart would get so heavy, I was troubled up.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49When I gave it all into God's hands,
0:41:49 > 0:41:51God made a new man out of me.
0:41:51 > 0:41:54Some people say, "Well, you ain't got no music."
0:41:54 > 0:42:00Yes, when God blesses his service and the whole crowd to sing,
0:42:00 > 0:42:02you already hear the music...
0:42:02 > 0:42:04Their spirit, yeah.
0:42:04 > 0:42:09# Beulah Land
0:42:09 > 0:42:17# I'm longing for you
0:42:17 > 0:42:27# And someday on thee I'll stand
0:42:27 > 0:42:37# There my home will be eternal... #
0:42:37 > 0:42:40The vocal style, that is an identity marker.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47It's not a sweet tone, it's a strong tone,
0:42:47 > 0:42:49that may come from that Scots Irish tradition.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52The Ulster singers brought a kind of stronger,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56harsher tone with them and that pleased a lot of people
0:42:56 > 0:42:58and a lot of people picked it up or retained it.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00That vocal style is one of the things
0:43:00 > 0:43:02that I love best in the music.
0:43:02 > 0:43:09# Beulah Land
0:43:09 > 0:43:15# I'm longing for you
0:43:17 > 0:43:21# Sweet Beulah Land. #
0:43:32 > 0:43:36As well as sacred songs, the centuries-old ballad tradition
0:43:36 > 0:43:39of the Scotch Irish was strong in these mountains.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46Great story songs of murder and revenge, love and loss,
0:43:46 > 0:43:48were part of everyday life.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53The women who sang them, for their children and for themselves,
0:43:53 > 0:43:56became the guardians of a living tradition.
0:43:58 > 0:44:05# Come, you fair and tender ladies
0:44:05 > 0:44:13# Take warning how you court young men... #
0:44:14 > 0:44:18# Oh, the black jack baby came riding by
0:44:18 > 0:44:20# Whistling so merrily... #
0:44:20 > 0:44:23To get a sense of who they were and what they were thinking,
0:44:23 > 0:44:25what they were feeling,
0:44:25 > 0:44:29we have the tunes and we have the songs.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34# In Scarlet Town, where I was born
0:44:34 > 0:44:39# There was a fair maid dwelling... #
0:44:39 > 0:44:42These are not museum pieces, these are not relics
0:44:42 > 0:44:45from the old country.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49# And they called her Barbriallen. #
0:44:49 > 0:44:52The songs speak of things remembered,
0:44:52 > 0:44:55the songs speak of things hoped for.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00# Oh, if I leave my house, carpenter
0:45:00 > 0:45:04# And sail away with you
0:45:04 > 0:45:08# What will ye have to maintain me upon
0:45:09 > 0:45:13# When we are far away? #
0:45:13 > 0:45:17They are the legacy of those who came before,
0:45:17 > 0:45:20both in Scotland and in Ulster.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24They come out of the lives of people who are now in America,
0:45:24 > 0:45:28but they'd had experiences back in Ireland,
0:45:28 > 0:45:31just as their great-great-great grandparents
0:45:31 > 0:45:34had had experiences in Scotland.
0:45:34 > 0:45:40# It's been a year since last we met
0:45:40 > 0:45:45# And we may never meet again
0:45:45 > 0:45:51# I have struggled to forget
0:45:51 > 0:45:58# But the struggle is in vain... #
0:45:58 > 0:46:01The mountain music of Appalachia became the well spring
0:46:01 > 0:46:04from which so much American music would draw,
0:46:04 > 0:46:07and the songs were at the heart of it.
0:46:07 > 0:46:12# And the midnight on the seas
0:46:12 > 0:46:17# His bright smile haunts me still... #
0:46:17 > 0:46:19They've been shared and celebrated all over the world
0:46:19 > 0:46:21by North Carolina folklorist,
0:46:21 > 0:46:27musician and seventh-generation ballad singer Sheila Kay Adams.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31# ..haunts me still... #
0:46:31 > 0:46:35The community itself had this wealth of old songs
0:46:35 > 0:46:39and each person knew their 10 or 15,
0:46:39 > 0:46:42and then somebody else might know 20,
0:46:42 > 0:46:46but my granny knew over a 100 themselves.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50And granny's sister, she must have known 500 songs.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52That's amazing.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54And did your grandmother ever talk to you
0:46:54 > 0:46:55about where these songs came from?
0:46:55 > 0:46:59She always said they came from across the big pond...
0:46:59 > 0:47:01in the homeplace, if you can believe that.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04Tell me a little bit about your family connection
0:47:04 > 0:47:05to Scotland and Ireland.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09My family came out of Portstewart, Coleraine...
0:47:09 > 0:47:12and I think it was like Omagh or Armagh.
0:47:12 > 0:47:14There's both.
0:47:14 > 0:47:15Well...are they close together?!
0:47:15 > 0:47:17- Not that far.- OK.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20- Nothing's very far from anything in Ireland.- That's right.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24But she said we, the majority of us, came from "Northern Arlan".
0:47:49 > 0:47:53Why were the songs so important to people here, in this area?
0:47:53 > 0:47:58Well, I got to study a lot about that because I couldn't
0:47:58 > 0:48:02figure out why these old women had remembered all these songs.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06And so one day I said to Granny's sister,
0:48:06 > 0:48:09"OK, so you had how many children?"
0:48:09 > 0:48:13She said, "Well, 15, 13 living."
0:48:13 > 0:48:18She was left in that, what they called a ten-by-ten...
0:48:18 > 0:48:23which was a ten-foot-wide, perfectly square, log cabin
0:48:23 > 0:48:30- with 13 children under the age of 18.- Yeah.
0:48:30 > 0:48:31Who all need entertained.
0:48:31 > 0:48:36Wouldn't you have sung about spirits and sprites and ladies and
0:48:36 > 0:48:39white knights if you'd had to do all this?!
0:48:54 > 0:48:57A lot of those kids learned the ballads
0:48:57 > 0:49:00just that way cos their mother sang them.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04# If I had the wings of an angel... #
0:49:04 > 0:49:07You know, they were always thinking about ways to get away from
0:49:07 > 0:49:11- them little ten-by-tens with all those kids in them.- Yeah.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14That's why, I think,
0:49:14 > 0:49:16they survived.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20- And they told stories, great stories.- Yeah.
0:49:20 > 0:49:21And you're still singing...
0:49:21 > 0:49:23I'm still singing them, yep.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25I just fell in love with them, too, Phil.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28There was something about them that reminded me...
0:49:28 > 0:49:31I mean, think about all the loving hearts
0:49:31 > 0:49:34that carried these songs across the ocean.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41# Dinah, oh, Dinah
0:49:41 > 0:49:45# Please say that you'll be mine
0:49:45 > 0:49:48# Take you home and love you
0:49:48 > 0:49:51# Kiss you all the time
0:49:51 > 0:49:54# I'll kiss you all the time
0:49:54 > 0:49:57# I'll kiss you all the time. #
0:50:15 > 0:50:19# You ride on the old grey mare
0:50:19 > 0:50:22# And I'll ride on the roan
0:50:22 > 0:50:25# If you get there before I do
0:50:25 > 0:50:28# You better leave my Dinah alone
0:50:28 > 0:50:31# Better leave my Dinah alone
0:50:31 > 0:50:34# You better leave my Dinah alone
0:50:52 > 0:50:56# It's snowing, it's snowing
0:50:56 > 0:50:59# The world is turning white
0:50:59 > 0:51:02# Sun lights up the daytime
0:51:02 > 0:51:05# Save Dinah for the night
0:51:05 > 0:51:10# Save Dinah for the night Save Dinah for the night. #
0:51:25 > 0:51:27These songs endured not just because
0:51:27 > 0:51:30they reminded people of who they were and where they had come from,
0:51:30 > 0:51:33but because they expressed deep human emotions.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38They spoke truths to people about their experiences,
0:51:38 > 0:51:40whether on the journey across the ocean
0:51:40 > 0:51:42or through the trials of life.
0:51:44 > 0:51:51# WSB, the voice of the South
0:51:51 > 0:51:55# Radiophone broadcasting station... #
0:51:55 > 0:51:58As the 20th century dawned, the music,
0:51:58 > 0:52:00which had sustained and helped define those isolated rural
0:52:00 > 0:52:04communities for so long, would come down from the mountains.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09The new medium of radio would now carry the music
0:52:09 > 0:52:12to a national audience and make it the voice of America.
0:52:21 > 0:52:26March 16, 1922 - WSB Atlanta made the first ever radio broadcast
0:52:26 > 0:52:28in the South.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31A Scotch Irish millworker and part-time moonshiner
0:52:31 > 0:52:35became the first musician to play country music on American radio -
0:52:35 > 0:52:39his name was Fiddlin' John Carson.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42'Hello, John, how's your cat popping today?
0:52:42 > 0:52:43'Fine as frog hair.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47'Run 90 gallon last night, as good as Sal ever smacked her lips on.'
0:52:47 > 0:52:51That historic broadcast made him a star in the South
0:52:51 > 0:52:54and, in 1923, he made his first record
0:52:54 > 0:52:56with New York talent scout Ralph Peer.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10FIDDLE MUSIC PLAYS
0:53:17 > 0:53:20"Pluperfect awful" was Peer's verdict on the songs
0:53:20 > 0:53:22Carson recorded for him in Atlanta,
0:53:22 > 0:53:25but the record company released them anyway.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36When the first 500 records sold out,
0:53:36 > 0:53:40a local agent called Peer and told him he had a riot on his hands
0:53:40 > 0:53:43and he demanded 10,000 more.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49So he put Fiddlin' John on a train to New York,
0:53:49 > 0:53:52where he would make a proper studio version
0:53:52 > 0:53:55of what had now become the first hit record in country music history.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59TRAIN HORN BLARES
0:54:07 > 0:54:11# The chimney's falling down and the roof is all caved in
0:54:11 > 0:54:15# Letting in the sunshine and the rain
0:54:15 > 0:54:19# And the only friend I have left is this good old dog of mine
0:54:19 > 0:54:24# And the little old log cabin in the lane. #
0:54:31 > 0:54:35Almost a century later, the song that made a Scotch Irish moonshiner
0:54:35 > 0:54:37a pioneer in American music history
0:54:37 > 0:54:40is still a folk and country standard.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49Half a million people bought this record.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51John Carson had changed everything.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55He'd shown the world there was money in this "hillbilly music".
0:54:57 > 0:54:59# Oh, I don't have long to stay here
0:54:59 > 0:55:01# What little time I've got
0:55:01 > 0:55:03# I want to rest content while I remain
0:55:05 > 0:55:07# Till death shall call this dog and me
0:55:07 > 0:55:08# To find a better home
0:55:08 > 0:55:12# In that little old log cabin in the lane
0:55:13 > 0:55:14# Oh, the chimney's fallen down
0:55:14 > 0:55:16# And the roof is all caved in
0:55:16 > 0:55:20# Letting in the sunshine and rain
0:55:20 > 0:55:24# And the only friend I have left is this good old dog of mine
0:55:24 > 0:55:27# In the little old log cabin in the lane. #
0:55:35 > 0:55:39Bristol - a town with one foot in Virginia and the other in Tennessee.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42It calls itself "the birthplace of country music".
0:55:42 > 0:55:44The street names here honour
0:55:44 > 0:55:47the town's place in American music history,
0:55:47 > 0:55:49harking back to the summer of 1927.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54Ralph Peer, that same New York talent scout
0:55:54 > 0:55:56who struck gold with John Carson,
0:55:56 > 0:55:59came to Bristol looking for another hillbilly hit.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06He wanted to tap into a deep vein of American folk music
0:56:06 > 0:56:09and the country round Bristol was full of musicians and singers
0:56:09 > 0:56:12steeped in the same Scotch Irish musical culture
0:56:12 > 0:56:14that had produced John Carson.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17# Once I had a sweetheart... #
0:56:19 > 0:56:22In a makeshift studio over an old hat factory
0:56:22 > 0:56:25he recorded Jimmie Rodgers, the singing brakeman,
0:56:25 > 0:56:29who fused hillbilly music with the blues he'd learned from black musicians.
0:56:29 > 0:56:31# ..dark and curly
0:56:31 > 0:56:36# His loving eyes were blue... #
0:56:37 > 0:56:41Peer also recorded the treasured songs of a mountain family
0:56:41 > 0:56:45and America fell in love with the distinctive voice of Sara Carter.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50# Single girl, single girl
0:56:50 > 0:56:53# She's going dressed fine... #
0:56:53 > 0:56:56The Carters became the first family of American folk.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02Many believe those Bristol sessions
0:57:02 > 0:57:04were country music's Big Bang moment.
0:57:08 > 0:57:10But it was John Carson who lit the spark.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14# ..that little old log cabin in the lane. #
0:57:14 > 0:57:18It was his success in 1923 that inspired
0:57:18 > 0:57:21a generation of working men and women to see their musical
0:57:21 > 0:57:24heritage as a way to escape from poverty.
0:57:26 > 0:57:27If Fiddlin' John could do it,
0:57:27 > 0:57:29well, they might just have a go themselves.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32That's what brought the Carters and Jimmie Rodgers here to Bristol,
0:57:32 > 0:57:34that hope for a better future -
0:57:34 > 0:57:37the same dream that brought John Carson's people and that
0:57:37 > 0:57:40grand old fiddle across the sea all those years ago.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45John Carson's fiddle is silent now,
0:57:45 > 0:57:48an honoured relic in country music's Hall Of Fame,
0:57:48 > 0:57:52but it still speaks to us of the people whose musical traditions
0:57:52 > 0:57:55can claim a proud place in the founding story of American music.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06In the next episode, I'll follow the story from the recording boom
0:58:06 > 0:58:08of the '20s to the folk revival of the '60s.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13And I'll trace the unbroken circle of music that still connects
0:58:13 > 0:58:15the New World and the old.