Mary Geiger has been one of the longest-serving volunteer docents at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, from its opening until her retirement last year. She wrote this article as a resource for her fellow docents and has given us permission to share it here for a wider audience. The article highlights some of the same themes as our current special exhibit, Charles Vess: The Book of Ballads, which explores the history of the Appalachian ballad tradition and its origins in England, Scotland, and Ireland, through seven featured ballads that have been reimagined by some of the best fantasy authors of our time and illustrated by the award-winning comic artist Charles Vess.
“The Wayfaring Strangers” by Fiona Richie and Doug Orr is a wonderful book chronicling the history of the ballad from its origins to our Appalachian Mountains. Beautifully written, with equally beautiful artwork and photographs, it tells the story in a meandering manner, mimicking the ballad journey itself.
I endeavor here to share this ballad history in a simplistic, straightforward manner. Still yet, I encourage you to read this book; it captured my heart.
The origins of the ballad go further back in pre-recorded history than initially thought, to seafaring civilizations sharing cultures via storytelling and music. There is no one single point of ballad origin, but rather points as dispersed as Scandinavia, Germany, Western Europe, Scotland, Ireland, England, and the Mediterranean. For example, there is an old-style epic narrative performed in Connemara, Ireland that is nearly identical to a Bedouin style.
Scottish poet/folklorist/songwriter Hamish Henderson called the ballad journey the “carrying stream,” an analogy that perfectly represents the meandering ways ballads have traveled through ages, cultures, and configurations. Ballads were an oral tradition for disparate, largely illiterate populations, providing stories, news, commerce, commentary, protest, and even dance. As they traveled, ballads were subject to many influences and variations, both words and music, i.e., the same ballad ay have different tunes or one tune may be associated with several different ballads. Over time and travel, it was the best lyrics and tune fits that had the durability to continue along the carrying stream.
The ballad, as it is known today, is traceable back to the Middle Ages. European minstrels (12th-17th century) and troubadours in southern France (12th – 13th century) contributed to the birth and growth of ballads as they evolved and migrated from an oral to a written tradition.
As to the Scots-Irish ballad tradition here is Appalachia, it begins with a Nordic-Baltic influence arriving on the Scottish shores. Northeast Aberdeenshire, long inaccessible by land, is considered the cradle of Scottish balladry with distinct language, customs, and folklore created out of isolation and seafaring influences. Western Scots and Irishmen shared their traditions as well via the short sea route between them. Scots and English border countries added further influences, all of which contributed to the oral-to-written evolution of the ballad.
The ramifications of politics and palace intrigue over the course of balladry history were many and varied, and the resulting diaspora impacted the story. One such dispersing was the Scots to Ulster, Ireland and then from there to the colonies. It is this carrying stream that brought the ballad tradition to our mountains.
The majority of these immigrants arrived at various American ports in the north and then traveled down the Wilderness Road to the Appalachian Mountains. The pioneers settled in valleys and coves throughout the mountains, bringing their musical heritage with them and defining the tradition with their point of origin.
Music was a reward at the end of a long day’s work. It was shared in front of a winter fire or on a summer porch. It was used to teach succeeding generations about life and about their musical heritage. As pioneering neighbors with different origins interacted via barn raising, harvests, market days, etc. they shared their musical heritage. A Scottish ballad here with that Irish ballad there and so forth. They also folded in Native American and West African rhythms, chants, and sacred music and instruments. It is this mixing that evolved to be recognized today as country music.
“The Wayfaring Strangers” shares, “Music provided the social fabric, creating a sense of community amid isolation and reinforcing identity. That said, while the Scots-Irish origin is clearly the dominant one, it is the braiding and weaving of European, African, and Indigenous American influences that creates the unique tapestry of Appalachian music today.”
Bascome Lamar Lunsford, western North Carolina Minstrel of the Mountains, said, “…that though the words changed from country to country, and generation to generation, even from valley to valley in the same range of hills, the essence of the music changed not at all. It formed a link, unbroken, back through time, tying to the past.”
The ballad heritage is what the artists brought to the Bristol Session, sharing it for the first time on a national scale. Their music was a continuation of the carrying stream, and this musical migration continues through today’s carriers and tradition bearers; they, too, are immersed in the carrying stream. Old-time country music and the storytelling genre derived from it, music festivals the world over, our Museum visitors from every state and over 44 countries testify to the continuing journey.