American Melting Pot

So, I'm sure anyone who's been around me for any amount of time lately has noticed my bluegrass obsession. I think more than anything, this Appalachian style has captured my imagination because of it's American melting pot style. As kids in early history classes we're always told about the melting pot effect, immigration, the statue of liberty, pioneers, and expanding into the West. We think we know how we became Americans, but I think when you take a close look at how American art and literature developed, you get to see the most amazing collaborations!

Recently I went to this banjo... history event? I don't really know what you call it. http://www.billevansbanjo.com/banjo-in-america.php If you watch the first video on this page, it gives a pretty condensed version of what he showed us. It was just amazing to me to see how African American styles merged with Irish and Scottish tunes and murder ballads. The original African animal skin guitar-like instruments mixed with Western European instruments and the banjo, a truly American creation, was one of the most popular instruments next to the fiddle in the mid 1800's!

Guys. Murder ballads.
They're the best. http://youtu.be/9g8BV6zrVBs This music video's a bit cheesy, but still awesome.
Just murder, and music, and blood, and heaven and hell. So great. Here's the original Dock Boggs version http://youtu.be/CfyrRNP1ZpU. It was originally an English ballad called the Cruel Ship's Carpenter, but as the song moved West and came further from the ocean, it took on more American and Appalachian lyrics.

And not only music changed to take on the American character, dance became a huge part of the melting pot and continues to evolve as unique dance styles are shared worldwide! I used to get annoyed when people asked if I clogged. Irish Hardshoe is quit a bit different from American clogging, but I guess they had a point. The word clog I comes from a Gaelic word meaning "time", and the type of dancing where tapping feet kept time. Clogging is a true mixture of everything American from Irish, Dutch, German, and Scottish folk dances, to Russian gypsy, Cherokee natives, and African American influences. In this video http://youtu.be/cs2j8f7H2WY, you can see how they still use Irish and more folk dancing arms, with flat footed slapping. Clogging kind of goes back and forth from an individual expression in time to music to more square dancing steps and figures. Sometimes called flat footing, or buck dancing, it is a unique American style! http://youtu.be/qIHL_Dzf1xo If the little guy singing isn't the cutest thing, you can cut me.
In the 1930's a book called Cowboy Dances was written by Dr. Lloyd "Pappy" Shaw and was one of the first collections of all American dances ever printed.  This formalized Clogging even more and with the re-emergence of Appalachian culture in the 60's and 70's clogging competitions and dance became more and more set and taught.

Soooo interesting. I think someone misses history classes? haha Anyway, until my next obsession:)