Our Common Life: Folksong from the Front Porch to the Concert Hall

Folklore is both a social reality and a scholarly pursuit, something both lived and contemplated. Much of this book centers on folk pedagogy, of how this music is learned and transferred. Certainly, my own experience as a player led me to so many of the persons found in these pages. These were the individuals who schooled me, in the sense that my teacher’s teacher, Doc Hopkins, a veteran WLS National Barn Dance performer, once said, “I can’t teach you, but I can show you.” They offered an informal education, and an indelible one.

The book’s cover image called The Music Lesson by painter Thomas Hart Benton, and completed in 1943, represents two identifiable individuals, a father and child by the names of Gale and Emily Huntington. They lived on Martha’s Vineyard where the senior Huntington was a school teacher, nautical song collector, and fisherman. He also played in Benton’s string band. His daughter, Emily, spent her life there too. This arc from living individuals to their representation in a formal painting anticipates so many of the persons found in this book. Repeatedly, their music transfers from enclaved communities to the wider society and back again.

Ongoing thread. More from Stephen Wade to follow.