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Author Topic:  Did Hillbillies Hurt or Help American Music?
Drew Howard


From:
48854
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 7:36 am    
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YES!! Very Happy
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Dave Mudgett


From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 8:44 am    
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Such could be said about any large group of people. Wink
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Randy Phelps


From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 8:51 am    
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I want to state publically that I am now and have always been Pro Hillbilly.

No matter where they come from, no matter the elevation, no matter the language they speak and no matter how well they speak it, read it or write it... I will always feel a kinship to hillbillys and no matter what minor negative impacts they may have on the overall culture... their overall contributions have been good (up to and including those giant wiper blades for cars)... and besides. I are one.

Hillbillies who are also hippies are like that gum... double good.
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David L. Donald


From:
Koh Samui Island, Thailand
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 9:36 am    
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Same for Stephen Foster and the Ragtime players.

Of course hillbilies took the roots music of
Scotland, Ireland, the English music halls and Scandanavia,
and mixed it with local stories of the times,
similar to the traveling troubador/minstrel
of medieval times. Traveling and singing the news
from castle to castle.

Some guy would come by the sleepy hollow town
and sing a song or three,
and listen to some local picking and songs,
and move on, sorta like Johhny Appleseed,
spreading the musical seeds about.

As he passed a field he'd hear the share croppers singing,
and the gospel at the black church Sunday mornings,
and it would get in his head.
It all would come out in differing ratios
through his travels, and others like him.

Sure hillbilies developed the talking story
in american style and we became a country
partly because of that.
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Gary Cosden


From:
Florida, USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 10:30 am    
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hill hippies?
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Edward Meisse

 

From:
Santa Rosa, California, USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 10:35 am    
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Actually, anyone who says hippies helped American music have to say that hillbillies did, too. Lots of hippie music was inspired by people like Woody Guthrie, Jimmie Rogers, Bob Wills, Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, Lester Flat, etc. These guys may or may not have actually been what most of us would consider hillbillies (I don't know). But they certainly expressed the hillbillie sentiments of their day.
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Tom Olson

 

From:
Spokane, WA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 11:32 am    
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I think Jethro helped the most.
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Scott Shipley


From:
The Ozark Mountains
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 11:55 am    
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There is a difference betwixt a hillbilly and a redneck.
Winking

A hippy/hillbilly would be a ''hippybilly?''
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Mike Winter


From:
Portland, OR
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 12:22 pm    
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I always thought Elly May was hot. Laughing

I think the fact that hippies, rockers, blues artists, etc., rediscovered hillbilly roots music is an obvious plus. But, musically speaking, they took it way past the basic three chord structure. Case in point: The Band. In their first two albums (Music From Big Pink and The Band) there is no doubt they had connected with a rootsy, hillbilly, Appalachian vibe, but they certainly took the music past Uncle Dave Macon, not only musically, but lyrically. So I would say yes, there was a positive effect, but only to a point.


Last edited by Mike Winter on 27 Feb 2008 12:35 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Edward Meisse

 

From:
Santa Rosa, California, USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 12:30 pm    
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Quote:
There is a difference betwixt a hillbillie and a redneck.

I lived in the Ozarks for several years. I kinda sorta think I have an idea about the difference. I kinda like hillbillies. But I never actully knew any of the people I mentioned above. So I can't put a name on any of them.
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P Gleespen


From:
Toledo, OH USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 2:07 pm    
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Uh, I think the politically correct term is Hillybippy.

Oh, no! Now I've gone and made it political! Winking
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Patrick
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Ray Minich

 

From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 2:38 pm    
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From "Hee Haw" we had..

"The Naggers", with Gordie Tapp and Roni Stoneman as LaVern & Ida Mae, a backwoods bickering couple, inspired in part by the radio comedy The Bickersons. Kenny Price made occasional appearances (starting in 1974) as their son Elrod.

I saw this in real life... complete with the housecoat, her hair in curlers, and him in bib overalls.

Dem's me ancestors...

WWVA was playin' in the background.

Actually, according to the PBS special, most all of the Carter family's music came from the hills. The father travelled the woods of Appalachia and elsewhere, in search of the indiginous music, and "arranged" the compositions he heard.
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Wally Taylor

 

From:
Hardin, Kentucky, USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 3:10 pm     Hillbilly Music
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And now to bring the term "Hillbillies or Hillbillys" up to the 21st century, we now refer to ourselves as, Appalacian Americans.

Please make note of this.

HA!

Wally
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Steve Hinson

 

From:
Hendersonville Tn USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 6:00 pm    
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"Did Hillbillies Help or Hurt American Music?"...they INVENTED most of it...
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David Doggett


From:
Bawl'mer, MD (formerly of MS, Nawluns, Gnashville, Knocksville, Lost Angeles, Bahsten. and Philly)
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 6:02 pm    
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As a hippie from North Mississippi, I had the best of both worlds...or the worst, depending on how you look at it. Confused It was a rare combination in the early years, but country-rock sort of legitimized it. Thank the stars for The Byrds, Flying Burritos, Linda and Emy Lou.

But, seriously, if you broaden the term to mean the music of the white South, that, combined with music of the black South, is where most of the originality of American music came from. Them's deep veins of gold to mine for a long time. Smile
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Mike Perlowin


From:
Los Angeles CA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 7:02 pm    
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You guys need to see the 2 movies "Songcatcher" and "Oh Brother Where Art Thou."

The music is slicker on Oh Brother, and less polished in Songcatcher, but both are full of the old timey music that gave birth to so much of our country's musical heritage.
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David L. Donald


From:
Koh Samui Island, Thailand
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 7:19 pm    
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Tom Olson wrote:
I think Jethro helped the most.

Hey don't forget Homer helped too. Wink

Ellie Mae gets my vote too.
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Real happiness has no strings attached.
But pedal steels have many!
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Theresa Galbraith

 

From:
Goodlettsville,Tn. USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 8:18 pm    
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They invented it! Smile
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Edward Meisse

 

From:
Santa Rosa, California, USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 9:49 pm    
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Well, they helped. I think it's usually assumed that American music was invented when European classical and folk traditions met with African scales and rhythms sometime after the civil war. Until then, "American," music would have been a continuation of the European tradition. I suppose it could have happened sooner. The banjo, as you may know, is an African Instrument.
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Kent Thompson

 

From:
Wilson, OK
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2008 10:07 pm    
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Edward Meisse wrote:
Actually, anyone who says hippies helped American music have to say that hillbillies did, too. Lots of hippie music was inspired by people like Woody Guthrie, Jimmie Rogers, Bob Wills, Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, Lester Flat, etc. These guys may or may not have actually been what most of us would consider hillbillies (I don't know). But they certainly expressed the hillbillie sentiments of their day.


Well put Edward. Even Buck recorded a Bob Dylan,Donavan,and Paul simon song or two.
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Edward Meisse

 

From:
Santa Rosa, California, USA
Post  Posted 28 Feb 2008 11:46 pm    
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And the Beatles recorded both Buck Owens and Carl Perkins.
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Terry Edwards


From:
Florida... livin' on spongecake...
Post  Posted 2 Mar 2008 4:49 pm     Hillbillys
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I always thought Hank Williams was the biggest hillbilly influence on country music. His influence was huge and probably helped spawn Rockabilly.

Bill Monroe was a huge influence on Rock music with Elvis recording his Blue Moon Of Kentucky. Bill Monroe's best band was when hippies Peter Rowan and Richard Green were in it!

Hillbilly cuisine also contributed to sustaining many a country and rock musician in diners along the American highways. I can't think of any Hippy food.

I was a Hillbilly Hippy. Long haired and well fed.

Smile
Terry


Last edited by Terry Edwards on 2 Mar 2008 4:53 pm; edited 1 time in total
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David L. Donald


From:
Koh Samui Island, Thailand
Post  Posted 2 Mar 2008 5:53 pm    
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Lefty Frizzel certainly moved things along.
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DLD, Chili farmer. Plus bananas and papaya too.

Real happiness has no strings attached.
But pedal steels have many!
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Gordy Hall


From:
Fairfax, CA.
Post  Posted 2 Mar 2008 6:10 pm     The Fugs had a song about hippybillies.
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"Listening to the opening track of Ed Sanders' recently reissued solo
album, Sanders Truckstop (Collectors' Choice Music), I couldn't help
thinking about time's passage. A satirically mawkish country
narrative in the manner of Hank Williams' "Luke the Drifter" cuts or
Red Sovine, "Jimmy Joe, the Hippybilly Boy" tells the story of an
Ozark Mountains hippie who loses his life after rescuing two car
passengers from a raging big blue river. (His long hair gets
entangled in the rear-view mirror.) These days, the very word
"hippie" has become so degraded that the idea of a comic pastiche
saluting the freak flag doesn't have the same charge that it did back
in 1970. More's the pity."

http://sixties-l.blogspot.com/2008/01/ed-sanders-sanders-truckstop-and-beer.html


Gordy Hall
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Stephen Gambrell

 

From:
Over there
Post  Posted 2 Mar 2008 7:18 pm    
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After ALL the trouble Thomas Edison went to, to discover electricity, and invent the power bill, here comes them hillbillies wantin' to UNPLUG everything Mad Mad Mad !!!
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