I vividly remember Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, Jr’s version of That Old Wheel with lyrics including That old wheel will roll around again. The theme….evening up scores from past wrongs…works well for my use in using Country Music to deal with topics in how to teach history, geography, and even literature. And…it also relates to how things tend to run in cycles. So… what could this old memory have something to do with the theme for a symphony orchestra’s concert season? Hang-on. You’ll see!
Back in the dark ages in the mid 70s..1970s not 1870s or so before easy internet access…or maybe it was actually before the internet…. I had the honor of serving on the Bryan Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors. Cookeville, Tennessee is the smallest city…call it MicroPolitan to be really current…in the United States to have a continuous symphony orchestra. Having a strong music department at Tennessee Tech University plus importing some additional musicians from Nashville (a.k.a. Twang Town), and elsewhere makes it all possible.
I don’t remember how I happened to end up being on Bryan Symphony Board of Directors. It might have something to do with Tennessee Tech University as I am a faculty member. I do remember taking detailed notes serving as Secretary and meeting in the Putnam County Library.
In one Bryan Symphony Orchestra meeting I made a suggestion. It might be good to explore linking other types of music to the Bryan Symphony Orchestra. Ricky Skaggs, a Bluegrass virtuoso, had recently performed with the Nashville Symphony. I made a suggestion that the Bryan Symphony Orchestra might do something similar by playing some roots-oriented music and perhaps having roots music artists participate.
My suggestion was a good bit before diversity and inclusiveness arrived on the scene in Cookeville. A board member from an old-line family indicated that she didn’t care for the idea as it wasn’t ‘our-kind-of-music’ and shouldn’t be included in the Bryan Symphony Orchestra programs.
So much for what I thought was a really good idea. That, despite the fact that Charles Faulkner Bryan…namesake for the orchestra…was an early music faculty member at Tennessee Tech and very much interested in roots music.
Well…what comes ‘round does come round in various ways. I was pleased and surprised. Guess what? The 2022-23 Bryan Symphony Orchestra season deals with roots music. Who woulda thunk it possible! The conductor, Maestro Dan Allcott, focused his message in the Notes & Notices newsletter about the season and the significance of Bluegrass pioneer Lester Flatt.
Born north of Cookeville, Tennessee in Overton County, Flatt made Sparta, Tennessee is home and final resting place. No… Maestro Allcott did not mention The Father of Bluegrass Music, Bill Monroe, but in the name of a tight fit with the Upper Cumberland region in which Cookeville lies it makes sense.
I couldn’t resist what was inside the News and Notes newsletter on page three. The Folk Music Improvisation Workshop with Jeff Midkiff sounded…no pun intended…like something I needed to attend. I’m not a picker, but I do use Bluegrass and all the other forms of Country Music in my teaching.
Country Music is my broad, Big Tent, category under which I define Bluegrass as a sub-style, a sub-genre, along with other musics from Cajun to Western Swing. I’ve developed and taught lessons about Bluegrass Music to third graders and high school students. It looked as if I just might learn something. Never mind that it would probably be interesting.
Did the Folk Music Improvisation Workshop live up to my expectation? As long as I learned something new it would meet my expectations. I didn’t attend expecting to be in a league with Charles Dickens since I know virtually nothing about being a picker and music theory.
My piano lessons in elementary and middle school years made it possible to read music a bit, but not fluently. I didn’t try hard enough. No wonder Mrs. Herbert Adams didn’t call us one year after the annual recital. Plus, I know virtually nothing about Music Theory. I’m so naïve I think a diminished fifth is a bottle of Jack Daniels.
I did indeed learn something. I learned that workshop teacher Jeff Midkiff followed a logical progression that engaged the pickers. He built on a simple phrase, added to the phrase during the workshop, referenced Bluegrass diva Allison Krause in comments, and lost me when he mentioned different keys and other technical terms.
That’s my problem as a non-musician. The participants seemed to be fine. Take a look at the video clip and you’ll see that Jeff Midkiff appeared confident, knows his ‘stuff’…having grown up in a repressed Baptist family prevents me from using contemporary slang…and could communicate it easily. It was a toe tapping good time.
Speaking of participants….I can’t show pics since I didn’t have release forms….it appeared to be a mixture of local musicians interested in Bluegrass and Tennessee Tech music students. Kits, cats, sacks and wives there were a good twenty participants. Not bad at all for a Saturday morning.
My guess is that the Tennessee Tech music students received extra credit or attended by course requirements to attend. The attendees who weren’t Tennessee Tech students appeared to be middle aged…or a touch beyond. Bryan Symphony Orchestra Maestro Dan Alcott also sat in on the workshop and participated throughout.
The guitar case of one older male…clearly showed he was a true-blue Bluegrass believer. I love all the stickers that become signifiers, identity markers, Badges of Honor that show the world…and the Bluegrass community in particular….that he is true blue Bluegrass believer.
I love stickers like ‘Forever Bluegrass,’ ‘My Grass is Blue,’ ‘and Bluegrass Music Finger Picking Good,’…a play on Kentucky Fried Chicken’s slogan Finger Lickin’ Good…’ iconic advertising slogan. He’s also a member of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), the professional organization to promote Bluegrass throughout the world. How about the Martin Guitar sticker that has a great vintage look.
Martin guitars are deeply connected to Bluegrass music. His state of Montana sticker means he’s been out in one of the least populated states in the west. Merle Haggard sang about Montana when he was ready to leave the Big City. And…he is Tennessee Rooted as a fan of the Tennessee Titans professional football team.
I bet the older male knows his Ralph Stanley from Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt, Bill Monroe, Allison Krauss, Becky Buller, Molly Tuttle and a whole lot more. He probably is Old School and doesn’t ‘cotton’…as they say Down South…to some of the ‘Progressive’ artists who don’t sound traditional.
If he hasn’t been to Sparta various years for the Lester Flatt Bluegrass Celebration I’d be surprised. I asked for permission to take a photo of his case and he agreed. I wanted to interview him. He was tied up talking to some of the older non-Tennessee Tech student folks. My guess is that he probably thinks Bluegrass stars Dailey and Vincent shouldn’t try to be changing their Bluegrass identity and ‘going Country.’
Can I prove all this without an in-depth interview. No. BUT…it all fits into common, issues, and themes of the history associated with Bluegrass. Finally, I’ll go out on a limb with one other speculation. I bet he enjoyed the workshop and thought Jeff Midkiff was excellent. He may have wanted it to have a more high-lonesome Bluegrassy feel.
The Folk Music Improvisation Workshop was a lead up to the first Bryan Symphony Orchestra concert of the season. The content certainly showed a rootsy flavor. The concert included roots oriented music by Aaron Copland, a work by Charles Faulkner Bryan, Jessie Montgomery, and Jeff Midkiff’s From the Blue Ridge.
Midkiff’s From The Blue Ridge is a Concerto for Mandolin and orchestra. It references the Blue Ridge Mountains associated with many Bluegrass artists.The remaining concerts include roots related music from diverse sources beyond Bluegrass and beyond the Upper Cumberland region of Middle Tennessee. And…what a value! $160 for the entire series. If you want the Chicago Symphony it will be just a touch pricier!
I’m pleased to see That Old Wheel come around with roots-based Bryan Symphony Orchestra performances. Fine work by Maestro Dan Allcott! It reconfirms that music from the Upper Cumberland, from Tennessee, and the Appalachian region have merit. It pleases me that it means that there is a spirit of inclusion and diversity in the Bryan Symphony Orchestra.
I think Maestro Allcott might even consider the Bluegrass based Burchland at some point in the future.
The symphony season and the Folk Song Improvisation Workshop also makes me wanting to teach some of my Bluegrass based lessons in my Social Studies Teaching Methods courses and my graduate level Country Music course for teachers. I’ve got a lesson dealing with Bill Monroe
The Father of Bluegrass Music that involves the geography of Rosine, Kentucky, analyzing Bluegrass instruments, and engaging with Blue Moon of Kentucky and Thank God for Kentucky. I developed it to teach at the third grade level, but it could be adapted for higher or lower grade levels as well.
It also brings to mind a lesson that I taught on Bill Monroe to a Creative Writing class at Cookeville High School. They analyzed Bill Monroe’s life in a brief biography and then created their own Bill Monroe ballads. In both cases the lessons fit with mandated Tennessee State Standards and requirements of effective teaching from the introduction to the conclusion of a lesson.
Students of all grade levels must be involved, engaged with lots of specific tasks working on academic vocabulary, and using facts to do sophisticated Higher Order Thinking.
All in all the Folk Music Improvisation Workshop, reflecting on a time long ago when I was on the Bryan Symphony Orchestra board of directors, and thinking about the Bryan Symphony Orchestra roots music influenced season paid off. I thank Maestro Dan Allcott for the inclusive approach.
It helped me grow and helped me sustain my enthusiasm for Country Music and all its varied forms from Bluegrass to Western Swing. It also makes me pleased to be from Cookeville, from Tennessee Tech, from the Upper Cumberland region of Middle Tennessee, and the Appalachian region which gave birth and nurture to music that has spread its influence throughout the world.
Rock on roots music!
