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| Music of the United States |
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Arkansas is a Southern state of the United States. Arkansas's musical heritage includes country music and various related styles like bluegrass and rockabilly.
Arkansas has four official state songs:
Two of the official state songs are because of a copyright dispute. "Arkansas" was published in 1916 by the Central Music Company, written by Eva Ware Barnett and Will M. Ramsey (though state law only credits Mrs. Barnett). It became the official song on January 12, 1917. Until either 1945 or 1949, "Arkansas" was the only official song in Arkansas. At that time, there was a copyright dispute and the state adopted "The Arkansas Traveler" as the official song, a situation that remained unchanged until 1963. In that year, the copyright dispute was resolved and "Arkansas" became official again, until 1987, when it was changed to the official state anthem. In that year, "Arkansas (You Run Deep In Me)" and "Oh, Arkansas" were officially designated state songs as well, and "The Arkansas Traveler" was designated the official state historical song. [1]
Two Arkansas politicians have been noted for mixing music with their campaigns for the presidency. Bill Clinton, attorney general and 50th and 52nd governor of the state and later president, played the saxophone, famously performing "Heartbreak Hotel" on The Arsenio Hall Show during the 1992 presidential election. [2] Mike Huckabee, 54th governor, plays the bass guitar, and his campaign in the 2008 presidential election has prominently featured cover song performances by his band Capitol Offense. [3]
Composer Florence Price was born in Little Rock in 1887.
The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1966. [4] When the orchestra was founded, a local bank held the organization responsible for the debts of previous attempts at organizing an orchestra. Ten individual members assumed responsibility for the debt, and so the orchestra was formed, led by experienced conductor Vasilios Priakos. Today the Orchestra is conducted by Geoff Robson. They have an extensive outreach and education program. In February 2012, George Takei performed with the group in a Holocaust memorial. [5]
Traditional folk instruments include the fiddle and banjo as well as guitar, mandolin, dulcimer and autoharp.
Located in the Ozark Mountains, the town of Mountain View bills itself as the "Folk Music Capital of the World". There is an Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame, which includes musicians like Ronnie Dunn, Melvin Endsley, and Al Green.
Jimmy Driftwood and Beau Renfro.
Indie Folk group Little Chief is made up of former University of Arkansas student Matt Cooper and is based out of Fayetteville.
Gospel music is very popular in Arkansas. Because of the racial tension extant since slavery in the Delta region, gospel music has had a tremendous influence in the lives of African Americans in Arkansas. [6] While Blues is dominated by men, it is the women of Arkansas who have led the way in gospel music. Gospel composer, singer, pianist, arranger Roberta Martin was born in Helena. The Brockwell Gospel Music School in Brockwell, Arkansas in Izard County, has been offering a two-week summer course in Gospel music since 1947. [7]
Country blues singer and slide guitarist Casey Bill Weldon was born in Pine Bluff. Blues pianist Roosevelt Sykes was born in Elmar. Jump blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon was born in Gurdon. Electric blues and Chicago blues artist Willie "Big Eyes" Smith was born in Helena. Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Pat Hare, born in Cherry Valley, served as a sideman at Sun Records in Memphis. Billy Lee Riley, born in Pocahontas, and Sonny Burgess, born near Newport, also recorded for Sun.
West Memphis, just across the Mississippi river from Memphis, Tennessee, has its own thriving music scene. When Beale Street would shut down for the night, performers like BB King, Ike Turner, Junior Parker, and Elmore James came to 8th street in West Memphis. Wayne Jackson even said once that "the Memphis sound was born over the river". [8] Jackson was born and raised in West Memphis as was Chicago blues artist Junior Wells. The West Memphis R&B scene was an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. [9]
Jazz artists born in Arkansas include pianist and bandleader Alphonse Trent from Fort Smith, trombonist Snub Mosley born in Little Rock, pianist and composer Walter Norris born in Little Rock, Joe Bishop born in Monticello, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders born in Little Rock, free jazz tenor saxophonist Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre born in Clarksville, tenor saxophonist Red Holloway born in Helena, tenor saxophonist and bandleader Hayes Pillars born in North Little Rock, Oliver Lake born in Marianna, pianist Bob Dorough born in Cherry Hill, bassist James Leary born in Little Rock, pianist Art Porter, Sr. and saxophonist Art Porter, Jr. born in Little Rock, and Amina Claudine Myers born in Blackwell. [10]
Sister Rosetta Tharpe from Cotton Plant was a gospel artist who achieved crossover success and became a rock and roll pioneer, influencing among many others fellow Arkansas native Johnny Cash from Kingsland. Sonny Burgess was another Arkansan who influenced the rock and roll industry as an artist for Sun Records in adjacent Memphis, Tennessee. Arkansas early rock and roll was typically rockabilly music influenced by Zydeco music and blues. [11]
Arkansas garage rock and psychedelic music of the 1960s has been reexamined by Psych of the South with Lost Souls. [12]
While Arkansas is known for its southern styles of music, there is a much younger style coming from the state as well. In the late 1990s, and early 2000s, there were many rock music groups, as well as pop rock groups. One of the best-known bands from this time would be multi-platinum-selling rock band Evanescence, which has origins in Little Rock.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Little Rock became the home of a thriving punk and metal music scene. The 1990s DIY scene was captured in the 2007 film Towncraft . As the trends have changed, post-hardcore and metalcore bands such as Norma Jean gained popularity. Doom Metal is represented by Pallbearer from Little Rock, while Rwake is known for southern sludge metal. American Princes from Little Rock show the indie rock side of Arkansas.
Young Freq is a rapper from Little Rock working with local independent label Roc Town Music Group, formed in 2013. [13]
Tommy Riggs (Tom Payton) is an Arkansan singer, piano and keyboard player who had several bands while performing around the state in the 1960s and 1970s. He also was working as a radio DJ (as Tom Jones) at the time, on KCLA, during 1968 through 69 and as Tom Payton on KXLR in North Little Rock in 1964, and in 1966 at KAAY. During this period, he promoted himself as Tom Payton and the Kingpins, Tom Payton with The Playboys, and several other names. He recorded while he was Rock Robbins from KAAY on the Little Rock label MY Records in 1966. Two songs from the session were released on a 45 rpm record, "My Little Girl" and "Good Lovin'".
Arkansas's rock and roll scene is served by a free monthly magazine launched by Peter Read on December 8, 1980 called Night Flying. [11]
Among Arkansas's most prominent modern musical festivals is Riverfest, a music festival held along the Arkansas River in downtown Little Rock. Riverfront Blues Festival, Ft Smith Arkansas in June. Riverfest has been held annually since 1978. The King Biscuit Blues Festival is held each October in Helena. It has been ongoing since 1986. The festival seeks to celebrate and preserve the rich blues history of the region.
William James Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Waters, Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–World War II sound of the Chicago blues.
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 67 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
The U.S. state of North Carolina is known particularly for its history of old-time music. Many recordings were made in the early 20th century by folk song collector Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Influential North Carolina country musicians like the North Carolina Ramblers and Al Hopkins helped solidify the sound of country music in the late 1920s, while influential bluegrass musicians such as Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson came from North Carolina. Arthur Smith had the first nationally syndicated television program which featured country music. He composed "Guitar Boogie", the all-time best selling guitar instrumental, and "Dueling Banjos", the all-time best selling banjo composition. Country artist Eric Church from the Hickory area, has had multiple No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, including Chief in 2011. Both North and South Carolina are a hotbed for traditional country blues, especially the style known as the Piedmont blues. Elizabeth Cotten, from Chapel Hill, was active in the American folk music revival.
The story of Tennessee's contribution to American music is essentially the story of three cities: Nashville, Memphis, and Bristol. While Nashville is most famous for its status as the long-time capital of country music, Bristol is recognized as the "Birthplace of Country Music". Memphis musicians have had an enormous influence on blues, early rock and roll, R&B, and soul music, as well as an increasing presence in rap.
Alabama has played a central role in the development of both blues and country music. Appalachian folk music, fiddle music, gospel, spirituals, and polka have had local scenes in parts of Alabama. The Tuskegee Institute's School of Music, especially the Tuskegee Choir, is an internationally renowned institution. There are three major modern orchestras, the Mobile Symphony, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra; the last is the oldest continuously operating professional orchestra in the state, giving its first performance in 1955.
Marion Walter Jacobs, known as Little Walter, was an American blues musician, singer, and songwriter, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica had a strong impact on succeeding generations, earning him comparisons to such seminal artists as Django Reinhardt, Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix. His virtuosity and musical innovations fundamentally altered many listeners' expectations of what was possible on blues harmonica. He was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, the first and, to date, only artist to be inducted specifically as a harmonica player.
Ronald Cornett Hawkins was an American rock and roll singer, long based in Canada, whose career spanned more than half a century. His career began in Arkansas, United States, where he was born and raised. He found success in Ontario, Canada, and lived there for most of his life. He was highly influential in the establishment and evolution of rock music in Canada.
Georgia's musical history is diverse and substantial; the state's musicians include Southern rap groups such as Outkast and Goodie Mob, as well as a wide variety of rock, pop, blues, and country artists such as the late Ray Charles, Otis Redding, James Brown, and The Allman Brothers Band. The music of Athens, Georgia is especially well known for a kind of quirky college rock that has included such well-known bands as R.E.M., The B-52's, and Pylon.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. She gained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and electric guitar. She was the first great recording star of gospel music, and was among the first gospel musicians to appeal to rhythm and blues and rock and roll audiences, later being referred to as "the original soul sister" and "the Godmother of rock and roll". She influenced early rock-and-roll musicians including Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and also later guitarists, such as Eric Clapton.
Charles Allan Rich was an American country singer. His eclectic style of music also blended influences from rockabilly, jazz, blues, soul, and gospel.
The origins of rock and roll are complex. Rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the United States in the early to mid-1950s. It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which itself developed from earlier blues, the beat-heavy jump blues, boogie woogie, up-tempo jazz, and swing music. It was also influenced by gospel, country and western, and traditional folk music. Rock and roll in turn provided the main basis for the music that, since the mid-1960s, has been generally known simply as rock music.
Robert Franklin Palmer Jr. was an American writer, musicologist, clarinetist, saxophonist, and blues producer. He is best known for his non-fictional writing on the field of music; his work as a music journalist for The New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine; his production work for blues recordings ; and his clarinet playing as a member of the 1960s jazz band, the Insect Trust.
"Mystery Train" is a song written and recorded by American blues musician Junior Parker in 1953. Originally performed in the style of a Memphis blues or rhythm and blues tune, it was inspired by earlier songs and later became a popular rockabilly song, as first covered by Elvis Presley, then numerous others.
Jesse Lorenzo Belvin was an American singer, pianist and songwriter popular in the 1950s. Belvin co-wrote the 1954 Penguins' doo-wop classic "Earth Angel", which sold more than 10 million copies, while his top recording was the 1956 single "Goodnight My Love", a song that reached No. 7 on Billboard's R&B chart.
The Arkansas Delta is one of the six natural regions of the state of Arkansas. Willard B. Gatewood Jr., author of The Arkansas Delta: Land of Paradox, says that rich cotton lands of the Arkansas Delta make that area "The Deepest of the Deep South."
"Black Angel Blues", also known as "Sweet Black Angel" or "Sweet Little Angel", is a blues standard that has been recorded by numerous blues and other artists. The song was first recorded in 1930 by Lucille Bogan, one of the classic female blues singers. Bogan recorded it as a mid-tempo, twelve-bar blues, featuring her vocal with piano accompaniment.
Houston Goff, known as Houston Stackhouse, was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer. He is best known for his association with Robert Nighthawk. He was not especially noted as a guitarist or singer, but Nighthawk showed gratitude to Stackhouse, his guitar teacher, by backing him on a number of recordings in the late 1960s. Apart from a brief tour in Europe, Stackhouse confined his performing to the area around the Mississippi Delta.
Melvin Endsley was a musician, singer, and songwriter best known for writing the song "Singing the Blues", along with over 400 songs recorded by hundreds of artists since 1956. Some of the artists that have recorded his songs include Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Andy Williams, Paul McCartney, Stonewall Jackson, and Ricky Skaggs. At the beginning of his career, Endsley recorded including RCA and MGM, however, his vocal recordings were commercially unsuccessful. In 1998, he was inducted into the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame.
