Southern Mountain Music

Years ago when Americana Rhythm was just getting its footing, the publisher came in contact with a North Carolina writer and teacher of all things music. Not long after, this writer agreed to supplying a column for publication each issue. This started a relationship with AR that has lasted for years. That respected writer and teacher is Mr. Wayne Erbsen.

Recently, we here at AR received an email from a publishing company telling us about a new historical music centered book which they recently published that was written by our long time friend, Mr. Wayne Erbsen. The book is titled, Southern Mountain Music, The Collected Works of Wayne Erbsen, and the publishing house is, McFarland & Company, Inc, Box 611, Jefferson, NC, 28640. I recently finished reading this delightful book and would like to tell you a bit about it.

The foreword is written by Mr. Tim Stafford of Blue Highway fame. He sets the tone and provides a gentle introduction that teases the reader into a can’t-wait-to-get-started frame of mind.

Erbsen has written an anthology that digs deep in the archives of the dusty past to tell the stories of forgotten artists of by-gone days. But first he tells us a bit about himself and what has driven him for a lifetime down a twisting musical rabbit hole. From a childhood and formative years living in California to an adult lifetime spent as an educator, broadcaster, writer and performer of all things music in North Carolina, Wayne Erbson has rubbed elbows with many of the greats in old-time and bluegrass music all the while developing a depth of knowledge about them and their talents. In turn, he has written many published books and essays about those personalities and the picking techniques they employed.

Erpsen has constructed his anthology in a manner that leads the reader from the beginnings of mountain music as we recognize it to its later distillation into the bluegrass genre that we know today. He does this by introducing us to many forgotten and maybe never knew artists of the past. He begins his story with a section titled, “Mountain Music Pioneers, Foreshadowing Bluegrass”. This is where he introduces the reader to the forgotten folks who first brought the music out of the dark mountain hollows and started tinkering with the way it was played.

Moving from the pioneer’s biographies, Erpsen then presents a section that tells us delightful stories centered on the fiddle and the banjo and tells how these instruments were formative in the mountain music and its later variations. In telling these stories, he leads the reader steadily down the path to bluegrass. This segues nicely into a section about early bluegrass pioneer performers. (Being a child of the 1940’s who’s mother always had country music playing on the radio, I found this section especially enjoyable as many of the folks that Erpsen mentions here, are folks to which I remember listening.)

Of course, no story centered upon Appalachian music would be complete without a section about the genre’s songwriters and their songs. Here, Erpsen has given the reader a through schooling. For this reviewer, I found this section to be my favorite part of this most wonderful book of nostalgia. It is interesting to discover how may tunes (or as Erpsen names them “evergreens”) crop up even today at jams and festivals.

This little anthology is a must read if you find yourself at all interested in the historic origins and the later public and professional aspects of old-time and bluegrass music. Mr. Wayne Erpsen has settled into a folksy yet well written style that is easy to read and very hard to put down before finishing a section. I’m sure there is a reader or two who might find reason to be slightly disappointed after not finding mention of a special musical person that they knew about but that is a tiny grumble to raise. I would easily give this book a solid thumbs up and urge you to seek it out and immerse yourself in it. You will be Americana string music knowledge richer for the experience. Pick up a copy where ever fine books are sold or If you wish, contact the publisher at www.mcfarlandpub.com