Many bluegrass standards contain racist and sexist content. Understanding the context of the repertoire can help players determine which songs continue to be harmful to perform. When picking a bluegrass song or tune to perform, ask questions such as "what does this song mean?" "in what context was this song written?"
One sub-genre of the bluegrass standard is the murder ballad. Murder ballads are a large part of Irish, Scottish, English and American musical traditions. They may have served as a warning to young women to watch out for dangerous men but more often than not, they depict graphic and brutal acts of violence enacted on women by men. Grammy-award winning musician Dirk Powell wrote a song in response to murder ballads called, "I Ain't Playing Pretty Polly". About the song, Powell says:
One evening I was singing [Pretty Polly] during a soundcheck and heard the words ‘he stabbed her through the heart and her heart’s blood did flow’ coming out of my mouth… and I just stopped cold in the middle of the verse. I thought about my grandmother, my mother, my daughters. I thought about pervasive violence against women and the way men are given the bulk of the story in songs like these, and often some kind of twisted romantic glory or sympathy, and I said to myself, ‘I’m never singing this song again.’ I will not give any more energy to the stories of men who hurt, abuse, and kill women. Period. (qtd in The Bluegrass Situation, 2020)
There are other types of ballads that are a part of bluegrass repertoire but don’t glorify violence against women. Digging deeper into the history and context of the music can open up other options. Did you know, for example, about cross-dressing ballads?
Listen:
Some songs or tune names have explicit racial slurs in them and sometimes changing lyrics or tune titles is enough. In other cases, the origin of a tune carries the harmful intent with it. For example, tunes that come from blackface minstrelsy are inextricably connected to white supremacy. Many of these tunes are taught in childhood music classes and cross over into the bluegrass canon (Remember Old Dan Tucker, or Turkey in the Straw?). As journalist Theodore R Johnson puts it,
"There is simply no divorcing the song from the dozens of decades it was almost exclusively used for coming up with new ways to ridicule, and profit from, black people." (Johnson III, 2014)
A plethora of bluegrass repertoire exists, so choosing different repertoire is always an option.
It’s okay not to know all of the details of a song or a musicians’ background, but that is where curiosity and compassion come into play. When picking a song to perform, be mindful of how that choice may impact others. Critical music information literacy encourages musicians and music researchers to question standard music history narratives and why certain musicians are more well known or more frequently referenced than others. Why do so many bluegrass musicians reference their mothers or local Black musicians as their primary musical influence and yet we know the music of Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley, but not Arnold Shultz or Lucy Stanley?
When picking a new tune, going beyond that first recording you hear can open up so many options. Ask questions about the performer and the song— Where did the performer learn the song? Did they write the song, and if so, in what context was it written? Did someone else perform the song, or write the song first but not receive credit? Does the song exist in other genres?
sources:
International Bluegrass Music Association. “Arnold Shultz: The Greatest (?) Guitar Picker’s Life Ended before Promise Realized | IBMA Foundation.” Accessed April 29, 2022. https://bluegrassfoundation.org/2020/10/22/arnold-shultz-the-greatest-guitar-pickers-life-ended-before-promise-realized/.
National Museum of African American History and Culture. “Blackface: The Birth of An American Stereotype.” Accessed April 29, 2022. https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/blackface-birth-american-stereotype.
Diaz Leroy, Valerie. “Experiences with Old Dan Tucker.” Decolonizing the Music Room. Accessed April 29, 2022. https://www.decolonizingthemusicroom.com/experiences-with-old-dan-tucker.
———. “Turkey in the Straw.” Decolonizing the Music Room. Accessed April 29, 2022. https://www.decolonizingthemusicroom.com/turkey-in-the-straw.
The Bluegrass Situation. “Dirk Powell, ‘I Ain’t Playing Pretty Polly’ (with Rhiannon Giddens),” August 5, 2020. https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/listen-dirk-powell-i-aint-playing-pretty-polly-with-rhiannon-giddens/.
Johnson III, Theodore R. “Recall That Ice Cream Truck Song? We Have Unpleasant News For You.” NPR, May 11, 2014, sec. Code Switch: Word Watch. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/05/11/310708342/recall-that-ice-cream-truck-song-we-have-unpleasant-news-for-you.
Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum. “Ralph Stanley.” Accessed April 29, 2022. https://www.bluegrasshall.org/inductees/the-stanley-brothers/ralph-stanley/.