{"id":2163,"date":"2017-09-14T14:41:50","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T14:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=2163"},"modified":"2020-03-20T18:56:31","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T18:56:31","slug":"the-delta-factor-in-great-american-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=2163","title":{"rendered":"The Delta Factor In Great American Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ninth in A Series<\/em><\/p>\n

By Matt Chaney, for ChaneysBlog.com<\/p>\n

Posted Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017<\/p>\n

Copyright\u00a0\u00a92017 for historical arrangement by Matthew L. Chaney<\/p>\n

During the 1960s, U.S. Highway 61 was reduced to a byway in southeast Missouri\u2014and throughout the lower Mississippi River Valley\u2014supplanted by Interstate 55 of the new federal road system. And traveling southbound from Cape Girardeau and Scott City, where I-55 blazed over knobby foothills, motorists met a stunning vista: the great delta flatland, stretching out of sight. The interstate\u2019s twin tracks bore straight south, seemingly melding together in the distance, with the horizon a flat line.<\/p>\n

Southeast Missouri had been ocean coastline in eons past, an ancient embayment subsequently altered through ice ages and meltdowns, according to geologists. The modern Mississippi River stood relatively young at around 10,000 years of age, scientists calculated in the 20th<\/sup> century, with the delta basin composed of sediments washed from across the continental interior. Core drilling indicated more than one\u00a0thousand cubic miles of sediment filled an entrenched rock valley from Cape Girardeau to New Orleans. Geologists concluded that the New Madrid Fault, notorious seismic rift of the valley, would never resolve for the encroachment of boulders far underground.<\/p>\n

Pristine delta swamps and spillways were drained in the early 1900s, giving way to farms and communities from Missouri to Louisiana. Population influx was led by planters and sharecroppers from the Old South, escaping regions beset by soil depletion and the boll weevil. In the \u201creclaimed\u201d delta, basic scenery amounted to level crop rows, on and on\u2014gigantic expanses of cotton, corn, beans and alfalfa, framed only by fence and tree lines.<\/p>\n

On appearances the delta seemed no place for artistic greatness to influence a civilization, yet it became the talent wellspring of American music. Multiple musical genres were impacted: gospel, jazz, blues, country, folk, and, ultimately, rock ‘n’ roll. And the primary delta factor, said\u00a0music authorities and others, was the struggle of class and race for people who tried to forge a living from a harsh frontier.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the music culture that\u2019s come into Memphis has come in here from poor whites and poor blacks,\u201d said Judd Phillips, record producer, in 1979. \u201cI think we need to take into consideration that poor whites and poor blacks came in here looking for jobs\u2026 and they were singing their hearts out. It\u2019s not there in Chicago, or New York, or on the West Coast. It came from right here in the melting pot of human suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

The delta musicians \u201ccreated a sound out of the way they lived and their backgrounds and their roots,\u201d said Al Bennett, a records magnate reared on a farm in northeast Arkansas. \u201cI don\u2019t think it was designed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two choices in Arkansas\u2026,\u201d said singer Ronnie Hawkins, founding member of The Hawks, in 1970. \u201cYou either pick cotton for three or four dollars a day, or you can play music and get out. So there\u2019s an awful lot of people trying to pick guitars in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a boy Johnny Cash helped family clear tangled swampland for their meager farm at Dyess, Ark., where floodwater was a constant threat. Cash believed the experience translated later for his music, attracting wide audience. \u201cWhen you work close to the earth on some poor dirt farm\u2026 you learn to understand the basic things about love and hate and what people want from life,\u201d Cash observed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Mississippi delta was just as fertile to American culture as the delta was in ancient Egypt,\u201d said author Nick Tousches, biographer of Jerry Lee Lewis, in 1994. \u201cIt was where black people heard the white man\u2019s music and made something new out of it. It was where the white man heard the black man\u2019s music. And people say the blues came from Africa; well, I think they really came from the Deep South.\u201d<\/p>\n

Author Rose Marie Kinder heard lyricism in everyday delta expressions. The language of her native southeast Missouri \u201cdiffers from anywhere else in the state or country,\u201d Kinder said in 2006. \u201cIt\u2019s subtle, perhaps, but you\u2019ll know the true southeast Missouri vernacular when you hear it. It\u2019s not Southern inflection, not just metaphor and certainly not just colloquialisms. It\u2019s wit and pacing and sharp, apt observation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAn added pronoun or two can make music if they\u2019re in the right place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Select References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brown, T. [Prod.], & Perry, H. [Dir.] (1994). Rhythm, Country and Blues<\/em> [VHS]. MCA Records: Universal City CA.<\/p>\n

Chipmunks to Millions. (1977, Aug. 24). Manhattan Mercury<\/em> KS, p. 15.<\/p>\n

Drew, R. (1967, Aug. 19). Listen Hear. Pasadena Independent Star-News<\/em> CA, p.7.<\/p>\n

Eberhart, J.M. (2006, May 14). \u2018The Land Is Rich\u2019: Missouri Author Brings a Sense of Place to Her Writing. Kansas City Star<\/em>, p. H6.<\/p>\n

Elvis \u2018Got Black Music Into White Homes.\u2019 (1979, Aug. 17). Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman<\/em>, p. 15.<\/p>\n

Fisk, H.N. (1944, Dec. 1). Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River<\/em>. U.S. Mississippi River Commission, War Department Corps of Engineers: Vicksburg MS.<\/p>\n

Gormley, M. (1970, Feb. 13). Canadian Music Legend: The Story of an Arkansas Rock Singer and His Band. Ottawa Journal<\/em>, Ontario, Canada.<\/p>\n

Hilburn, R. (1969, July 14). Clearwater Revives Its Delta Heritage.\u00a0Los Angeles Tim<\/em>es<\/em>, p. B18.<\/p>\n

Holbrook, J.M. (1994, June 6). Interview with author at Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau.<\/p>\n

Holbrook, J.M. (2017, Sept. 14). Email correspondence with author.<\/p>\n

Holbrook, J.M., Snowden, J.O., & Aide, M.T. (1996, Feb. 5). Interviews with author at Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau.<\/p>\n

Interstate 55 Portion South Opened Today. (1965, Sept. 1). Sikeston Daily Standard<\/em> MO, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Landforms of Southeast Missouri [map]. (1987). USDA-SCS-National Cartographic Center: Ft. Worth TX.<\/p>\n

Matt Chaney is a writer and consultant in Missouri, USA. For more information visit\u00a0<\/em>www.fourwallspublishing.com.\u00a0Email:\u00a0<\/em>mattchaney@fourwallspublishing.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ninth in A Series By Matt Chaney, for ChaneysBlog.com Posted Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017 Copyright\u00a0\u00a92017 for historical arrangement by Matthew L. Chaney During the 1960s, U.S. Highway 61 was reduced to a byway in southeast Missouri\u2014and throughout the lower Mississippi River Valley\u2014supplanted by Interstate 55 of the new federal road system. And traveling southbound from … Continue reading The Delta Factor In Great American Music<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[283,374],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ywFp-yT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2163"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3792,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163\/revisions\/3792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}