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South Carolina has a rich musical tradition, but it sometimes lies hidden under the same homogenized modern pop culture that blankets the entire country.
That’s why the recent release of a CD of South Carolina’s traditional African-American music by USC’s McKissick Museum is seen as an educational tool that can help introduce people to the state’s musical roots.
“I consider it very important to expose as broad an audience as possible to this music because it’s a vital aspect of South Carolina’s cultural identity,” said Saddler Taylor, chief curator of folklife and research with McKissick Museum’s Folklife Resource Center.
Taylor supervised production of Feel The Presence, Traditional African American Music in South Carolina, which contains a wide variety of music, ranging from gospel, spirituals, a capella, shape-note songs, blues, and work songs.
It’s the second volume in McKissick’s Considerable Grace Traditional Music Series that began in 2003 when the museum put out a broad overview of South Carolina’s traditional music in conjunction with an exhibit highlighting the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards. The awards are a state honor sponsored by McKissick Museum and the S.C. Arts Commission and presented by the General Assembly.
The first CD, which was produced under a $1,200 grant from the Humanities Council South Carolina, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, was “well received and very popular,” said Taylor, who added that the museum hopes to produce more releases in the series every few years.
The recording of African-American music in the second CD came from the archives of McKissick’s Folklife Resource Center dating from about 1961. It also includes new recordings by artists throughout the state, some of whom had never recorded previously, and others who were well established with commercial labels.
Working on the project with Taylor were Tyler Cook, a senior history major from Aiken, who, as a McKissick intern, did much of the legwork; and Trey Bunn, an Augusta native and graduate student in the School of Library and Information Sciences, who performed the audio editing.
Included in the recording are 21 songs by 20 artists in a roughly 50-50 mix of blues and sacred music that “represents a good combination of old and new,” Taylor said. Among the artists—15 of whom are still alive—are Drink Small, The All Male Chorus of Blacksburg, and Marquetta Goodwine.
What stands out on the CD is the type of music that is not included because of the lack of documentation, said Taylor.
There is no fiddle or banjo music, two traditions that certainly have roots in the black music experience of South Carolina, Taylor said. One example is an Upstate African-American fiddler known as Trottin’ Sally. Taylor has a photograph, but knows of no existing recordings of him and very little additional documentation.
“He performed in the 1920s and ’30s, so that’s an open door for someone to jump in and do some research,” he said.
Overall, the CD will help preserve and disseminate community-based music that is usually taken for granted and not truly appreciated outside of a local context, Taylor added.
“You have a document here that has a broad swath of South Carolina’s musical tradition and style. Not everything could be included. But I think that somebody who knows nothing about the state’s music, black or white, can listen to the CD, read the liner notes, and have a good idea of what African-American music in the state is about.”
The CD sells for $5 (order by contacting McKissick’s Barbara Griggs at 7-6403) with proceeds to be used for production of the third CD in the Considerable Grace series.
The tracks also will eventually appear on McKissick’s Web site as part of the Folklife Resource Center’s Digital Traditions Initiative, a multi-year project in which the center is transferring all of its analog video, audio, and image archives to digital format. The effort is in partnership with the Institute for Museum and Library Services and S.C. ETV.
“The Web site will open the collection to a much broader audience while preserving the material for future generations and researchers who want to access it for education and dissemination,” said Taylor, adding that the center’s mission is to tell the story of Southern life, culture, and community.
“I consider it very important to expose as broad an audience as we can to this music because it’s important to the state,” Taylor said. “It’s valuable as a community-based tradition. And it’s always a joy working with the musicians because they love to perform for people and for their music to be heard.”
12/05
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Trey Bunn, left, worked as the audio editor with Saddler Taylor, McKissick Museum’s chief curator of folklife and research, in the production of McKissick’s second musical CD, Feel the Presence.
