"We Always Tried to Be Good People": Respectability, Crazy Water Crystals, and Hillbilly Music on the Air, 1933-1935

Music and Social Movements

“…Musicians living in closely knit mill villages were important for union organization and actively crafted songs arousing emotions workers needed to brave the inevitable reaction, or countermobilization, of the powerful. In contrast to the textile workers, textile owners and other middle‐class citizens preferred classical music, furthering dividing these groups by cultural preferences (Grundy 1995).…”

Music, culture and social movements: song and southern textile worker mobilization, 1929‐1934

“…Secondly, in the southern case, the folk tradition of storytelling through music has a long and important history (Malone, 1979). Thus, music was likely was an influential part of the social movement repertoire for southern textile workers -a point upon which historians agree (see Grundy, 1995;Hall et al, 1987;Tullos, 1989). In a companion piece (Roscigno & Danaher, 2001), we provide detailed historical background on the strikes themselves.…”

“…The resulting sample of 35 songs (see Appendix) represents the most comprehensive compilation of Southern textile songs of which we are aware. These songs were performed over the airwaves and during live performances, were sung by mill workers on their jobs, and were used both prior to and during actual strike events (Grundy, 1995;Huber, 1998;Rorrer, 1982;Tippett, 1931;Wall, 2001).…”

“…In fact, the bulk of the music that mill workers listened to reflected not only mill work but the whole existence of mill life (Hall et al, 1987). Interestingly, Poole shaped his own performing talents while a mill worker, where he developed a "habit of leaving a mill job and retiring to a bridge outside the factory, where he would pick his banjo and wave to fellow workers leaning out the window" (Grundy, 1995(Grundy, , p. 1609.…”

“…The Dixon Brothers were similarly able to escape mill work when landing a recording contract and gaining notoriety from radio ap-pearances and live performances in locations central to textile manufacturing. They eventually recorded "Weave Room Blues," "Weaver's Life," "Factory Girl," and "Hard Times in Here" for Victor, " and performed these mill songs along with traditional southern folk tunes live on the Charlotte area airwaves in the early 1930s (Grundy, 1995). Others included Frank Welling and John McGee, also known as the Martin Brothers.…”