Museum goers visit the "I've Endured: Women in Old-Time Music" exhibit.
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum recently opened a new special exhibit, “I’ve Endured: Women in Old-Time Music,” which is at the museum until Dec. 31. Created in-house, this exhibit has been over two years in the making, from the initial idea and applying for grant funding to content development and fabrication. The woman-led contentdevelopmentteamincluded BCM staff and outside researchers including Erika Barker, Toni Doman, Cathy Fink, Dr. René Rodgers and Kalia Yeagle. Adam Alfrey andScotty Almanyprovided logistical and digital element consultationand support. Hank Collie was the graphic designer.
“The topic was first suggestedby our former colleague, Emily Robinson, several years ago. So, it is something we have been thinking about for a long time but were not able to start working on until we received grant funding a little overtwo years ago. We wanted to create an exhibit focused on the influence of women because this is a topic that is often overlooked when people discuss old-timemusic.Women have been an integral part of this type of music since its beginning, but theyare often not given asmuch, if any, credit for their role in moving the genre forward. We wanted to tell those stories. We think it is important to shine a light on all of the challenges that the women you have heard of had to overcome in order to be successful and also to introduce people to some amazing women they probably have never heard of because, for various reasons, their contributions to the genre were never publicly recognized or have been forgotten to time,” says Erika Barker, curatorial manager.
Research included interviewing 18 women artists Sheila Kay Adams, Toni Doman, Cathy Fink, Trish Kilby Fore, Alice Gerrard, Tatiana Hargreaves and Allison de Groot, Amythyst Kiah, Elizabeth LaPrelle, members of the Reel World String Band (Bev Futrell, Karen Jones and Sue Massek), Ivy Sheppard, Emily Spencer, Martha Spencer, Roni Stoneman, Suzy Thompson and Kalia Yeagle. Pulling together the many different strands of the story into a cohesive whole took time and patience, and now through text and image panels, artifacts and objects, and audio-visual elements, the exhibit provides an educational and engaging experience for visitors.
“The influence of women on this genre goes back all the way to the beginning, which is hard to pinpoint before it began to be documented in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That is where the exhibit really begins, with women involved in the early folk song collecting, or songcatching, movement, and it extends all the way into the present day. The exhibit shows how women have endured many struggles over the years and yet persisted andare continuing to innovate and move the genre forward today,” Barker says.
Old-time music is described and experienced in different ways and for different purposes, but at its heart, old-time is mountain folk music with strong ties to Appalachia and the diverse peoples who have called it home. Women have always been central to old-time music – in the home and on the stage, and as instrumentalists and singers, preservationists, activists, promoters and cultural memory keepers. However, too often, women have been minimized or even left out of the story. “I’ve Endured” explores the women who have influenced old-time, country and bluegrass music over the years; the challenges women face to make a career in music; and the way contemporary female musicians are innovating and pushing the genre’s boundaries today.
Women working as leaders for social justice, activism and community organizing campaigns have historically included music as a natural part of those efforts. For instance, Florence Reece fought for the rights to unionize in her coal mining community, sharing her viewpoint through her powerful anthem, “Which Side Are You On?,” a song also used later for many social justice efforts. Over the years, the Reel World String Band lent their voices and music to causes like labor rights and environmental issues. And banjo and roots musician Rhiannon Giddens uses her music as a route to discuss complicated and uncomfortable history and how it relates to today’s world. She has also made a point of broadening the opportunities for other Black artists in roots and traditional music.
The exhibit tells a multitude of these stories, bringing the contributions and influences of women in old-time music to light.
“We knew early on that we wanted this exhibit to be story-driven, and we wanted to highlight histories of women whose stories might not be as well known.Wewanted to be sure and include a balance of women whose names are probably familiar to most people as well as some hidden heroines who, for various reasons, were never recognized for their contributions to the genre. So, one of the first things our content team did when we began working on the project was to create a list of all the women we would ideally like to include in the exhibit. That list was, predictably, too long. As much as we would have loved to include all of those women, we were working with a very limited amount of space on each exhibit panel, and we also wanted to include pictures and objects to help tell the story. In addition, this exhibit is designed to travel after it closes at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, so we had to consider not only the best use of space available in our own exhibitgallerybut also how it might fit in other venues. Luckily, we also knew early on that we wanted to build a robust companion website that will grow and travel with the exhibit. Thewebsite provides a digital platform with much more space. This gives us the opportunity to dive deeper into the stories of some of the women who were included in the exhibit and to highlight those we were not able to include. The actual process of narrowing down that original list was a group decision based largely on how much space was available and whose story provided the best examples of the aspects of women’s work in old-time music being highlighted on each panel,” Barker says.
Some of the women chosen for the exhibit include Katherine Jackson French, an early songcatcher from Kentucky, who conducted research on early ballads but whose work wasn’t published for 110 years due a series of delays, miscommunications, academic rivalries, broken promises and gender prejudices. Other hidden heroines include Elsie McWilliams, who wrote or co-wrote more than 20 of Jimmie Rodgers’ songs in the 1920s and 1930s; Jenny Lou Carson, the first woman to write a No. 1 country music hit with “You Two-Timed Me One Time Too Often” in 1945; and Lottie Kimbrough, an early country-blues artist whose numbers included yodeling and banjo playing, hallmarks of hillbilly music that were unusual in blues music at the time.
A number of iconic and commercially successful women’s stories are also told, such as Elizabeth Cotten, who received a Grammy at the age of 90 and whose unique guitar style is emulated by many artists today; Ola Belle Reed, a songwriter and musician who embodied the “high lonesome sound” usually connected with Bill Monroe’s music; and Ramona Jones, a rare female instrumentalist on the Grand Ole Opry who later toured extensively and performed on “Hee Haw” with her husband, “Grandpa” Jones.
“There are a lot of challengeshighlighted in thisexhibit, such as wage disparity, societal expectations and balancing family responsibilitiesthat are certainly still a challenge for women in the music industry today. We interviewed 18 contemporary women musicians abouttheir experiences, and every single one of them made a point to say that they think we have made significant progress over the years, but we are still a long way from equity. One of the reasons an exhibit like this is so important is that it brings those disparities and the ongoing struggle for equity to light while also celebrating how far we have come,” she says.
“I’ve Endured” also celebrates the women who preserve this music like Janette Carter and her daughter Rita Forrester, founder and legacy keeper respectively of the legendary Carter Fold, and women who contribute to old-time music in other ways like luthier Dr. Dena Jennings, Appalachian dancer Becky Hill and musician/educator Emily Spencer.
“Historically Appalachian women were, and in many cases continue to act as,cultural memory keepers and tradition bearers. One of the first panels in the exhibit details the ways that women have participated in cultural traditions in all aspects of life from the types of work they did like taking care of a household to cooking to other labor-intensive tasks. Women often sang songs to pass the time as they worked, and it’s likely that they were singing songs that were passed down to them, helping to preserve andcontinue themusic. Whether they were participating in creating new music based on their own experiences or passing down what was already older music through ballads and singing, they were very much a central part of the music’s subject matter, and they were directly participating. This music was so intertwined in daily life, that’s it’s impossible to think that women could not have played an influence in old-time music.
“And women were also hugely influential within the public sphere of music-making – from musicians like Sara and Maybelle Carter and Hattie Stoneman who were foundational to early commercial country music and beyond, to tradition-bearing songwriters and performers like Elizabeth Cotten and Ola Belle Reed, to iconic stage performers like Cousin Emmy and Ramona Jones.
“Today, there are so many women who are carrying on these traditions and pushing the genre’s boundaries to new places and sounds – for example, Amythyst Kiah whose original music has roots in old-time; Trish Kilby Fore who hearkens back to old banjo tunes and playing; Rhiannon Giddens who explores the story of the banjo and the African roots of this music and helps to open the genre up to underrepresented artists and sounds; and Cathy Fink whose music-making has spanned several decades and been developmental to many of the artists who have worked with her.
“Our hope with this exhibit is to shine a light on the stories of women in old-time music and its roots and branches of country and bluegrass, but this is just a starting point – there are so many more stories to dig into and share, and there are other underrepresented groups whose stories are still hidden. Old-time music is, at its core, participatory and community-focused, and we are excited to see where the future will take it,” Barker says.
Old-time music brings together tradition and innovation, history and everyday life, community and individuality, all built on the foundation of a multitude of cultures, influences, and sounds. As contemporary banjo player Nora Brown notes: “Just as women were an active part of creatively shaping old-time music in the past, contemporary women are continuing to push the boundaries of what old-time music can mean, who it can serve and what stories it can tell.”
There is also an extensive exhibit-related website that provides visitors with a multitude of resources, including bios of women featured in the exhibit, along with ones the museum wasn’t able to include in the space available; additional related resources such as books, articles and films; video interviews with contemporary female musicians; and a Spotify playlist. A K-12 lesson plan is in production and will be uploaded to the site upon completion.
A wide variety of complementary programs are also on offer in the coming months (see the museum’s Events page for further details). Events include a speaker on June 13 at 7 p.m. A Hazel Dickens tribute by musician Karen Collins is held July 7 at 7 p.m. Other events include film screenings, a community day and more.
Women’s voices, perspectives, and experiences have always been integral to the story of old-time music – from early musicians to the women of today who are honoring those traditions and remaking them. Many contemporary musicians interviewed as part of the exhibit felt that the music is being well tended, paying homage to the roots of where it originated, while being innovated and carried on into the future by today’s current musicians. Women have and will continue to endure.
“The future of old-time music is healthy in my opinion, with many more young people carrying on (or expanding) the tradition, talking about diversity, inclusivity and a myriad of important and complex subjects, and I feel this will continue. There are many more women and girls participating and encouraged to participate as lead instrumentalists – dictating the tune, the key – leading the band, not afraid to shine on instrumental breaks and singing loud and proud,” says Alice Gerrard, bluegrass singer, banjoist, fiddler and guitar player.
“I’ve Endured: Women in Old-Time Music” was funded in part by grants from Virginia Humanities, the Massengill-DeFriece Foundation and the IBMA Foundation, along with local women-led business sponsorship from Friends of Southwest Virginia, The Crooked Road, Artemis Consulting Services, Bristol Ballet, Suzi Griffin (Studio 6), Kim Sproles (KS Promotions) and Kayla Stevenson (Matte Nail Bar). East Tennessee Foundation Arts Fund provided grant funding for related public programming, and the Virginia Tourism Corporation provided grant funding for the exhibit’s website, https://womeninoldtimemusic.com.
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 1-5 p.m. It is closed on Mondays. For more information on visiting the museum, visit www.BirthplaceofCountryMusic.org.
