The "World" of Roots Music

American roots music has gained a considerable level of popularity over the last decade or so. Obviously, there are a number of reasons for this. Personally, I would like to think that a major contributing factor is a disenchantment with the current state of the music industry which churns out music as an overly commercialized and commodified product. Hopefully this dissatisfaction has engendered a desire for a more "authentic" form of music making and musical experience. However, this view may itself be somewhat problematic and a little bit naive. Nevertheless it is worth considering. The idea of "roots" music is intimately connected to the concept of authenticity and the latter has always played an important role in aesthetic theory. In terms of aesthetic theory the idea of the authentic is used to refer to the "real thing" as opposed to an imitation or a fake. The idea of the real as opposed to the illusory becomes all the more vital in a mass consumer culture that has technology not only for endless reproduction but also the ability, through sophisticated advertising, to manufacture aesthetic taste and desire. In this sense art is no longer produced by artists but by those in charge of the marketplace. Perhaps roots music signifies a desire for a form of art that is more genuine or more authentic. Implicit in this idea is an appeal to "the real" or even what we may refer to as "truth." Everyday language often speaks of a musician or an artist as the authentic or real or even truthful. This raises the question true to what? Often what is meant is the idea of being true to oneself in the sense that art is a true form on inner expression. We are often intend it in the sense of origins of roots. The idea of authenticity therefore holds forth a promise of being "truthful" in a double sense. On the one hand, there is something to said, there is an experience to be communicated. One of the central tenets of Adorno and Walter Benjamin's aesthetic theory is that the notion of the authentic refers to a "total form of life". What is expressed by the art work is not simply an inner desire on the part of the artist but, rather, a total form of life or a world. Adorno and Benjamin contrast this with what they saw as the contemporary form of modern life -- fragmentation. In Adorno and Benjamin's view, art promises something being the fragmented and crisis ridden nature of modern culture.

Taking all of the above as a point of reference we can refer to a "myth of the authentic". I don't mean this in a negative sense at all. What I am trying to get at is the appeal that roots music has for many people and especially the appeal it has that it has when it is experienced on its home territory. Roots music holds forth the promise of a musical culture that is not dominated by the politics of consumerism. But the appeal extends beyond the music. It is also a fascination with the people and the actual geography of the land itself. Blues fans who travel to Mississippi and Cajun music fans that make their annual pilgrimage to Louisiana are two examples of this. Recently, I spent a week in the Mississippi Delta and then a week Cajun country in southwest Louisiana. It was festival season in both Mississippi and Louisiana and therefore both places were full of music fans in search of an authentic musical experience.

Every October many blues lovers head to Helena Arkansas for the annual King Biscuit Blues Festival. There are blues festivals all over the United States as well as in many countries overseas but Helena and its neighbor Clarkesdale Mississippi are sacred ground. In terms of the above it offers a fleeting glimpse into the "world" promised by the music. In its prime the blues of the Mississippi delta literally moved back and forth between Clarkesdale Mississippi and Helena Arkansas. They are separated by about 26 miles and the Mississippi river. There are numerous other historical sites if one follows the historical evolution of the delta blues but Clarkesdale and Helena were the largest communities and most economically thriving cities in the northern delta. Clarkesdale flourished on the cotton trade and Helena was an important Mississippi river port. Consequently, they offered the best venues for bluesmen to pursue their trade. Both cities have been in severe economic decline for decades now and it is difficult to imagine the hustle and bustle of a friday and saturday night when both cities would be alive with people and music and all the things that accompany that. On my most recent trip a couple of weeks ago George Messenger. He runs a club in Clarkesdale named Messenger's that I had never been into before. It turns out that his grandfather started the club in the 1890s! It was then taken over by his father and mother. George began working in his father's club in 1947 and took it over after his mother passed away. It is the oldest business in Clarkesdale. George talked about the Clarksdale that he knew as a young man. "Friday and Saturday night was just like New York City" he said. ". "There were so many people on the street that it was difficult to walk through them." You can also find a good description of Clarkesdale in Alan Lomax's Land Where the Blues Began. Lomax visited Clarkesdale in the 1940s in search of Robert Johnson. Johnson had already passed away but he ended up meeting and recording Son House, Muddy Waters, Honeyboy Edwards and numerous others. Honeyboy is still around and still playing. Helena was also a thriving city. Of the two, its economic situation is far worse that Clarkesdale. However, at one time it was very prosperous. It now has a historical museum downtown on Cherry street which gives you a rich overview of the history of Helena. The contrast between the days of economic prosperity and its current condition are quite startling. During its day Helena was ground zero for many blues artists. One of the buildings that Robert Johnson used to entertain in is still there next door to an old liquer store. Despite the fact that neither Clarkesdale nor Helena look like they did when Johnson and other bluesmen traveled about they still promise that world or a glimpse into it anyway. In one sense this is something mythical but, on the other hand, it is something very real as well.