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Appalachia meets the mid-south in Tennessee

2003; Acoustical Society of America; Volume: 113; Issue: 4_Supplement Linguagem: Inglês

10.1121/1.4780825

1520-9024

Richard S. McGowan, Michel T-T. Jackson,

Music History and Culture

The father of bluegrass and long-time member of the Opry in Nashville, Bill Monroe, had a number of musical influences, including blues, gospel, and the American versions of Anglo-Scots-Irish folk music endemic to Appalachia. (Although Bill Monroe was from western Kentucky, the Appalachian influence is apparent.) In 1946 he recorded a song for Columbia Records that he had written. This song was recorded again in 1954 at Sun Studios as a ‘‘B side’’ by the future king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley. Raised in East Tupelo, MS and Memphis, Elvis’ music derived from the mid-south’s blues and gospel music, but with a peculiar honkytonk-informed, Memphis style. We will compare these artists through this common song and their spoken interviews in terms of voice quality and English dialect. Some copy-synthesis of these artists will be attempted in our search for the high, lonesome and rock and roll sounds.