Rhythm and Roots: Southern Music Traditions (review)

The exhibition Rhythm and Roots: Southern Music Traditions explores the wide range of musical forms coalescing in the contemporary American South. As the tag line of the exhibition ("come understand") suggests, the visitor is invited to pay heed to the unique and innovative sounds that enrich southern life. The exhibition features National Endowment for the Arts Folk Heritage Award winners from the Southern Art Federation's nine partner states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. We meet the men and women, from the very young to the very old, who make the musics of this culture. Who they are and what they represent are inseparable from the music they create, just as their music is inseparable from the community life it expresses. Though many associate this region with the blues, country, bluegrass, and Cajun musics that are born out of a given culture, the exhibition also presents musical fusions that are emergent and quickly becoming integral to the South's cultural identity. As the region continues to be transformed by increased globalization, it is both appropriate to showcase the musical expressions that are grounded in this part of the world and exciting to watch as the traditions evolve.

Numerous folklorists and cultural researchers collected the material on display through extensive fieldwork. Their exhibition introduces us to a diversity of voices through text panels, photographs, instruments, objects, and an audio guided tour. There are a total of twelve text panels and ten pedestal cases containing instruments. Other artifacts are placed throughout the gallery but are not encased. Each text panel is numbered, titled, and easy to follow, especially when paired with the audio guide. Furthermore, the labels are framed in colorful and playful borders, which makes them inviting to readers. The gallery space is relatively small and rather dimly lit, but the layout nevertheless affords a comprehensive and pleasant viewing experience.

For the most part, the handmade instruments are placed in cases. This lends an elevated sense of artistry to these objects. Their mode of display also challenges us to look closely at the craftsmanship of instruments like the fiddle, dulcimer, banjo, Junkanoo goombay drum, and Cretan lyra. Next to each is information about the artist who created it, a description of the artistic process, and a picture of the artist using the instrument. The artifacts scattered about the gallery, such as a case of Sacred Harp hymnals, a chikantar (an instrument created from strings and a five-gallon gas can by James "Super Chikan" Johnson), and a decorated umbrella used in jazz funeral processions, are exquisite. They serve as effective symbols of the communities that put them to use and are evocative of the rituals that imbue them with meaning.

The musical traditions are not arranged in a system according to musical style or genre but instead have been placed in categories associated with the context from which they come. For example, among the first panels is one entitled "Community Gatherings." In it, the visitor is introduced to the variety of places southerners assemble, play music, and reaffirm their community bonds—the jam session, the juke joint get-together, the meal, and the religious service. Under this rubric, we meet a blues musician from Alabama, Willie King, and we learn of the string bands, fiddlers' conventions, and shapenote singings that continue to bring people into musical association. Resuming our southern expedition through time and space, we come to know just how inventive and important southern music has been to the development of music in...