Singing in Zion: Music and Song in the Life of an Arkansas Family (review)

The literature of folklore and folkloristics is filled with stories of encounters with dynamic informants, those special persons who not only embody a tradition but who also are a vital performer within it. In 1989, Robert Cochran was teaching a folklore class at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville when he was approached by one his students, Phydella Hogan (née Gilbert), who asked "if her family's songbook would be of interest" (p. 27). Mrs. Hogan elaborated: Some thirty years earlier she had shown the collection to another teacher, Mary Celestina Parler (the spouse of Vance Randolph), who had even made recordings of the family's performances, which were still available in the school library.

The songbook represented the collected and corrected repertoires of the Gilbert sisters, Alma, Helen, and Phydella. The songs had been gathered for more than 50 years, starting in the late twenties when the sisters were performing around northwestern Arkansas, at a time when they were appreciated (locally, at any rate) as "better than the Carter Family" (p. 26)-not a bad measure. But their father put a stop to such commercial aspirations. Many of the songs came from the older English and Scottish tradition beloved of folklorists, for example, "Fair Nottamun Town," "The Green Willow Tree (The Golden Vanity)," and "The Derby Ram." Others represented a more catholic view of folksong material, ranging from John Fogarty's "Looking Out My Back Door" to "Geisha Girl."

Cochran developed a strong rapport with the sisters and their families as he developed the theoretical tools necessary for his analysis of the collection. He chose to focus on two interrelated concerns: music in the life of the families and those families in the history of the community. Accordingly, his discussion relates particular songs not only to particular family events but also to particular performance settings in the areas around the sisters' homes. Cochran provides maps of the region that show the relationships between the various towns and between various family members. In that sense, Cochran's book is a valuable presentation of repertoire and family history. The author also includes an extensive appendix of songs from the collection (with the usual annotations), which relate to happy or tragic moments in the families' histories.

Just as the noncareers of these remarkable singers and musicians are musical might-have-beens, Cochran's short text (the exposition takes only the first 105 pages, while the rest of the book contains song texts, notes, and so forth) is also notable for might-have-beens. The first of these is in musical analysis, that is, analysis of the music in the mouths and hands of the performers; its changes in context; its changes over time; and its relations to radio, recordings, movies, television, and other media. Although Cochran frequently states that the family's music is the core of his study, when he uses the word music, he really means song, that is, a text. To be fair, the first appendix includes musical transcriptions of some songs from "old tapes," but precise dates, times, performers, and contexts of these tape recordings are omitted.

Several photos in the text show family members holding and playing stringed instruments such as banjos, fiddles, and guitars (acoustic and electric). Even though Cochran states that "the first banjo purchase, back in 1918, was pivotal" (p. 23), there is no discussion of any of the most basic instrumental questions fundamental to our understanding of the Gilbert sisters' performances. For example, the photo on the dust jacket and other photos in the text show both Phydella and Helen playing the five-string banjo. These photos are interesting because the five-string is normally thought of as a male instrument in the Upland South, but Cochran does not discuss why these women chose this instrument.

Next, there is the performance style problem: How exactly were these instruments played? There is a...