Dr. Ted Olson
Dr. Ted Olson was born in Massachusetts and raised in Washington D.C., and is now a professor at East Tennessee State University. In his youth, he was exposed to the diverse population and culture that the nation's capitol had to offer. In the summer months, he worked as a camp counselor in the mountains of West Virginia. While there, he would hone his musical skills on the banjo and learn valuable insight to the people and customs of the Appalachian region. Taking this one step further, Ted would eventually become a park ranger at the Blue Ridge Parkway and in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Realizing that he needed to further his knowledge of Appalachian history, Ted achieved these degrees: University of Minnesota, B.A., 1982; University of Kentucky, M.A., 1991; University of Mississippi, Ph.D., 1997.
Today, Dr. Ted Olson is a professor at East Tennessee State University in the Department of Appalachian Studies. His body of professional achievements include: Music section editor for The Encyclopedia of Appalachia; book series editor for the Charles K. Wolfe Music Series (University of Tennessee Press); co-editor of The Bristol Sessions: Writings About the Big Bang of Country Music; author of Blue Ridge Folklife; author of two books of poetry, Breathing In Darkness and Revelations; and producer of and album notes writer for compilations of recordings from Appalachia, including The Bristol Sessions, The Johnson City Sessions, The Knoxville Sessions, Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition, and On Top of Old Smoky: New Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music. For his work as a music historian, Olson has received seven Grammy Award nominations, an International Bluegrass Music Association Award, an Independent Music Award, and two Jack Spadaro Documentary Awards.
I recently corresponded with Dr. Olson about his career and knowledge of Appalachian music.
R.V.B. - Growing up in Washington D.C. has a lot of benefits. Its location is convenient to the north and south. It is also in close proximity to the area of Appalachia. It is the epicenter of politics and has many great museums and activities to offer to the public. How was it growing up there and how did you take advantage of what it had to offer?
T.O. - Washington during the late-1960s and early-1970s was a place of enormous contrasts—wealth and poverty, social order and turbulence, reality and delusion were equally powerful presences there. There was always something going on, and in that dynamic and often chaotic environment, the city’s music scene was grounding. The city featured every imaginable variety of music, and much of it was music by the people for the people, seemingly in defiance of political authority.
R.V.B. - What kind of music were you exposed to in your house when you were young? Did you have any favorite books or artists at a young age?
T.O. - Every person living in the house in which I grew up listened to a different type of music, with my mother constantly blasting classical and opera from the radio, and with my brothers practicing rock and jazz with their friends in our basement, shaking the foundations of our smallish house. Needless to say, I preferred a quieter music, opting for folk and ethnic sounds. The fewer the instruments the better, as far as I was concerned. The one folk album my mother owned--the 1964 Elektra/Folkways compilation _The Folk Box_--was highly influential to me, inspiring me to seek out other recordings of traditional music.
In 2014 I co-produced (with the original producer, Elektra founder Jac Holzman) a reissued vinyl edition of that set. I figured that since the album had made a difference in my life, it might well inspire someone else.
R.V.B. - Can you describe a day of viewing the Festival of American Folklife at the National Mall. What kind of impression did it make on you and how did it help to shape your future? Did you see any musicians or artists that may have left a lasting impression?
T.O. - Certainly the Festival of American Folklife played a role in shaping my future, though I was never able to spend much time there. My childhood home was some distance from the National Mall, and so when I attended this annual festival I was generally driven there by my father, who lived apart from us. He was always late for his next appointment, and as a result I rarely spent more than an hour at the Festival each year. That said, I have strong memories of seeing and hearing two artists in particular: Doc Watson and John Jackson. While I never mustered up the courage to talk with the former, John Jackson was quite approachable, and I can recall a short but memorable exchange in which he told me about his work as a gravedigger! I mused over the songs and stories I heard at the festival long after I left the Mall.
R.V.B. - You were drawn to the mountains of Appalachia and worked in camps as a counselor of summer programs. You also played and honed your skills as a musician. Being there for the summer months, how did this extended stay add to your curiosity of Appalachia and the people?
T.O. - As I described in my book _Blue Ridge Folklife_, my five summers as a camp counselor in West Virginia were chock-full of powerful experiences. Living in the mountains was a radical departure for me—the sky was pitch-black at night, for instance. I was still figuring out my own way to sing and play clawhammer banjo, and there was ample time and opportunity to make music, as the camp relied upon do-it-yourself entertainment. I serenaded the campers by performing ballads, songs, and tunes, and I hung out with a guitarist named Jack Schaffenaker, a local legend who farmed worms on his small plot of land. We played music constantly.
R.V.B. - You eventually became a park ranger for a while and then moved on to strengthen your studies in school to be a folklorist, historian and writer. Can you tell me about your college years goals and how you enjoyed the experience?
T.O. - I enjoyed being a park ranger, helping people better appreciate some unique natural places in Appalachia. But I eventually realized I was saying the same things every day—every day there were new visitors to the park asking the same questions as their predecessors, such as where are the bears or where are the bathrooms. I yearned for a more in-depth immersion into the cultural world in which I found myself, and it became clear I’d need to go back to school if I wanted to pursue a life of open-ended learning and teaching. Along the way I took classes from some inspiring people—Wendell Berry, William Ferris, and David Evans, to name three—and I continued to navigate my own way down (or was it up?) the river of learning, of life.
R.V.B. - After your years in the park service, how did you transition your career to teaching and writing? Did you take a University job?
T.O. - It may have its pitfalls—potential for conformity of thought, as one example—yet academia was the inevitable path for me. For one thing, my father was a professor, though he never completed his dissertation and couldn’t continue in that career. I needed to figure out how to play the game while not getting beaten down.
R.V.B. - What do you enjoy most about teaching at East Tennessee State University?
T.O. - The students—the majority of whom are from Appalachia—are in general very respectful and open-minded, and they do seem to value the opportunities afforded them at the school.
R.V.B. - Do you find that Appalachia is totally a unique American culture, in the fact that the isolation of the people from major cities created a way of specialized life, religion, music and tradition?
T.O. - There are many Appalachias because there are many Appalachians (approximately 25 million people live in the region, which encompasses West Virginia and parts of 12 other states). One thing I have learned from living in the region is it is far more diverse than most people acknowledge, and that the stereotypes associated with the region are dangerous because they are half-truths. Sure, sections of the region certainly fostered distinctive blends of culture, but even in those areas the people there bear more similarities to people from elsewhere than differences.
R.V.B. - The Bristol sessions were a major event in American music history. They showcased music from the surrounding area that was both professional and amateur. Record executive Ralph Peer exposed this to mainstream public. Do you think because it had this mixture of seasoned musicians and semi-amateur players, it had a positive commercial result?
T.O. - At the time of the Bristol Sessions, there were just two musicians who at the time could be considered professional: Ernest Stoneman and Henry Whitter. Success for the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers came afterward. Having worked on two books exploring this topic, I’ve increasingly questioned the notion that the Bristol Sessions were the cataclysmic event that scholars (including myself several years ago) have claimed. Country music can claim some earlier impactful location recording sessions, such as Ralph Peer’s 1923 session in Atlanta at which Fiddlin’ John Carson was first recorded, and Peer’s 1925 session in Asheville. The nickname for Bristol—“the Birthplace of Country Music”—was, after all, a coinage of one of the town’s former mayors. Hardly an objective notion. That said, Peer’s sessions in Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia, were certainly memorable, having yielded first recordings by legendary talents like Rodgers, the Carters, Blind Alfred Reed, and Alfred Karnes. Yet, other location recording sessions—such as Frank Walker’s 1928 and 1929 Johnson City Sessions—are equally worthy of our attention.
R.V.B. - The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers were the great discoveries from the sessions. Why do you think that the contrasting content of the music of the two artists both became so popular?
T.O. - These two acts were undeniable talents, and they would no doubt have been recorded eventually. That said, Peer, who did record them, was a marketing genius who found a way to capitalize on both. The Carters and Rodgers had highly individuated musical identities—they were in a sense the yin and the yang of “hillbilly” (early country) music—but the overarching reason both acts became so popular was a result of talent (great musicianship and material) and timing (they had developed solid followings before the Depression put a damper on exploration and experimentation).
R.V.B. - Do you think that the fact that the Carter Family stuck to their roots throughout their career as far as music content helped or possibly hindered their career? Sometimes like Jimmie Rodgers, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Wanda Jackson or Waylon... everyone likes a bad boy/girl.
T.O. - The Carter Family drew from a repertoire familiar in their section of Appalachia. Most of the songs were credited to A. P. Carter because Peer wanted to copyright what his acts recorded, but those recordings in actuality featured arrangements of traditional material co-created by Carter with unacknowledged assistance from local African American musician Lesley Riddle, who also taught Maybelle Carter some guitar techniques. It’s hard to imagine the Carter Family straying far from this core repertoire and stylistic approach.
R.V.B. - For hypothetical reasons... if A.P. Carter went searching for songs and material in the northeast instead of Appalachia, would there have been a drastically different result?
T.O. - It’s hard to imagine that the Carter Family would have attained the same result with different material in a different setting. A person’s creativity is inherently influenced by his or her genius loci, his or her sense of place.
R.V.B. - The success of the Bristol sessions brought other record companies to the area to have their shot at discovering talent. How did the Johnson City sessions and the Knoxville sessions differ in this? There are great talent at these sessions but nobody broke out of the pack like the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers?
T.O. - While the recordings made at other Appalachian location sessions--such as at the Asheville Sessions, the Johnson City Sessions, and the 1929 and 1930 Knoxville Sessions—were made for commercial sale (and some of those records outsold recordings made in Bristol), the Bristol Sessions were unique in that they featured acts with appealing signature sounds and styles, and producer Ralph Peer made sure those acts (the Carters, Rodgers) became stars. The other recording sessions focused on music that better reflected the traditions and the social environments that produced the music in the first place.
R.V.B. - Old Time music and Bluegrass music originated in the same basic area. How did these two distinctive styles evolve differently? Did the isolation of various towns and areas have a part in this as well?
T.O. - Old-time music is a non-commercial genre that dates back at least to the early years of the twentieth century, with roots in earlier eras. Most scholars pinpoint the emergence of bluegrass to 1945, when Bill Monroe and his band the Blue Grass Boys started recording for the Columbia label. Whereas old-time blended various traditional forms, bluegrass was commercial from the start, a genre fundamentally based on Monroe’s distinctive and charismatic rendition of certain strains of old-time music.
R.V.B. - Where did musicians find instruments in the early 20th century in Appalachia? Were there music supply stores in the larger cities? I would presume some got them from the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs as well.
T.O. - Music-making in Appalachia during that era was largely a community-based phenomenon, and instruments were often handmade. While many instruments played in Appalachian homes have historically been crafted by skilled luthiers, factory-built instruments became increasingly common in the twentieth century, as they could be purchased with increasing ease from catalogs and music stores. Nonetheless, the instrument-making tradition continues in Appalachia today, with internationally respected luthiers, such as Wayne Henderson, working in the region.
R.V.B. - - How do you enjoy producing, editing and writing about Appalachian history. You are doing a great service in preserving this culture so it doesn't get lost.
T.O. - This work is a labor of love, and much of my motivation results from the fact that I have realized that the official histories are often inaccurate or incomplete. I am simply trying to correct certain facets of old narratives and to bring new narratives to the public’s attention.
R.V.B. - You've written a couple of poetry books. Did anyone influence you in this?
T.O. - For me, composing poems provides a means for better understanding the world. Like anyone else who writes poetry, I’ve been influenced by the work of others, though in my case the names of some of my influences might be difficult to identify, since I have been moved for years by the lyrics in folk songs and ballads, composed by that prolific author Anonymous. My poetry even reflects the form and structure found in many traditional lyrics.
R.V.B. - Are there any current projects that you are working on?
T.O. - I’m working on several projects. Most recently I completed work on a career retrospective boxed set celebrating the life and music of legendary guitarist and singer Doc Watson. That project has allowed me to pay homage to an Appalachian visionary who has consistently inspired me since I first heard him in a far-away city.
Interview conducted by Robert von Bernewitz
This interview may not be reproduced in any part or form without permission from this site.
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I have a fiddle marked "Ted Olson 1979".
Would like to know if this fiddle was made by Ted Olson from this article. My contact [email protected]
Tanks, Tim
Posted by: Timothy Brosseau | 05/30/2022 at 08:58 PM
Hello, I produce a weekly radio show on WUGA in Athens, GA and am trying to find a copy of Big Bend Killing. Do you know where I could purchase one for my show? Thank you, Maggie Hunter. Just Folks 91.7fm [email protected]
Posted by: maggie hunter | 02/28/2024 at 06:51 AM