performing community: the place of music, race and gender in producing appalachian space

397 Pages·2016·2.05 MB·English

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Theses and Dissertations--Geography Geography
2012
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Deborah J. Thompson
University of Kentucky, [email protected]
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Thompson, Deborah J., "PERFORMING COMMUNITY: THE PLACE OF MUSIC, RACE AND GENDER IN
PRODUCING APPALACHIAN SPACE" (2012). Theses and Dissertations--Geography. 1.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/geography_etds/1
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The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on
behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of
the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s dissertation
including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by
the statements above.
Deborah J. Thompson, Student
Dr. Richard H. Schein, Major Professor
Dr. Michael Samers, Director of Graduate Studies
PERFORMING COMMUNITY: THE PLACE OF MUSIC, RACE AND GENDER
IN PRODUCING APPALACHIAN SPACE

_____________________________________

DISSERTATION
_____________________________________

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in the College of Arts and Sciences
at the University of Kentucky

By

Deborah J. Thompson

Lexington, Kentucky

Director: Dr. Richard H. Schein, Professor of Geography

Lexington, Kentucky

2012

Copyright © Deborah J. Thompson 2012
ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION

PERFORMING COMMUNITY: THE PLACE OF MUSIC,
RACE AND GENDER IN PRODUCING APPALACHIAN SPACE

Traditional, participatory music is a powerful medium through which people express
and shape their ideas about identity, mobility, social relations, and belonging, and through
which people are in turn shaped. The everyday cultural practices of playing, sharing, and
dancing to traditional music, as well as discussions about the nature of traditional music and
production of events involving traditional music, all work to construct the region called
Appalachia.

Through this dissertation, I seek to answer some simple questions that have
complicated answers involving place, identity, power, and social relations, with economic,
social, and emotional ramifications: Who gets to be an Appalachian musician? How is this
accomplished? Who gets to decide? Using a social constructionist theoretical base and
drawing on such literatures as cultural geography, music geography, musicology and
ethnomusicology, Appalachian studies, and critical regionalism, I employ ethnographic
techniques, including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and discourse
analysis to understand the workings of old time music and the self-understanding of
musicians that play and sing traditional music in eastern Kentucky, a core area of
Appalachia.

This dissertation shows that vernacular roots music in eastern Kentucky is both an
inclusive and a contested phenomenon. In describing and analyzing the spaces for music in
Appalachia, the old-time community in eastern Kentucky, the dynamics of festival hiring
negotiations, and interviews with white and African American musicians, both male and
female, I show how Appalachian space is produced simultaneously on many different
scales. This construction is a dialectical process, articulating between the power expressed
on a micro scale between individuals and the power used by individuals and institutions to
define the region through representation. This dissertation demonstrates two main processes:
how Appalachian space is negotiated and produced through interactions at jam sessions and
other events, and how the musicians perform community in these interstitial moments.
Contributions of this dissertation include attention to micro scale interactions and
embodiment as a key component of spatial production, participant observation as a research
method in music geography, and increased understanding of the performance of race and
gender in cultural and spatial production.

KEYWORDS: Appalachian music, music geography, African Americans in Appalachia,
gender and music, social production of space

Deborah J. Thompson
Student’s signature

April 11, 2012
Date
PERFORMING COMMUNITY: THE PLACE OF MUSIC,
RACE AND GENDER IN PRODUCING APPALACHIAN SPACE

By

Deborah J. Thompson

Richard H. Schein, Ph.D.
Director of Dissertation

Michael Samers, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Studies

April 13, 2012
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As this dissertation documents music’s power in producing Appalachian space, so
does it also document the power of the social relations of the UK Geography Department in
producing humane and scholarly space. The collegiality, humor, and support of the
department’s faculty, staff, and my fellow students all worked to create a magical space for
intellectual growth. While the errors in this document are all mine, I am very grateful to my
committee for their guidance and questioning, high standards and incredible body of
knowledge, especially the “tough love” of my chair, Rich Schein, and the less tough love of
Ron Pen. With appreciation also for the valuable contributions of Karl Raitz and Anna Secor
and their exemplary scholarship, and to Michael Crutcher, for his open door and generous
engagement with my work while serving on my committee. I also wish to extend my thanks
to my outside examiner, Joseph Taraba, for his interest in my project.
Many other professors in the department also taught me to be a geographer,
including Stan Brunn, who coached me through my first peer-reviewed geography journal
article, J.P. Jones III, Betsy Taylor, Wolfgang Natter, P.P. Karan, Alice Turkington, Lynn
Phillips, Jonathan Phillips, Sue Roberts, and Dick Gilbreath, cartographer extraordinaire. All
my fellow graduate students and the post-docs who passed through the POT created a
nurturing and irreverent community that helped me keep my sanity and taught me as much
as the faculty. Although they all contributed to my well-being in so many ways, I am
especially grateful to Sya Kedzior, Ellen Hostetter, Julie Reisenweber, Taro Futamura, Jeff
West, Matt McCourt, Maggie Walker, Viva Nordberg (Reynolds), Linda Martin, Abby
Foulds, Chris Blackden, Kathleen O’Reilly, Tara Maddock, and Trushna Parekh.
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The faculty, staff, and students in Women’s Studies at UK, especially Karen Tice,
Susan Bordo, and Jan Oaks, were instrumental in my feminist intellectual development, and
my fellow musicologists in the Old Time Music Seminar helped nurture the early stages of
this project. The Dissertation Divas at Berea all contributed to keeping me on my project
during off times.
My deepest appreciation goes to the musicians and scholars who participated in my
study, both to the people who knew me before and those I met during my research. Despite
any implied critique that might emerge in my intellectual engagement with understanding
the power of music, I am in awe of how your music and generosity helps create a better
world. I truly appreciate your trust in sharing your music, lives, words, hearts, and
memories. I have striven to represent you and your words accurately and appreciate your
patience and contributions as I tease apart the special gift we share. Please forgive me where
I have erred. Special thanks and love also go to my fellow Hindmaniacs, who share the
utopian dream and help make it a reality one week every year. Special acknowledgement is
due to Mike Mullins, late director of the Hindman Settlement School, for his unwavering
support of me as a scholar and a musician, and for his tireless and loving promotion and
support of the region, the arts, and his extended family of which I’m proud and humble to be
a part.
My colleagues at Berea College saw me through the long slog. With much
appreciation for the folks in the Appalachian Center, especially Chad Berry; for the faculty
and staff at Hutchins Library for study space and especially those in Special Collections:
Steve Gowler, Harry Rice, Shannon Wilson, Jaime Bradley, and John Bondurant; and for
Barbara Wade and Elizabeth Walker, who read parts of the dissertation and helped me
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through some crucial times. I appreciate all my students throughout this process, who had to
contend with my split attentions to their learning and my learning, and who also taught me a
great deal. I am grateful for my previous grad school faculty and friends from Appalachian
State University for their continuing belief in me, especially Pat Beaver, Sue Keefe, Jeff
Boyer, and Sandy Ballard, awesome editor and friend.
This dissertation and my degree would not have been possible without financial
support from fellowships and grants from UK, including the Appalachian Center’s James
Brown Research Award. I also appreciate the Association of American Geographers for the
dissertation award, and the Anne Ray Charitable Trust for the fellowship that saw me
through initial research in the Special Collections at Berea College and the internship
assistance during a key summer of interviewing. Darrin Hacquard provided that assistance,
with some great music along the way. I must also acknowledge the importance of public and
community radio, namely WEKU, WUKY, and WMMT, for the sustaining power of music
and discussion about important issues, humor, and the arts in my rural life.
My friends and family have lived with me through a tough decade of struggling with
my desires for a balanced and creative life on one hand, and the joys and difficulties of a
disciplined, scholarly life on the other. Michael and Carrie Kline provided a loving model of
scholarship, including music, food, and that crucial first interview. Stephanie Smith and
Lizzie Stevens, Judith Potepan McCarty and Randi Silnutzer have all been lifelines. My
Jenkins in-laws have been so important to me as well, even though my schooling kept me
from them. My parents, Charlotte and Allan Thompson, started me on this road of lifelong
education, and I miss them terribly. They both truly encouraged my sisters and me to follow
our hearts and be ourselves. My dad’s engagement with his intellectual work to promote
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social justice until age 91 was a true inspiration. My sisters, Sakina and Barbara, supported
me emotionally through good times and tough times, and I’m so grateful to them and their
loving husbands. Sakina, especially, walked beside me every step and gave me endless
courage, inspiration, and insight.
And to my loving husband, what can I say? Frank Jenkins, you know I would never
have been able to do this without your love, your good cooking, your willingness to do the
dishes, and all the many ways you make life worth living. You truly understand husbandry
in all its many forms. Thank you.

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