Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 6.04 Music
Presentation #1 Title
Defining the West Virginia Singer-Songwriter
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Although West Virginia is widely celebrated for its contributions to American vernacular musical traditions (particularly in the old-time, bluegrass, blues, and gospel genres), relatively little attention has been paid to the important place that singer-songwriters have played in the state's musical landscape. However, singer-songwriters have been quite active in the state since at least the 1960s, with such musicians as Billy Edd Wheeler and Hazel Dickens standing out as key exemplars of West Virginia songwriting. Drawing upon a series of oral histories that have been conducted with several well-known and emerging West Virginia singer-songwriters, this presentation considers key themes in the biographies and musical output of the state's thriving singer-songwriting tradition. Moreover, this presentation considers some of the reasons that (with the notable exception of West Virginia Public Radio's Mountain Stage program) West Virginia singer-songwriters have not drawn the attention of their counterparts in Texas and other states known for their songwriting traditions.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Travis Stimeling is assistant professor of music history at West Virginia University. He is the author of Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks: The Countercultural Sounds of Austin's Progressive Country Music Scene (Oxford UP, 2011) and the editor of The Country Music Reader (Oxford UP, 2015).
Defining the West Virginia Singer-Songwriter
Although West Virginia is widely celebrated for its contributions to American vernacular musical traditions (particularly in the old-time, bluegrass, blues, and gospel genres), relatively little attention has been paid to the important place that singer-songwriters have played in the state's musical landscape. However, singer-songwriters have been quite active in the state since at least the 1960s, with such musicians as Billy Edd Wheeler and Hazel Dickens standing out as key exemplars of West Virginia songwriting. Drawing upon a series of oral histories that have been conducted with several well-known and emerging West Virginia singer-songwriters, this presentation considers key themes in the biographies and musical output of the state's thriving singer-songwriting tradition. Moreover, this presentation considers some of the reasons that (with the notable exception of West Virginia Public Radio's Mountain Stage program) West Virginia singer-songwriters have not drawn the attention of their counterparts in Texas and other states known for their songwriting traditions.
