Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 6.13 (Music) Howard Armstrong: the legendary African-American string band musician, and the Appalachian Community that Celebrates him.
Session Abstract or Summary
Preface:
Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong was an amazing African-American musician and artist who grew up in LaFollette, Tennessee in the days of Jim Crow, overcoming racial barriers and going on to become one of the nation’s finest string band musicians in America. Workshop attendees will learn about Armstrong’s music, the community where he grew up in the 1920’s, and the Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival which celebrates his music, life and art.
Abstract:
Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong (1909-2003) was an African-American who grew up in predominantly Scots-Irish Campbell County in the 1920’s, and became one of the nation's finest string band musicians in the history of American music. In the 1930's Armstrong performed with Tennessee Chocolate Drops, backing such blues acts as Big Bill Broonzy and Memphis Minnie. His 1995 album, “Louie Bluie”, won a prestigious W.C. Handy Blues Award. Armstrong received NEA’s National Heritage Fellowship Award, the Tennessee Governor's Folk Heritage Award, and was the subject of two documentaries, "Louie Bluie", and "Sweet Old Song" which aired on PBS.
A true Renaissance man, Armstrong was also a painter, writer, jewelry maker, and raconteur who spoke seven foreign languages , and mastered 22 instruments. Armstrong toured the globe sharing his string band music with the world, planting the seeds for other American music forms including both country music and Blues. Yet Armstrong was virtually unknown to the county of his childhood until 2007 when the Campbell Culture Coalition produced the first Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival to celebrate Armstrong, his music, life and art.
Panel members will talk about Armstrong’s music, the community he grew up in, and the festival that honors him. Panelists will also talk about how the Culture Coalition got their nearly all white Appalachian county to get behind this celebration of an African-American artist who grew up there, and how they use the story of Louie Bluie to inspire young people in Campbell County to pursue the arts.
Presentation #1 Title
The Music and Legacy of Howard Armstrong
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Preface: The presenter discusses Howard Armstrong’s music, career and legacy, and how the festival that pays tribute to him stays true to his style and spirit. Abstract In my presentation I will discuss Howard Armstrong’s musical influences, career, and legacy. I will also discuss the Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival’s music programming, and how our all-volunteer stage program committee discovers and selects artists for the Festival who are reflective of Mr. Armstrong’s musical style, making the Louie Bluie Festival one of the most unique and, musically as well as racially, diverse music and arts festival in the region. Mr. Armstrong came of musical age during the time when the practical need to please audiences of various races and ethnicities encouraged American popular or traditional musicians of any race to play a similar repertoire. Mr. Armstrong was also an active musician during the time when the record labels forced what was largely a false dichotomy that required all White traditional musicians of the South to record what was then called “hillbilly” music, and that required all Black Southern traditional musicians to play “race” music which was primarily the Blues. Mr. Armstrong and his band were capable of playing either of these styles and many more such as Italian songs - learned from Italian immigrant neighbors in Mr. Armstrong’s hometown of LaFollett – to jazz tunes, Tin Pan Alley hits of the day as well as earlier standards. Mr. Armstrong moved to Detroit while raising his family, but was rediscovered in the early-1970s and booked in Festivals and venues throughout the world that included the 1982 World Fair’s Folklife Area in Knoxville, the 1986 Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Chris Durman, Coordinator of University of Tennessee's Music Library and the Louie Bluie Festival's Program Committee Chair
Presentation #2 Title
Stories of My Time with Howard and Barbara
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
Preface:
The presenter, related to Howard Armstrong by marriage, will discuss what life in LaFollette was like for Howard Armstrong, and share stories of her friendship with Mr. Armstrong’s wife and fabric sculptor, Barbara Ward Armstrong.
Abstract:
Clara Osborne, who is an extended family member of Howard Armstrong, will talk about the Armstrong and Osborne families and the role music played in both households. She will also tell stories of living in LaFollette with her husband’s father and mother for a short period before moving to Morristown. In the early 2000’s Mrs. Osborne got to know Howard’s wife, Barbara Ward Armstrong, and after Howard died, they kept up a close friendship. Mrs. Osborne has attended the Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival since its first year in 2007. She will share from her perspective what it’s like to see a music and arts festival based in a county that is 98% white, celebrate an African-American.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Clara Osborne, family member of Howard Armstrong
Presentation #3 Title
Between a Ballad and a Blues: Writing the Play About Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
Linda Parris-Bailey will discuss the process she went through to write Between a Ballad and a Blues, what she learned about Howard Armstrong through interviews of him as she was developed her play and how she uses music to help tell the story.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Linda Parris-Bailey, playwright of Between A Ballad And A Blues, the play about Howard Armstrong
Presentation #4 Title
Revitalizing Our Communities Through Music and Arts
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
Preface:
The presenter discusses the community where Howard Armstrong grew up, the economic challenges it is facing now, and role the community-based Campbell Culture Coalition is playing in its revitalization.
Abstract:
In my presentation I will discuss the community where Howard grew up, how it has changed over the years due to out migration, unemployment and poverty, and how an all-volunteer community-based arts organization, inspired by Howard Armstrong, is spurring on community revitalization and pride through its Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival and other projects that showcase and promote the area’s musical and crafts heritage and present day talent. Together with the local Chamber of Commerce as well as some of the town mayors and our new county mayor, we are seeing how cultural tourism can provide our area with the economic boost that it needs.
Among the several Campbell Culture Coalition projects I helped organize and produce are: the annual Louie Bluie Music & Arts Festival, now in its ninth year celebrating the life of Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong; New Harmonies: American Roots Music - a Smithsonian Museum on Main Street exhibition; Brighten the Corner - a local music history exhibition; Paint the Town - a chalk art event; A Gift for Campbell County - an original youth theater production; Roots & Wings – a history based outdoor walking theater; Postmark LaFollette – a pilot theater event for repurposing the use of an historically designated former WPA constructed post office; roots music scholar research projects with multi-media presentations; and several youth outreach music, art and theater instructional programs.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Jo Anne Myers, founding president of the Campbell Culture Coalition which produces the Louie Bluie Festival
The Music and Legacy of Howard Armstrong
Preface: The presenter discusses Howard Armstrong’s music, career and legacy, and how the festival that pays tribute to him stays true to his style and spirit. Abstract In my presentation I will discuss Howard Armstrong’s musical influences, career, and legacy. I will also discuss the Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival’s music programming, and how our all-volunteer stage program committee discovers and selects artists for the Festival who are reflective of Mr. Armstrong’s musical style, making the Louie Bluie Festival one of the most unique and, musically as well as racially, diverse music and arts festival in the region. Mr. Armstrong came of musical age during the time when the practical need to please audiences of various races and ethnicities encouraged American popular or traditional musicians of any race to play a similar repertoire. Mr. Armstrong was also an active musician during the time when the record labels forced what was largely a false dichotomy that required all White traditional musicians of the South to record what was then called “hillbilly” music, and that required all Black Southern traditional musicians to play “race” music which was primarily the Blues. Mr. Armstrong and his band were capable of playing either of these styles and many more such as Italian songs - learned from Italian immigrant neighbors in Mr. Armstrong’s hometown of LaFollett – to jazz tunes, Tin Pan Alley hits of the day as well as earlier standards. Mr. Armstrong moved to Detroit while raising his family, but was rediscovered in the early-1970s and booked in Festivals and venues throughout the world that included the 1982 World Fair’s Folklife Area in Knoxville, the 1986 Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife.
