The Scots-Irish musical legacy in the USA

when the scots-irish said often the old wagon road in America for their only 17 homers they took their music Whalum did Leslie a musical legacy drummer Mark Wilson once decide to fill it I've been lucky enough for over the last 20 years to tour and travel the world playing with drums and percussion and during that time have become aware of and been told of an influence that the Ulster Scots or scots-irish have had on the music of the southeastern states in the US so I've decided to come over and journeyed I'm not creating Road I'm starting that journey and Philadelphia [Music] Philadelphia is the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania with 1.5 million people however back in the early 1700s the population was only a couple of thousand when the scots-irish sealed off the Delaware River in search of a new life the earlier waves arrived and further north in New York and Boston but weren't particularly welcomed by the Puritan landowners but in the Quaker land owners of this area they find friends they brought with them their values their traditions their culture and their music wouldn't left out behind [Music] so if you think of all the boots that arrived here and the scots-irish getting off in the banks of this river a suitcase in one hand an old beat-up fiddle and the other or a box with an accordion in it or maybe just the songs and their hearts their songs and their wares and their music of the old land that they brought here to this new country with new hope and you hope for a better life [Music] and of course the scots-irish continued to come over the centuries and is hardly surprising but eventually the bagpipes came with them let her come to be first of all a pipe fund in Philadelphia and secondly with the name Ulster Scottish well my grandfather came from the town of bunny more in Ireland oh yeah back in 1921 and in 1922 him and some of his mates started the band and it was originally called the Ulster pipe band right and through the years it became the Philadelphia Lester pipe man and then the Ulster Scottish pipe band and my grandfather was one of the pipe majors and my father was the pipe major from 1960 till 2002 and then I took the band over [Music] David I was having a little rattle on the practice pods in the bonnet of the car with some of the larger in the music and fronting human if I have will be tuned with you baby score with you nah [Music] Oh David and the bond today you were the ultra Scottish tartan we do wear the austere tartan there was a drum major his name was John Neal who was a drum major in Ontario and we saw the uniform and he was wearing a full kit with a long plate and thought it was great a nice on the feather bonnet and thought it was quite nice so in 1993 we switched over to the holster tartan the first time I saw the bond was last year and the middle of August I've to wear championships in Glasgow yeah but here the bonds they've been telling to travel back to Scotland next year where they compete at the world championship 2011 we will be going back to the world championships and we have been upgraded to three age four for that year and I also hear the poster connections not being lost or not when you're going back to Scotland you're hoping to come and compete at the all-star Championships the week before the words that's our goal if we can afford it economically to go and fly in Ireland and do the Ulster Championships and then go down the Scotland and do the World Championships and then come back so the music really will have gone full circle coming from Scotland to Ireland over here to Philadelphia and you guys know taking it back to both Scotland and Ulster again absolutely [Music] there's people who moved here from Ulster we'll arrest those people when they got here it was said of him that they were never happy until they had moved at least twice so they moved southwards for Philadelphia down into Virginia and that's where my journeys going to take me Ivan started an attorney in Philadelphia I'm night traveling southwards during the Shenandoah Valley I'm actually driving along the griot Philadelphia wagon road and started a just as a path made by the native Iroquois was their war path southwards to trade and to faith with the people of the Carolinas in Virginia this is the path that the scots-irish used as they moved southwards from Pennsylvania and Philadelphia so long the shrewdest scroll up lots of farms barns a few villages and the spread of the scots-irish south let's continue [Music] Winchester Virginia very important settlement in the movement of the scots-irish through this area and actually it was the place that our family Samuel and Mary glass moved to from just near my home in Bainbridge in 1730 and their grandson Colonel William glass mirror to the rank of colonel in the American military but of course there's also a musical connection here with Winchester as well [Music] [Music] sweet [Music] on the 8th of September in 1832 Winchester Virginia was the birthplace of Virginia Patterson Hensley better known as Patsy Cline lay Patsy Cline herself wasn't of scots-irish ancestry but the music and the influences that she had in this area definitely were the austere Scots who moved here the essence of the end and their music was her story telling their balladry and the religious themes all of which became inherent ingredients within the modern-day country music and that's the music the party clan grew up with but of course would be unfair to say that the scots-irish invented country music all in their own there was influences from the Dutch from the German but they were certainly responsible for the biggest influence on [Music] I hear you to turn to Northern Ireland before we have in 99 and 2000 we played Maidan City Festival in Derry and also got to play in Ballymena Colerain Belfast we hooked up with a fiddle player that you actually know over there got named Willy Drennen yeah and did you notice any similarities between the music that we had in Northern Ireland and the music that you play here the country music that you play here in Winchester yes the tunes are so much alike I mean the tunes are so close you all might call it one name but we call it something else but it's the same tune is the same [Music] sweet so party yourself wouldn't have been of scots-irish descent or origin but her music they will have been for sure's probably influenced at some point in time and where we are today is literally a street away from where Patsy Cline was Brandy's mom you know just live a couple blocks over [Music] [Music] by 1765 the Native American paths had been waiting enough to accommodate the horse-drawn vehicle which then loaded Ulster Scots to moved southwards towards Tennessee advance it was waiting enough to accommodate at the famous Conestoga wagon which was 26 foot long by eleven foot high a big wagon indeed this is my wagon it's got to get me all the way to Tennessee as well so I'm on the musical journey following down the grid wagon road starting off in Philadelphia down through Pennsylvania into Virginia through Manchester and now I'm heading for Staunton down through the mountains of the Shannon duo Valley the Blue Ridge Mountains the Smoky Mountains the Appalachian all were inhabited by the scots-irish who came here and who left their music here [Music] Staunton is a small town in the shannond or Valley of Virginia it's known for being the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson the 20th US president his ancestry was scots-irish as parental grandparents emigrated to the United States from Strabane Staunton is also the home of the frontier cultural museum which tells the story of the thousands of people who make greater to colonial America it includes an Ulster cottage which was moved over stone by stone from Turin and rebuilt but what is a particular interest to me is the 18th century settlement which is similar to that which the scots-irish would have built as they led down roots dying the old wagon ruled the house being a single room dwelling sometimes for two was actually fairly similar to what people had left back in Ireland usually made out of stone however this being wood and that's really just the available materials that they're using and we are not yet finished we actually need to do a little bit more work to the roof and actually fill in the gaps between the logs with chinking to actually form an insulation between the logs and make this house a little bit more comfortable no just looking at that house I can imagine that after a hard day's work you maybe all have had a little party a bit of a dance and I could have come a fiddle and a banjo or a mandolin or something like that [Music] all these insurance would have been available if they played it in Ireland they're gonna bring it with them because that's definitely one of those prized possessions just like their tools there's also some new instruments that are coming about like banjos which are an African instrument that they might pick up and start learning how to play too it's going to be tons of songs that they'll bring over ones like Lily bolero or starve to count me down and not only that but they would teach those songs to maybe some German immigrants or to English and everyone's kind of trading tunes and trading musical styles out here so all of those music types that you know today are definitely coming from people like the scots-irish or the English and Germans all mixing together so all fairly convincing evidence that the scots-irish not only brought their style of architecture your style of Agriculture but they also brought their style of music and here in Virginia that will become what we know as bluegrass [Music] it's power little he's putting in a going on a relative success today [Music] I would say that we're a combination of things old-time music bluegrass Appalachian and they're all influenced by the scots-irish it's really hard for me to say what the essence is you get a palaca is known to be a scotch-irish area you know if you go into the hills that all the quilt styles and things like even the artistry has been passed down the case more than music is it's a whole culture I think that you know we've developed our own here but it all came came from where you're from the rock YouTube [Music] rocking chair [Music] what we do is we've been told as unique and we kind of like to take it back to an older time you know more innocent I guess you know and so people call it hillbilly music is that right yeah in a sense and some people take it negative lead me personally I take it as compliment somebody says I'm a hillbilly oh thanks yeah that was born and raised a virtual West Virginia hillbillies and that's a double negative [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is Lexington and Rock Bridge currently Virginia but I was here on the neighboring country of Augusta but most of the scots-irish who moved to Virginia settled and made their home of course they under descendants had a great influence on the history of America on Stonewall Jackson we lived here in this house he was a famous general and the Confederate Army of the Civil War his great-grandfather John Jackson came from the birches in County Armagh and sealed here to America 1715 [Music] so the scots-irish made their mark on American history of course they also made their mark on American music [Music] Bristol Virginia or Bristol Tennessee depends besides with street you're on the state lines right up the middle of the Main Street but whichever state you're in it's still pretty obvious you're in the birthplace of country music because it was here in 1927 the growth pier from the vector recording label made the first country album he recorded it in a portable studio on one of the first acts he recorded was the Carter from [Music] [Music] was a story to tell you [Music] 20 miles drive from Bristol and the Tennessee you'll find the Carter fold which is the site of AP Carter's grocery store under snow also the site of the original Carter homestead which has been moved and rebuilt here the Carter Family are said to be the originators and the first family of country music in 1827 they recorded their first album but over the next 17 years they would record over 300 songs most of which had a scots-irish influence or origin their music was particularly influenced by an austere Scott called Leslie riddle we give them many of their songs and tunes that they recorded on their early albums [Music] bully [Music] maybe in the minute is more old time rather than front because the Carter family did old-time country and maybe a few other states what would be the main difference between what's old-time I'm country I like to define this in terms in and you being a rhythm player will understand I like to define it in terms of where the beat emphasis is and a lot of listening to Scottish and Irish music myself I hear that a lot of the emphasis is on the downbeat the first BS especially in Scottish music yeah and then you have country music and country music started to introduce the emphasis on the two and the four so the second and the fourth beat can you give me an example of those sure - I'm sure let me let me know once you give me a 2 and a 4 I'm gonna play a little tune that Bill Monroe recorded called back up and push so just give me a little - in a 4 and I'll show you back up and push [Music] okay now if you're playing scotch-irish influence music here's a tune that's comes from Scotland it's the shoulders joy you're gonna have the beat on the one beat so you can hear that more of that feel on the one beat with with a soldier's jewel which is acting exactly the way that a Scottish rail and especially a Scottish trots Bay which is in 4/4 time has a huge big strong beat on the one of the bar right and that's the music the scots-irish would have brought over here and it's they're the same music when he was stretching the beat to turn four to become bluegrass and the console right so it was all the same music yeah a little different feel okay so mark let's play I'm soldiers joy the old-fashioned way on a fiddle the way they might have done it in Scotland and just give me a one and A three on this I'm going to give you some potatoes here we go well I'm learning a lot more about the music I'm getting reinforcement of the ideas that I had before I came right here people who had told me back in Northern Ireland about the influence on country music on bluegrass music gospel music but that was all secondhand now I'm learning about those influences from the people they're descendants of the scots-irish so it really has made me feel closer to people here almost like make careful can people who I can identify with and people who identified with me and make everything back home [Music] my journey from Philadelphia down the great wagon road through Pennsylvania in the Winchester Virginia and on the Bristol snow taking me further in the Tennessee just about to cross the dig was down under the town of Dandridge [Music] throughout the United States there are many Highland Games events and of course music festivals one of the biggest scots-irish festivals is held here in Dandridge every September and is totally based around music and dance it's organized by local man mark Murray we started this music festival this will be our fourth year and we feature exclusively Scots and Irish music and dancing and you have a bagpipe competition and give a Highland dancing competition yes we just this year we're sanctioned for highland dancing and we have had a bagpipe competition of the previous three years and we close out our program with a lone bagpiper on top of the Dandridge Dyke quite similar to the closing out of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and we may have borrowed iluminati hi Bob you're the official kinda historian yes a set of a church yes marked the earliest Church in Jefferson County the Hopewell Presbyterian Church was founded here in 1785 during the state of Franklin but it started here in a little log Church building now there's a monument over there also honoring some of our Revolutionary War veterans who were church members the last two men on that renamed it's the Rankin brothers and they have documented roots back to Northern Ireland so there's been a long long Scottish and Irish history here that still continues today that's right and I think one of the bonds that you have with your festival on a regular basis are the vessel dine tinker's yes Tripp and Tom have been with us I think all three previous years and they are very well received and we get requests for them to come back every year so the people here like that yes savor all that where I even see can to4 how you been savor all at become Michaela cranky oh he had been where I had been he would not be sake NGO he had seen what I had seen on the brave the kata cranky yo I bought at land I bought at sea then all my part my NGO but a man's the devil and undies raise a kid a cranky yo EFE where I had been you would not be safe yet see what I had seen Kelly cranky uh Robbie Burns China certainly you to an up-tempo version is a pretty lively pretty lively version I had heard that song done is a very slow song almost like a lament or a ballad and um we were looking for more songs for time to play the banjo on and when we started putting it together we we figured out it'd be a lot of fun to play it faster and it just seems like anything related to Robert Burns ought to have some kick to it you know I knew that a lot of Highland Games throughout the United States but you and your wife organized one of the games in this area yes the operative word being my wife I Drive the truck and run errands my wife Donna um started the Mint Hill Scottish Society and then they formed their own Highland Games the Mint Hill Scottish Festival and Highland Games and we just finished our sixth year of the Mint Hill Highland Games so it's growing every year yes and it's really brought a lot of people in our area in touch with their Scottish and Irish roots I'm Akay we're guard Eli and the brush beyond the brachio you better that kiski well is Luke gonna come back a leak rangayya and he had seen where I had been we would not be saved yet see what I had seen the connection for first scotch-irish music here is it it's really in a lot of the old-time music that is which precedes bluegrass even there's all this great tradition of acapella ballads and they would just sit on the front porch like we're doing today and and just sing these ballads to their kids and they pass them on and then eventually they started doing bluegrass and a lot of the bluegrass songs is interesting if you look at look a whole bunch of the early bluegrass it's in the key of b-flat and that's an unusual key for most string instruments to play in but that's where the bagpipe was in because B flats not an easy key to the same since [Music] [Music] if they shamed neighs neighs shame if they shame too shanky Oh thus our slaves and they though grace and the devil's and care the cranky [Music] so if you're ever waltzing through Tennessee on the last weekend in September drop in the Dandridge check out the scots-irish festival and maybe you'll catch one of the regular acts there the Thistle dine tankers I'm the last leg of the journey and the USA down the old wagon road I'm heading from Dandridge in Tennessee to Charlotte North Carolina over the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains NH is pretty [Music] maturely tighten the create wagon road has ended here in Charlotte but music wasn't the only influence the scots-irish had on the United States in 1682 the Reverend Francis maca me from remelting and Donnie Cole seal to America as a missionary and a year later he established the First Presbyterian Church and the town of snowy Hill Maryland this was the start of Presbyterianism in America and here in Charlotte with a fine example of the Presbyterian influence this is First Presbyterian Church established in Charlotte in 1832 by the scots-irish so I'm assuming that if people come here to hear the gospel preached they also come here to hear the gospel and so on Oh [Music] [Music] in the early days of bluegrass music gospel was an important part of it in fact that's where bluegrass musicians learned to sing harmony was in singing schools and shape-note singing and in church and an all day singing sand dinner on the ground they would sing these these old songs and that became incorporated into bluegrass [Music] [Applause] [Music] ah a gospel message is a universal message of hope you know and I mean that really fits in with the music and a lot of different people can relate to that so when you terabyte up into a music of hope well it was a journey of hope when the Ulster Scots and the scotch-irish got onto the boat and sailed across the Atlantic and they brought their their moral values with them their dance their culture and something I can really add to as well back home in Northern Ireland we would have a lot of outside preachers who would go out and sing and give out gospel tracts and sing songs just like I'll fly away or will the circle be unbroken I remember sitting at home when I was a young boy listening most of the songs that we've talked about today on the radio on Sunday morning and gospel shows so I feel really at home here with you guys playing the gospel music in the bluegrass [Music] [Music] well this is the end of my journey don't agree dragon Road the journey must have learnt so much and enjoyed so much first thing I've learnt is hide desperate the scots-irish people must have been to leave Ireland come to this new country and forced their way down through what's probably the most beautiful countryside I've ever seen in the life but when they came down through the infrastructure the rules the highways weren't there they were going through for us going through boots real frontiers men and women [Music] and on the music front have had all of the facts that people told me before I came here confirmed that the scots-irish had huge influence on the gospel music the bluegrass music the country music they're all of scots-irish roots it all goes back to the Ulster Scots who left the shores of Ireland to head for this new land I'll be heading back home now across the Atlantic but over back here because as an Ulster Scot this place feels like home as well [Music] [Music] well my mine is to marry you never to marry [Music] you

Channel: Forged In Ulster

Views: 1,028,186

Keywords: Music (Industry), appalachia, Fiddle, Bluegrass, bagpipes, Folk, Scotch-Irish American (Ethnicity), ulster, irish, Northern Ireland (Country), Great Wagon Road (Location), scottish, scots irish, Country (Musical Genre), Banjo, Celtic Music (Musical Genre), Ireland, United States Of America (Country), Traditional, culture, identity, American Music, old time, Gospel Music (Musical Genre)

Id: oN3H2JPqKRY

Length: 34min 50sec (2090 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 05 2013