Uncle Tupelo: The Carter Family Good Time Happy Fun Revival Band

The Carter Family was a country band.

The Carter Family was a folk band.

This may be somewhat confusing to those accustomed to the disparity between modern country and folk genres. These days when we think of folk music, we most commonly imagine a solo singer/acoustic guitarist singing about peace & love and frequently lacking in acceptable personal hygiene habits. Today’s country music is essentially glossy pop music sung by someone with a southern twang, an oversized belt buckle, and a 10-gallon hat. Common themes are the loss of a loyal dog, a good woman, or a treasured pick-up truck.

The Carter Family was from the Clinch Mountains of Virginia, rather than a musical mecca such as New York or Boston. They were from the country. (In fact, country music was originally called hillbilly music, but that term was later dropped being considered derogatory.) The members of the Carter Family were common folks. They were not members of the upper strata of society and they were not trained in compositional theory from European masters. They were economically poor and subsisted in a rural, agricultural environment (A. P. Carter was a fruit tree salesmen) and their folk music told stories of life as they knew it.

ENGINE 143

Along came the FFV, the swiftest on the line
Running o'er the C&O road just 20 minutes behind
Running into Seville headquarters on the line
Receiving their strict orders from the station just behind

Georgie's mother came to him with a bucket on her arm
Saying, my darling son, be careful how you run
For many a man has lost his life in trying to make lost time
And if you run your engine right you'll get there just on time

Up the road she darted, against the rocks she crashed
Upside-down the engine turned, poor Georgie's breast it smashed
His head was against the firebox door, the flames were rolling high
I'm glad I was born for an engineer, to die on the C&O road

The doctor said to Georgie, my darling boy, be still
Your life may yet be saved if it is God's blessed will
Oh, no, said Georgie, that will not do, I want to die so free
I want to die for the engine I love, one hundred and forty-three

The doctor said to Georgie, your life cannot be saved
Murdered upon the railroad and laid in a lonesome grave
His face was covered up with blood, his eyes you could not see
And the very last words poor Georgie said was nearer, my God, to Thee

"Engine 143" tells a story and teaches a moral. It essentially reworks "the tortoise and the hare" fable that slow and steady wins the race. It uses the themes of death and religion, which are common in folk and country music, and centers around the railroad, a major economic institution in the early 1900s. The main focus is not in the melody, harmony, or rhythm, but in the song’s lyrical content. This is clear by analyzing the structure of the song – five verses and no chorus. There are no superfluous words and the verses are a chronological third-person narrative. The melody is simple and mostly conjunct varying slightly verse to verse as the number of syllables in the lyrics dictate. The harmony is extremely simple, in A Major, using only the I, IV, and V chords of A, D, and E. The rhythm is in a metric 6/8 time signature with occasional additions of a single bar of 3/8 time which seem to allow for the singer to extend a vocal syllable or take a breath between lines. The texture is homophonic, consisting of only an acoustic guitar and female singer. The guitar features the style of "Carter picking" in which the bass strings are played in a linear melodic fashion while the higher strings are used to voice the
appropriate chord. This "Carter picking" style can also be heard in:

SINGLE GIRL, MARRIED GIRL

Single girl, single girl, she's going dressed fine
Oh, she's going dressed fine
Married girl, married girl, she wears just any kind
Oh, she wears just any kind

Single girl, single girl, she goes to the store and buys
Oh, she goes to the store and buys
Married girl, married girl, she rocks the cradle and cries
Oh, she rocks the cradle and cries

Single girl, single girl, she's going where she please
Oh, she's going where she please
Married girl, married girl, baby on her knees
Oh, baby on her knees

"Single Girl, Married Girl" is very similar in structure to "Engine 143" It has a monophonic texture of a female voice accompanied by an acoustic guitar. Its harmony is even simpler, consisting only of two chords – E and B (I and V in E major). The melody is simple and conjunct. In this tune the rhythm is in a 4/4 time signature with occasional additions of single bars of 2/4 time. The three verses discuss the woes of married life.

The lyrical content of folk (and country) music differs from early parlor music in many ways. It usually deals with facts rather than feelings. It addresses content that exists in the musicians’ everyday lives. Stories of chivalrous love based on the lives of knights and princesses in Medieval England (found often in parlor music) are non-existent in folk music. The high degree of sentimentality found in a song like "Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair" is avoided. The heavy-handed use of metaphor, such as in the song "Grandfather’s Clock", is not commonly used in folk music lyrics.


In 1990 three twenty-somethings from Belleville, Illinois (Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn) created a new musical genre. Under the moniker Uncle Tupelo, the group released their debut album "No Depression" essentially giving birth to the alternative country movement. The album featured two cover songs that had been recorded by the Carter Family over 50 years earlier. "John Hardy" was an adaptation of The Carter Family’s "John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man" – the story of a black man hanged for shooting a white man. The title track (the name of which has since been used as a euphemism for alternative country music and is the title of an alternative country music magazine) was taken from The Carter Family’s "No Depression In Heaven"

NO DEPRESSION

Oh fear the hearts of men are failing
For these our latter days we know
The Great Depression now is spreading
God's word declared it would be so

I'm going where there's no Depression
To a better land that's free from care
I'll leave this world of toil and trouble
My home's in heaven I'm going there

In this dark hour, midnight nearing
The tribulation time will come
The storms will hurl the midnight fear
And sweep lost millions to their doom

I'm going where there's no Depression
To a better land that's free from care
I'll leave this world of toil and trouble
My home's in heaven I'm going there

"No Depression" has many traits in common with both "Engine 143" and "Single Girl, Married Girl". It is harmonically very simple, consisting solely of the I, IV, and V chords in C Major (C, F, and G). Its melody is primarily conjunct and the two verses have subtle differences due to the number of syllables. Its form differs in that it does contain a repeated chorus section. The texture is homophonic and the Uncle Tupelo version adds the timbral elements of harmony vocals and electric bass guitar – which serves to mimic the "Carter picking" style. All three songs deal with sad lyrical content juxtaposed with major harmony. The lyrics once again visit the themes of religion and death. When first released in the 1930s by The Carter Family, this song dealt with the current economic condition of The Great Depression. However, when removed from its cultural context, the Uncle Tupelo version sounds more like a suicide pact than a tale of financial troubles.

The alternative country movement of the 1990s took the themes and structure of traditional country music and infused it with the rage and fury of punk music. "Graveyard Shift" and "Factory Belt", two of Uncle Tupelo’s original songs on their debut album, are prime examples of lyrics that look at life through the eyes of common folk. The members of Uncle Tupelo grew up as lower class citizens in middle-America during the Reagan/Bush era. As country musicians in the early 20th century sang about life through the eyes of a farmer or coalminer, Uncle Tupelo updates their viewpoint to that of a factory worker or gas station attendant in the late 20th century.

GRAVEYARD SHIFT

Hometown, the same town blues
Same old walls closing in
Oh what a life a mess can be
I'm sitting here thinking of you
Won't you give a few thoughts to me?

Well time won't wait, better open the gate
Get out and start, it needs to be done
It's winding down, there's much you miss
Working on that graveyard shift

But I'm not saying things won't go wrong as each day comes along
If what I see is true I could learn to believe
Can't look away, the powers that be might take it all away
Together we'll burn, together we'll burn it away

Some say land of paradise
Some say land of pain
Well, which side are you looking from?
Some people have it all
And some have it all to gain

Well a man in a tie'll bum your dime
Before he'll break his twenty dollar bill
There's plenty of reasons in this world
For movin' along or standing still

But I'm not saying things won't go wrong as each day comes along
If what I see is true I could learn to believe
Can't look away, the powers that be might take it all away
Together we'll burn, together we'll burn it away

There's too much time spent looking for a reason
Seems the simple ones beat the most truth
Oh, what a life a mess can be
I'm sitting here thinking of you
Won't you give a few thoughts to me?

Well, time won't wait, better open the gate
Get out and start, it needs to be done
It's winding down, there's much you miss
Working on that graveyard shift

But I'm not saying things won't go wrong as the day comes along
If what I see is true I could learn to believe
Can't look away, the powers that be might take it all away
Together we'll burn, together we'll burn it away

FACTORY BELT

Well it's funny how it all works out
Mad men in suits walking about
I'd like to change their point of view someday
But I feel my patience slipping away

Looks like it's time to lay this burden down
Stop messing around
Don't want to go to the grave without a sound
Give the soul a place to rest
Not to ride on the factory belt
Not to ride on the factory belt

Well you do what you can to just get by
With poison all around
It needs no disguise
You can see it on faces
From the barstools to the door
With no equal chance our respect is no more

Looks like it's time to lay this burden down
Stop messing around
Don't want an early grave in the ground
Give the soul a place a rest
Not to ride on the factory belt
Not to ride on the factory belt

Well it's funny how it all works out
Mad men in suits are walking about
Well I've heard it said
That after seven years of factory belt
It gets in your head

Looks like it's time to lay this burden down
Stop messing around
Don't want to go to the grave without a sound
Give the soul a place a rest
Not to ride on the factory belt
Not to ride on the factory belt

The most obvious difference between the music is The Carter Family and Uncle Tupelo is the addition of newer timbral elements of electric guitar, electric bass, and drum kit. The use of drums allows for a greater level of rhythmic complexity. The Uncle Tupelo songs are homophonic with the vocals still being the most important element. The melodies are mostly conjunct and, like The Carter Family, are delivered without excessive ornamentation, falsetto, or vibrato. The dreary lyrics are once again juxtaposed with a major harmonic structure – this time, however, more complex than just two or three chords. By rebelling against the overt sentimentality and polish of modern country music Uncle Tupelo was able to revive the story telling roots of The Carter Family and add to it a modern viewpoint and denser instrumentation, creating the alternative music genre.


Post Script:

After releasing four albums in five years Uncle Tupelo disbanded due to a conflict between the group’s two main songwriters. Jeff Tweedy went on to form Wilco and Jay Farrar created Son Volt. Wilco has since moved into more experiemental territory, using samples, loops, synthesizers, and obtuse lyrics. Son Volt has remained closer to the original Uncle Tupelo sound and still explores traditional folk themes such as religion, death, and politics: