Americans have always been nostalgic for… America.
The paintings of Norman Rockwell harkened back to a pristine Americana America. Disney World’s ‘Main Street USA’ presents an idealized (and commodified), atemporal America.
One of my favorite examples of ‘Americana’ is The Andy Griffith Show. Mayberry, the fictional small, rural North Carolina town the show was set in, is an example of the land we never were but always wanted to be.
Especially edifying was the show’s introduction of traditional and Bluegrass music to a larger audience. Already, Nashville and commercial Country music had set itself against Bluegrass as too old-fashioned- acoustic and no drums.
The show’s Darlings (pronounced ‘Darlin’s’) family was the actual Bluegrass band The Dillards, plus Maggie Peterson on female vocals. The band’s deadpan persona was hipster decades before there were hipsters.
So, let’s try to sort this out. We have an actual band, the Dillards. They’re playing a fictional band, The Darlings, on a TV show about an America that never was. That is Americana.
But, in the process, they are actually playing Bluegrass tunes rooted in traditional American music- helping create renewed interest in authentic music that would kick off a revival with the young in the 1960s (no, they weren’t even from the Appalachian Mountains, but they were from the Ozarks). The epitome of lowbrow entertainment was simultaneously part of the cultural avant-garde.
If that last comment seems overblown for a second-rate band on an old TV show, it isn’t, because the Dillards went on to help revolutionize Bluegrass music. They were one of the first to electrify their instruments and add drums. They influenced bands like Led Zeppelin (in the choice to include the mandolin). Artists as diverse as Elton John and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band have attested to their importance. They are credited with being one of the founders of Folk Rock.
The ‘fake’ is actually the ‘authentic’ then. Now, that is Americana!
The land we never were encapsulates the land we always have been.
There is a double dialectical move (sort of like 4D chess) for all the debunkers and cynics. Mayberry is just one of the names for the beloved community that has animated our collective soul. And, hopefully, we will always be listening to Bluegrass there.
Hence, Mayberry’s sheriff famously went unarmed. You do not need to carry a gun in an actual ideal community.
For the record, the Dillards are still performing.
(And, yes, I know the Darlings participate in the ‘hillbilly’ stereotype. I hope to get to all things hillbilly eventually. Also, Mayberry is rather white for a southern town. Will also get to that, the good Lord willin’).
Andy himself was a pretty fair musician. His finger-picking’ style of guitar playing can be picked up in the videos as well. And he was from North Carolina.
The Andy Griffith Show was one of my favorites as a child growing up...and is still one of my favorites... if only in the mind's eye, it harkens back to an idyllic time... it may have been a fantasy, but it represented all that America aspired to be... and the music was the glue that held it all together.
“The epitome of lowbrow entertainment was simultaneously part of the cultural avant-garde.”
Once more you do a jiu-jitsu move!