(Editor’s Note—This is the third in a series of reflective
narratives written by members of the H-Southern-Music Advisory
Board. Those of Bill Malone and Kathy Ogren can be found on
the H-Southern-Music homepage.

Professor Brian Ward received his doctorate in history from
the University of Cambridge. He is currently teaching in the
history department at the University of Florida. He has
published several award-winning books, including _Just My
Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness
and Race Relations_ and _Radio and the Struggle for Civil
Rights in the South_. Dr. Ward is currently working on a
manuscript project that addresses the influence of the South
on the history of British popular music.

Below is Ward's account of how he became interested in studying
southern music. We at H-Southern-Music welcome the feedback of
list members to Ward's commentary.)

Having already tiptoed into the discussions of
southern rock and what makes any kind of music
"southern", I am rather belatedly complying with the
request from our fearless leader, Michael Bertrand,
that all members of the H-Southern-Music advisory
board should offer a brief biographical note
explaining why they now have this additional line on
their vita.

Raised in England, most of my early contact with
southern music came through the record collections of
my three older siblings. Conveniently born several
years apart so as to become serially infatuated with
Elvis, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, John Lee Hooker
(discovered via the Animals and other British r&b acts),
and the whole Stax-Volt, Hi and Fame soul scenes, my
brothers and sister apparently taught me to read from
the labels of their singles and albums. While this
left me with a seriously stilted and stunted vocabulary,
it nonetheless piqued my interest in a whole bunch of
artists and styles that had their roots somewhere in the
South.

The first putatively "southern" music I bought with my
own pocket money was probably the Outlaw's eponymous
debut album from 1975. This featured songs about girls
from exotic places such as Knoxville and an obligatory
southern rock guitar freak out, "Green Grass and High
Tides," that was guaranteed to annoy my parents (which
at the time I took to be the litmus test of all good
music; a belief later shattered when my dad showed an
unhealthy interest in the Clash's version of "Police
and Thieves", but I digress).

This juvenile excursion into southern rock lead me
quite quickly to groups like the Allman Brothers and
the Marshall Tucker Band, and even into a strange,
swampy preoccupation with Tony Joe White and Jim
Stafford. Lynyrd Skynyrd left me pretty cold at the
time -- despite the fact that "Freebird" was a staple
of youth club discos in Britain (along with Jeff Beck's
"Hi Ho Silver Lining" and Alice Cooper's "School's Out").

Then punk happened -- so flares, beards, long hair, and
guitar solos lasting longer than 5 seconds were out. I
helped form a punk band (in the loosest sense of the
word) called Wilton and the Shagpiles and penned its
(unrecorded) nod in the direction of southern culture,
a song called "The Bible Belt is Holding up My Trousers"
that included the couplet, "I've lived a good life,
honest, true and fine/Just like Johnny Cash, I've walked
the line." Strangely, perhaps, but while I was captivated
by the energetic anarchy breaking out in UK music, I was
simultaneously digging deeper into the roots of country,
where I experienced the inevitable "Hank Williams epiphany",
followed by veneration for at least half a dozen other
country Hanks...).

I also began to appreciate blues music of various stripe,
developing a particular soft spot for Bessie Smith and,
in a different vein, the urbane sounds of Junior Parker
and Bobby Bland. Somewhere around this time, I heard
some early Louis Armstrong, too, decided he was the most
gifted and innovative musician ever to walk the earth,
and plunged headlong into a "Dixieland" jazzfest,
whereupon I also became besotted with Sidney Bechet and
Coleman Hawkins.

Somewhere along the line I was reconciled with Elvis
and forgave him the Hollywood years and "Do the Clam"
when I got a copy of the Sun Recording Sessions. And
I returned with renewed passion to the old southern
soul sounds I had been  raised on, especially to
those artists such as Joe Tex, Clarence Carter, Joe
Simon, and Candi Staton in whom soul, gospel and
country seemed to melt together.

By the early 1980s, I was at university, taking a
degree in in American Studies, and trying
desperately to understand the historical complexities
of the region from whence all of this amazingly
powerful and diverse music had come. To a greater or
lesser extent, as a teacher, scholar, and fan, that's
still what I'm trying to do. Whether it be teaching
the history of the modern South from a handful of
Drive By Truckers songs, or writing a book about the
links between the American South and the world of
British popular music, I remain enthralled and
intrigued by the sounds of the region. By
participating in this list, for which we owe Michael
Bertrand a huge debt of thanks, I hope to continue
my education.

Brian Ward

Professor Brian Ward,
Department of History,
Keene-Flint Hall,
University of Florida,
Gainesville,
FL32611,
USA.

Tel: 352 392 0271
Fax: 352 392 6927

Dept Website: http://www.history.ufl.edu
Personal Website: http://plaza.ufl.edu/wardb

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