Sounds of the Show-Me State — Happy Missouri Day

Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography‘s Map of Missouri

Missouri’s nickname, the “Show Me State,” first appears in print in the words of congressman, William Vandiver, who declared in 1889, “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats. Frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” Maybe it should be called the “Play-Me State” because it’s produced so much great music. OK — that doesn’t make a lot of sense but I needed some sort of intro and transition.

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The state song is “Missouri Waltz.”  It was first published in 1914.

Hush-a-bye, ma baby, slumbertime is comin’ soon;
Rest yo’ head upon my breast while Mommy hums a tune;
The sandman is callin’ where shadows are fallin’,
While the soft breezes sigh as in days long gone by.

Way down in Missouri where I heard this melody,
When I was a little child upon my Mommy’s knee;
The old folks were hummin’; their banjos were strummin’;
So sweet and low.

Strum, strum, strum, strum, strum,
Seems I hear those banjos playin’ once again,
Hum, hum, hum, hum, hum,
That same old plaintive strain.

Hear that mournful melody,
It just haunts you the whole day long,
And you wander in dreams back to Dixie, it seems,
When you hear that old time song.

Hush-a-bye ma baby, go to sleep on Mommy’s knee,
Journey back to Dixieland in dreams again with me;
It seems like your Mommy is there once again,
And the old folks were strummin’ that same old refrain.

Way down in Missouri where I learned this lullaby,
When the stars were blinkin’ and the moon was climbin’ high,
Seems I hear voices low, as in days long ago,
Singin’ hush-a-bye.

The state (or maybe just the river in some cases) of Missouri has been celebrated, or at least the subject of, songs by many non-Missourians, for example After The Tragedy‘s “Missouri Loves Company,” Avi Bortnick‘s “Missouri Dreaming,” Back Porch Mary‘s “Missouri Girl,” Colt Ford‘s “Missouri,” David Ford‘s “Missouri,” DJ Quik‘s “Jus Lyke Compton,” Fourth of July‘s “Across the Wide Missouri,” Ice Cube‘s “Summer Vacation,” James Cotton‘s “Born in Missouri,” James Keelaghan‘s “Cold Missouri Waters,” Jimmy Rodgers‘s “Shovlin’ Coal in Missouri,” MartyParty‘s “Crossing Missouri,” The Magnetic Fields‘ “Long Vermont Road,” Merle Travis‘s “Missouri,” Ry Cooder‘s “Leaving Missouri,” and Simon Bonney‘s “Ozark Waltz.” Its great cities and Ozark Mountains have also been the subject of songs like W. C. Handy‘s “St. Louis Blue,” Leiber and Stoller‘s “Kansas City,” and many more.

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CHILDREN’S MUSIC

I never listened to much Children’s music besides that of Mr. Rogers (he was from Pennsylvania, and one of Missouri’s nicknames was “The Pennsylvania of the West“) but I gather that Missouri native Ella Jenkins is kind of a big deal.

COUNTRY (HILLBILLY)

Whilst today not a Country hotbed on par with neighboring Tennessee, Missouri has produced some (as usual – mostly under-appreciated) Country and Hillbilly acts and for years attempted to dethrone Tennessee as the “Crossroads of Country.”

Situated in the Ozarks is Branson, which I like to think of as the town where Cashville retires to when past its sell-by date, although it was a legitimate rival to Nashville for many years. From the late 1940s through the 1950s, Springfield broadcasters Ralph Foster and Si Siman produced nationally-syndicated radio shows (through Foster’s RadiOzark Enterprises) which aired locally on KWTO-AM. Ozark Jubilee, taped in Springfield, was one of the first national network TV shows to feature country music performers, airing on ABC from 1954 – 1961.

Notable country stars born in Missouri includeArkie the Arkansas Woodchopper, Bob Ferguson, Danny Schmidt, David Nail, Diane Pfeifer, Dick Feller, Ferlin Husky, Helen Cornelius, Jan Howard, Jerry Wallace, Jimmy Gately, Kelly McGuire, Leland Martin, Leon Rausch, Leroy Van Dyke, The Mark Chapman Band, Ozark Cowboys, Porter Wagoner, Red Murrell, Sara Evans, Shirley Collie, Speedy West, Sue Thompson,The Jordanaires, The Kendalls, T-Bone Burnett, Thumbs Carlisle, Tim Nichols, and Wynn Stewart.

DOO WOP

Surely there were more than two doo-wop groups from Missouri but The Carpets and The Sinceres are all that I know of.

FOLK

There are a few notable folk (in the popular sense of the word i.e. singer-songwriter) artists from Missouri: Angel Olsen, Mark Spoelstra, Julius Lester and Jeff Black.

MARCHING BAND MUSIC

Sadly, marching and concert bands don’t get a lot of love anymore — even in high school and junior high. Back in the day, however, Arthur Pryor was one of the giants of the scene as a writer of marches and performer with the hugely popular Sousa Band. He brought the swing to Sousa’s Band (which Sousa supposedly disliked but recognized was popular with audiences. Less well-known but arguably no less significant was bandmaster and music teacher, Edward M. Hiner.

Missouri has a rich history of fiddle-heavy “Old Time” music. The first Europeans to settle in Missouri were the French, who arrived in 1735. Their traditions mingled with the later-to-arrive Scots-Irish. I don’t know much about fiddlin’ but it’s the heavy reliance on the so-called “saw stroke” and a drive that gives Missouri style fiddlin’ its unique sound. Amongst aficionados, Missouri Fiddlin’ is further be broken down into the Hornpipe, Little Dixie, and Ozark styles. Some noted fiddlers include Bill Driver, Bill Katon, Bob Holt, Charlie Pasha, Cleo Persinger, Cyril Stinnett, Ethel Goff, Gene Wells, Geoff Seitz, Jake Hockemeyer, Joe Politte, Pete McMahan, Roy Boyer, and Taylor McBaine.

POP MUSIC

Although the fact that they’re from Missouri is often overlooked, pop musicians Billy Davis Jr., Bob Kuban & the In Men, Burt Bacharach, Cliff Edwards, Connee Boswell, David Cook, Greg Guidry, The Guise (And Their Mod Sound), Herman Grimes, Jerry Jay and the Sheratons, Josephine Baker, Mrs. Elva Miller, Nikko Smith, Sheryl Crow, The Del-Tones as a matter of fact, are.

RAGTIME

The one music form where Missouri actually does get its due is href=”http://www.amoeba.com/blog/tags/ragtime/page1.html”>Ragtime. Ragtime was all the rage back in the before the Jazz Age. It took the European-derived marches and spruced it up with some syncopation derived from Cakewalk. Scott Joplin, who moved to Missouri (the hotbed of Ragtime), described the effect as “weird and intoxicating.”

       

Big Missouri ragtimers include Arthur Marshall, Blind Boone, Edythe Baker, George Thomas Ireland, Harry Snodgrass (pictured here in the Missouri State Penitentiary Orchestra), James Scott, Percy Wenrich, Scott Hayden, and Tom Turpin.