Unexpected Vibrations in Unexpected Places: Making New, Old Music in the McCarroll Family

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Decosimo, Joseph Edward
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of American Studies, Folklore Program

Abstract

This thesis examines the ways that commercially recorded music from the late 1920s and the meanings attached to the recordings by listeners shape contemporary music making in the McCarroll family of East Tennessee. I argue that processes of circulation, resonance, and feedback help explicate some of the changes in the McCarroll family's sound over the last dozen or so years, paying careful attention to the family's shift towards consciously performing their music as heritage. I trace fiddler Jimmy McCarroll and the Roane County Ramblers' 1928 and 1929 Columbia recordings as they have circulated globally among listeners through 78rpm records, anthologies, and reissues, attending to the ways in which releases have resonated with listeners. I conclude by examining the ways that Tom McCarroll and his daughter Tammie McCarroll-Burroughs' music has transformed into heritage tailored for audiences and venues dedicated to traditional music.

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