The Truth About Banjo Stereotypes
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 16. 07. 2024
- Banjo Heritage đ / cliftonhicks
Clifton Hicks on the banjo's role in "hillbilly" stereotypes, the real origin of the term "redneck," and the cultural strip-mining of Southern folk music.
00:00 Why banjo players are stereotyped as "hillbillies."
01:20 Early blackface minstrel stereotypes (1830s-1840s).
02:13 Why hillbilly stereotypes persist.
04:03 English origins of "hillbilly" and "redneck."
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I've almost completely avoided learning Dueling Banjos, because of the stereotype.
heh..."almost". yep, that's about right. it's hard to not to slip up and *completely* avoid picking out those first couple notes.
My dad and I both play banjo, and we've talked about how we don't really wanna learn dueling Banjos, not cuz of any reason other than we just think that song is not really that interesting to us.
But once someone told us we should learn it and how 'cool' that would be and my dad looked at me and said with a sarcastical tint 'yeah son, wouldn't that be "cool"' and then he laughed.
Wanting to learn dueling banjos after watching deliverance is the reason Iâm into guitar. Gonna get a banjo one day.
As others have said, I was taught "red neck" was from early miners wearing a red handkerchief around their neck to show they were in favor of a union or a protest against company store type ideals. First I've heard of it going further back
I believe this is the American history of the word and that the word has been used before American history.
During the Oil Boom of the 21st century âRed Neckâ & âRoughneckâ were synonymous with the Oklahoma and Texas oil field workers.
The back of their necks were sunburned year-round in the desert oil fields.
Hy! I'm french living in Bretagne (Brest). In my land is Banjo basiquely catalized as a "Amercian country folk instrument". But not by the Algerian and marocan peaple in France ( a lot of peaple) who have a tradition of Banjos since a long time with the Chaaby music. Freanch dont make difference beetween Banjos (5, tenor, 6 strings). In the Breton celtiq music we play a lot of tenor banjo( i do ) for breton and irish music.. the movie Deliverance is known but not so much...So stereotypes dont really survive the ocean ! Kenavo from Brest
I'm Irish and i personally much prefer the 5 string to the tenor banjo. I wish we used it more in our traditional music
Interesting facts about the origin of the words "hillbilly" & "rednecks"... Here in Texas some us heard "rednecks" was from hardworking farmers getting sunburned (hence the neck area) working in the fields... Take care...
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Yeah. I can still remember getting seeded with the banjo bug about age 7 or 8 when I saw Scruggs and Flatt do Wreck of the Old 97 on the Beverly Hillbillies in the early 70s. As Australian kids, we had no ideas what a hillbilly was. We thought it was just country v city. Rich v. poor.
Same as most Australians have no idea that the Australian gold rushes (1830s - 1890s) involved many North Americns, who brought gold mining and other expertise, and music. Among our first overland passenger services were Cobb & Co. stage coaches, straight out of the US. But they were all dutifully written out of Australian history because they were still considered revolutionary upstarts in a loyal British Colony. No credit given.
All traces of Australia's banjo heritage have disappeared. But it's funny that, arguably, our most famous old poet is known as Banjo Patterson, or why the Old men used to refer to a shovel as a banjo.
Perhaps Clifton, while you sift through the haystack of banjo heritage and history, you might one-day find a rusty old needle that once travelled down under.
NZ. Steve Martin on the muppets. 80s i guess but we were probably a few years late.
Americans often forget how popular the banjo was in England during the 19th Century, more popular, dare I say it, than in America. It never had that backwoods hillbilly association. It was associated with blackface minstrels yes, but that didn't matter a scrap. We just loved the instrument and everybody high and low, if they could get one, played the banjo, including King Edward VII and the explorer Earnest Shackleton (yes, I know they are early 20th Century). My distant relative The Great Vance aka Alfred \Glanville Vance, probably the most famous Music Hall entertainer of his day (mid-19th C) played one, and it was regarded as a very respectable instrument. Thank you, though, for telling us about the American side of things.
Black Jake of Norwich, England.
Well I'm from the rural North of England ( just South of the Borders region ) and you've taught me something!
Love the channel and as a newbie to 5 string banjo you're an inspiration. Cheers!đđ»đŹđ§
1:46 thank you for pointing this out.
When many people think of an delta blues player or a banjo player they frequently imagine an old man, not realizing that they often learned that music when they were young! Especially if their music isnât spiritual, youâll be able to see and hear the rebellious, cocky, and woman-driven young punks they once were.
Especially is this true with 1920âs blues music, might sound ancient to the modern ear, but it was probably the first genre that was âstreetâ and âhoodâ, reflecting the modernization of the world through the lense of the African American experience.
Just point of clarification on the etymology of the term hillbilly The term "hillbilly" is Scottish in origin. In Scotland, the term "hill-folk" referred to people who preferred isolation from greater society, and "billy" aparently was short hand for "companion". The terms "hill-folk" and "Billie" were combined and applied to the "Cameronians" who were fallowers and proponents of the teachings of a militant Presbyterian called Richard Cameron. These Scottish "Covenanters" were then to lee Scotland in the late 17th century to avoid religoius persecution. Indeed a lot of the early settlers of the Thirteen Colonies were from Scotland and Northern Ireland and settled in, and around the Appalachian Mountains.
Just a point of clarification that may, or indeed may not be worth mentioning but i thought i would do so anyway.
Love your channel by the way. And i have just bought a banjo will be a regular visitor here for some time to come
We are of the same people my family is also English and Scotch Irish. Some of my ancestors were sharecroppers and loggers. I mostly grew up listening to Church hymns and southern gospel/revival music and I learned to play the piano and organ by ear by copying what I heard. I have been playing around with the banjo and I appreciate you sharing your videos.
Your in depth expanatory methods cant be beat...especially speaking historically..i find it very inciteful
Wow thanks Clifton thanks for the history lesson,I'm English & had no idea of the history of the term 'redneck',you learn something everyday.Keep well Clifton .
Good video,glad your putting out more instructional videos hope all is well down south.
Who knew that when i started taking an interest in the banjo i'd get an education also. Thanks Clifton (already a proud Patreon). UK Steve
I'm from the North East of England... Where the Eastern borderlands are.
I've never heard of Hillbilly, nor redneck, coming from England. I like it though!
I'm a Hillbilly!
I tell you something though, it's fascinating that loads of the old, almost forgotten, border ballads are still alive and well via americanised, often appalachian, maestro's and balladeers. They're both something I've been interested in for a very long time and learning of everything coming full circle (for me at least from British folk and border ballads, migrating across to the American tradition and then being discovered in that sense through the respective artists) is absolutely fascinating. It really touches my soul, and makes a connection, across folks, time, geography. Man, I love it.
Anyways, these banjo history videos are fascinating, and I love your tunes and singing style.
'Ellish craic chur! As us British hillbillies say đ
Wow thanks so much for this video!
Me encanto el video, yo toco el banjo y soy de Argentina. La verdad no conosco la cultura norteamericana a fondo y me sorprende las cosas que decĂs!! sos un groso wacho.
Love your videos man
_Cracker_: it comes from "cracking" - breaking up the kernels of - corn in the process of making (moonshine) whiskey. It was not originally pejorative or racial. "Georgia cracker," like "Indiana hoosier," was not an insult and still isn't, depending on the circumstances.. The Atlanta "Crackers" was the name of Atlanta's original, minor-league baseball team and the Atlanta "Black Crackers" was the name of Atlanta's Negro League baseball team. I wonder how people would feel about "cracker," if the Boston-then-Milwaukee "Braves" had become the Atlanta "Crackers," like the former St. Louis "Browns" became the Baltimore "Orioles," keeping the name of the original local team, and not the Baltimore "Browns."
"Cracker" was used in England before the discovery of maize.
oh thank god it's not to do with whip cracks
Thanks to the movie "deliverance".for sures.
I worked in a music shop as a drum salesman. I was so attracted to the banjos in the shop. When shop was quiet i started tinkering on a few banjos.was never any good but enjoyed learning. If friends came in i would be called a hillbilly.hahaha.love you content sir.mike. cape town.
great video
An artist and a historian! Let me know if there is any way I can help promote. Keep up the great work
The car stereotype is good, especially if you have a good spread of speakers. But I listen to you on my phone and its not stereo at all, still sounds great.
Hi Clifton I'm a big fan I've watched a lot of your videos. I've noticed that you really have a great knowledge for the history of banjos. I have a banjolele. I've been told it's from the early 1800s but I'm not quite sure is there any way I can get in touch with you to send you the information about this instrument.?
Fascinating video!
Hey Clifton, have you read "The Steel Bonnets" by George MacDonald Fraser? A fascinating account of "the Debateable lands" as the Borders were known. I grew up there on the Scottish side (where the hills are ;) )
I had a copy of Steel Bonnets for a while but never read the whole thing. Much of my knowledge on that subject comes from David Hackett Fischer's book, Albion's Seed.
Hey, Brother. My ppl were Thompsons and Elliotts of the borders. Idk but maybe that's why I have an urge to lift some kye when ever I pass a ranch. Maybe. But I DO know that's why we were "invited" to emmigrate to America.
The other side were native Irish McCarthys. I'm so conflicted! đŁ
True story, I (like Bo Duke of the Dukes of Hazard) was born & raised in the suburbs of New York City. I married a legit hillbilly from West Virginia. One day, at a family get together there, her brother brought out his guitar and their dad brought out a banjo and began playing Dueling Banjos on either side of me. I said..."Hey, hold on now! I now how that movie ends!" and the room erupted in laughter. đ
Lmao đ€Ł
Thank you for the history
"DELIVERANCE" had a lot to do with it.
I'm from Illinois I'm a flatlander my self but I live on a hill so I call my self a hillbilly
Iâm not a banjo player but I am a hillbilly lol. Tell it like it is brother itâs always the yankees
I just realised I sent too quickly and didn't write bandanas. The coal miners wore red bandanas.
In the book he was a black albino but they could not find one for the movie so the went for a weird looking boy fun fact
Another example of commercial stereotypes misrepresenting the South, and erasing it's history and people.
@@CliftonHicksbanjo yeah love the videos man got me playing old time again I play in sawmill tuning
Have you ever seen the punk band "toy dolls" do the duelling banjos bit?
I have not...
@@CliftonHicksbanjo czcams.com/video/8jSFPygl4jg/video.html
Sawney Bean and crew were prime examples of the pre American Hillbilly stereotype. I doubt they had banjos though. Beat rock, hunt meat, caveman, rock beat.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawney_Bean
Thereâs no way that boy was âretiredâ⊠Iâve been watching your videos for a year now and still canât pick
actually the "retired" boy (haha) didn't play the banjo at all (perhaps you're kidding) ....check this out: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Redden ...and don't feel too bad, i'm going on 8 years and still can't pick all that well!
@@rawbeets Right. Someone else was playing the banjo music. Plus, it shows him playing old time 2 finger or such and the actual song is played 3 finger Bluegrass style.
I read that kid ended up taking up the banjo after the movie.
I'm a hillbilly and happy about it! My folks come from the border lands we're Ulster Scots.
Shout out for Billy Connerly.
'Banjo' Sweeney rode with JEB Stuart
That's Joel Sweeney's younger brother, Sam Sweeney. The whole family played music.
Truth! (Although there weren't any Methodists in the 16th century!)
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Communist here. From Northern Ireland. On your point 'nobody will get canceled for making fun of hillbillies', that's true, but also it's interesting to think about. Americans are heavily invested into their racial dynamic and they heavily view the world through that, even if it only really makes sense for their particular conditions, but there's also a distinct element of classism.
Nobody talks about the revolutionary history of the miners or their altercations with the Pinkertons or the reasons as to why the south would be in the material state that it's in. Rather they uncritically accept the vision of the south that's promoted to them - that it's basically KKK land with a series of psuedo-christian cultists ruling everything. They believe themselves to be superior, but since there's no racial dynamic, they're free to feel superior to them.
I don't live in the South, nor did I grow up there. I've heard some horror stories, and one of my dear friends was deeply traumatized by their upbringing in the south and afforementioned cultists, with the other having their family fall apart due to drug use and not being able to afford healthcare, ending up basically being made homeless.. in the US, the richest country in the world. I think they live in a literal fucking shack atm.
Fuck communism. Talk about cults, that's all communism is. One big fucking cult.
I sometimes hear Americans chanting 'Pluck yo' ban-jo! pluck yo' ban-jo!'
I think that's what they're saying. What is it all about?
I think popularity with the band rules started from deliverance
Dang! I better stop callin' mahself a hillbilly! Although I do have some Scotch-Irish ancestry!
Deliverance was the worst thing to happen to the South in the last 50 years. Damn Bert Reynolds, he should have known better.
Can't tell you how many deliverance comments I get on my main video, czcams.com/video/uLSS7ZkA59E/video.html and I try to educate folks about stereotypes, but I think I'll refer them to this vid. Thanks. Miss M (Also, with ur permission, I'd be interested in downloading the audio to one of your faster solo uploads and making a dance vid, to refer more folks to your channel from mine. It seems dancing is a way to bring in new persons to the folk traditions, even tho they clicked on it expecting a modern shuffle or tap dance)
Please do. đđ
It's a distinctly American art form. As my father said when we were traveling through Europe and we saw American influence. "That's pure Americana". The Blues and Rock and Roll are American art forms.
What does c#ack3r come from? What's the history?
Loving that people were canceled for the exact thing that Cliff said no one would ever be canceled for #crylaughemoji
"Cracker" comes from "craic," meaning to party and carouse.
Right, that area is the border areas of England and were protestants. They were until about 30 years ago full of coal mines. The so called "Scots Irish" were not" Irish" ethnically. They were later protestant immigrants to Ulster from Scotland , England and even Holland.. Mr Hicks really understands his Geography. Most of the Appalachian people were protestants from mostly England , Southern Scotland and Ulster . Nothing to do with the "American Catholic Irish" in places like Boston who originated from mainly the Catholic Irish areas of Southern Ireland.
Thanks for writing, Doug. I realized early on that the bulk of my family were Baptists or Presbyterians from northern England, and there were only a handful of Catholics from Ireland and Holland. This caused me to research the origins of Catholicism, Protestantism, and Anglicanism in Britain and Ireland, and this led me to David H. Fischer's brilliant book, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America. That book explains better than any other _who_ Anglo-Americans are, and why.
@@CliftonHicksbanjo I will read it. Actually I think Hollywood has a lot to answer for. My family are Methodists from the the far north of England and were mostly coal miners. I was lucky that I did not have to follow that route into the mines. The other side of the family are Anglo Irish. Those border areas of England and Scotland are rough tough places, and very bleak. Far away from Hollywood's London centric view of England being snooty English aristocrats. I left the country years ago , but that only brought me closer to British and Irish folk music. And the American banjo seems in my view the best instrument to play those songs on. Well the way you and old timers like Dock Boggs play them. You opened my mind to all the different tunings too. I got fed up with this constant open G let's all follow Earl Scruggs mantra (no disrespect to him). Keep up the good work.
Iâve lived in small town and rural areas my whole life, and farmers invariably have distinctively red necks, since that is the one part of their bodies they donât cover when they are working out in the fields. This is why I have a hard time accepting your explanation for why those who were mostly field workers are called rednecks.
After the reign of Henry VIii all of England had basically become Anglican by his edict, many of the Lowland Scots (Borderers) had become followers of Calvinism, wearing a red neckerchief as a means of identification. These âRednecksâ eventually came to occupy much of Ulster as payment as mercenaries for England against the native Irish.These are the Scots Irish, originally from the foothills of the Scottish highlands, and know aligning themselves with William of Orange to preserve the Protestant English monarchy they became known as hillbillies.These UlsterScots were the first ethnic group to come to America in large and usually indentured numbers. This occurred around the time of the Revolution, having a natural dislike for England they were welcomed by Washington, after the revolution they were encouraged to settle in the Appalachians and west away from the more Anglo/Saxon people who had initially settled the 13 colonies. The derogatory names Redneck and Hillbilly have endured these many years.
@@markchristie4231 Sorry, just not buying it. The Wiki article on the term âredneckâ agrees with my theory about how the term originated. At the end of the article it does mention your theory, but only in how âred neckâ is used outside the US.
@@uncommonsensewithpastormar2913 sorry but Mark is not offering a "theory", as you suggest. He is telling you historical facts of what occurred back then. And how that panned out when those peoples came and settled in the App. Mountains.
Who are aware of the Sweeney Bros ?
People associate banjo with Hillbillies because if you venture into the hills for long enough you will eventually hear a banjo. I'm not sure where Billy comes from, but when in Rome.
Today most people associate the banjo with hillbillies because of the boy with fetal alcohol syndrome featured in the movie Deliverance.
But itâs origin was gourd instruments from Africa brought to America and played by slaves and it was made popular in the 19th & early 20th centuries by Black Face Minstrel entertainers.
Wait, âyankeeâ is inherently disparaging đ€. Ainât it? Sadly Iâm using it more and more as yankees are moving to my area of Tennessee with alacrity. Theyâll ruin it eventually.
/offrant Cool video, thanks.
No, I don't think _Yankee_ is inherently disparaging. For example, when I visited Britain, Ireland, and New Zealand, people referred to me as "Yank." It felt strange at first, but they clearly just mean "American." The word originates from an indigenous American term meaning "Englishman."
It's also worth noting that the U.S. Army played "Yankee Doodle Dandy" when Cornwallis surrendered in 1780-something, and Gen. Grant once said, "I know only two tunes. One is 'Yankee Doodle,' and the other isn't."
I think it's like Cracker, in that those identified by the word kind of revel in it.
True! The Brits, sadly, just donât get it. When I was a younger man and an IT manager, I had a Brit on the development team. He remarked that he couldnât believe heâd ever wind up working for a âYank.â I told him that Iâd been called many nasty things, but I never thought anyone would call me a Yank. đ
Merry Christmas! đ»
He proudly called himself a
"cracker". what more do you need?
lol! True that đ»
Whether people understand it or not, what youâre describing is cultural appropriation, but the discriminator is class instated of race or ethnicity.
i believe George Gibson (Clifton's mentor) has referred to this as "cultural strip-mining" which for me is much more evocative
The one with the whip. The tail. Missy sip eat.,,,wow you must have been hungry.....blessings young un...my name is " finn" Nickolas Finn. đ
Oh,. Hi lil Billy. Not/un popular but the southern Yankee's were well known. đ
North? lol. that which is the world, has been without the "word" and the one who settled these lands (my name)
John Euton/eutonal/eternal.....
maewood wyrmnwood
I have to disagree with this 3:55 a little
because of this youtube video: watch?v=3A-Z5sRwgLM