East Tennesse State University, long known in the bluegrass realm for the quality of musicians that come through its music program, is now making a new inroad in the education and music fields.
Located in Johnson City, Tenn., ETSU has introduced a new major studies program that will yield a bachelor of arts degree in Bluegrass, Old Time and Country music. It’s the only such degree of its kind being offered at any college or university.
The degree program was announced Friday, Nov. 20, by Dr. Paul Stanton, the school’s president.
Course work will involve studies of the history of the three genres of music, with the program’s faculty focused on preparing students for careers as artists and recording professionals. One of the labs involved in the program is a state-of-the-art recording facility.
The program’s soon-to-be interim director, Daniel Boner, was once a student in the predecessor non-degree program, and is now an instructor.
“Our students are telling us, we want to do this for a living,“ Boner told TriCities.com, a newspaper that serves the region. “We want to have careers in bluegrass. We want to learn about what makes a successful artist on the road.“
Students can officially major in Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music starting the Spring 2010 semester.
In 1982 when Jack Tottle initiated the ETSU Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music program at the school, no four-year university had ever attempted anything like it. “In fact, there were more than a few in the academic community … who were quite dismissive of the notion that these musical styles were appropriate for university level study,” according to a history of the program on ETSU’s Web site.
” Additionally, there were many in the community at large who viewed the region’s bluegrass and country music heritage as primarily linked with a past where poverty, lack of formal education, and lack of respect from much of mainstream America were viewed as defining the Appalachian region. Members of this group, quite understandably, did not take pride in the contributions of this area to America’s musical heritage. To the contrary, they exerted pressure to de-emphasize, and deflect attention from country and bluegrass music, as incompatible with a modern, progressive, and enlightened, Appalachia.
“Veteran musician, Don Campbell summed up the attitude of many in the Tri-Cities at the time. He was asked about recordings made of his performances on steel guitar and mandolin with Curly King on WCYB’s Farm and Fun Time in the 1940s. With more than a little frustration in his voice, he responded, ‘Oh, nobody wants to listen to that old hillbilly stuff anymore.’ (Today these performances are a treasured part of ETSU’s Archives of Appalachia.
“The mission of educating students regarding country and bluegrass music, thus, quickly became a broader effort. A popular History of Country Music course was implemented, which allowed students how the country music of the 1940s and 1950s underlay the music that young people were hearing on radio and television. The extent of the existing educational gap was highlighted when one student asked, ‘Oh, did Hank Williams, Jr.’s daddy play music too?’”