The Portable Community: Place and Displacement in Bluegrass Festival Life (Interactionist Currents)

This book explores the various ways in which individuals use music and culture to understand and respond to changes in their natural and built environments. Drawing on over 15 years of ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and participant observation, the author develops the thesis that the relationships, networks, and intimate forms of social interaction in the “portable” community cultivated at bluegrass festival events are significant cultural formations that shape participants’ relationships to their localities. With specific attention to the ways in which the strength of these relationships are translated into meaningful sites of community identity, place, and action following devastating local floods that destroyed homes and businesses, displacing residents for years, __The Portable Community: Place and Displacement in Bluegrass Festival Life__ sheds light on the strength of such communities when tested and under external threat. A study of the central role of arts and music in grappling with social and environmental change, including their role in facilitating disaster relief and recovery, this volume will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in symbolic interactionism, the sociology of music, culture, and the sociology of disaster. This book explores the various ways in which individuals use music and culture to understand and respond to changes in their natural and built environments. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 List of figures 9 Acknowledgments 11 Introduction: The quest for community in bluegrass festival culture 16 The search for portable community 22 My ethnographic path 24 Moving forward 28 Notes 32 Works cited 33 The quest for community in bluegrass festival culture 16 1 “Bluegrass breakdown”: A brief social history of bluegrass music and festival culture 35 Old time string bands and “hillbilly” music 36 The birth of bluegrass: Music of longing and displacement 38 Folk revival: The rise of the bluegrass festival 40 Bluegrass music and festival culture in the New American West 42 Notes 49 Works cited 50 2 “What have they done to the old home place?”: Family, home, and kinship in the “New” American West 52 Music and the cultural construction of place 52 The construction of Appalachia in traditional bluegrass music 54 Aesthetics of tradition, kinship, and family 58 Bluegrass music and the growth of the New American West 63 The longing for home and family 70 The search for authenticity 77 Notes 80 Works cited 81 3 Welcome home I: Building place in the bluegrass festival camp 84 Constructing place in the festival camp 86 Planning 88 Pilgrimage 92 Land rush 96 Setup 101 Works cited 107 4 Welcome home II: Performing place in the vernacular village 108 Emplacing the vernacular village 109 Mapping and defining place 112 Welcome home: Performing place in the festival camp 118 Works cited 123 5 The portable community: Inclusion, intimacy, and simplicity in bluegrass festival life 125 The changing nature of community 125 The bluegrass festival as portable community 129 Inclusion 130 Intimacy 136 Simplicity 140 Note 147 Works cited 147 6 “The festival world is so much better than the real world”: Performing self and identity in festival spaces 150 The allure of the festival world 152 Contrasting social worlds 156 From real world to festival world 157 Campsite characters and themed camps 161 Tearing down and leaving the festival camp 167 Notes 171 Works cited 171 7 “We’ve got grit”: Community resilience, displacement, and rebuilding after the flood 173 Lyons, Colorado 173 The 2013 flood 174 Saving Planet Bluegrass 176 Disaster community 179 Community identity: Losing a sense of place 182 The struggle for affordable housing 183 Tapping into scene networks 188 The role of professional musicians 191 Planet Bluegrass: Symbolic and financial anchor 193 Emotional catharsis 196 Works cited 202 Conclusion: The quest for community and place in the New West 204 Courting community and place in a fragmented world 204 Pilgrimage, place and the performance of identity 207 The festival as a vernacular public space 209 Hope for community 211 Works cited 213 Appendix A: Methodological notes 216 Appendix B: Festival performance as social drama: The interactionism of Kenneth Burke 219 Index 226 Music;,culture;,portable,community;,environmental,change;,bluegrass,festival,culture;,displacement;,festival,performance;,festival,camps Music,culture,portable community,environmental change,bluegrass festival culture,displacement,festival performance,festival camps "This book explores the various ways in which individuals use music and culture to understand and respond to changes in their natural and built environments. Drawing on over fifteen years of ethnographic fieldwork, interviews and participant observation, the author develops the thesis that the relationships, networks, and intimate forms of social interaction in the 'portable' community cultivated at bluegrass festival events are significant cultural formations that shape participants' relationships to their localities. With specific attention to the ways in which the strength of these relationships are translated into meaningful sites of community identity, place, and action following devastating local floods that destroyed homes and businesses, displacing residents for years, Portable Community: Place and Displacement in Bluegrass Festival Culture sheds light on the strength of such communities when tested and under external threat. A study of the central role of arts and music in grappling with social and environmental change, including their role in facilitating disaster relief and recovery, this volume will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in symbolic interactionism, the sociology of music, culture and the sociology of disaster"-- Provided by publisher