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For
this audio-play, the music was arranged so as to be what Hannah
describes in the book as the "The Nywatt Sound."
That turns out to be a phrase worth a footnote.
Ted
grew up in a small town near Denver.
In a 1943 letter to Hannah he wrote -- perhaps not entirely in
jest -- "My ancestors left the Great Smoky Mountains, heading up
to the Rockies, but they settled in the foothills in a place called
Niwot because it was pronounced the same [as Nywatt]."
About
the music, however, he wrote: "My folks and neighbors still play
fiddle-and-banjo and dance on Saturday nights.
Last time I got a week's leave I sat in on bass -- only they're
all in a new groove! On
clear nights the radio set brings in the latest hillbilly music out of
West Virginia or Nashville, and they've got some new records too.
I don't know if there's a Nashville sound yet, like there's a New
Orleans sound and a Kansas City sound, but there's a Niwot sound all
right!"
During
the 1940s, Jazz players were moving toward Bebop, and Appalachian
stringed-instrument players were also moving toward a new,
expressionistic style. What
Ted probably heard --that "Niwot sound" -- was the first wave
of Bluegrass. |
