The Backroads Of Coahoma County: A Song History

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"The Backroads Of Coahoma County" is the thirteenth of sixteen pieces in DulciFlute, a book of duets for mountain dulcimer and Native American flute by John Keane and Karen Keane, published by Fingers Of Steel.[1] The listing calls every piece an original composition, gives the flute part in standard notation and the dulcimer part as chords, and includes an MP3 of each piece played by the authors, but it names no composer for any single tune.[1] Based in Shreveport, Louisiana, the Keanes play mountain dulcimer, Native American flute, ukulele and cajon, and their repertoire takes in Louisiana traditional music, folk and bluegrass among other styles.[2][3] Both hold music-education degrees from Northeast Louisiana University, now the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and they have produced several books and CDs of their own music for dulcimer and flute.[2][3] The sources consulted here give no date for this tune.[1][2][3]

Painting of a sunlit dirt road running through tall woods, with a small figure walking along it

Constant Troyon, Road in the Woods, oil on canvas, mid-1840s. A French woodland road rather than a Mississippi one, shown loosely for the title; it has no connection to the tune.

Clarksdale is the seat and largest city of Coahoma County, a northern Delta county bordered along much of its western side by the Mississippi River; the county dates from 1836, and its name is Choctaw for "red panther."[4] In the Mississippi Encyclopedia's account the county holds a crucial place in blues history: Muddy Waters spent his youth there, Son House was born near Clarksdale, and the Delta Blues Museum stands in Clarksdale.[4] Over the summers of 1941 and 1942, Alan Lomax of the Library of Congress joined Fisk University's John W. Work III and Lewis Jones in a joint project examining social and cultural change in the county's African American communities, making field recordings along the way.[5] Nothing in the sources consulted here links the tune to any particular place in the county or explains what prompted its title.[1][2][3]

Our book that contains the song "The Backroads Of Coahoma County"

Sources

  1. Fingers Of Steel: "John Keane And Karen Keane, DulciFlute".
  2. DulcimerDownloads: "John Keane".
  3. DulcimerDownloads: "Karen Keane".
  4. Mississippi Encyclopedia: "Coahoma County".
  5. Association for Cultural Equity: "1941 to 1942".
  6. Image: Constant Troyon, Road in the Woods, oil on canvas, mid-1840s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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