'Women in Old-Time Music' exhibit to open

For Immediate Release

May 8th, 2024

Museum to Feature New Traveling Exhibit

Perhaps nothing is identified with Surry County more than its place in old time music history, and now the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History will be focusing on the role of women in that musical genre with its new exhibit, “I’ve Endured: Women in Old-Time Music.”

“The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History is proud to honor the hidden heroines, activists, and commercial success stories of women who have impacted the roots and branches of old-time music,” officials there said in announcing the upcoming exhibit, which opens May 17 and will be on display through Aug. 19.

“‘I’ve Endured: Women in Old-Time Music’ is a look into the past, present, and future of the genre and the integral role women played in the development of country music as we know it today,” said Dr. René Rodgers, who is the head curator at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, Virginia, where the exhibit originated. “In many cases women’s stories have been left out of old-time music or overshadowed by the achievements of male artists through the impact of gender roles and bias, unequal access to financial independence, not having access to decision-making roles, and more. We’ve done our best to include as many of these fascinating women and their stories as possible in the exhibit, and reserved an area for feedback from the community to tell us who we may have missed.”

Old-time music has been passed down through generations. A commercial career in music may never have occurred to many women tending large families and domestic responsibilities. They were often discouraged from playing in public. Nonetheless, several found ways to work within these challenges — and move beyond them — in order to pass on old-time music, and the related genres of country and bluegrass, as performing musicians or in other roles in music.

“At its heart, old-time is mountain folk music with strong ties to Appalachia and the diverse peoples who have called it home,” the musuem officials said. “It is one of the melting pots of American culture, connecting to multiple influences, instruments and genres, primarily country and bluegrass. Defined by upbeat, instrumental dance tunes played with acoustic instruments, including the fiddle, banjo and guitar, old time music often incorporates dance traditions like clogging, flatfooting and buck dancing.”

“’I’ve Endured: Women in Old-Time Music’” serves as a starting point for anyone who wishes to delve deeper into music history and women’s great contributions to the soundtrack of our lives,” museum officials said.

For questions or more information, contact the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History at 336-786-4478 or online at www.northcarolinamuseum.org.