One such story he turned into a song was that of liberated slave Aunt Viney Moulton, who came to Idaho on the Oregon Trail in 1867, the first recorded African American to take up residence in the state. ![]() ![]() “If I can't find a subject matter singer songwriter, then the job falls to me to create the song.” He looks for Idaho singer songwriters who know the subject matter and are familiar with historic music from the time of the event, then asks them to create a song to be recorded. Sometimes Eller finds an amazing Idaho story that should have a song written about it. Which one claims most of him? I don't pretend to know. Why, bless my soul, you can't say squat until it's crossed the ocean. The Telegraph can't near compare with its speed of locomotion. To put a fearsome monster down,At first they thought was sham. Drilling them both night and day, In spite of Uncle Sam. Have you heard of late, The Song of Bear Lake County? They're mustering all the forces there, That’s possible to rally. “And after about two generations, the chain of custody of Idaho songs was lost.” They're on the radio.’ Or they hear a record by the Carter family of Virginia, and they said, ‘They must be really good. “I think the Idaho musicians would hear a song on the radio and say, 'Boy, they must be good. He’s generally focused on music before 1923 when radio broadcasting came to Idaho and recordings of music became widely accessible. At that point, nobody had collected Idaho songs as they had in the other 47 states in the country.”įocused on music and events before mass recordings overtook localized music scenes, Eller is interested in the variety and diversity of music that existed before radio homogenized the American soundscape. “Radio came to Idaho and mass recordings were available to ordinary people. These books often accompany recorded albums of both historic songs and also contemporary pieces written about historical events, places and people. ![]() Idaho Commission on the Arts Gary Eller researches and writes books about Idaho songs from his home office on Pickle’s Butte, just south of Nampa, ID.
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