Music and Family Interview!!!!

 Music and Family Interview Transcription

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog! This week I interviewed my great-aunt. Usually she’s a very vivacious person who loves to talk especially about her life, but with COVID-19 and her health issues, she hasn’t been up to herself lately. Also, there’s a few points in the interview where she says that she can’t remember key parts of her life, this is not due to Alzheimer’s. I asked afterwards if she was feeling fine and she said that I’d interrupted her while she was catching up on her stories. Please be kind! 

She grew up on a farm near the Blue Ridge Mountains along with almost ten siblings before moving to the New Prospect area of Spartanburg County near Campobello, SC and the North Carolina border. Ironically enough, the two churches that most of my family attends on both sides of my family tree are within walking distance. Once she turned eighteen, she moved to New York and later Chicago to live with her older sister in her early 20s. She stayed there until returning back to South Carolina in the late 80s-early 90s to take care of her mother. Fun fact though: she’s only five years older than my father.

Me: Hello, everyone! I’m Terri Jones and welcome back to my blog! Before we actually get started I just want to clarify a few things with our guest. For legal reasons I have to ask you again even though I already have, you do understand that this interview is being recorded and you have given your consent? Correct?

Guest: Yes.

Me: Okay, and I also want you to just introduce yourself. Say your name and age if you’re comfortable and we’ll get started.

Guest: My name is Linda Carson and I’m 64 years old.

Me: Okay, so let’s get right into it. To set up your early childhood and your understanding of music, I just want to ask you a few questions. 

Me: Where did you grow up and during what decades did you grow up in?

Guest: I’m not even sure what decades I grew up in.

Me: Oh my.

Guest: I grew up in South Carolina. 

Me: What part of South Carolina?

Guest: In my younger years, Greenville County and then Spartanburg County for the last twenty years.

Me: I just want to clarify, we’re talking about your early childhood. What decades were you growing up in? Wouldn’t that be the 60s and 70s?

Guest: Late 60s and 70s.

Me: Okay, so moving on. What was your first memory of music?

Guest: Gospel music from church.

Me: How exactly did this music play a role in your early life and musical tastes?

Guest: It just increased my awareness of spiritual music. 

This is very much true. My aunt’s house is kind of like a time capsule of sorts. She has tons of old eight-tracks, a record player, and CDs of music from her early years. She almost solely listens to gospel, blues, rock and country music. While I might’ve been exposed to a lot of the music through my parents, particularly my father, I probably wouldn’t be as obsessed with vinyls without my aunt.

 

Me: What musical influences aside from gospel were present in your life?

Guest: The Sensational Nightingales, the Sonic Quartet, Sam Cooke and the Soul Spirits?

Me: Were there any genres of music that you disliked as a child? Or that you liked? 

Guest: As a child, I didn’t comprehend opera music. 

Me: Were there any other genres of music that were popular in your household that you disliked?

After this there was about two minutes of audio where she explained that during that time, there wasn’t really that much access to music aside from the radio and only three television channels and children didn’t have the luxury of disagreeing with their parents or the media they consumed. Sadly, this audio didn’t make the cut as it had a lot of static that continued to distort it even after I made several attempts to isolate her voice. Sorry.

Me: What role did music play in your household? Was music important to you and your family? What role did music play in your life?

Guest: Well, we didn’t have a lot of music growing up. It was mostly when we’d go to church and hear gospel music or Daddy would sing gospel music around the house.

Me: Okay since growing up you didn’t have that much access to music and the music you did was strictly religious, do you think that had any impact on your current music tastes?

Guest: No.

Me: Well what type of music do you listen to now?

Guest: I listen to country music. I listen to blues. I listen to gospel music. 

Me: Despite these being the only three musics you had access to in your childhood, you mean to tell me this had no impact on them being the only three you listen to now?

Guest: Yes

Me: Okay, during your adolescence as you were growing up and possibly entering what most teenagers these days enter a “slight rebellious phase”, what type of music drew you in?

She stops speaking standard English for a second to ask what exactly did I mean or expect.

Guest: Soft rock. And still country music and blues.

Me: Interesting. Do you have any special memories? Especially about a special someone?

Guest: No. Not really. *suspicious giggles*

Me: Did you ever play in a choir? Were you involved in a musical group? Dancing groups? What type of dances were popular?

Guest: I never danced. 

I’ve heard and seen otherwise, but I think she was feeling kind of shy.

Me: What type of social issues influenced the music of your time? Getting more serious and down to earth, I know you were alive pre-desegregation, especially that of schools. Did you feel that the social issues that were taking place had any type of influence on the music and how you viewed music?

Guest: No 

Me: Do you feel this was because you didn’t have access to the music that was becoming aware of these issues or were you just not paying attention to it. 

Guest: I just wasn’t paying attention to it at the time.

She then tells me that I should’ve interviewed my father instead because this was more of his thing and then redirects the conversation to him and my older brother.

Me: Since you said that your main musical influences were from church, did it make you feel any certain type of way?

Guest: No.

Me: Did your mother or anyone ever sing to you when you were little? Did you have any special songs?

Guest: Not that I remember being sung to as a child.

Me: Did you and any of your little beaus have special songs? Did they buy you an eight-track?

Guest: They didn’t buy me an eight-track. When I was old enough I bought my own at 13.

Me: I was trying to lighten the mood and ask you if you were in a relationship with somebody that had any special songs that you remember associating with them.

Guest: No.

Me: You didn’t have your little side moment where every time you hear that song you think about them?

Guest: No.

Me: Back to this, you said that when you were thirteen, you purchased your own eight-track for the first time? What was it?

Guest: A country album. 

Me: Do you remember what it was? Who it was by?

Guest: No. 

Me: Well, moving on a little bit forward in your life. Tell me how exactly has the way you’ve accessed music over the years has changed and how you feel about that. I know you said when you were younger you were listening to and buying eight-tracks. What exactly do you feel after seeing the transition from eight-tracks to CDs and now the digital era? How do you feel about music being so easily accessible now?

Guest: It’s not easily accessible. You have to have money to get it. Then you still need to have a radio or something to play it on. You gotta buy this stuff to be able to have and hear it anyway. I mean...I like it. I kind of enjoy it but I don’t hardly ever listen to it because I’m so busy.

Me: And do you have any type of musical experiences that you’d want to talk about? Feelings? Do you have any concerts? Music festivals?

Guest: No.

Me: How do you feel about older music trends coming back?

Guest: Well, I guess it’s good because some of the stuff that’s out there now is not worth listening to. And it ain’t that I don’t agree with it, I’m just not interested in listening to it. When it comes to my music, I just like to take a second to sit and listen to it because it relaxes me.

Me: Thank you for your time!!!