Graduate Student Mentoring

Lee with Kris Truelsen, one of the first graduates from the ETSU APST MA program - in his 2015 thesis (linked) Kris developed his idea of "non-secular song" by focusing on "The Great Speckled Bird."

Lee coordinates the graduate programs in Appalachian Studies at ETSU - contact him at bidgood@etsu.edu with questions!

Online Projects with content from ETSU students

https://appalachiansoundposts.wordpress.com/

Online exhibit providing documentation and interpretation of soundscapes in Appalachia, and those from elsewhere that refer to the region - founded by graduate students in Lee's APST 5670 "Ethnomusicology and Appalachia" course at ETSU.

 We're eager to add more "soundposts" - /contact me if you are interested in being a part of this project!

(Image from mrgriffter, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Joe Morrell, local music entrepreneur with his Grand Guitar museum visible from I-81 near Bristol, TN/VA. Click on the image to see a student's exhibit based on this landmark.

Students' reports on Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country music-making today, from BLUE 4130, "Survey of Contemporary BLUE":

https://surveycb.wordpress.com/

https://surveycbfall2014.wordpress.com/

 https://surveycb2015.wordpress.com/

https://surveycb2016.wordpress.com/

 https://surveycb2017.wordpress.com/

 

 

Click on this image to access student Jimmy Fitch's research on "Ameripolitan" innovator Dale Watson from BLUE 4130

Teaching in the Community

Lee teaching about work, music, and railroads at the 2014 Riddlefest event in Burnsville, NC.

Lee leading a play-party game at the Historic Orchard at Altapass, teaching kids (and parents) about how music and dance support and are supported by work.

Sound Studies / Community - 2023

 

Listen here: December 8, 2023 “Great Lecture” Recording

Works Cited:

Jonathan Sterne. The Sound Studies Reader. Routledge, 2012

Marianne Huang, Jacob Kreutzfeldt, and Anna Lawaetz. “Sound Studies Course” Open Educational Resources For the Digital Arts & Humanities (2017)

Lee Bidgood, Ed. “Soundscapes and Appalachia” Website for ETSU Course Ethnomusicology and Appalachia. (2017 - present). 

R. MURRAY SCHAFER PT. 2: CRITIQUES & CONTRADICTIONS” Phantom Power. Podcast. (2021) 

Hildegard Westerkamp. “Soundwalking” (2001)

Richard C. Rath. How Early America Sounded. Cornell University Press  (2003)

Douglas Reichert Powell. Critical Regionalism: Connecting Politics and Culture in the American Landscape. University of North Carolina Press. (2007). 

 Titon, Jeff Todd (2019) "Ecojustice, Religious Folklife and a Sound Ecology," Yale Journal of Music & Religion: Vol. 5: No. 2, Article 7.

Patterson, Beverly Bush. 1995.  The Sound of the Dove: Singing in Appalachian Primitive Baptist Churches. University of Illinois Press.

Sutton, Brett. 1982. Primitive Baptist Hymns of the Blue Ridge. Liner Notes

Ted Gioia. Music, a subversive history. Basic Books (2019). 

Eric Lott. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. Oxford Univ. Press (1993).

“Free Show Tonite” (Wagner and Zeitlin, 1983) 

Rhiannon Giddens. Keynote address to the International Bluegrass Music Association (2017). 

Francesca T. Royster. Black Country Music: Listening For Revolutions. Univ. of Texas Press (2022).  

Jake Blount. “The New Faith” Smithsonian Folkways (2022). 

J. L. Austin. How To Do Things With Words. (second edition) Harvard Univ. Press (1975)


 

Listening Together - Epiphany 2021

The season of Epiphany is a time of discovery, of gifts—and of listening. The lectionary readings during this season of the church year include calls from Jesus to the people who would become his disciples.  He offers gifts of life, and these people drop everything and follow him.   I invite us to use these five evening sessions to open our ears for a call, for a discovery, a gift: to listen together.  For Epiphany 2021, the Conversations and Compline meetings will be led by Dr. Lee Bidgood (professor in Appalachian Studies at ETSU) in a series entitled “Listening Together.” Through introductions to the discipline of ethnomusicology and the field of sound studies, this series will provide participants with new ways to engage in spiritually-informed listening to the world. Sessions will focus on a range of topics, including race and country music, soundscapes and bells, and the ways that we interact with hymn texts. There is no single book that we will use to guide the series; individual texts and media will be available for each session here.   Meetings will take place via Zoom on Wednesdays at 7pm, January 13 through February 10, 2021.  Register in advance using this link: 
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcldeiuqjouHt3aWLpsKCynfu4FjEjp4G9L After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Many of these topics will be covered in more depth in Lee’s Spring 2021 ETSU course “Ethnomusicology and Appalachia” (APST 5670). To learn more about this series or the course, use the "contact" form on this website.