Holly Riley is a scholar, musician, and educator currently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Teaching, Research, and Mentoring at the University of Montana’s Davidson Honors College. Her work spans questions of power, structure, and identity in American musics, with primary focuses on changing symbols of violence and safety in the country music industry, institution/community relationships in folk music in higher education, and experiential learning practices across arts education. Shereceived her PhD in Ethnomusicology from Florida State University in 2020 and has spent most of the past decade working professionally as a fiddle player and songwriter alongside her academic pursuits. Holly’s current projects include a forthcoming book proposal on symbols and sociopolitical alignment in country music, an article on scaffolded peer-review models in honors education, a quantitative review of gun and violence references in top-charting country songs,an article on Irish music, age, and community-building,and a series of experiential and interdisciplinary honors courses relating to music, culture, and community. If she’s not in her office or playing a show at the local brewery, you can findher sitting on the porch playing banjo or hiking with her dog Willie in her spare time. Address: Missoula, Montana
In 1975, Dr. Patrick Gainer (1903-1981), the beloved West Virginia University folklore professor,... more In 1975, Dr. Patrick Gainer (1903-1981), the beloved West Virginia University folklore professor, musician, and collector of West Virginia folk songs, published the foundational Folk Songs from the West Virginia Hills, a curated compendium of ballads, songs, and spirituals he collected in the Mountain State. While Gainer\u27s pithy annotations of the songs in the collection convey an intimate relationship with the Scots Irish oral mountain song tradition, the music of other cultural traditions are notably absent. Though Gainer writes in his introduction that African Americans have made the greatest contribution to American folk music over any other ethnic group or race, any songs from that tradition are relegated to their own scant final chapter, regrettably entitled, The Negro Contribution. This paper will explore Gainer\u27s collection as a case study of the historical erasure of the musical traditions of other cultural communities in West Virginia. I will also present modern examples from my own folklife documentation in the Mountain State and consider how they might serve as points of entry for reclaiming a more expansive and diverse vision of musical heritage in West Virginia and the greater Appalachian region
This thesis explores values, identities, and practices found within community organizations and a... more This thesis explores values, identities, and practices found within community organizations and academic institutions that are mediated and made manifest in old-time ensembles and their surrounding music communities. The multi-site study includes primary ethnography from the author’s six years of participation and musicianship in the old-time ensembles at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Florida State University, as well as the surrounding communities of Greensboro and Tallahassee. The complex workings of these ensembles are contrasted with more established and performance-based programs, both in community folk music settings and in traditional university music schools. These old-time ensembles catalyze issues of individual and group identity, institutionalism and administration, invented and historical tradition, and folk music practice.
This dissertation explores the ways in which the thematic content and performance practices of co... more This dissertation explores the ways in which the thematic content and performance practices of country music have historically implied notions of protection and safety, while paradoxically enabling instances of violence on both individual and cultural levels. I specifically focus on the sociocultural effects of country music in the U.S. and beyond during the two decades since the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, employing the argument that both 9/11 and other major sociopolitical events of that period have resulted in a fundamental transformation of the ways in which “safe” individuals, communities, and even musical groupings are and have been represented and perceived. A survey of the history of country music yields numerous instances of both violence and safety encoded in the lyrical content of the music and the identity representations of country musicians and their fans. For decades, the protagonists of country music—whether the artists themselves or the characters they portray through their songs, sounds, imagery, and ideological stances—have occupied a peculiar and paradoxical space, straddling the line between the drifter and the provider while balancing images of safety and protection with rough living and aggression. Recent developments in U.S. politics, however, have raised significant questions regarding historically safe identities. An ongoing outbreak of mass shootings, a new cultural outspokenness regarding gender issues and sexual assault, growing tensions around matters of nationalism and race, and other political and cultural factors continue to change the nation’s idea of what is and is not safe, as well as what types and conditions of safety individuals should expect or deserve. Both country musicians and fans are now responding to a complex political era in which Americans (i.e., United States-ians) have had to look inward, confronting systems of violence spearheaded by their own citizens. The exponential rise in mass shootings—most frequently committed by white, American men—is just one example of how certain demographic groups, so often displayed as the “protectors” and “providers” in country music, are now, with increasing cultural intensity, being recognized as potential perpetrators of violent action. A central argument of this dissertation is that these changes reflect a particular upending of the “All-American Man” figure—not just within country music, but within American society—and a reconsideration of the fact that this figure, formerly recognized as a marker of protection and security, is now increasingly questioned as a potential perpetrator of violence. Discussions of safety, place, identity, gender, community, and popular music culture all play into this complicated conversation. How does country music respond to these changing dynamics of what constitutes safety (or lack thereof) in American society? To address this question, I begin by overviewing the identity systems created by a century of country music and its culture in the 20th century, noting specific identity formations relational to concepts of violence and safety. Following this, I zero in on the specific events and conditions related to these concepts of violence and safety during the first two decades of the 21st century, examining a tumultuous and transformational set of years within country music and its surrounding culture. Specifically, sociopolitical events such as the 9/11 terror attacks, the presidential elections in 2008 and 2016, and increased national awareness of issues such as gun violence, gender equality, and sexual assault provide a critical cultural context to changes in country music, including the rise of “bro country” and “arena country” in the early 21st century, an increasingly prevalent narrative of gender issues in country music lyrics, and a mobilization of identity themes relating both to the validation and questioning of traditionally powerful identity tropes.
Update Applications of Research in Music Education, Nov 17, 2014
The primary purpose of this study was to examine the potential of LOw LAtency (LOLA), a low laten... more The primary purpose of this study was to examine the potential of LOw LAtency (LOLA), a low latency audio visual technology designed to allow simultaneous music performance, as a distance learning tool for musical styles in which synchronous playing is an integral aspect of the learning process (e.g., jazz, folk styles). The secondary purpose was to describe participant perceptions of the effectiveness of three technologies used to teach music: LOLA, PolyCom, and Skype. To achieve these goals, we isolated a classical masterclass, jazz lesson, and old-time fiddle session and described trends for these lessons across the three technology platforms. Participants rated the overall effectiveness of LOLA (M = 4.25) higher than PolyCom (M = 3.06) and Skype (M = 2.80). Participants shared their perception that LOLA was superior to other technologies for learning and teaching music. Implications for music teaching are discussed.
In 1975, Dr. Patrick Gainer (1903-1981), the beloved West Virginia University folklore professor,... more In 1975, Dr. Patrick Gainer (1903-1981), the beloved West Virginia University folklore professor, musician, and collector of West Virginia folk songs, published the foundational Folk Songs from the West Virginia Hills, a curated compendium of ballads, songs, and spirituals he collected in the Mountain State. While Gainer\u27s pithy annotations of the songs in the collection convey an intimate relationship with the Scots Irish oral mountain song tradition, the music of other cultural traditions are notably absent. Though Gainer writes in his introduction that African Americans have made the greatest contribution to American folk music over any other ethnic group or race, any songs from that tradition are relegated to their own scant final chapter, regrettably entitled, The Negro Contribution. This paper will explore Gainer\u27s collection as a case study of the historical erasure of the musical traditions of other cultural communities in West Virginia. I will also present modern examples from my own folklife documentation in the Mountain State and consider how they might serve as points of entry for reclaiming a more expansive and diverse vision of musical heritage in West Virginia and the greater Appalachian region
This thesis explores values, identities, and practices found within community organizations and a... more This thesis explores values, identities, and practices found within community organizations and academic institutions that are mediated and made manifest in old-time ensembles and their surrounding music communities. The multi-site study includes primary ethnography from the author’s six years of participation and musicianship in the old-time ensembles at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Florida State University, as well as the surrounding communities of Greensboro and Tallahassee. The complex workings of these ensembles are contrasted with more established and performance-based programs, both in community folk music settings and in traditional university music schools. These old-time ensembles catalyze issues of individual and group identity, institutionalism and administration, invented and historical tradition, and folk music practice.
This dissertation explores the ways in which the thematic content and performance practices of co... more This dissertation explores the ways in which the thematic content and performance practices of country music have historically implied notions of protection and safety, while paradoxically enabling instances of violence on both individual and cultural levels. I specifically focus on the sociocultural effects of country music in the U.S. and beyond during the two decades since the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, employing the argument that both 9/11 and other major sociopolitical events of that period have resulted in a fundamental transformation of the ways in which “safe” individuals, communities, and even musical groupings are and have been represented and perceived. A survey of the history of country music yields numerous instances of both violence and safety encoded in the lyrical content of the music and the identity representations of country musicians and their fans. For decades, the protagonists of country music—whether the artists themselves or the characters they portray through their songs, sounds, imagery, and ideological stances—have occupied a peculiar and paradoxical space, straddling the line between the drifter and the provider while balancing images of safety and protection with rough living and aggression. Recent developments in U.S. politics, however, have raised significant questions regarding historically safe identities. An ongoing outbreak of mass shootings, a new cultural outspokenness regarding gender issues and sexual assault, growing tensions around matters of nationalism and race, and other political and cultural factors continue to change the nation’s idea of what is and is not safe, as well as what types and conditions of safety individuals should expect or deserve. Both country musicians and fans are now responding to a complex political era in which Americans (i.e., United States-ians) have had to look inward, confronting systems of violence spearheaded by their own citizens. The exponential rise in mass shootings—most frequently committed by white, American men—is just one example of how certain demographic groups, so often displayed as the “protectors” and “providers” in country music, are now, with increasing cultural intensity, being recognized as potential perpetrators of violent action. A central argument of this dissertation is that these changes reflect a particular upending of the “All-American Man” figure—not just within country music, but within American society—and a reconsideration of the fact that this figure, formerly recognized as a marker of protection and security, is now increasingly questioned as a potential perpetrator of violence. Discussions of safety, place, identity, gender, community, and popular music culture all play into this complicated conversation. How does country music respond to these changing dynamics of what constitutes safety (or lack thereof) in American society? To address this question, I begin by overviewing the identity systems created by a century of country music and its culture in the 20th century, noting specific identity formations relational to concepts of violence and safety. Following this, I zero in on the specific events and conditions related to these concepts of violence and safety during the first two decades of the 21st century, examining a tumultuous and transformational set of years within country music and its surrounding culture. Specifically, sociopolitical events such as the 9/11 terror attacks, the presidential elections in 2008 and 2016, and increased national awareness of issues such as gun violence, gender equality, and sexual assault provide a critical cultural context to changes in country music, including the rise of “bro country” and “arena country” in the early 21st century, an increasingly prevalent narrative of gender issues in country music lyrics, and a mobilization of identity themes relating both to the validation and questioning of traditionally powerful identity tropes.
Update Applications of Research in Music Education, Nov 17, 2014
The primary purpose of this study was to examine the potential of LOw LAtency (LOLA), a low laten... more The primary purpose of this study was to examine the potential of LOw LAtency (LOLA), a low latency audio visual technology designed to allow simultaneous music performance, as a distance learning tool for musical styles in which synchronous playing is an integral aspect of the learning process (e.g., jazz, folk styles). The secondary purpose was to describe participant perceptions of the effectiveness of three technologies used to teach music: LOLA, PolyCom, and Skype. To achieve these goals, we isolated a classical masterclass, jazz lesson, and old-time fiddle session and described trends for these lessons across the three technology platforms. Participants rated the overall effectiveness of LOLA (M = 4.25) higher than PolyCom (M = 3.06) and Skype (M = 2.80). Participants shared their perception that LOLA was superior to other technologies for learning and teaching music. Implications for music teaching are discussed.
Uploads