A Banjo On His Knee

Father of American Music - Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Can you imagine a world in which someone as talented and famous as Mick Jagger has to live on handouts? How about Justin Timberlake having to sleep on a friend’s couch after winning a Grammy award? 150 years ago, we inhabited such a strange world. Artists -- be they painters or musicians, either starved or they found wealthy patrons to pamper them. For song writers, composer royalties hardly existed – but music sheet publishers raked in the dough.

One person who inhabited this financially bleak landscape was a hugely prolific and talented young man --Stephen Foster, now dubbed the “Father of American Music”. Stephen Foster basically wrote the Hit Parade of songs from 1846 through 1864 (the year of his untimely death at age 37). He specialized in light, breezy minstrel music such as “Oh! Susanna” and “Swanee River”. His songs have remained as permanent hallmarks of American culture – still hummed and strummed to this day.

The songs as originally written would be considered politically incorrect to be sure; most of the lyrics are in a Negro slave dialect (using dey versus they)… They have to be considered in the context of the era. Foster wasn’t a racist man – he was just speaking in the argot of the era. Foster was actually a Yankee; he sang about the South but only visited once, briefly on his honeymoon. Stephen Foster’s two biggest influences were a classically trained music instructor, Henry Kleber, and Dan Rice – a blackface singer and clown. Such a diverse influence could explain Foster’s musical bearings.

Stephen Foster was from a middle class background. He grew up near Athens, Pennsylvania and briefly attended Jefferson College in Canonsburg, PA. He precociously composed “Tioga Waltz” at age 14 – and played it at his Athens Academy commencement. Stephen was extroverted and likely to be performing his numbers on a stage somewhere when he wasn't busy writing them. Like so many super-talented young people, he dropped out of college to pursue his passion. Stephen was lucky to have an older brother William who was successful as an engineer and businessman. William served as mentor, sounding board and sometimes employer to a barely solvent Stephen. Stephen worked as a book keeper for his brother in 1846 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Here, he penned “Oh! Susanna” which became a national hit. Stephen was so emboldened by that success that he returned to Pennsylvania to be a professional song writer. Stephen’s total “take” for “Oh! Susanna” was $100.

Foster joined up with a performing group, the Christy Minstrels, who showcased all his latest hits – such as “Camptown Races” and “Old Kentucky Home”. Stephen had never visited Florida or the Suwanee River when he composed “Swanee River”. He found the name in an atlas, dropped the “u” for the sake of song meter, and plugged the name into his song. Floridians love the song and feel honored – maybe they wouldn’t if they knew how slickly and quickly it was originated. (Such is artistic license then and now).

Foster married Jane Denny McDowell in 1852 – they had one daughter. He was so smitten with his new wife, he wrote “Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair”. Jeanie however, was not smitten with the poverty-level existence of a 19th century song writer. She and the daughter parted ways with Stephen in 1860 when he decided to ply his trade in New York, New York. Foster’s folksy style wasn't a match for New York and he probably suffered from having the love of his life, Jeanie, fly the coop. He ended up in the run-down North American Hotel at age 37, battling a bad fever. He stumbled from bed, struck his head on a basin and bled for 3 hours before making it to a hospital. It’s thought he probably died of sepsis in an era without antibiotics.

Stephen Foster’s life was short and his candle was snuffed too soon. He probably would've lived longer as a book keeper, but his spirited songs wouldn’t be with us today. Like the painter Van Gogh who died at the same age, Foster believed in his art. He starved his bank account but enriched the whole world musically.

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