Don't Call Me Darlin'

As a full-time musician living in Los Angeles, Carolyn Kendrick has a complicated relationship with bluegrass music. Despite years of experience and a deep connection to friendships formed in the community, Carolyn often thinks of herself as an outsider in the broader, male-dominated, and generally conservative genre. As life becomes more and more digitally saturated, the nostalgia-rich trappings and communal values of the bluegrass community speak to Carolyn as she finds herself yearning for a more grounded, unplugged time. She loves the music but is confused by how it fits into her sense of self. She suddenly discovers that this internal friction is more common than expected when co-creator Tristan Scroggins shows her a collection of rare, feminist newsletters circulated in the 90s by women who played bluegrass. These bright blue, hand stapled, self published newsletters contain nearly a decade of interviews, correspondence, and fellowship between women as they attempt to navigate and influence the genre. As Carolyn explores these stories, it becomes clear that not only have women faced similar challenges since the music’s beginnings, but that previously gendered opportunities have gotten noticeably better in recent history. So why do the names and stories seem so unfamiliar? These questions lead down a rabbit hole as Carolyn and Tristan get in the car and drive to Virginia to interview Murphy Hicks Henry, the creator of the newsletter. Along the way they visit with friends, go to museums and festivals, interview friends, and re-interview the women from the newsletter to see what they think about the progress that has been made. All while recording to make this podcast. Despite being a show about a newsletter about bluegrass, the show itself isn’t “about” bluegrass. It’s about community and what it means to be an insider. It’s about how tradition can bring us together but what happens to who gets left out. It’s about what we can learn from our elders and why we shouldn’t wait to ask them. It’s about women and their lives and what we can learn from them. In this episode, you heard the voices of legends of Bluegrass in the following order: Kathy Kallick, Missy Raines, Laurie Lewis, Maddie Witler, Murphy Henry, Dede Wyland , Lucy Singleton, Rhonda Vincent, Lisa Kay Howard, Sierra Hull, Kristin Scott Benson, Joselyn Skye, and Alison Brown. Don’t Call Me Darlin’ is based on the Women in Bluegrass newsletter that was published quarterly from 1994–2003 by Murphy Hicks Henry. More information about Murphy, including how to purchase her book Pretty Good for a Girl: Women in Bluegrass, can be found at https://www.murphymethod.com/ Sources and citations for today’s episode. Read the Women in Bluegrass digital archive, created by Tristan Scroggins: womeninbluegrassarchive.org To help support the archive, consider making a tax-deductible donation at: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/the-women-in-bluegrass-archive-project For more information on our hosts and their other ongoing projects, please visit: Carolyn Kendrick: https://www.carolynkendrick.com/ Tristan Scroggins: https://www.tristanscroggins.com/ Follow Don’t Call Me Darlin’ on social media: https://linktr.ee/dontcallmedarlin Interested in sponsoring us? Contact BGS: https://bit.ly/sponsorBGSpods Underwriting Inquiries: [email protected]

Coming Oct 19th: Don't Call Me Darlin'

Hey! Tristan Scroggins + Carolyn Kendrick here. We have a new show coming soon and we want you to know about it! It’s called Don’t Call Me Darlin’, an eight part narrative journalism podcast about music, feminism, and community. Episode One will be launching in the spring but you can listen to the trailer now, as well as subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Do you remember Life Before the Internet? I barely remember. Twenty-first century life is so digitally saturated that it's ve...