Rick Martin's Influence On American Culture

Appalachian culture is as broad and far reaching as the counties included in Appalachia. Appalachia is poverty stricken communities, found in the Appalachian Mountains that is defined by their levels of poverty. What is odd is the fact that they can add more counties to the region but they never take any out of it. Farmers, coal miners, old time religions, and even musicians help form the culture within the region. A land for many years that was in a sense cutoff from the outside world, the absolute poorest places in America were in the Appalachian Mountains. These people grew up with a sense of everyone being a part of one big family in the region. They traded crops, went to churches together. Then as outsiders started to come in many of them were taken advantage of and moved off of their land. After selling mineral rights, many became coal miners to live in even worst conditions. The coal companies and others formed this great dislike and trust for

Rick Martin is an odd example of an old-time fiddle player who grew up within the Appalachia region who never actually encounter old-time music until he was a student at Indiana University in Bloomington. And through the magic of music Rick’s life was transformed when he first heard Appalachian Music, having being from the region he felt a strong desire to connect to his roots. He found an “insider” of Appalachian Music who was trained by Tommy Jarrell. And so little Rick’s life became as an Appalachian Musician, culturally accepted as an “insider” but when asked he does care nor considers himself an “insider.” It’s people like this in my opinion that do not help people who are trying to define “insiders” and “outsiders” of Appalachian Music. Rick does not sing that I am aware of, he only plays fiddle tunes, and his “Field Recordings” from Mt. Airy sound the same as the rest of the fiddle tunes from