Carnegie Visual Arts Center

The folk song traditions of Alabama and other parts of the South have transformed popular culture in America. Country music, rock ‘n’ roll, and other popular musical styles trace their beginnings to vernacular forms of music that include blues, gospel, Sacred Harp, and old time fiddling.
The Music Lives On: Folk Song Traditions Told by Alabama Artists considers the impact of the region’s folk song traditions on a group of Alabama artists. To create the works for The Music Lives On, the artists drew inspiration from the musical worlds surrounding them – music heard in churches and informal settings, on the radio and television, in both urban settings and the Alabama countryside. Some of the music represented is firmly rooted in folk music traditions as practiced in rural Alabama and elsewhere in the South, while many of the works reflect popular styles of music forged in American cities.
The show contains artistic expressions of place – of settings both rural and urban, and the journey from one to the other. Many of the exhibition’s visual artists come from families that migrated into Alabama’s largest industrial city, Birmingham, while others remained in rural Alabama. All are self-taught and African American. Woven into the music and visual art encountered in The Music Lives On is a shared desire to find solace and express joy that transcends differences in medium, time, race, and place.
The exhibit includes works by Mary Lee Bendolph, Richard Dial, Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Locket, Charlie Lucas, Joe Minter, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, and Mose Tolliver. The works are on loan from Soul Grown Deep Foundation.
In celebration of the Year of Alabama Music, The Music Lives On: Folk Song Traditions Told by Alabama Artists is organized by Vulcan Park and Museum and presented in part by the Alabama Humanities Foundation. The exhibit at The Carnegie is sponsored in part by Decatur’s Womens Chamber of Commerce.