Jimmy Driftwood
Encyclopedia
James Corbitt Morris known professionally as Jimmy Driftwood or Jimmie Driftwood, was a prolific American
folk music
songwriter and musician, most famous for his songs "The Battle of New Orleans" and "Tennessee Stud". Driftwood wrote more than 6,000 folk songs
, of which more than 300 were recorded by various musicians.
, Arkansas
on June 20, 1907. His father was folk singer Neil Morris. Driftwood learned to play guitar
at a young age on his grandfather's homemade instrument. Driftwood used that unique guitar throughout his career and noted that its neck was made from a fence rail, its sides from an old ox yoke, and the head and bottom from the headboard of his grandmother's bed. This homemade instrument produced a pleasant distinctive resonant sound. Driftwood attended John Brown College
in northwest Arkansas
and later received a degree in education from Arkansas State Teacher's College
. He started writing songs during his teaching career to teach his students history in an entertaining manner.
through the southwestern United States
. In Arizona
he entered, and won, a local song contest.
In 1936 Driftwood married Cleda Johnson, who was one of his former students, and returned to Arkansas to raise a family and resume his teaching career. During this period of his life Driftwood wrote hundreds of songs but did not pursue a musical career seriously.
He wrote his later famous "Battle of New Orleans" in 1936 to help a high school class he was teaching become interested in the event.
In 1957, a Nashville, Tennessee
song publisher learned of Driftwood, audition
ed him, and signed him to his first record deal. Driftwood recalled playing some 100 of his songs in one day, of which 20 were chosen to be recorded. Driftwood's first album, Newly Discovered Early American Folk Songs, received good reviews but did not sell particularly well.
"The Battle of New Orleans" was included on the album, but did not conform to the radio
standards of the time because of the words "hell
" and "damn
" in the lyrics. Driftwood said that at the time those words could be preached but not sung in secular contexts for broadcast. Driftwood was asked to make a shorter censored
version of the song for a live radio performance. Singer Johnny Horton
, after hearing the song, contacted Driftwood and told him that he wished to record his own version.
Driftwood left Arkansas for Nashville and became popular by his appearances on the Grand Ole Opry
and programs including Ozark Jubilee
and Louisiana Hayride
. He was invited to sing for Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev
as an example of traditional American music during the leader's visit to the United States.
The popular peak of Driftwood's career came in 1959 when he had no fewer than six songs on the popular and country music
charts, including Johnny Horton's recording of his "The Battle of New Orleans", which remained in first place on the country music singles chart for ten weeks, and atop the popular music chart for six weeks that year. The song won the 1960 Grammy Award
for Song of the Year
.
After Horton's success, Driftwood performed at Carnegie Hall
and at major American folk music festivals before returning home to Timbo, Arkansas in 1962. During his recording career Driftwood also won Grammy Awards for Wilderness Road, Songs of Billy Yank and Johnny Reb and Tennessee Stud. Driftwood songs were recorded by Eddy Arnold
, Johnny Cash
, Hawkshaw Hawkins
, Homer and Jethro
(the parody
"The Battle of Kookamonga"), Odetta
, Doc Watson
and others. In 1958, Driftwood appeared as a guest challenger on the television game show, To Tell The Truth
.
New Orleans jazz
band, although as a separate act. Back home, he became a folklorist, establishing the Rackensack Folklore Society, an association of local folk singers and musicians, and began performing at the local county fair in Mountain View. Driftwood became interested in promoting Arkansas folk music and the local folk performers he knew in the area. He invited members of the Mountain View community to perform at a festival of his own devising. This festival grew over the years, and transformed into the annual Arkansas Folk Festival which would attract more than 100,000 people.
Driftwood helped establish the Ozark Folk Center to preserve Ozark Mountain culture. The Folk Center was later absorbed into the Arkansas State Park system and remains a popular tourist destination.
planned to dam the Buffalo River
. He worked to defeat the plan, which ultimately resulted in the establishment of Buffalo National River
. Driftwood had a major role in preserving Blanchard Springs Caverns
which later came under management of the United States Forest Service
. He recorded the song still heard in the orientation film in the visitor center.
Driftwood was appointed to direct the Arkansas Parks and Tourism Commission for his environmental efforts. He was also named to the Advisory Committee of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
. Due to his extensive knowledge of folk music he was appointed as a musicologist for the National Geographic Society
.
and college students. He died of heart attack
on July 12, 1998 in Fayetteville
, Arkansas
at age 91.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
songwriter and musician, most famous for his songs "The Battle of New Orleans" and "Tennessee Stud". Driftwood wrote more than 6,000 folk songs
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, of which more than 300 were recorded by various musicians.
Early life
Driftwood was born in TimboTimbo, Arkansas
Timbo is an unincorporated community in Stone County, Arkansas, United States. It is in the Ozark Mountains region of the northern part of the state and is near the town of Mountain View....
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
on June 20, 1907. His father was folk singer Neil Morris. Driftwood learned to play guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
at a young age on his grandfather's homemade instrument. Driftwood used that unique guitar throughout his career and noted that its neck was made from a fence rail, its sides from an old ox yoke, and the head and bottom from the headboard of his grandmother's bed. This homemade instrument produced a pleasant distinctive resonant sound. Driftwood attended John Brown College
John Brown University
The main campus in Northwest Arkansas has been the site of the university since it was founded in 1919. JBU has 2,183 students as of the 2011-2012 school year, 1,279 of which are traditional undergraduates. Of these, 878 live on campus. The Graduate School has 468 students...
in northwest Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
and later received a degree in education from Arkansas State Teacher's College
University of Central Arkansas
The University of Central Arkansas is a state-run institution located in the city of Conway, the seat of Faulkner County, north of Little Rock and is the fourth largest university by enrollment in the U.S. state of Arkansas, and the third largest college system in the state. The school is most...
. He started writing songs during his teaching career to teach his students history in an entertaining manner.
1920s and 1930s
During the 1920s and 1930s, Driftwood left Arkansas, eventually hitchhikingHitchhiking
Hitchhiking is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people, usually strangers, for a ride in their automobile or other road vehicle to travel a distance that may either be short or long...
through the southwestern United States
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...
. In Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
he entered, and won, a local song contest.
In 1936 Driftwood married Cleda Johnson, who was one of his former students, and returned to Arkansas to raise a family and resume his teaching career. During this period of his life Driftwood wrote hundreds of songs but did not pursue a musical career seriously.
He wrote his later famous "Battle of New Orleans" in 1936 to help a high school class he was teaching become interested in the event.
1950s
In the 1950s, he changed his name to Jimmy Driftwood, both publicly and legally.In 1957, a Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
song publisher learned of Driftwood, audition
Audition
An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performing artist.Audition may also refer to:* The sense of hearing* Adobe Audition, audio editing software...
ed him, and signed him to his first record deal. Driftwood recalled playing some 100 of his songs in one day, of which 20 were chosen to be recorded. Driftwood's first album, Newly Discovered Early American Folk Songs, received good reviews but did not sell particularly well.
"The Battle of New Orleans" was included on the album, but did not conform to the radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
standards of the time because of the words "hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
" and "damn
Damnation
Damnation is the concept of everlasting divine punishment and/or disgrace, especially the punishment for sin as threatened by God . A damned being "in damnation" is said to be either in Hell, or living in a state wherein they are divorced from Heaven and/or in a state of disgrace from God's favor...
" in the lyrics. Driftwood said that at the time those words could be preached but not sung in secular contexts for broadcast. Driftwood was asked to make a shorter censored
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
version of the song for a live radio performance. Singer Johnny Horton
Johnny Horton
John Gale "Johnny" Horton was an American country music and rockabilly singer most famous for his semi-folk, so-called "saga songs" which began the "historical ballad" craze of the late 1950s and early 1960s...
, after hearing the song, contacted Driftwood and told him that he wished to record his own version.
Driftwood left Arkansas for Nashville and became popular by his appearances on the Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
and programs including Ozark Jubilee
Ozark Jubilee
Ozark Jubilee is the first U.S. network television program to feature country music's top stars, and was the centerpiece of a strategy for Springfield, Missouri to challenge Nashville, Tennessee as America's country music capital...
and Louisiana Hayride
Louisiana Hayride
Louisiana Hayride was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of the greatest names in American music...
. He was invited to sing for Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Premier Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
as an example of traditional American music during the leader's visit to the United States.
The popular peak of Driftwood's career came in 1959 when he had no fewer than six songs on the popular and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
charts, including Johnny Horton's recording of his "The Battle of New Orleans", which remained in first place on the country music singles chart for ten weeks, and atop the popular music chart for six weeks that year. The song won the 1960 Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Song of the Year
Grammy Award for Song of the Year
The Song of the Year is one of the four most prestigious awards in the Grammy Awards ceremony, if not in all of the American music industry. It has been awarded since 1959 and unlike the Record of the Year award, which goes to the performer and production team of a single song, Song of the Year...
.
After Horton's success, Driftwood performed at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
and at major American folk music festivals before returning home to Timbo, Arkansas in 1962. During his recording career Driftwood also won Grammy Awards for Wilderness Road, Songs of Billy Yank and Johnny Reb and Tennessee Stud. Driftwood songs were recorded by Eddy Arnold
Eddy Arnold
Richard Edward Arnold , known professionally as Eddy Arnold, was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more...
, Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
, Hawkshaw Hawkins
Hawkshaw Hawkins
Harold Franklin Hawkins , better known as Hawkshaw Hawkins, was an American country music singer popular from the 1950s into the early 60s known for his rich, smooth vocals and music drawn from blues, boogie and honky tonk...
, Homer and Jethro
Homer and Jethro
Homer and Jethro were the stage names of American country music duo Henry D. Haynes and Kenneth C. Burns , popular from the 1940s through the 1960s on radio and television for their satirical versions of popular songs...
(the parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
"The Battle of Kookamonga"), Odetta
Odetta
Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...
, Doc Watson
Doc Watson
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson is an American guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded...
and others. In 1958, Driftwood appeared as a guest challenger on the television game show, To Tell The Truth
To Tell the Truth
To Tell the Truth is an American television panel game show created by Bob Stewart and produced by Goodson-Todman Productions that has aired in various forms since 1956 both on networks and in syndication...
.
1960s
Driftwood for a time during the 1960s toured the United States and Europe with the Preservation HallPreservation Hall
Preservation Hall is a noted jazz performance hall located at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It hosts nightly concerts featuring a rotating roster of bands. The bands of Preservation Hall typically perform jazz in the New Orleans style.Despite the fame of the...
New Orleans jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
band, although as a separate act. Back home, he became a folklorist, establishing the Rackensack Folklore Society, an association of local folk singers and musicians, and began performing at the local county fair in Mountain View. Driftwood became interested in promoting Arkansas folk music and the local folk performers he knew in the area. He invited members of the Mountain View community to perform at a festival of his own devising. This festival grew over the years, and transformed into the annual Arkansas Folk Festival which would attract more than 100,000 people.
Driftwood helped establish the Ozark Folk Center to preserve Ozark Mountain culture. The Folk Center was later absorbed into the Arkansas State Park system and remains a popular tourist destination.
Environmental advocate
Driftwood became involved with environmental issues when the United States Army Corps of EngineersUnited States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
planned to dam the Buffalo River
Buffalo National River
The Buffalo River, located in northern Arkansas, was the first National River to be designated in the United States. The Buffalo River is slightly more than in length, with the lower flowing within the boundaries of an area managed by the National Park Service, where it is designated the '. The...
. He worked to defeat the plan, which ultimately resulted in the establishment of Buffalo National River
Buffalo National River
The Buffalo River, located in northern Arkansas, was the first National River to be designated in the United States. The Buffalo River is slightly more than in length, with the lower flowing within the boundaries of an area managed by the National Park Service, where it is designated the '. The...
. Driftwood had a major role in preserving Blanchard Springs Caverns
Blanchard Springs Caverns
Blanchard Springs Caverns is a cave system located in the Ozark National Forest in Stone County in northern Arkansas, 2 miles off Highway 14 a short distance north of Mountain View. Blanchard Springs Caverns is a three-level cave system, two of which are open for guided tours. The Dripstone Trail...
which later came under management of the United States Forest Service
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...
. He recorded the song still heard in the orientation film in the visitor center.
Driftwood was appointed to direct the Arkansas Parks and Tourism Commission for his environmental efforts. He was also named to the Advisory Committee of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. Due to his extensive knowledge of folk music he was appointed as a musicologist for the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
.
Later years
During his later life Driftwood enjoyed performing free concerts for high schoolHigh school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
and college students. He died of heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
on July 12, 1998 in Fayetteville
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville is the county seat of Washington County, and the third largest city in Arkansas. The city is centrally located within the county and is home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is also deep in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks...
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
at age 91.