Historicizing Heritage

Intangibility gives intangible heritage an uncanny ability to travel. And indeed, like language, it can be impossible to leave behind the intangible; it goes with you whether you like it or not. So along with thinking about transmission, I think it’s fascinating to ask what happens when heritage travels, or spreads, or goes viral?

...

The day after Dolly Parton graduated from high school, she left for Nashville. She took her Appalachian heritage with her, and she performs it in every single thing she has said and done, ever since. … In 1976, on her TV show, she invited two fellow vocalists to join her in singing an Appalachian tune. The two other vocalists were products of entirely different song traditions: Emmylou Harris, who began in Folk and moved to Country, and Linda Ronstadt, who began with Mexican music in Arizona and moved to Rock.

The song that Dolly proposed they sing is a beautiful and strangely ambivalent ode to motherhood. I’m introducing it here for its beauty, but I’m also curious, What would we want to say about this performance as an act of heritage and history, both for us listening and for the singers performing it?