Country musician Lulu Jackson is a mysterious figure.
While doing research for a 2022 episode of his radio show, “Echoes of Indiana Avenue,” music historian Kyle Long couldn’t find birth or death records, information on how she ended up in Indianapolis, or if “Lulu Jackson” was even her real name.
What he does know is that, in 1928, Jackson became one of the first musicians in Indy to record a country record. Her covers of “Careless Love Blues” and “Little Rosewood Casket” were produced by Vocalion Records, a label that sought out talent around the country.
Jackson, who was Black, is one part of an expansive history of country music in Indianapolis. The Great Migration saw hundreds of thousands of African Americans move from the South to the Midwest and North, bringing with them a new wave of country music this side of the Mason-Dixon Line, including in Indianapolis.
That history has been largely forgotten, but a new “Country Music Month” in Indianapolis could be a first step toward telling those stories.
Country Music Month: Ideas, but no plans
In August, 81-year-old musician John Loflin went in front of the City County-Council with a proposal: He wanted them to make October “Country Music Month” in Indianapolis. Nationally, October’s been designated “Country Music Month” since 1970, when then-President Richard Nixon declared it so.
Loflin’s resolution was passed and a proclamation was signed by Mayor Joe Hogsett. But so far, no events are planned. Right now, Country Music Month is just words on paper celebrating the history of the genre in the city.
The proclamation listed several venues as “havens” for country music, including Duke’s Indy, 8 Seconds Saloon, the HI-FI Indy and Lucas Oil Stadium. But Country Music Month was news to some of these venues — when we sent a message to Duke’s, a near-southside honkytonk, they weren’t aware of the proclamation.
“We celebrate country music every month at Duke’s, so October is no different,” a representative wrote via text. “We’d love to help folks find an avenue to the time-honored tradition of telling the histories and stories of true (and sometimes a bit embellished) folks.”
Loflin, who grew up listening to and performing country music, wanted to use Country Music Month as a way to bridge gaps between cultures.
Black artists’ contributions to the genre have long been excluded or marginalized. Beyoncé’s platinum album “Cowboy Carter” — which features icons like Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson – was shut out of the Country Music Award nominations when they were announced Sept. 9. Although Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, topped Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart in 2019, it didn’t earn a CMA nomination or a spot on Billboard’s Hot Country chart.
Though he couldn’t speak directly about Lulu Jackson or Black country artists in Indianapolis, Joshua Thompson, musician and a music sociologist, wasn’t surprised that their contributions have been largely erased from history.
“We contributed to this music just like we contributed to this country, and we still don’t get recognition,” Thompson said. “The reality is, if we look at where all of this music has its origins, it’s impossible for it to be anything other than the wild mix that it is — which is an expression of Manifest Destiny, the expansion of music and how music travels.”
‘Working class people aren’t respected’
Along with highlighting Black contributions to country music, Long sees Country Music Month as an opportunity to discuss the classism he suspects has made the genre less popular at Indianapolis bars and clubs over the years.
In the 1940s through the 1960s, country music was a huge part of the local entertainment scene. Every major radio station in Indianapolis had a country music program; before Little Jimmy Dickens became a fixture in the Grand Ole Opry, he recorded with WIBC-FM, and there were country music bars in nearly every neighborhood. WIBC is now a talk and news station.
One of the most notable country acts out of Indianapolis was Emry Arthur, a Kentucky-born singer who spent much of his adult life in Indianapolis. In 1928, Arthur released the first recording of “I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow,” popularized in the 1950s by the Stanley Brothers and in the 1960s by Bob Dylan.
With such influence in the city, then, why did country music start to go out of fashion?
“Some of it may be changing tastes,” Long explains, “but classism plays a huge role as well. Working-class people are not respected, and they’ve been demonized by the media as ignorant, which is why we haven’t elevated this history.”
When Loflin was growing up in Fountain Square in the 1950s and 60s, country music was a constant in his home thanks to his father, the son of a West Virginian coal miner. Loflin’s upbringing led him to connect the genre with the struggles faced by other working-class families.
“Country music is for the poor,” Loflin said. “It’s the stories of what poor people go through, and what their lives are like, and a way to look at race and race problems.”
In 1962, Loflin and his two sisters won the Fountain Square Hootenanny with an a cappella version of “This Land Is Your Land;” the prize was an acoustic guitar from Arthur’s Music Store. Loflin quickly learned to play the guitar and joined The Overlann Four, a folk group consisting of Purdue University students. Despite moving on to reggae with his band Reggaenomix, Loflin stayed true to his “hillbilly” roots.
Even with his background, it wasn’t until Loflin watched Ken Burns’ 16-part “Country Music” series in 2019 that he learned about Black country artists and their contributions.
Celebrating true origins of popular music
On May 18, thousands of people came to the American Legion Mall downtown to celebrate Black contributions to rock ’n’ roll with the inaugural “I Made Rock ‘N’ Roll” festival. The one-day event brought in national acts including Janelle Monáe and Gary Clark Jr.
The festival, co-hosted by GANGGANG and Forty5, was created to honor the true origins of rock ‘n’ roll – tied directly to rhythm and blues – while celebrating the legacy of Black rock. As with country music, the beginnings of rock ‘n’ roll have been disputed. While Elvis Presley was dubbed the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” some scholars argue that Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a queer Black woman, invented rock ‘n’ roll in the 1930s.
Alan Bacon, co-founder of GANGGANG, said the festival united people through art and music. Bacon didn’t know about Indy’s new Country Music Month proclamation. But, if celebrations do take place, he said it’s crucial that the city acknowledge all of the people, regardless of race or background, who made country music what it is.
Bacon said he believes musical genres have been used divisively in the United States. Uncovering the history can bring people together through a shared love of music.
“Our ability to understand history can help us in the present and plan for the future,” he said. “It allows the country to heal in ways through the telling of truth.”
I Made Rock ‘N’ Roll wasn’t just a one-day music festival. Leading up to it was Sonic Stories, a series of rock music listening sessions and film screenings. Local and regional voices performed and spoke about race, music and culture and the origins of rock.
A successful Country Music Month celebration could take a similar approach – starting with education. For example, country music is rooted in jazz and the blues, two genres steeped in African American history and tradition. While country music incorporates the fiddle – brought to America by European immigrants – Thompson said it also includes the banjo, which has roots in Africa.
A Country Music Month could also help local residents look more honestly at their city’s past – and feel a sense of kinship with people who lived here 50 or 100 years ago. Much like the history of Indiana Avenue, Long said, the history of country music in Indianapolis has been purposefully forgotten.
“So many of the things that people were singing about 100 years ago are still relevant today,” Long said. “Learning about the history of Indianapolis in this nuanced way … what life was like, the concerns people had and the role music played in the way they celebrated and mourned, it helps us feel more deeply connected to those that came before us … and helps us hopefully think about the future.”
Mirror Indy reporter Breanna Cooper covers arts and culture. Email her at breanna.cooper@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @BreannaNCooper.
Why October?
Loflin’s efforts to make October Country Music Month in Indianapolis has roots in an unlikely source: President Richard Nixon.
In 1970, Nixon was struggling to get young Americans on board with the Vietnam War, which started roughly 15 years before he took office. When his fellow Californian, country star Merle Haggard, released “Okie From Muskogee” – a satirical take on the counterculture of the time – in 1969, the Nixon White House saw an opportunity.
Just months after the song was released, Nixon delivered his “Silent Majority” speech, extolling the American value of fighting for democracy abroad and admonishing anti-war demonstrators. “Okie From Muskogee” spoke to Nixon not as a satirical jab at anti-counterculture voices, but as a chance to appeal to hippies to drop their marijuana, LSD and anti-war sentiments:
‘We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee/We don’t take our trips on LDS/We don’t burn our draft cards down on Main Street/’Cause we like living right and being free”
In 1973, Haggard performed the song in the White House, which further solidified it as an anthem for critics of the Vietnam-era counterculture.
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