Emily Bingham - My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song

Everyone knows what its like to have a song stuck in their head. You push it out of your ears for a time, but then it takes up residence once more, note by note, word by word. My Old Kentucky Home has been ringing in my ears since sometime in the latter 1990s when I recognized what its lyrics were really about. Scores of people have given precious time and counsel as I pieced together this seductive songs life story and loaded meanings.

Archivists and local historians illuminated my way. My greatest debt goes to the Center for American Music at the University of Pittsburgh for an early travel to research grant and years of unfailing professional aid from Kathryn Miller Haines, Christopher Lynch, and Deane Root. The archives at My Old Kentucky Home State Park were critical to developing the story of the songsite director Matthew Colin Bailey facilitated a sweltering summer of research in a storage room behind the gift shop. The Filson Historical Society in Louisville sponsored an early public lecture, and its staffincluding Jennie Cole, Abby Glowgower, Jim Holmberg, Jana Meyer, and Heather Potteranswered queries and opened collections. Special thanks to Carrie Daniels and Tom Owen for assistance at University of Louisvilles Archives and Special Collections; Jessica Whitehead at the Kentucky Derby Museum; Terry L. Birdwhistell at University of Kentucky Libraries; Kelly Dunnagan and Paul Burns at the Louisville Free Public Library; Kelly Spring at the Joyner Library Special Collections at East Carolina University; and Michelle Jarrell, archivist at Eli Lilly and Company. Archivists at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and the Library of Congress for extended special assistance. Expert genealogical assistance came from Cynthia Maharrey. Pen Bogert shared his research on the early history of the Rowan family and the people they held in slavery. The ship landing and departure data he tracked down put to rest the appealing myth that Foster composed My Old Kentucky Home at the Rowan mansion in 1852 during his steamboat journey from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. Terry Borton kindly lit up the world of lantern slides. Dan Gediman helped focus my thinking as he worked on his podcast, The Reckoning. James Nicolson, historian of the Kentucky Derby, laid crucial groundwork and helped me untangle numerous confusions. Ted Wathen contributed photographs. The book benefited directly from conversations with Ken Emerson, Stephen Fosters most recent biographer, and from exchanges with musicologists Douglas Shadle and James Davis.

Countless people shared memories and insights of the song, immeasurably enriching the story told here. I am particularly indebted to interviewees Lonnie Ali, Jecorey Arthur, Matthew Colin Bailey, Wendell and Tanya Berry, Edie Bingham, Charles Booker, David Brown, John Y. Brown Jr., John Y. Brown III, Ben Chandler, Harry Clarke, Bob Coleman, Martha Layne Collins, Montre Davis, Demi Demaree, Debbie and Les Dornan, Kevin Drane, Jim Gray, Andre Guess, Dorian Hairston, C. Ray Hall, Jiro Hashimoto, Carl R. Hines Sr., Jim Host, Joni Jenkins, Bob Johnson, Jeanie Kahnke, Everett McCorvey, Morgan McGarvey, Gregory McMahon, J. Evan McMahon, Marie Porter, Billy Reed, Sadiqa Reynolds, Keith Runyon, Karl Schmitt, Greg Seamon, Frank X Walker, and James Calleroz White. Kentucky scholars and journalists were enormously helpful along the way. I am especially thankful to Dick Clay, Tom Eblen, Bani Hines Hudson, Michael Jones, Patrick Lewis, Estill C. Pennington, Aaron Rosenblum, Dan Vivian, George Wright, and John and Catherine Smith.

From the earliest, feeble stabs at drafting chapters I have relied on the fresh ears of friends and associates who read all or part of what I produced. Jeffrey Skinner brought incisiveness and joy in creation to our exchanges, and I got to read his poetry in progress. Leah Hagedorns brilliant comments improved many of my ideas and even more of my sentences. Megan Pillow Davis deployed her sharp critical lens and pushed me to include ways my and my familys involvements with the song echoed pleasures and stereotypes that reinforced oppressive systems. Clara Bingham read, mentored, and believed in this project. She fed and housed and cheered me whenever work brought me to New York City.