Dance Music
Steinbeck spends a whole chapter on music instruments and how the workers use instruments such as fiddle, guitar, and harmonica to produce music for the dance (see chapter 23). Furthermore, in one episode, Steinbeck also writes about the Saturday Night dance in the government where the migrant workers gather around to dance and enjoy the music. Nevertheless, Steinbeck doesn’t just write about the dance and music for no specific reason. As a writer points out in the Journal of American Culture, “Steinbeck uses the context of performance of folk music and dance to illustrate that upward movement [of communal spirit]” (Mullen, 749). And so, it would help us to understand more about their dance and music if we get to listen to the dance music that the migrant workers enjoy. In this page of the exhibit, you can find two dance songs that are performed in an actual work camp in California.
“Bully of the Town” is an instrumental music performed by Luther Quinton and Jones Floyd. It has a rhythm suitable for folk dance music. Moreover, it is a song performed with a guitar and a fiddle. In the Grape of Wrath, Steinbeck also writes about how these two instruments work well to perform dance music in Chapter 23.
“Chicken Reel” is another instrumental music performed by Lloyd “Red” Harmon and Willard Brewer. Steinbeck once refers to this song in Chapter 23 of The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck writes that “‘Chicken Reel’ now, and the feet tap and a young lean buck takes three quick steps, and his arms hang limp (Steinbeck, 328).” Judging from the sound of the music, “Chicken Reel” indeed quite match the description that Steinbeck provides.