Doctor of folk music passes cure along

Most of the people who know Harold South call him "Doc." The moniker is a stage name that has evolved into a nickname, and it's a well-known name among fans of country and bluegrass music in Alaska.

But Doc South didn't adopt his stage name accidentally, he's a real doctor. A psychiatrist in fact. He has practiced in Fairbanks and Anchorage and, even though he is currently retired, Doc South maintains a license to practice in Alaska.

As for the music, South was the front man for country and bluegrass bands that played around Alaska in the 1970s and '80s and once or twice a week you can find him at jam sessions, trading songs with impromptu groups. Ask around and you can find dozens of players in Alaska who will credit South for teaching them either specific folk songs or techniques for guitar or fiddle.

"I've never had any formal musical training whatsoever," he said "But where I'm from -- and I've found all over the country -- a great many people pick up stringed instruments, the guitar, banjo, mandolin and fiddle, and just play them by ear."

South's instrument of choice is the fiddle, but he plays mandolin, guitar and banjo and teaches music as well.

"I tend to play whatever instrument no one else in the group is playing," South said, "I've never played the bass, but I have taught people to play it. "

South grew up in southern Indiana in the 1930s and '40s. His father and grandfather were sawyers who operated a steam driven portable sawmill they would set up in logging camps. Gas powered cars and tractors were available to people who could afford them, but South recalls that most of the loggers in that part of the country delivered timber to sawmills with teams of horses. The country was changing, but people weren't necessarily able -- or even willing -- to adopt ever new technology that came along. The same was true for popular music.

"It was still in a transition period. You didn't have radios going on all of the time like you do now," he said. "If people wanted to have a dance they had to have live music. There would be a band, and there was a different band every five miles or so."

While growing up on the edge of the Appalachian mountains, South never identified himself as poor. He was able to become a doctor because he grew up near Indiana University.

"In my generation it was a blessing to live next to a school. Otherwise I couldn't have gone," South said. Tuition costs were low in those days, but housing and travel costs were an expensive hurdle for people in rural areas that weren't so close to state run schools, According to South.

South played dances and folk jam sessions while in school. It wasn't the sort of music that the music department was teaching, but by the time he made it to graduate school he was earning his spending money as a caller for square dances. When he became a psychiatrist he was appearing as a regular on an early Indiana TV show called "The Hayloft Frolic."

"It was kind of like the early days of radio all over again," South said of the television show. "At that time local yokels could have their own TV program."

South said he rarely turns the TV on, but spends his leisure time reading instead. He will admit to watching TV occasionally. A couple of years ago one of the cable music channels turned him into a rock music listener for a few minutes when he spotted San Francisco metal band Metallica playing their version of the Irish folk tune "Whiskey in the Jar." It's a song South has sung, played and taught to friends many times over the years.

"It's the same song except that they run around poking at the other guy with their guitar like they're going to stab him with a bayonet," South said.

South suspects that the first time he heard a recording of "Whiskey in The Jar" it was by the Clancy Brothers, an Irish group that performs traditional songs. Hearing Metallica's version just reinforced an opinion South already had -- putting music into different categories is a mistake.

South said if he lived in the southwestern U.S. he'd probably be performing in a cowboy band; if he were in Georgia it might be called a hillbilly band. If he were in New England his fiddle style might have turned out different and someone would call it New England dance hall music.

"But I always like to look for similarities, not differences. Like we should with nations or science and art."