Articles/Blogs
Instrument Interview: The Creole Bania, the Oldest Existing Banjo
“Instrument Interview” posts are a chance to sit down with the instruments of traditional, country, bluegrass, and roots music – from different types of instruments to specific…
Photo Essay - The Banjo and African American Musical Culture
The banjo and African Americans have traveled from Senegambian roots to Caribbean birth, to North America, and then to the world. Don Vappie (b. 30 January 1956), the New…
The African musical influence in the world of bluegrass music
African music has always influenced other musical genres. When slaves came to the Appalachian Mountain region from Africa, they brought over a lot of their traditions. Most…
Op-Ed: It’s Time for Country Music to Elevate Its Overlooked Black Voices
Imagine a world where, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement's recent resurgence, country music's headlines were not dominated by chatter regarding Lady A and the…
Black-and-White Duo Allerton & Alton Occupy Special Place In Country Music History
Portland, Maine, 1947. Two teenagers, one white, one black, rummaged through the record bins at Knight’s Used Furniture store. The two didn’t know each other, but they…
CHRONICLING “AMERICA’S AFRICAN INSTRUMENT”: LAURENT DUBOIS ON THE CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE BANJO
In The Banjo: America’s African Instrument (Harvard Univ. Press, 2016), Laurent Dubois weaves a narrative of how this instrument was created by enslaved Africans in the midst…
My Banjo Journey (Oteil Burbridge)
My wife Jess started playing banjo before I did. When she was away working in Africa for a year, I started messing around with it. I’ve loved bluegrass music since I met Col.…
Why These Four Banjo-Playing Women Resurrected the Songs of the Enslaved
Music producer and composer Dirk Powell pointed to the back of the control room. I was filming him at Cypress House, his studio in Louisiana. “Rhiannon was sitting right there…
Joe Thompson
Joseph Aquiler "Joe" Thompson (December 9, 1918 – February 20, 2012) was an American old-time fiddle player, and one of the last musicians to carry on the black string band…
