Jerron Paxton performs at The Ark in Ann Arbor August 11, 2018. Hosted by River Raisin Ragtime Revue. Video by David Schall. Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton performs at The Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Saturday, August 11, 2018. The concert was part of a CD release party for the River Raisin Ragtime Revue and Daniel Washington (bass-baritone). Video by David Schall Acoustic.
Jake Blount, a banjo scholar, explains.
Jake Blount has built a career out of understanding the banjo’s connection to Black American folk music. In this video, he walks us through the instrument’s history — from West Africa to enslaved people in the US to the early record industry — to explain how Black folk music has evolved.
Country music, often seen as a white rural American music genre, has roots deeply woven into various musical traditions, many of which were significantly shaped by African-Americans. When country music started as a genre, it found inspiration from a wide range of musical styles, including many Black ones. This African-American influence is prominent within numerous aspects of this music genre, starting from the choice of instruments and songs to the vocal and instrumental techniques.
If there’s any instrument in the quiver of American music that can simultaneously summon heartbreak, salvation and joy, it just might be the banjo. Its earliest origins lie deep within the Black American experience. And that’s where Angela Wellman came to find it.
John Tyree (1914-?) performs a rendition of the traditional Scots-Irish ballad-turned American banjo standard “The Cuckoo Bird” (Sometimes known as “Coo Coo Bird”, or simply “Coo Coo” or “Cuckoo”). The song in its American form has little relation to the original Scots-Irish ballad and has considerable influence from African American traditions.
Clarence Tross (1884-1977) performs his rendition of the blackface minstrel tune “Miss Lucy Neal”, acapella.