Recent Media Additions

On this episode, I speak with singer, songwriter, and music educator Hannah Mayree about her journey in music, culture, tradition, and the Black Banjo Reclamation Project. 

We are proud to release a new video from our Live Outside series recently recorded and filmed in the ancient West African Village of Kirina, Mali. This performance features Mahamadou Diabate and Sayba Diabate on the traditional instruments, calabash and kora, as well as PFC Band member, Roberto Luti, on steel guitar.

Banjo maker Jim Hartel shows us old banjos, derived from instruments made by African slaves, plays the minstrel tune "Jim Along Josie," and tells about turn-of-the-century banjo models and playing styles. 

Their instruments are discarded gas cans, animals hides and whatever else they can scavenge to produce a tune. But they do make music.

It was from the late 1970s that young boys with homemade banjos were increasingly seen at street corners, on country roads and around towns in Malawi. They began to not only to construct banjos but also guitars, percussive devices as well as a huge bass banjo/guitar, usually with a single string, played with stick or a bottle as a slider.

“Intuitive, authentic, and full of ruthless rhythms, Madalitso will make you clap, dance, smile and dance some more.” It's been an extraordinary few years for this dance folk duo, who until 2017, hadn't left their native Malawi. The decade spent roaming the streets as a pair, and perfecting their home-made instruments and vibrant playing style, seems to have paid off - since their first performance on an international stage at Sauti Za Busara in Zanzibar 6 years ago, the rollercoaster ride hasn't stopped!

Tracy Chapman was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Her parents divorced when she was four years old. She was raised by her mother, who bought her a ukulele at age three. She began playing guitar and writing songs at age eight. She says that she may have been first inspired to play the guitar by the television show Hee Haw. In her native Cleveland she experienced frequent bullying and racially motivated assaults as a child.

In a BBC Radio 4 three-part series Rhiannon Giddens explores how African American roots music has been whitewashed from the history of American folk and country music. String bands, hoedowns, square dances, old-time fiddle and banjo styles, these sounds were a dominant strand in African American roots music from the 17th century onwards.

From Black to White: Early Banjo History in 2 Minutes