For those unfamiliar with this genre – classic bluegrass voice – it’s a form of American roots music that was developed over the years by several musicians but the father of it all could rightly be Bill Monroe. And to […]
For those unfamiliar with this genre – classic bluegrass voice – it’s a form of American roots music that was developed over the years by several musicians but the father of it all could rightly be Bill Monroe. And to […]
This is the stuff that makes Ry Cooder do backflips. In 1958, folklorist Sam Charters came upon stonemason Joseph Spence playing guitar for some friends who were building a house in his hometown of Small Hope, on Andros Island in […]
Back in 1957, mandolinist and vocalist John Duffey joined up with banjo player Bill Emerson and guitarist and singer Charlie Waller to form The Country Gentlemen, a group that expanded the boundaries of bluegrass. While playing traditional bluegrass, they performed […]
In conjunction with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings’ 70th anniversary comes a collection of African American cowboy songs titled Black Cowboys. The almost legendary interpreter to such anthems in this collection is none other than founding Carolina Chocolate Drop and historian, scholar, collector, […]
The difference between regular blues and piedmont blues is “them pretty little chords,” says ’88 National Heritage Fellowship and ’94 N.C. Folk Heritage Award winner John Dee Holeman. The Durham N.C. guitarist is one of the last living practitioners of […]
Even by the standards of Michael Doucet, who has extended the traditional Cajun and Creole fiddle styles of his personal heroes such as Dennis McGee and Canray Fontenot into the future, this one’s a wild card. Playing octave violin, guitar […]
In 1961, my two best friends were twins with left-wing parents. One of them was into folk music, and after he played me a Pete Seeger album, I was, too. I went to the library, and there was just what […]
Trains have been an enduring feature in American songs, perhaps more than any other invention of the past two centuries. They’ve generally been presented as a harbinger of a better life, both for the economic upturn they’d bring to an […]
What is folk music, anyway? This may seem like a silly question, but it’s one I’ve kicked around for years, and finally answered by saying folk music ends when you get paid for it full-time. Sure, it also has to […]
The latest entry in the Smithsonian Folkways Classic Series highlights traditional sacred music from the American south as documented in the vast Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archive. That collection, though impressive, has its limitations. Here you’ll find no Carl Story or […]
FRESH TRACK: Mackenzie Shivers – ‘a cautionary tale’Check it out
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