Black Stringband Music: Recommended Resources
This is an expanded edition of the Google Doc I created in February 2021, as a resource for students and workshop attendees. Many requested an expanded edition of the document with a more accessible font size. As the original document was intended to be an introductory list, I wanted to keep it short so that it wouldn't be overwhelming. On this page, I will include more sources and use a larger, hopefully more legible font size. If the font is still too small, click the "View" button on your browser toolbar and select "Zoom In" to enlarge the text.
Feel free to share this far and wide. My only requests are that you 1) use a link to share rather than copying and pasting where possible, and 2) include proper attribution. Should you use or repeat this information, remember to #CiteWomen. I do not necessarily endorse all the content of each work included here. Read these works with a critical mind, and with awareness that implicit bias affects us all. Continue to seek out more information; though I will update this list with additional entries as I come across them, there's a lot I don't know. If you feel that there's something I should add, please use the contact form on my website to offer additional suggestions.
Remember that one of the best ways to build an inclusive scene is to offer tangible support to Black artists and community members. The contemporary Black artists listed herein all have music for sale.
I offer this as a free resource. If you wish to compensate me for this work, I accept PayPal and Venmo (@jakeblount); or, buy a copy of Spider Tales.
Music
Free Online Resources:
Contemporary Black Artists:
Source Recordings:
- Ain't Gonna Rain No More (Blues And Pre-Blues From Piedmont North Carolina)
- Altamont -- Black Stringband Music from the Library of Congress
- Banjo
- Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia
- Black Fiddlers (1929-c.1970)
- Blues And Country Dance Tunes From Virginia
- Carolina Breakdown
- Country Negro Jam Session
- Eight-Hand Sets and Holy Steps
- Family Tradition
- Fiddle Noir
- FRC 209 - Dink Roberts: African American Banjo (Recordings from the collection of Bob Winans)
- FRC 728 - Teodar Jackson - African American Fiddling from Texas
- Louie Bluie
- Music From The Hills Of Caldwell County
- Old Time Music From The North Carolina Piedmont
- Orange County Special
Reading
Free Online Resources
- DuBois, W. E. B.: The Souls of Black Folk
- Gaddy, Kristina: Will Adams and the Sounds of KenGar
- Henry, Linda L.: "Some Real American Music:" John Lusk and His Rural Black Stringband
- Henry, Linda L.: The Saturday Fish Fry and Square Dance in Dogtown
Black Stringband Music & Dance
Banjo History
- Gaddy, Kristina: Well of Souls
- Linn, Karen: That Half-Barbaric Twang
- Winans, Bob: Banjo Roots & Branches
Black Music + Culture
- Floyd, Samuel A (Jr.): The Power of Black Music
- Holloway, Joseph E.: Africanisms in American Culture
Related African Music
Other Free Resources
Podcasts
- Radiolab | Birdie In The Cage
- Get Up In The Cool | Ep. 199, 102, 51, 68-69, 145, 8, 40