Various Artists – Black Banjo Songsters
These 32 tracks of deep, nearly-forgotten hill music represent a curious intersection of rural African-American and European-American sounds. Most folks interested in the roots of American music know that modern banjo evolved from an African gourd instrument, that the clawhammer style of playing can be traced back to the mother continent, and that Bill Monroe learned lotsa his best tricks from blues musicians. But what did the blacks who played banjo and sang traditional songs before the development of the blues and the widespread popularity of the mail-order guitar sound like?
Leave it to Cece Conway and Scott Odell to track down consummate African-American musicians from 1974 to 1997. These previously unrecorded banjo players could recall and perform in a style rarely heard during the last hundred years.
It is fascinating to hear various styles of singing and playing overlap. Melodies are sung in a plain, unaffected style, accompanied by the heavily rhythmic, subtle style of banjo-playing known as “thumping,” “rapping,” “knocking,” and “beating,” and occasionally accompanied by a high pitched fiddle. The banjos are tuned to various modal tunings, some of which are pretty weird, always gorgeous.
You probably know a lot of these songs, and they’re presented multiple times to highlight the diverse styles and melodic variations: “John Henry”, “Georgia Bird”, “Shortnin’ Bread”, “Coo Coo Bird”. Many of these banjo songs emerged from the racist blackface and minstrel shows of the mid-nineteenth century. Played here by these unknown adepts like Dink Roberts, Odell Thompson, and John Snipes, they shine with a power and glory that recalls the West African griot tradition.