We’re all familiar with the sounds of the banjo, popularized in the American imagination by media highlights like the dead-eyed banjo picker in Deliverance and the band on Hee Haw. But more than anything, you would recognize the iconic, rollicking […]
When I say “mambo,” you probably immediately think of “No 5.” Fair enough — it’s catchy as all get out. But where did Lou Bega get his inspiration for “Mambo No. 5”? You may think it was from Monica, Erica, […]
Back in the early days of the Western frontier, community was a matter of life-and-death: It was the work of people in tandem that led to a successful winter, not merely one man’s luck in finding gold or trapping furs. […]
For as long as there has been work to do, there have been people singing while they do it. Collaborative tasks, in particular, seem to lend themselves to song. These songs do more than just help pass the time; they […]
Nowadays, the mandolin is inexorably linked in the American popular consciousness to roots music. It’s so deeply tied to the genre, it’s even the butt of a joke about pandering to stereotypes in country music. But it wasn’t always this […]
We’ve all heard of The Carter Family — the first family of country music. (Or maybe you’re new to roots music and haven’t heard of them yet. That’s okay too! Welcome to the party, we’re happy you’re here). They brought […]
Turn on some Motown music and you’ll be showered in dazzling orchestral arrangements and powerful vocals. You’ll find songs of love, God, sex, and resistance. It’s soul music designed for a pop audience, or maybe it’s pop music with an […]
Unless you live here, and honestly even if you do, California probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think about bluegrass. Kentucky would be a more likely candidate; they’re so confident in their claim to the […]
Turn your radio to a country music station, and you’re likely to hear the lilting sounds of a pedal steel. It’s a sound iconic to the genre, so ubiquitous that it’s probably permeated your idea of what country music is […]
Look around you, and you’ll find the world is changing faster than you can blink. Everything from politics to technology to the weather, even, is evolving and metastasizing in a way we’ve never seen before. Those of us in the […]
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