Ballad of America

"Irish Americans have contributed significantly to the vocal music landscape of the United States. This included songs and music in a wide variety of forms: traditional Anglo-Irish folk song , the sean-nós "old style" Gaelic song, "high art" Irish American song, hybridized Irish American popular song such as Vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley, contemporary folk music, Irish American big band and showband music, and Celtic rock."

Irish American Song

"Douglas Shadle, associate professor of musicology, explores in his recent research how the drive for a classical music style that reflected an American identity was led by a European with radical ideas about basing it on African American folk music."

New book describes turning point in the racialization of classical music

This is free and open to all, but be sure to register in advance. Dale Farmer, writer and director of the film The Mountain Minor, looks back at clips from movies and TV shows like Bonnie and Clyde, Deliverance, Song Catcher, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Andy Griffith; how the stories and music have impacted popular culture and revived the music while often perpetuating negative Appalachian stereotypes. The session will also address authenticity vs commercialism and the presenter’s efforts toward authenticity in his own film, The Mountain Minor.

SERFA Session: Appalachian Music in Film and TV Presenter: Dale Farmer

"Her new project is a survey of songs from the vast African-American musical tradition. Her album’s title speaks to this expansive journey into the past: American Heritage: From the Civil War to Civil Rights."

INTERVIEW: Pianist Jeni Slotchiver on her new album, 'American Heritage' - Hollywood Soapbox

"In the world music category’s 38-year history, nearly two-thirds of the nominations have come from just six countries (the US, UK, Brazil, Mali, South Africa, India) and only 12 nations have ever had an artist win. We see the same artists nominated over and over again in a category that can feel closed off to everyone else – particularly those who may not be English-fluent, hold dual passports, or call a capital city home."

The Grammys have a major problem with diversity. Lip service isn’t going to solve it | Ian Brennan

"Back in 2005, the now 62-year-old acclaimed musician went to Africa to explore the origins of the banjo. Fleck toured through Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia and Mali, jamming with local musicians. Along the way, the music they created inspired a documentary film and two albums, including one called “The Ripple Effect,” which are all part of the Grammy-nominated release."

Béla Fleck’s Journey To Find Truth In Origins Of The Banjo

"More than 500,000 people have died in the U.S. from COVID-19 since the pandemic hit this country and the world just over a year ago. NPR is remembering some of those who lost their lives by listening to the music they loved and hearing their stories. We're calling our tribute Songs Of Remembrance."

Songs Of Remembrance

We invite you to read our new article about the song "Home on the Range" and add your voice to our "Sing it Together" recording. "Home on the Range" stands as one of the best-known and loved songs of the American West. The lyrics originated as the poem "My Western Home" by Kansas homesteader Dr. Brewster M. Higley VI. Higley wrote the lines in the 1870s to celebrate the beauty of his surroundings on the Great Plains. The article includes historical background, song history, lyrics, a lead sheet, an instrumental "Sing it Yourself" recording, and suggestions for further reading.

Home on the Range: About the Song - Ballad of America

"In this part of Kentucky, it's pretty common for punk musicians to also play old time."

Young Punk Rocker Finds New Pandemic Hobby Building Banjos

"Spirituals are meditations on the triumph of the metaphysical over the physical realities of slavery. They attempt to answer profound questions: What happens to an enslaved person when she dies? What does it mean if her life has been so denigrated on earth? What does freedom feel like if your only access to it is in your imagination? What miracles of God are needed to get free?"

Black Spirituals as Poetry and Resistance

"Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, in E minor, 'From the New World' is among the universally most beloved and widely performed pieces of classical music today. It also is – just as it was in the 19th century – his most controversial work, and still somewhat shrouded in historical myth. Dvořák’s assertion in a May 1893 interview for the New York Herald Tribune about the potential role of Black vernacular music 'launched a months-long debate riddled with racist invective that put the white racial foundation of American classical music on full display', Prof. Shadle writes in his new book, “Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony”.

Antonín Dvořák’s ‘New World Symphony’ – an ‘American’ anthem that delighted, divided a nation (pt.1)

"The folk music trio emerged from New York's Greenwich Village scene to teach the masses about the great songwriters of the time (their recorded output includes covers of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "Too Much of Nothing," "When the Ship Comes In" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'")."

The 5 Best Peter, Paul and Mary Songs, Ranked

"In the 'A Place in the Band: Women in Bluegrass and American Roots Music' discussion series, North Carolina singer-songwriter and social activist, Laurelyn Dossett, speaks with women in the music business, including musicians and others involved behind the scenes in the music industry."

A Place in the Band | Blue Ridge Music Center

"Join storyteller Queen Nur as she hosts a virtual trip across the country, taking viewers into the homes and communities where the 2020 National Heritage Fellows live and create. The pre-recorded virtual presentation will be webcast free to the public at arts.gov. No RSVP needed."

The Culture of America: A Cross-Country Visit with the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellows On March 4th

"Shepherd University’s George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War (GTMC) is hosting a Facebook livestream discussion on the evolution of American folk music from the 18th century into the early 20th century on Thursday, March 4."

Shepherd University | Civil War center to host March 4 virtual discussion of American Folk music

"All of the, 'Let's have a panel! Let's talk about it! Black Lives Matter!' — all of that was just rehearsal. Now the lights are up and this is the real show and we're on stage. Quite literally, the whole nation is watching, so it's important that we put into actual play the stuff that we were talking about."

With All Eyes On Country Music, Will Black Nashville Get The Reckoning It Deserves?

"In the fall of 1952 at a hootenanny of young musicians in Topanga Canyon outside Los Angeles, when Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie first heard her sing “Take This Hammer,” the chain gang song first made famous by Lead Belly, they as well as all the others in the room were felled by a voice that they described as rumbling from heaven."

'Odetta' chronicles singer's cultural influence on music, civil rights