Every time i pick up my banjo (made by Jim Hartel) I feel a lick or tune wanting to escape into the world. This is one of hundreds that come and go. I play this banjo, a replica of a banjo style from 1858, because it feels deeply cultural and spiritual to me. A time when everyone was playing the banjo – regardless of the negative stereotyping being created around it, this african diasporic instrument was capturing the hearts of a nation. The banjo began in spirit, and when I play it, I feel that, and the generations of my ancestors who played or were touched by this combination of wood, skin, and gut. With deep appreciation to @beyonce and her team who uplifted this sound and sent it ‘round the world.
Wow this was an amazing thing to see in my daily paper! It was a delight to speak to Janay Kingsberry and she did a wonderful job ❤️ @washingtonpost link in stories
Thinking a lot about so many things. Here’s a home iphone video of the airing of the time that @dickthegentleman, @chancemccoymusic, and i played “He’s Gone (aka Gonna Write Me a Letter)” by fellow North Carolina banjo player Ola Belle Reed, and we just killed it on the @opry. It was so fun. The music that was the main well drawn from for commercial country music has always been about cross cultural collaboration. Maybe after the mainstream accepts that banjo came from black folk and that they were co creators, not merely influencers, we can start focusing on the fact that this music was all made by poor people, no matter the color. Also, I didn’t have a G-scale banjo with me that day, so I believe Nashville’s own @gruhnguitars leant me a banjo – you can see the tag on it! A little Minnie Pearl moment. See the full performance at the link in stories!
I couldn’t have said any of this article any better. It’s a REALLY great breakdown of some of the history that #CowboyCarter rests on – thank you @teenvogue for your scholarship and journalism! Link in stories! p.s. and that’s Dena Ross Jennings, who was Black Banjo Renaissance #21 🙂
I couldn’t have said any of this article any better. It’s a REALLY great breakdown of some of the history that #CowboyCarter rests on – thank you @teenvogue for your scholarship and journalism! Link in stories! p.s. and that’s Dena Ross Jennings, who was Black Banjo Renaissance #21 🙂
Loving Day was yesterday – but here’s my post today. Being mixed is a super power – it brings challenges like everything else but it also allows you to see on both sides of the fence, and then knock the fence over, stomp on it, and kick it out of the way. thanks mom and dad! i love you to bits.
Crochet, biscuits (some of my highest yet!) and dyed eggs…a happy Easter indeed.
Crochet, biscuits (some of my highest yet!) and dyed eggs…a happy Easter indeed.
Crochet, biscuits (some of my highest yet!) and dyed eggs…a happy Easter indeed.
All right New York! Let’s goooooooo!
@silkroadproject
Black Banjo Renaissance #20 Hannah Mayree and the Black Banjo Reclamation Project @hannah_mayree @black.banjo.reclamation The banjo spent many years being a center of spirituality for enslaved people of the African diaspora; throughout the years of minstrelsy and erasure, that connection has flowed underground like a unknown river, waiting for us to rediscover it – and we are. Hannah Mayree formed the Black Banjo Reclamation Project to get as many banjos in black hands as possible. In Hannah’s own words (from an interview with Afropop): “It goes back to what I was speaking on. And I am very much still on a journey with this. The banjo is taking me on a journey; it’s taking my local community on a journey. I’m just very excited to see where it takes us. The pain and trauma I was talking about, I think, is the pain of separation. It’s a very common emotion experienced by African-American people, expressed in different ways, when you lose trust in what you see and learn to question everything. I did not personally grow up knowing the banjo has its roots in the Black community. It’s bad enough what has happened all over the world to Black folks from health disparity, food apartheid, to prisons. For me to add “music” on top of that? Music is here to heal us!
Black Banjo Renaissance #21 Dr Dena Jennings Story Gourd Workshop and the Thang Dr Jennings is a renaissance woman who, besides being a medical M.D, homesteader, instrument maker and crafter., is also a powerful figure in the banjo community. She hosts the Affrolachian On-Time Music Gathering on her farm in Virginia, and also has gourd banjo workshops. Thanks, Dr Dena, for all the healing!
Somebody says don’t go
New this week, my sib-in-spirit violinist and vocalist Mazz Swift (@mazzmuse) talks about their musical journey at Juilliard, playing music in the New York subway, and performs with me. Stream #MyMusicPBS on the PBS App.
@msalicerandall’s day has finally come. Make no mistake, in addition to the bright reflection from Cowboy Carter, Alice shines like the sun all her own self. She has been doing the work behind the scenes, year after year, encouraging folks like me and @rissipalmermusic, writing songs, collecting histories, and writing books. Check her out! Link in stories.
Whoof what a few weeks! There’s been so much to talk about but I have been too busy livin it to make many coherent posts- a tour, a special concert, a certain country album dropping that I had a wee contribution in… it’s been a time. So I’m gonna try to catch up this week by posting about things that just happened. Today I want to post about @rissipalmermusic’s recent @colormecountryradio episode from Saturday on black women in country music. Rissi has been boosting signals and educating the public about this for years, and she is someone I love and admire very much. Check it out! Link in stories
Today on #MyMusicPBS, tabla master and @silkroadproject member Sandeep Das – @sandeepdas.official – talks about the north Indian instrument and his studies under a famous guru there, and we see a performance from the Ensemble. Streaming free for four weeks on the @PBS App.
Well I never got to perform in the revival of Shuffle Along on Broadway, but I learned a lot about Florence Mills preparing for the show. When @wnyc asked if I wanted to be a part of the Public Song Project, and I saw that the year was the year of ‘I’m a Little Blackbird Looking for a Bluebird’, I jumped at the chance. Florence Mills made the song famous, and it’s sad indeed we have no recordings of her. I tried to channel a little of what I thought it might have sounded like. Link to listen to the full song in my bio.
Here are some photos from the making of #MyMusicPBS The show is now available to stream in the UK on @primevideo. It’s also airing on the PBS channel across the US – including 12:30am Sundays in LA, 10pm Saturdays in Boston (starting July 13), and more. Check your local listings!
Here are some photos from the making of #MyMusicPBS The show is now available to stream in the UK on @primevideo. It’s also airing on the PBS channel across the US – including 12:30am Sundays in LA, 10pm Saturdays in Boston (starting July 13), and more. Check your local listings!
Here are some photos from the making of #MyMusicPBS The show is now available to stream in the UK on @primevideo. It’s also airing on the PBS channel across the US – including 12:30am Sundays in LA, 10pm Saturdays in Boston (starting July 13), and more. Check your local listings!
Here are some photos from the making of #MyMusicPBS The show is now available to stream in the UK on @primevideo. It’s also airing on the PBS channel across the US – including 12:30am Sundays in LA, 10pm Saturdays in Boston (starting July 13), and more. Check your local listings!
We are excited to release the next single from our upcoming compilation album, “Black is the Color” by Rhiannon Giddens. Check out our bio to stream the single and pre-save the album today!
