The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Any distraction from winter in Northeast Ohio is a worthy investment. The organizers behind the Blue Sky Folk Festival are seeking donations for a new event this upcoming February. The Lake Erie Folk Festival is slated for Feb. 27, 2016, at the Shore Cultural Centre in Euclid. Almost three years ago, the same venue was the site of the Shore Folk Festival . This appears to be a relaunch of that same event. The nonprofit group North East Ohio Musical Heritage Association, formed in 2014, has set up an Indiegogo page to raise $5,000 to help fund the Lake Erie Folk Festival.

Originally published in 1977, Dena Epstein's seminal book, Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War , provided definitive evidence that the banjo was first developed by African slaves, derived from similar instruments that are still played in countries like Gambia.