The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Jake Blount's Spider Tales has come at the perfect time. Exploring historical black string band music and its antecedents and performed by mostly queer musicians, Blount's latest full-length album on Free Dirt Records is an expression of the zeitgeist amid the mass protests in response to George Floyd's killing by Minneapolis police, systemic racism and aggression toward the LGBTQ+ community, and the continued fight for equal rights in the United States. As a gay black man playing traditional banjo and fiddle music, Blount uses his music and voice to bring recognition to the role of people of color, queer people and other marginalized communities in American roots music. In the liner notes to Spider Tales , Blount explains that the album title stems from "Anansesem," the stories of Anansi the Spider, a figure in the folklore and religion of the Akan people of West Africa, who was known for "his wit and wisdom — and his aptitude for weaponizing them a...

There are moments when watching Allison de Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves perform that you'll be grooving to the music, and then all of a sudden you stop. No warning. Your foot stops tapping. Your head stops bobbing. Your mouth stops ... being closed. These are the moments when the duo leaves you slackjawed by their brilliance and mastery of the five-string fiddle and five-string banjo. I experienced several of these moments last night at the historic G.A.R. Hall in Peninsula, Ohio, nestled within the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Northeast Ohio, where de Groot and Hargreaves put on a mesmerizing two-hour concert on a frosty, winter evening. De Groot and Hargreaves played two hour-long sets, with a brief intermission and an encore, playing through a good chunk of their 2019 debut album , as well as a number of tunes they had recently composed and arranged during a creative residency program sponsored by the Peninsula Foundation , which organized the concert as part of its V...

During these waning days of 2019, I figured I'd give you one last look back at the year that was. The following are the five most viewed posts of 2019.  Review: Mike Seeger's Just Around the Bend . I'm cheating a bit with this one because this Smithsonian release occupied two of the most popular posts of the year. The actual top post by a couple hundred views was my post announcing that Seeger's final project would be released in August . My review of said CD/DVD/booklet set came in a few slots down the list. Remembering the Kent State Folk Festival . A love letter to a once-popular event for old-time musicians like Tommy Jarrell, Melvin Wine, the Highwoods String Band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops and more. And it all happened in my hometown. Remember when I said I was going to write multiple posts on the festival? Me neither.  Review: Anna & Elizabeth, "Hop High"/"Here in the Vineyard." Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrel...

The debut self-titled album by Allison De Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves is the most exciting new old-time album I’ve heard in years. The duo represents the modern generation of tradition bearers, but they don’t shy away from making the the music their own. In keeping with a modern outlook, they also overtly declare their aims to be more inclusive and recognize the contributions from minority populations to the old-time music community. In the liner notes, they include a mission statement of sorts: “As two musicians who have come from outside of the cultural and geographic communities this music originated in, we are so appreciative of those who have welcomed us and shared their musical and cultural knowledge. We would like to thank all of the musicians who came before us, especially those who never received the credit they deserved: the Indigenous, Black, Queer and female musicians who weren’t always visible but kept, and still keep the music moving forward.” As such, almost hal...