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...

When I pre-ordered my copy of the Allison De Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves self-titled debut album from Free Dirt Records, I also ordered the seven-inch single from Anna & Elizabeth featuring their take on the traditional songs “Hop High” and “Here in the Vineyard.”  The two tracks were released in 2017 and serve as a kind of proving ground for the experimental approach to traditional music the duo would present on the their 2018 full-length, The Invisible Comes to Us , released on Smithsonian Folkways. GBB reviewed that album in May last year .  With the help of producers Alec Spiegelman and Benjamin Lazar Davis (who are members of avant-pop outfit Cuddle Magic), Anna & Elizabeth re-imagine “Hop High” and “Here in the Vineyard” employing their ethereal aesthetics, with haunting and delicate harmonies surrounded by unexpected instruments like pump organ, woodwinds, strings and electronics, as well as banjo tunings that were reportedly inspired by the Indones...

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...