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Dink Roberts
James "Dink" Roberts (September 15, 1894 – August 30, 1989) was an American old-time banjo player. His performances, which were recorded in the 1970s by folklorists, illustrate a style of playing that pre-dates the blues. Born in Chatham County, North Carolina, Roberts learned the artistry of the banjo from local black musicians—particularly Mince Phillips who was a close friend Roberts sometimes performed with—active in the corresponding Alamance County. As a young adult, Roberts worked as a tenant farmer, and became well-respected among both black and white field hands when he performed at dances among other types of gatherings. His archaic clawhammer picking style was "noticeably different (among other things, more rhythmically complex, i.e., 'syncopated', for lack of a better term)", compared to many of Roberts' contemporaries. Folklorist Cece Conway, in her analysis of Roberts' better-known recording, " Coo Coo", described his playing as "fascinating in how he constru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old-time Music
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, contra dance, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination of fiddle (see old time fiddling) and plucked string instruments, most often the banjo, guitar, and mandolin. Together, they form an ensemble called the string band, which along with the simple banjo–fiddle duet have historically been the most common configurations to play old-time music. The genre is considered a precursor to modern country music. History Reflecting the cultures that settled North America, the roots of old-time music are in the traditional musics of the British Isles, Europe, and Africa. African influences are notably found in vocal and instrumental performance styles and dance, as well as the often cited use of the banjo; in some regions, Native American, Spanish, French and German sources are al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by African Americans and had African antecedents. In the 19th century, interest in the instrument was spread across the United States and United Kingdom by traveling shows of the 19th-century minstrel show fad, followed by mass production and mail-order sales, including instructional books. The inexpensive or home-made banjo remained part of rural folk culture, but five-string and four-string banjos also became popular for home parlor music entertainment, college music clubs, and early 20th century jazz bands. By the early 20th century, the banjo was most frequently associated with folk, cowboy music, and country music. By mid-century it had come to be strongly associated with bluegrass. Eventu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folklorist
Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the academic study of traditional culture from the Cultural artifact, folklore artifacts themselves. It became established as a field across both Europe and North America, coordinating with (German language, German), (Norwegian language, Norwegian), and (Swedish language, Swedish), among others. Overview A 1982 UNESCO document titled "Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore" declared a global need to establish provisions protecting folklore from varying dangers identified in the document. UNESCO further published the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003. The American Folklife Preservation Act (P.L. 94-201) passed in 1976 by the United States Congress in conjunction with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballad (music), ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the Call and response (music), call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in Pitch (music), pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffle note, shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove (popular music), groove. Blues music is characterized by its lyrics, Bassline, bass lines, and Instrumentation (music), instrumen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chatham County, North Carolina
Chatham County ( ) , from the North Carolina Collection's website at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved September 25, 2012. is a County (United States), county located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont area of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is also the location of the List of geographic centers of the United States, geographic center of North Carolina, northwest of Sanford, North Carolina, Sanford. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 76,285. Its county seat is Pittsboro, North Carolina, Pittsboro. Chatham County is part of the Research Triangle, Durham-Chapel Hill, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC Combined statistical area, Combined Statistical Area ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alamance County, North Carolina
Alamance County (), from the North Carolina Collection's website at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved September 18, 2012. is a County (United States), county in North Carolina. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 171,415. Its county seat is Graham, North Carolina, Graham. Formed in 1849 from Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County to the east, Alamance County has been the site of significant History, historical events, textile manufacturing, and agriculture. Alamance County comprises the Burlington, North Carolina, Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Greensboro, North Carolina, Greensboro–Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Winston-Salem–High Point, North Carolina, High Point, NC Piedmont Triad, Combined Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 1,736,099 in 2023. History Before being formed as a county, the region had at least one known small Indigenous peoples of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clawhammer
Clawhammer, sometimes called down-picking, overhand, or most commonly known as frailing, is a distinctive banjo playing style and a common component of American old-time music. The style likely descends from that of West African lutes, such as the akonting which are also the direct ancestors of the banjo. The principal difference between clawhammer style and other styles is the picking direction. Traditional picking styles ( classic banjo), including those for folk, bluegrass, and classical guitar, consist of an up-picking motion by the fingers and a down-picking motion by the thumb; this is also the technique used in the Scruggs style for the banjo. Clawhammer picking, by contrast, is primarily a down-picking style. The hand assumes a claw-like shape and the strumming finger is kept fairly stiff, striking the strings by the motion of the hand at the wrist or elbow, rather than a flicking motion by the finger. In its most common form on the banjo, only the thumb and m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cuckoo (song)
"The Cuckoo" (Roud 413) is a traditional English folk song, also sung in the United States, Canada, Scotland and Ireland. The song is known by many names, including "The Coo-Coo", "The Coo-Coo Bird", "The Cuckoo Bird", "The Cuckoo Is a Pretty Bird", "The Evening Meeting", "The Unconstant Lover", "Bunclody" and "Going to Georgia". In the United States, the song is sometimes syncretized with the other traditional folk song " Jack of Diamonds". Lyrics usually include the line (or a slight variation): "The cuckoo is a pretty bird, she sings as she flies; she brings us glad tidings, and she tells us no lies." According to Thomas Goldsmith of ''The Raleigh News & Observer'', "The Cuckoo" is an interior monologue where the singer "relates his desires — to gamble, to win, to regain love's affection." The song is featured in the E.L. Doctorow book ''The March''. A soldier suffering from a metal spike stuck in his head sings verses from the song. Synopsis Usually, but not always, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duke University
Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James Buchanan Duke established the Duke Endowment and the institution changed its name to honor his deceased father, Washington Duke. The campus spans over on three contiguous sub-campuses in Durham, and a Duke University Marine Laboratory, marine lab in Beaufort, North Carolina, Beaufort. The Duke University West Campus, West Campus—designed largely by architect Julian Abele—incorporates Collegiate Gothic in North America, Gothic architecture with the Duke Chapel at the campus' center and highest point of elevation, is adjacent to the Duke University Health System, Medical Center. Duke University East Campus, East Campus, away, home to all first-years, contains Georgian archit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compilation Album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for release together as a single work, but may be collected together as a greatest hits album or box set. If the recordings are from several artists, there may be a theme, topic, time period, or genre which links the tracks, or they may have been intended for release as a single work—such as a tribute album. When the tracks are by the same recording artist, the album may be referred to as a retrospective album or an anthology. Content and scope Songs included on a compilation album may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intend ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Musical ensemble, bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All-Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar, and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as compact discs (CDs) replaced LP record, LPs and cassette (format), cassettes as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it, he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
