Early American banjo music is Black music. The banjo was created by enslaved African Americans, and according to the Smithsonian Institute, up until the 1830s, the banjo was exclusively an African ...

My 25th wedding anniversary was approaching. My husband, Bruce, a 50-year piano student who takes a lesson every two weeks, asked me if I might like an instrument for an anniversary present. I love ...

Beyonce’s hit “Texas Hold ’Em” opens with a beat seldom heard on hip-hop tracks: the unmistakable clip-clop of a four-stringed clawhammer banjo. It comes via folk icon Rhiannon Giddens, who was ...

"I have loved the banjo my whole life, and this album of 14 compositions is the result of 45 years of playing seriously, as well as playing around." Those words begin the liner notes — the ...

A sought-after producer, acoustic-music ambassador and virtuoso banjo player, as well as the host of the Inside the Musician’s Brain podcast, Chris Pandolfi boasts some impressive feathers in his ...

Pushing boundaries is nothing new to Chris Pandolfi: as a student a Berklee, he was the first banjo principal at the renowned music school and he continues to play banjo in the Infamous Stringdusters, ...

Beyoncé's surprise new country album has kicked open the saloon doors to a new audience. While this may not be Beyoncé's first rodeo when it comes to country music, people are now exploring the genre ...

Andy Thorn is best known as the banjo player for bluegrass band Leftover Salmon, which was inducted into Colorado Music Hall of Fame last year. But in recent months, Thorn has gone viral as a solo act ...

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. Banjo player and fiddler Jake Blount likes to mess with his audiences: He’ll swap the ...

Rhiannon Giddens is down at the river, carrying a flame of heritage, and she’s inviting anyone who wants to join her to come down and light their own wicks. Rivers are traditionally sites of salvation ...