Black musical traditions
Key elements of country music also have Black origins, such as the banjo. In Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” the banjo is played by Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship honoree Rhiannon Giddens. In addition to her musical talent, Giddens has been instrumental in illuminating the history of the banjo and Black contributions to early country music. In 2019, Giddens collaborated with three other Black female artists — Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell — on Songs of Our Native Daughters, co-produced with Smithsonian Folkways and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The project explores "African American stories of struggle, resistance, and hope," along with the history of the banjo and Black folk music.
Because the banjo is an iconic piece in country and bluegrass music, many people assume it is an American instrument. But the banjo we are familiar with today actually evolved from a related family of African gourd instruments, known by various names such as banjars and banias. The knowledge and memory of these instruments came with enslaved people when they were forcibly brought to the Caribbean and North America in the 1600s and 1700s. Enslaved Africans re-created the instrument with the materials they had at hand. There are many references to the “banjar” in relation to enslaved peoples, including in Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), where he noted: “The instrument proper to them is the banjar, which they brought hither from Africa…”
Enslaved and free Black musicians played banjo and fiddle — the two instruments most often associated with string bands — at dances and other gatherings held by and for white people. That Black string band tradition continued into the 20th century. Once again, however, the music industry’s segregation of sound meant that recordings of these bands were usually marketed as “race records” rather than “hillbilly music,” and thus the story of Black string bands has not been widely recognized in country music. Interestingly, the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, a Black string band who recorded at the Knoxville Sessions in 1930, were marketed in the label’s “old-time” and “race record” categories, though under different names – they were called the Tennessee Trio for the “old-time” catalog. In 2005, Giddens, along with Dom Flemons and Justin Robinson, formed the old-time string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, to carry on the Black string band tradition and its impact on country, folk, and other music.
