The banjo in American music was traditionally associated with bluegrass and old-time until the early 1970s when Tony Trischka spearheaded a movement to innovate the sound. In his hands, the banjo ...

I was warned,” Patrick “Pappy” Biondo said. Wearing a black T-shirt and round, gold-rimmed sunglasses, the slim, tattooed 35-year-old leaned against a shaded park bench outside the Kellogg-Hubbard ...

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, ...

A banjo player named for three classical composers, Béla Anton Leos Fleck celebrates both bluegrass and classical sounds with his original music, to be performed in the New Orleans area from Jan. 8-10 ...

Pop superstar Beyoncé released "Texas Hold 'Em" a few weeks ago and it features an instrument that she had never emphasized before. This hit song, on her new (and hugely popular) Cowboy Carter album, ...

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 ...

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 ...

In December 2010, a mysterious banjo tune popped up on a website devoted to early recordings. Even by that definition, this song stood out. It dated back to when Grover Cleveland occupied the White ...

When the news broke earlier this week informing us of Sonny Osborne’s passing, my mind raced back to when I first heard him and sibling Bobby – bluegrass music’s indomitable Osborne Brothers – on a ...

Program notes, biography, and historical information by Kenneth S. Goldstein on container. Performer(s): Obray Ramsay, vocals and banjo. Production notes: Recorded at the Western North Carolina State ...

Tim Weed has heard all the banjo jokes -- the constant digs about the banjo in the movie Deliverance or the Beverly Hillbillies TV show. But a funny thing happens when Weed actually plays the ...

Charlie Weber | Media Director, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Rhiannon Giddens is joined by Canadian-American musician-songwriter Allison Russell (Po’ Girl, Birds of Chicago), ...