She also can compose for instance. 🙂

She has a BA from a Science and Math college in NC, and a Masters in Music, Voice, Opera from Oberlin. AND she's incredibly intelligent. And she wants to share it all with us!

Another great person to hear from when it comes to the history is Ketch Secor. They both have immense knowledge on the subject

We havd a marriage of cultures including European to thank

@@josephperkins4080 no idiot. Country and the banjo came from black people

@@josephperkins4080 Nope, african culture to thank for the existence of the banjo.

@@jaxthewolf4572 The instrument that Africans brought to America was way different than the banjo

@@matthewwilliams3643 Banjo is African American and modeled after the original African instrument thank you.

check out some of Cecilia Conway's research - she's done a lot to document more of the old Afro-American traditions in Appalachia and Rhiannon builds a lot on top of her work!

why? who cares? do you know any white banjo players from that time? its stupidity

@@nartron3000 Damn booooooooi ! Where do you buy a heap of ignorance like that ?

@@ZachVance108 why? oh because all you people think about is complexion? so im the ignorant one LOL. read the bible chump we all come from one creator, bickering back and forth about race only divides us further from the HUMAN RACE. What a nutter. Go back to school booooooooi!

@@nartron3000 there are actually dozens of well documented white banjo players from that period.

this is an exaggeration,. the foundation of Boggs playing was being deeply grounded in claw hammer on one side and obviously learning wht is now called the classic or parlor banjo side. He attempted to add the syncopation he heard from Black banjo finger pickers and above all from the jazz blues records that he learned songs like Sweet Sunny South From. He was close friends with Mississippi John Hurt and did say if he had to do it all over again he would have become a finger picking blues guitarist like HurtI have studied Boggs for years and even played Boggs' banjo a few times

nah its clearly white music because as white musicians have declined so has everyone else. whites were teaching them how to play lol

@@writerrad he never played clawhammer.

@@patrickderp1044 look up the akonting. The banjo is a black instrument developed and stolen by whites. Miss me with your whitewashed version of history.

@@banjothemanjo362 naw

You can't have her --- she's MINE!

@@HomeAtLast501 I admit my defeat to the better man! WAAAAA!

Totally!!!

Care yourself, stay safe!!! Due your Beatiful photo...You're Latin or spanish (I am). Regards

Banjo comes to Europe/UK via minstrel players. Irish banjo is tuned in fifths, as is fiddle and mandolin.

And they were the ones that tended to them cause they knew how to...black people have given soo much...we are more than just slaves

Caribbean people never stopped coming to America even under the British quota up until many a these countries gained independence. In new Orleans the black immigrants doubled the population and impacted the culture greatly. Black Americans weren't going with anything nowhere in America without the migrants from the Caribbean

Did you get a response yet?

If it comes from America it is indigenous,doesn't Matter if its precolumbian or not

@@religionisatragedy8537 lol you're a real peach, aren't you?

@@banjothemanjo362 are you just looking for comments to disagree with?

@@religionisatragedy8537 are you trying to be this woefully ignorant?

@@banjothemanjo362 Are you?

AllanTheBanjo Stop!

babalooey100 thank you a lot. Now I hear every "you know"... ;)

He definitely should have ...also more on artists who were ignored by the establishment. From the many black and native musicians from the 19th and 20th century to the 21st century and show how badly the Dixie Chicks, ow The Chicks,... Were treated in the states.... not elsewhere in the world, but in the states their own country ! A documentary should be done on how many artists were punished and or ignored, because of being different or having the courage to speak out . That is priceless musical history. 🙏

Sigh...for his "talking heads" Burns relies on the same old cadre of American historians, and ignores more recent research and voices. So he misses a *lot* when it comes to women and people of color. But I guess its a formula that works for him.

Because all of this history was lost. And because of the black face minstrelsy, the banjo became a symbol of black disparagement instead of an object of cultural continuity.

greenmentch Thank you for bringing it back and educating people on the true history.

Styles change. The banjo was used in black jazz bands into the 1930s. There are actually videos on youtube of 30s era big bands with banjos playing rhythm instead of acoustic guitars. But for the most part Black Americans are looking for the new hot thing, especially in the 20th century. Big band jazz morphs into bebop or R&B. There was jump blues, on to soul, funk etc. And once the Black mainstream latched onto a new style, the old one was left behind for anybody who wanted it. It's happened over and over again, and is sort of still happening today. There are of course Black people who play older styles of music, but not many in the grand scheme.

"Black Americans are looking for the new hot thing"... I'm not sure what that exactly means. Musicians in general want to get paid just like everyone else. If blacks aren't being hired to play the music they want to play because the record industry has decided they need to be playing blues or jazz, then that's what you're going to do or get out and do something else. The point is that black music became commercial white music and black musicians were hung out to dry to such an extent that most people don't even associate the music they brought to America with them anymore. Not sure this has anything to do with the "next new thing."

I think you've giving mainstream commercial success too much credit here. Many black musicians were earning a living playing to all black audiences before white people started coming to their shows or buying their records. Fats Domino said that he'd been playing what became known as rock n roll for 15 years in New Orleans before he ever had a hit. The young white kids loved Fats music all the way into the 60s but the Black kids had moved on years earlier. In 1950 Muddy Waters had wraparound crowds from Chicago to Miami and in between with all Black audiences, but by 1960 it was half and half. By 1970 there were hardly any Black people in Muddy's crowds and yet he was playing bigger halls than in his heyday. It's just that young white people were paying to see him now. The Black kids had moved on to Sly and Family Stone or Parliament by then. A decade later Funk's out. Disco's about to go out too. The thing is... all that music is derived from the music that was brought to America by their ancestors. It's built on what comes before, but Black people in the US don't have a tendency to want to look back to grasp at their roots. Most people actually recoil at thinking back too far into their history. That's somewhat reflected in how Black Americans treat their old musical styles.

The past informs the future. To shape the future, one overlooks the past at their peril.

She's talking about American history, not just the past.

Dear Daniel! Don't look forward without knowing the past. That is an excellent way to fall right into a hole. Love back atcha!

Rrhiannon would have a sharp answer to your comment.

Middle English is way different than American English yet its still the basis for what we speak today. The Model T Ford is way different than the Ford F150. The point is that when we understand the root of things, we can see how we are all part of a common tapestry. Lest we think the universe revolves around the old US of A.

@@greenmentch I think his point might be that the neck is flat rather than round.

The first car ever made is like nothing today so what's your point? You think you said something don't you?

Umm that’s all you could take away from this.... not how incredibly knowledgeable both in depth and laterally she is in this snippet?

Excuse me? Just because she's not talking about racism in the present day dosen't mean that it dosen't exist. And talking about today's racism is not "putting yourself into it as if you're a victim", so you can move on with bullshit.

Kirk Wood lol what? I literally said you are only concerned with the fact that she is not talking as a victim not the fact she is talking almost like an anthropologist/musicologist. I said nothing about modern day racism. But obviously it exists, I have witnessed it first hand.

I get ya!

tigera10030; I assumed he was responding to the original comment, not yours.

Many blacks should credit the Afro Cubans and Haitians for jazz

@@roylle6346 It is acknowledged that jazz started around 1898 (although it probably bore little resemblance to what we think of as early jazz until 1906). The earliest recordings came out in 1917. That jazz featured particular song structures, melody/harmony interplay, chords, sophisticated (mostly European) instruments, ad lib solos and ensembles, lyrics, against a solid 4/4 or 2/4 rhythm. That lasted until 1931 when "swing" elements showed up and were added to them. But except for infrequent novelty ethnic bands, the features of African, Caribbean, and Latin were not prevalent in "jazz." the vast majority of recordings from that time were similar during the jazz age. When talking about jazz, white and Black musicians each are responsible for roughly the same amount of contributions (although each had a different flavor).

@@darz3829 after the great migration of Haitians in new Orleans in the " early" 1800s what culture did black Americans have. If no Caribbean influence then why jolly roll Morton say "jazz ain't jazz if it doesn't have a Spanish tinge to it"? Where did that Spanish come from? Afro Cubans ofcourse. Definitely not Spain. New Orleans was literally dubbed as the little Caribbean or the northern most state of the Caribbean. So have a seat

@@roylle6346 Jelly (not "jolly") spent lots of time playing in Mexico. He even named some of his tunes with Mexican names. (Like Tijuana."). But his "Spanish tinge" remark was made in 1938, long after early jazz. And he said ".In fact, if you can't manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call it, for jazz." Not "jazz ain't jazz, etc." Morton also patterned many of his tunes after 3 part military tunes of the era. And no one will dispute them being classic New Orleans jazz tunes. Many more did NOT have the "tinge."

Over a century after Africans were building culture in "New World"

The French creoles from Haiti did inspire all African American music

It is not a certainty, my friend - african musicians were known to have been kidnapped precisely for the purpose of 'dancing' the slaves. Do we know how many of these instruments survived? of course not - but it doesn't mean it didn't happen. Also, the modern banjo was not invented by 'a white man in virginia' - it certainly took the turn it did into the minstrel banjo by white musicians, which no one denies, but there were multiple people involved, from Sweeney to Boucher (who most likely got the tuning head idea from tambos being imported from Europe). As to the rest of your assertion, I just don't have the time to refute it- there's plenty of good scholarship out there, from Epstein to Sublette etc etc etc that shows how important the banjo was to black culture, how tied it was to black culture by the white commercial culture, and how blacks left and were forced from, the 5-string banjo and it's music. To casually state something like "blacks were not big banjo enthusiasts' is breathtaking in its wrongness. Over and out.

I assume you're looking for a fight here, with "wild africans", et cetera....... If it does mean anything to you, do as Ms. Laffan suggests: look it up.

It seems, 58landman, you've written this post, spoiling for a fight. "Wild africans"; indeed! If this subject is of import to you, I suggest you take Ms. Laffan's suggestion: do some research.

We taught you how to play the banjo your music is black music.

The banjo was created in the Caribbean not by no damn white man wtf!

For sale of discussion - let's say u r correct... Shame shame on the lady for going a bit far in order to reset D.Whiteman's history? Okay, got it.

@@MJ-hg1mk - Uh...I do believe my ancestors who had the 2-stringed fiddle would beg to differ...Much Love.

I guess you were listening with jaded ears. Not "Anti-Black"; merely not interested..... AND, Ms. Laffan makes a point of saying Sharpe did contribute and save much.

Cecil Sharp - incredible the man ever made the bottom step, let alone being put upon a pedestal for his ‘work’ ...

Guess what, American music is not one race!

How was he not "black enough" when he was an immigrant from England. You prove people say the most idiot things on the internet. I can tell you're an extremely ignorant person!

@@jaxthewolf4572 sure as hell not the WHITE race

It's Caribbean

@@roylle6346 Nope, it's not

@@SupaNami the first documented history of the banjo predates the time it surfaced in America. Caribbean 1600s North America 1700s You need receipts?

@@roylle6346 Lies ... WIki is all lies but yes post it from wiki!

@@SupaNami Wikipedia is all lies only when it hurts your soul 😂. Ok so Wikipedia says an Haitian founded Chicago is it a lie? Btw my link is not from Wikipedia. Wikipedia actually gloss over the subject..jokes on you

"Victimhood" is y'all fave word yet y'all act like victims

@@jaxthewolf4572 care to clarify?

Trump don't know shit about anything to do with soul, only money. Frederick Douglass is still alive, as far as he knows or cares.

MrPecker III, after your suggestion to research this, a quick google shows you are wrong in at least one of your statements about Wanda Sykes. From one site..."An episode of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2012) stated that Wanda’s matrilineal ninth great-grandmother, named Elizabeth Banks, who was a white indentured servant. Elizabeth had a daughter named, Mary Banks, whose father was a black slave (ethnicelebs.com/wanda-sykes) .In an interview, Wanda Sykes says her ancestry discoveries included finding out she had a Scottish gr gr.. grandmother who got 'down with a slave'...thereby making babies ( kzfaq.info/get/bejne/idyFqNN2tpusm5c.html at about the 1 minute mark). I stopped watching there so I can't say if the clip substantiated your other claim about her being related to slavers or not, but it does discredit your first claim "nobody in her family were ever slaves in the USA". Quite ironic really, that in a comment where you complain that others are stupid and close minded and make ignorant comments, you make one yourself.

MrPecker I I I With all your trash talk about Democrats, do you realize the primary result of Nixon's Southern Strategy? Republicans assumed the mantle of the KKK, and all that implies. Talk about smug, close-minded.

tuforu4 How in the name of God does this have to do with banjers?

Dude really

You sound reasonable. But you've offered ZERO support for your Op Ed... Well, except for the existing record - which was no doubt overwhelmingly written AND edited by euro Americans - mostly males no doubt... Yup! They got a great record of (whole) truth telling.

Maybe learn a little bit about history before you comment about something you obviously know nothing about.