- Acuff, Roy
- Country singer, fiddler, bandleader, and music publisher. Continue Reading »
- Adams, Sheila Kay
- Sheila Kay Adams is a ballad singer from Madison County, North Carolina. Continue Reading »
- African American Influences
- African American musical tradition has all influenced all American music, including that of Appalachia. Continue Reading »
- Alabama
- Country music group. Continue Reading »
- Alternative Country/Americana Music Movements
- Americana is an umbrella term used to categorize a variety of hybrid musical styles incorporating elements of genres considered native to America, including American folk, country, rock, blues, and jazz. Continue Reading »
- Ashley, Clarence “Tom”
- Banjo player and early country singer. Continue Reading »
- Atkins, Chet
- Guitarist and record producer. Continue Reading »
- Autoharp
- Many American singers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries found the autoharp, a modification of the zither, to be an easy-to-use accompaniment instrument. Continue Reading »
- Baker, Etta
- Blues guitarist. Continue Reading »
- Baker, Kenny
- Bluegrass fiddler. Continue Reading »
- Ballads
- A ballad is a narrative song in which each stanza of text is sung to the same melody. Brought to the American colonies by the earliest British settlers, the ballad form has remained in oral tradition through the present day, particularly in rural parts of the southeastern United States. Continue Reading »
- Banjo
- A four- or five-string instrument with a head of hide or plastic stretched over a gourd sound box or a circular wooden rim, the banjo evolved in America from a related family of variously named instruments—banjar, bandora, banza— brought from Africa by slaves. Continue Reading »
- Bare, Bobby
- Country singer and songwriter. Continue Reading »
- Bass
- The string bass (also called the upright bass, double bass, or stand-up bass) and its recent relative, the electric bass guitar, provide the rhythmic and harmonic foundation for much Appalachian music. Continue Reading »
- Battle, Kathleen
- Classical singer. Continue Reading »
- Blake, Norman
- Multi-instrumentalist, old-time singer, and songwriter. Continue Reading »
- Blue Highway
- Blue Highway is a bluegrass band from Kingsport, Tennessee. The band was founded in the mid-1990s. Continue Reading »
- Blue Sky Boys
- Early country singing duo. Continue Reading »
- Bluegrass
- Born of the traditions and experiences of the people of Appalachia and neighboring regions, bluegrass is an ensemble music placing equal emphasis on heartfelt vocals and instrumental virtuosity. Continue Reading »
- Blues
- Blues is a musical genre that developed among African Americans in the lowland South during the late nineteenth century. Continue Reading »
- Boggs, Dock
- Early country banjo player and singer. Continue Reading »
- Bolick, Bill
- SEE Blue Sky Boys»
- Bolick, Earl
- SEE Blue Sky Boys»
- Boyens, Phyllis
- SEE Workman, Nimrod, and Phyllis Boyens»
- Bristol Sessions
- The Bristol sessions were among the earliest and most successful attempts to make field recordings of rural musicians in Appalachia. Continue Reading »
- Burns, Kenneth C. “Jethro”
- SEE Homer and Jethro»
- Burnside, R. L.
- Rural L. (“R.L.”) Burnside was born November 23, 1926, in Lafayette County, in north Mississippi near the university town of Oxford. Living for much of his life in and near Holly Springs in Marshall County, Mississippi (with a stint in Chicago during the 1950s), Burnside worked as a sharecropper, fisherman, and part-time musician. Continue Reading »
- Calhoun, Walker
- Cherokee singer and ceremonial leader. Continue Reading »
- Carson, Fiddlin’ John
- Early country fiddler and singer. Continue Reading »
- Carter Family
- Singers. songwriters, and folk song collectors. Continue Reading »
- Carter, Alvin Pleasant (A.P.)
- SEE Carter Family»
- Carter, Maybelle Addington
- SEE Carter Family»
- Carter, Sara Dougherty
- SEE Carter Family»
- Celtic Influences
- The traditions of the Celtic peoples together constitute the single most dynamic ethnic influence on Appalachian music. Continue Reading »
- Cherokee Music
- Cherokee music, like other Cherokee art forms, was and continues to be an integral part of special ceremonies as well as of daily life. Continue Reading »
- Chesney, Kenny
- Country singer and songwriter. Continue Reading »
- Civil War Music
- With the Southern states’ secession from the Union in 1860–61, excitement spread through the Appalachian region as young men reported for induction into the Union and Confederate armies amid a festive atmosphere. Continue Reading »
- Classical Composers
- In the late nineteenth century, classical music composers initiated a movement (based on late-eighteenth-century European antecedents) to create a distinctively American national music, often incorporating traditional melodies. Continue Reading »
- Cline, Patsy
- Country singer. Continue Reading »
- Coal-Mining and Protest Music
- In the decades following the Civil War, technological advances and industrial modernization accelerated through- out Appalachia as the New South creed became the dominant ideology of the region’s political and economic elite. Continue Reading »
- Cockerham, Fred
- Traditional banjo player and fiddler. Continue Reading »
- Coe, Kenton
- Classical composer. Continue Reading »
- Contests and Conventions
- Although often thought of as an isolated place populated with stubbornly self-sufficient people, Appalachia has in fact produced a human culture that has long valued harvest celebrations, barn raisings, camp meetings, political rallies, community singings, dances, and family-oriented play parties. Continue Reading »
- Cooper, Stoney
- SEE Cooper, Wilma Lee and Stoney»
- Cooper, Wilma Lee
- SEE Cooper, Wilma Lee and Stoney»
- Cooper, Wilma Lee and Stoney
- Country husband-wife duo. Continue Reading »
- Country Music
- Although long associated with rural America, country music continues to thrive in an urbanized, postindustrial society. Continue Reading »
- Cousin Emmy
- Early country banjo player and singer. Continue Reading »
- Creed, Kyle
- Banjo player, fiddler, and instrument maker. Continue Reading »
- Crumb, George
- Classical composer. Continue Reading »