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 ...

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 ...

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WKRN) — “It’s one of the better days that we’ve had in a while,” Willard Logan told News 2 in Franklin Saturday afternoon. Logan, along with Barton Davies, William Reames, Sam ...

I took a break from the late-night gigs and got a job at Werlein's music store. There were a couple of banjos hanging up with the guitars and it was my job to take care of them. As I was cleaning one ...

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, ...

For Renée Fleming, returning to Spoleto Festival USA is something of a full-circle moment. Long before she became one of the world’s most recognizable sopranos — singing at the Super Bowl, the Nobel ...

Beyoncé is brushing up on her banjo-playing skills for her first-ever Cowboy Carter live performances during the halftime show of Netflix‘s inaugural NFL Christmas Gameday. The singer released a ...

CHATHAM, N.Y. -- That "twangy," fast-paced, metallic sound draws so many musicians to the banjo. The sound is so unique that many musicians feel compelled to play it. That sound has a long history.

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 ...

African American roots -- The origins of black face minstrelsy -- The birth of a banjoist -- On the road in Great Britain -- Back in the United States : touring with a minstrel band and final days -- ...