Appalachian music

Appalachian music is a diverse regional tradition of songs, dance tunes, and instrumental styles shaped by Scots-Irish, African American, and other influences.

Old-time music: A tradition of string-band dance music rooted in the southern Appalachian region and neighboring areas. Its fiddle-and-banjo ensemble style is a central strand of Appalachian music.
Scots-Irish Americans: An ethnic group descended from Scots who settled in Ulster before migrating to North America. Their migration brought musical and ballad traditions that contributed to Appalachian repertoire.
Square dance: A social dance in which groups of four couples follow a caller’s instructions. Fiddle and banjo tunes commonly provide the rhythm for Appalachian square dancing.
Delta blues: A blues style that developed in the Mississippi Delta, known for solo singing and guitar performance. Its regional history and performance conventions differ from Appalachian string-band traditions.
Appalachian ballad: A narrative folk song tradition preserved in the southern Appalachian Mountains, often with roots in British ballads. Ballads carry narrative songs through a tradition also known for instrumental dance music.
African banjo: A family of West African plucked lutes that influenced the development of the banjo in the Americas. The banjo’s African ancestry complicates accounts that attribute Appalachian music only to European settlers.
Ballad: A narrative song that tells a story through verses, often with a recurring refrain. Appalachian ballads belong to a broad song form that carries stories across cultures.
Cajun music: A music tradition of Louisiana’s Cajun communities, often featuring accordion and fiddle. It offers a regional folk tradition shaped by a different language, history, and instrumental mix.
Clawhammer banjo: A banjo playing technique in which the hand strikes downward with the fingernail and the thumb catches a string. Its rhythmic downstroke became a defining sound of Appalachian string-band music.
Cecil Sharp: An English folksong collector who recorded and published traditional songs in Britain and the southern Appalachians. His Appalachian collecting helped popularize the idea of the region as a repository of old English ballads.

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