American Roots Music

Going to the source

Photo by Yucel Moran on Unsplash

I was talking to a friend today who is a big fan of the television show Jeopardy. She mentioned that one of the questions concerned a musician named Blind Lemon Jefferson.

Just the mention of that name made me flashback to 1969, and what I reverentially refer to as by “Roots Music Summer”. I had bought a Horner Blues harmonica, and with a few friends formed a band. All we listened to all day was the music of Korner, Ray, and Glover, Lead Belly, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House, Sonny Boy Williamson (1 an 2), and Robert Johnson.

At night we would all go to the student union and play what we had been listening to all day. We were terrible but passionate.

So, what is root music? Everyone has a different definition.

Generally speaking, today it’s a musical genre based on American traditional, folk, and country with rock underpinning. You can add blues and black-and-white gospel into the mix. The band current band Wilco is an example of a band influenced by this mixture with original results. Bob Dylan has always trod this path musically.

You can follow the history of roots music by going from the present backrds or from the origins forward.