Shedding new light on a region that maintains ties to the cultural identities of its earliest European and African inhabitants, Gerald Milnes shows how folk music in West Virginia borrowed rhythmic, melodic, and vocal forms from the Celtic, Anglo, Germanic, and African traditions. These elements have come together to create a body of music tied more to place and circumstance than to ethnicity. Milnes explores the legacies of the state's best-known performers and musical families. He discusses religious music, balladeering, the influence of black musicians and styles, dancing, banjo and dulcimer traditions, and the importance of old-time music as a cultural pillar of West Virginia life.
- ISBN10 0813147670
- ISBN13 9780813147673
- Publish Date 5 February 2015 (first published 10 February 1999)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University Press of Kentucky
- Format eBook
- Pages 264
- Language English