The African American String Music Tradition

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KJJP-FM 105.7 FM serving Amarillo/Canyon and the central Texas Panhandle will be off the air on Monday from about 7am until 3pm. This shutdown is required while repairs are made to guy wires on the Channel 10 tower used by KJJP. During this outage you can continue listening to HPPR via its digital streams (see the player above) or through the HPPR mobile app.

The African American String Music Tradition

Monday, February 12th, 2024 at 3pm CT

There’s been a lot of speculation about the chain of musical events that link the blues back to Africa. Most of that chain is unrecorded and shrouded in mystery. But there is one chapter, just before the blues, that we do know quite a lot about. That’s the history of African-American string bands. This program explores the history, with music and memories from a special guest: the late string maestro Howard Armstrong. Along the way, we hear music from Canray Fontenot, Blind James Campbell, Hobard Smith and other legends of this little-known chapter in American folk and popular music. Produced by Banning Eyre.