#afro-appalachian-folk

#afro-appalachian-folk

Gangstagrass occupies a lane that sounds unlikely on paper and surprisingly natural in practice. The collective blends bluegrass instrumentation with hip-hop rhythms, pairing banjo rolls and fiddle runs with sharp lyricism and boom-bap backbone.

Volti and Left Coast meet in a bold and dramatic new work by Chris Castro for storyteller and musicians, which delves into the ancient and universal human explanations for our beginnings. The human relationship to our environment forms a through-line from romantic to experimental musical sensibilities.

If you were getting pot in the late '70s or early '80s in this part of the country, there's a good chance it may have been coming from these guys. You've got these guys who served decades in prison for marijuana, and now they're getting out into a world where it's legal everywhere.

Unlike virtually all other non-European ethnicities, SWANA - or Middle Eastern/North African (MENA), as used in the show - is grouped under "White" on the US census. It's not just the census, though. It's medical forms, college applications, just about anything with a check box for ethnicity. Efforts have been made to change this, with some success. More institutions are adding a separate category on forms - and one might appear on the 2030 census.

Abingdon is easy to access just off Interstate 81. This little town has many charms-from its 20-block historic district to the 34-mile Virginia Creeper Trail. Add to that a thriving creative community, exceptional dining at The Tavern (the state's oldest bar), and homey accommodations, and you have a pretty darn close to perfect Blue Ridge Mountain getaway destination.

Along with the challenges of operating any new business, making good bourbon takes time and expert craftsmanship. It's for this reason that many new "distilleries" aren't distilleries at all (non-distilling producers, blenders, rectifiers). Instead, they source bourbon and then sell it as their own. That's not inherently a bad thing, as some expertly blend whiskey or add extra maturation to create a genuinely impressive bourbon, but there is a clear difference.

Mount Airy isn't trying to be everywhere else-and that's exactly why it stands out. It offers a true sense of place, rooted in tradition but evolving with purpose, where the pace slows down just enough to remind you what travel is supposed to feel like.

When Norman Sylvester was 12, long before he garnered the nickname "The Boogie Cat" or shared a stage with B.B. King, he boarded a train in Louisiana and headed west, toward the distant city of Portland, Oregon. He'd lived all his life in the rural South, eating wild muscadine grapes from his family's farm, fishing in the bayou and churning butter at the kitchen table to the tune of his grandmother's gospel singing.

The jais are taking our children away,

Welcome back to Atlantic Trivia! Are you hungry for more? I hope that while I've been away, you have been enjoying plenty of food for thought-literally. Research shows that berries help improve memory and that a walnut-heavy diet is associated with higher cognitive performance. Fatty fish and leafy greens are linked to slower cognitive decline. Caffeine is a brain boost too.

Throughout many immigrant experiences, stories collected from family members can be a starting point for migrants. The memories gleaned from parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles-who crossed dozens of borders at great risk and with immense pain-can settle into the consciousness of new host communities for decades. For the migrants, these stories and memories represent the first step into a new world and contain lifelines with the potential and promise to build new, resilient identities and a sense of belonging in often hostile environments.

The Stasi, the secret police, were legendary for their data files. Their work was based on instilling fear, and they induced stunningly amazing numbers of East Germans into informing on their neighbors. Something along the lines of 1 in 6 East Germans were informants, whether out of fear or out of approval of what the East German government was doing.

"Today, another kind of treasure typically lures travelers to Franklin, though, one found among the trails, waterfalls, and scenic byways of the community. Surrounded by the Nantahala National Forest, and a gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, Franklin is closely tied to the Appalachian Trail, and became the first designated Appalachian Trail Community in 2010, welcoming travelers with open arms."

Originally from Illinois and now based in Maine, where he has lived for the past four years, Pokey LaFarge brings a lived-in perspective to American roots music. Drawing from early jazz, blues, swing and folk traditions, his songwriting balances warmth, rhythm and emotional clarity without slipping into nostalgia for its own sake. Over the years, LaFarge has grown into a confident bandleader, known for performances that feel loose but intentional, with space for both musicianship and connection.

Billy Strings has announced that he's extending his 2026 headlining tour through this summer. The trek will stop in seven new cities, starting on July 14th in Roanoke, Virginia, and wrapping up on August 29th in Ionia, Michigan, just 40 minutes from his hometown of Lansing.

I've just given a keynote presentation at Lines of Flight: Improvisation, Hope and Refuge, a conference hosted by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. I'd been invited to talk about my performance research with D&aacutelava, a cross-genre project that is influenced by animist, Slavic cosmology and a land-based folk song tradition that has been in my family for generations.

Jeff Hanna, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder and de facto leader, is tucked into a nondescript booth at El Palenque, a 30-years-plus local restaurant in a Nashville strip mall, talking about "Nashville Skyline," a pensive track from their EP, "Night After Night." The family-owned Mexican restaurant is the kind of place he's gravitated toward since starting a jug band with friends in Long Beach before migrating to Los Angeles' folk/rock scene.