African Roots of Old-Time & Country

Disclaimer: All copyrighted music featured in this video is provided in abridged form and it’s usage is meant for educational purposes only. Disclaimer: this video is educative in nature and is only meant to showcase the connections between American traditional music (or what is known today as “old-time” music in the U.S.) and the commercial genres of “country”, “country & western”, “bluegrass”, etc etc to African and Afro-diasporic musical traditions. American traditional music and commercial genres based on it like bluegrass have multiple different influences from African as well as European (largely British) traditional music, and this video does not claim to showcase the only influences on American traditional music. African traditions showcased in this video include in order: the akonting/ekonting (three-stringed spiked, gourd lute) of the Adjamat (Jola) of Senegambia and Guinea-Bissau, the gurmi (two-stringed spiked, gourd lute) of the Hausa of Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon, the ruudga, riti, and goge (one-stringed, spiked gourd fiddle) of the Moosé/Mossi, Fulani/Fulbe, and Hausa respectively, the chipendani (mouth bow with flat, convex stave) of the Tsonga, Shona-Karanga, and Zezuru of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, the ngoni/konting (three-to-five stringed tanged, wooden-trough lute) of the Mandinka, Fulani, Bambara, Songhai/Songhay, etc etc, bata drumming of the Yoruba of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, etc etc.