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Originally posted by DaphneApollo
Iced Earth-Melancholy (Matt Barlow , lead singer of the metal band Iced Earth, (Biloxi)
Originally posted by tanda7
What about hill country music? wouldn't that be Irish roots?
Originally posted by DaphneApollo
But, they were also changed from their experiences, harsh treatment here and the Blues were born.
Originally posted by DaphneApollo
reply to post by WhisperingWinds
Great add.
Originally posted by WhisperingWinds
Originally posted by DaphneApollo
reply to post by WhisperingWinds
Great add.
So glad you enjoyed..
One of my favorite songs by one of my favorite artists..(she has such a beautiful voice)
A song about Appalachia
Face of Appalachia by Valerie Carter
edit on 16-8-2012 by WhisperingWinds because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by Astyanax
reply to posts by tanda7 and DaphneApollo
Originally posted by tanda7
What about hill country music? wouldn't that be Irish roots?
Are you talking about Appalachian folk ballads, that kind of thing? The roots of country music?
The origins of all American folk and popular music lie in Africa, but the influence of Africa reached the New World by at least two routes, one far older and more devious than the other.
The newer and better-known of these is what we might call the direct route. West African music – the music of the Niger river delta and the semi-desert lands above it – travelled to America (both North and South) aboard the slave-ships of the Middle Passage. That is because the slaver kingdoms of the West African littoral – Benin, Dahomey and the rest – supplied white slave-traders with stock from that region. When they kidnapped and sold their neighbours to the slave-traders, they sold the music as well. This is the well-known origin of the blues and other forms of music that grew directly from the Atlantic slave trade. But such musical forms are never purely African: the compositional structure of the blues comes from European folk music, and of course the instruments on which it is played were all perfected in Europe (except, of course, for steel-strung acoustic and electric guitars, which are native to the United States).
The older and less obvious route comes out of East and North Africa, not West, and passes through Europe before it reaches America. Since the time of the Caliphs, Arab slave-traders worked the East African coast from their ports at Dar-Es Salaam, Zanzibar and elsewhere. The Africans they took, like the ones who would be taken from West Africa almost a thousand years later, carried their music with them and spread it throughout the Muslim empire, which at the time was the largest and fastest-expanding in the world. From these roots arose the plucked-string instruments that evolved into the oud, which evolved into the lute, which became the guitar; as well as the musical structures that would later inform much of European folk music. When you listen to flamenco or any Latin American music, you are hearing that Arab/African influence in the tonality and rhythm; however, another influence is mixed in with this, that of the Roma or 'gypsies', who are originally from northwestern India.
Meanwhile, North Africa had also become a fully integrated part of the Muslim world, making its own musical and cultural contributions to pan-Islamic culture.
These mediaeval Arab musical influences, drawn in turn from East African roots, entered European culture through the Arab conquest and occupation of Spain (which lasted over 700 years) and also through the returning Crusaders and the troubadours, who adapted Middle Eastern musical influences into a genre of musical poetry that would sweep the courts of mediaeval Europe. Meanwhile, Arab-African influence also permeated the folk songs of the European commonweal. You can hear these influences in the strange minor keys and odd time signatures of some European folk music, as well as in the use of Arab-derived (originally African-derived) instruments such as the lute (guitar) and the tambourine.
The Irish and Anglo-Celtic folk music traditions both show signs of these influences. And they are, of course, the ancestors of Appalachian music and its cousins, and hence of country music.
A little of old Africa goes a long, long way.
Originally posted by DaphneApollo
But, they were also changed from their experiences, harsh treatment here and the Blues were born.
Sure. The blues is not West African griot music; it is a unique thing. The flower is not the root, though it withers when sundered from it.
edit on 16/8/12 by Astyanax because: of North Africa.
Originally posted by tanda7
With this song it is easy to hear a few different influences. I now realize it's pretty much all Africanedit on 16-8-2012 by tanda7 because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by WhisperingWinds
reply to post by tanda7
I enjoyed it very much as well..
Here is an instrumental by Ry Cooder that is beautiful to listen to.