Early American banjo music is Black music. The banjo was created by enslaved African Americans, and according to the Smithsonian Institute, up until the 1830s, the banjo was exclusively an African ...

performs onstage during the 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on September 22, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1963, when the folk-music trend made a young Greg Deering want ...

The banjo gets a bum rap. A staple of American country music, its bright tone and rhythmic clangor threaten to overwhelm musical gatherings of other, milder string-band instruments, such as guitar, ...

The Black Banjo Reclamation Project aims to put banjos into the hands of everyday people. Paul Ruta Of all the melodic musical instruments in the world, perhaps none is more connected to the land it ...

Kevin Enoch carves wood for a banjo. The Beltsville, Md., man says he likes the precision of crafting a banjo. “Guitars tend to be pretty plain, whereas banjos from the turn of the century are ...

Pop superstar Beyoncé released "Texas Hold 'Em" a few weeks ago and it features an instrument that she had never emphasized before. This hit song, on her new (and hugely popular) Cowboy Carter album, ...

Musical instruments bring delight to players and listeners alike. Creating the voice—or characteristic style and tone—of an instrument is an exquisite balance of physics and craftsmanship. To date, ...