Japanese guitarist Hiroya Tsukamoto started out as a banjo player in his home city of Kyoto, teaching himself to play by listening to the only bluegrass record he owned, Earl Scruggs’ “Foggy Mountain ...

At first glance Otis Taylor would seem to be marketed as a blues man mostly for lack of a better term. Certainly albums like his current don’t fit into any known blues scene in this, the ...

Prolific, peripatetic and polymorphic, Eugene Chadbourne takes the banjo to places no one else has ever imagined. His madly expressive and acutely idiosyncratic grasp of the instrument has unlocked ...

The Chaco-clad, North Face-toting students don’t seem to notice the slow trickle of people entering the auditorium. Sprawled in hammocks or bustling to class, the Appalachian State University ...

Beyonce’s hit “Texas Hold ’Em” opens with a beat seldom heard on hip-hop tracks: the unmistakable clip-clop of a four-stringed clawhammer banjo. It comes via folk icon Rhiannon Giddens, who was ...

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the screen adaptation of James Dickey’s Deliverance, as famous for its Grammy Award-winning instrumental song “Dueling Banjos” as its unsettling “bet you can ...

In this two-part special of The Cause: Conversations on Music, History, and Democracy, Dr. Reiland Rabaka sits down with renowned blues musician Otis Taylor for an intimate and dynamic conversation.

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Rascal Flatts just released the music video for their single 'Banjo,' which hails from their upcoming record 'Changed,' available everywhere April 3. In the clip, the guys seem to be having a good ...

Since 1995, when his 15 years at The Houston Post ended with that paper’s demise, Steve Olafson has been the Houston Chronicle‘s man in Brazoria County. For a little more than a year, he has also been ...

In Part 2 of our conversation with legendary blues musician Otis Taylor, we dive deeper into his artistic journey, his distinctive trance blues style, and the historical and cultural significance of ...