Look out that mountain, white rocks too,

I got to find my baby, while the grass is blue.

                         - "Way Up in the Mountains of Kentucky,"

                                            Otis "Smokey" Smothers

A painting by the African-American artist, Henry Ossawa Tanner, shows an elderly black man teaching a young boy how to play the banjo.  

     Music has always been integral to the Appalachian Region of the United States which is rich in Anglo-Celtic and African-American traditions (Thompson 2006).  In the American imagination, Appalachia is a beautiful, yet rugged mountainous area inhabited by a relatively homogenous, marginalized population, poor in traditional wealth, yet abundant in culture, history, superstitions and “authentic” forms of music (Pearson, 2003).  Despite the recent scholarship highlighting the African-American influence in Appalachia, many still refuse to accept the music of African Appalachians as Appalachian music and equally disregard the musical legacy of German settlers (Hay 2003; Hadamer 2010).  The cultural interchange leading to the pairing of European fiddle and African banjo, creates a heterogeneous sound that symbolizes the merging of black and white musical traditions (Hay 2003).