President James K. Polk State Historic Site and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library are teaming up to present three a series of three free lectures, Shaping the Tar Heel Sound, for Black History Month. Learn how African folk music combined with European musical traditions during the 18th to 20th centuries to create the distinct sounds of the Carolina Piedmont and the Appalachian Mountains. All lectures will include audience discussion, and some will include instrument demonstrations and the chance to hear audio recordings.
February 18, 2016, 6:30 p.m., South County Regional Library
Michael Scoggins, Historian, Culture & Heritage Museums
Mr. Scoggins will discuss African American folk music in the Carolina Piedmont during from the late 18th century to the early 20th century and explore its roots in both African and European folk music traditions, as well as how white and black musicians in the Carolinas learned from each other and were influenced by each other.
February 19, 2016, 3:30 p.m., South County Regional Library
Dr. Bill Lawing, J. Estes Millner Professor of Music, Davidson College
Dr. Lawing will explore how African Americans helped shape the distinct sound of Appalachian North Carolina’s folk music.
February 20, 2016, 1 p.m., West Boulevard Library
Billy Stevens, M.A., North Carolina Humanities Council Road Scholar
Mr. Stevens will demonstrate how historic interactions between African Americans and European Americans shaped the evolution of American popular music. With its roots in slavery and the fusion of musical traditions brought from both Africa and Europe, American music is a natural outgrowth of the unique culture of the American South. Using musical instruments as well as rare recordings, Stevens helps his audience understand the relationship between jazz and blues, ragtime and gospel, and how the first distinctly American musical genre, blackface minstrelsy, has influenced country musicians up to the present day. The result is a better understanding of how our music reflects America’s social fabric. This project is made possible by funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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