The ‘Mother Road’ has long symbolized freedom and reinvention. But its history reveals a more complicated story shaped by migration, segregation and the highways that eventually circumvented it.
Articles on Americana
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A musicologist explains how an oft-forgotten opera, pop and jazz singer from New York City launched the country music industry a century ago.
Setting off fireworks at home was as much a pandemic trend as buying a Peloton.
A master of slide guitar, Ry Cooder brings the film to life with an atmospheric soundtrack that speaks profoundly to the imagery and story.
Few copies remain of the earliest known board game produced in the US.
From the pre-Roe years to today, country musicians have written about the realities of life with restrictions on reproductive rights.
Willie Nelson is an icon who rose to the top of an industry by challenging it – showing that you can be a counterculture figure and activist while remaining as American as apple pie.
Doc Watson’s popularity and influence came from his virtuosic guitar playing, powerful voice, broad musical taste, folksy storytelling and lack of pretense.
Top contributors
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Professor of Appalachian Studies and Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music Studies, East Tennessee State University
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Director of the Center for Texas Music History, Texas State University
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Associate Professor of Business, Boston University
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Lecturing in Film Music & Piano, University College Cork
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Professor of American Studies and English, Middlebury College
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Adjunct Professor of History, Arizona State University
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Professor of American Literature, Iowa State University