Nothing defines Knoxville, Tennessee like folk music, specifically bluegrass and old timey music. When i first moved to Knoxville, i was blown away by the attention that people paid to folk music-- live, on the radio, in record stores, on tour, etc.
For a west coast kid who equated old time music with the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack (and don't laugh-- a lot of us did), it was a revelation to find out that young hipsters in the South liked folk music, and that young kids were MAKING folk music.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops are pretty badass in that they are probably the only African American group doing folk music right now. They're not only great, they're finally getting a lot of commercial and critical attention (they won a Grammy for this cd). I actually feel a bit guilty about putting this up-- i love this cd, but i also want them to continue to make music!
Americans forget that folk music is an umbrella term that brought in music from different backgrounds (since America is a country founded by immigrants [oh, and forcibly taken from the native inhabitants. Had to add that!}). So musical traditions from French, the Caribbean, Africa, Latin America, Ireland, Scotland, etc all got lumped up into the limp category "Folk" music.
As Margaret Kilgallen loved to point out, the banjo was an African instrument. People nowadays associate the banjo with uber-white musicians, but traditionally, this sucka came from Africa! Percussion instrument, bitches!!
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