1UMS 10-11
T E A C H E R R E S O U R C E G U I D E 2 0 1 0 – 2 0 1 1
CAROlInA CHOCOlATE DROpSU M S Y O U T H E D U C AT I O n p R O G R A M
2 UMS 10-11
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
University of Michigan
Anonymous
Arts at Michigan
Arts Midwest’s Performing Arts Fund
The Dan Cameron Family Foundation/Alan and Swanna Saltiel
CFI Group
Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Endowment Fund
DTE Energy Foundation
The Esperance Family Foundation
David and Jo-Anna Featherman
Forest Health Services
David and Phyllis Herzig Endowment Fund
JazzNet Endowment
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Masco Corporation Foundation
Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs
THE MOSAIC FOUNDATION [of R. & P. Heydon]
National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for
the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
Prudence and Amnon Rosenthal K-12 Education Endowment
Fund
PNC Bank
Target
TCF Bank
UMS Advisory Committee
University of Michigan Credit Union
University of Michigan Health System
U-M Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
U-M Office of the Vice President for Research
Wallace Endowment Fund
This Teacher Resource Guide is a product of the UMS
Youth Education Program. Special thanks go to Bruce
Conforth for his contributions to the development of
content for this guide.
Additionally, UMS appreciates Sarah Suhadolnik, Em-
ily Barkakati, Britta Wilhelmsen, Matthew Mejia, Pam
Reister, the University of Michigan Museum of Art,
Linda Grekin, and Omari Rush for their feedback and
support in developing this guide.
SUPPORTERS
3UMS 10-11
CAROlInA CHOCOlATE DROpSFriday, December 3, 2010 • 11 AM – 12 NOON • MICHIGAN THEATER
T e a c h e r r e s o u r c e G u i d e 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 1
u M s Y o u T h e d u c aT i o N P r o G r a M
Sponsored by CFI Group and David and Jo-Anna Featherman.
Funded in part by the national Endowment for the Arts as part of Ameri-can Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius.
ATTEnDInG THE YOUTH pERFORMAnCE6 Coming to the Show8 Map + Directions9 Michigan Theater10 Being an Audience Member
ABOUT AMERICAn ROOTS MUSIC12 What is American Roots Music?13 Piedmont Region16 Timeline20 Musicians of the Piedmon
25 String Band Instruments
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CAROlInA CHOCOlATE DROpS29 Ensemble History31 Individual Bios34 CCD on String Bands35 Repertoire36 Visual + Performing Arts
RESOURCES38 National Standards39 Curriculum Connections42 Lesson Plans44 Other Resources
ABOUT UMS46 What is UMS?47 Youth Education Program49 Contacting UMS
Short on time?If you only have 15 minutes to review this guide, just read the sections in black in the Table of Contents.
Those pages will provide the most important information about this performance.
4 UMS 10-11
5UMS 10-11
AT T E n D I n G T H E Y O U T H p E R F O R M A n C E
6 UMS 10-11
TICKETS We do not use paper tickets
for Youth Performances. We hold school
reservations at the door and seat groups
upon arrival.
DOOR EnTRY A UMS Youth Performance
staff person will greet your group at your bus
as you unload on Washington Street. You will
be escorted by the usher through the Michi-
gan Theater alley/walk-way and enter through
the front door of the Michigan Theater, which
faces Liberty Street.
BEFORE THE START Please allow the usher
to seat individuals in your group in the order
that they arrive in the theater. Once everyone
is seated you may then rearrange yourselves
and escort students to the bathrooms before
the performance starts. PLEASE spread the
adults throughout the group of students.
DURInG THE pERFORMAnCE At the
start of the performance, the lights will
dim and an onstage UMS staff member will
welcome you to the performance and provide
important logistical information. If you have
any questions, concerns, or complaints (for
instance, about your comfort or the behavior
of surrounding groups) please IMMEDIATELY
report the situation to an usher or staff mem-
ber in the lobby.
pERFORMAnCE lEnGTH 60 minutes with
no intermission
AFTER THE pERFORMAnCE When the
performance ends, remain seated. A UMS staff
member will come to the stage and release
each group individually based on the location
of your seats.
SEATInG & USHERS When you arrive at
the front doors, tell the Head Usher at the
door the name of your school group and he/
she will have ushers escort you to your block
of seats. All UMS Youth Performance ushers
wear large, black laminated badges with their
names in white letters.
ARRIVAl TIME Please arrive at the Michigan
Theater between 10:30-10:50pm to allow you
time to get seated and comfortable before the
show starts.
DROp OFF Have buses, vans, or cars drop off
students on the south side of East Washing-
ton Street (BEHIND the Michigan Theater). If
there is no space in the drop off zone, circle
the block until space becomes available. Cars
may park at curbside metered spots or in the
Maynard Street parking structure.
DETAILS
C O M I N G T O T H E S H O WWe want you to enjoy your time with UMS!
PLEASE review the important information below about attending the Youth Performance:
TICKETS
USHER
7UMS 10-11
BUS pICK Up When your group is released,
please exit the performance hall through the
same door you entered. A UMS Youth Perfor-
mance staff member will be outside to direct
you to your bus.
AApS EDUCATORS You will likely not get
on the bus you arrived on; a UMS staff mem-
ber or WISD Transportation Staff person will
put you on the first available bus.
lOST STUDEnTS A small army of volun-
teers staff Youth Performances and will be
ready to help or direct lost and wandering
students.
lOST ITEMS If someone in your group loses
an item at the performance, contact the UMS
Youth Education Program (umsyouth@umich.
edu) to attempt to help recover the item.
AAPS
SEnDInG FEEDBACK We LOVE feedback
from students, so after the performance please
send us any letters, artwork, or academic
papers that your students create in response
to the performance: UMS Youth Education
Program, 881 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor,
MI 48109-1011.
nO FOOD No food or drink is allowed in
the theater.
pATIEnCE Thank you in advance for your
patience; in 20 minutes we aim to get 1,700
people from buses into seats and will work as
efficiently as possible to make that happen.
ACCESSIBIlITY Courtesy wheelchairs are
available for audience members.
pARKInG There is handicapped parking
located in the South Thayer parking structure.
All accessible parking spaces (13) are located
on the first floor. To access the spaces, drivers
need to enter the structure using the south
(left) entrance lane. If the north (right) en-
trance lane, the driver must drive up the ramp
and come back down one level to get to the
parking spaces.
WHEElCHAIR ACCESSIBIlITY Michigan Theater is wheelchair accessible with
a completely ramped concessions lobby. The
auditorium has wheelchair accessible seating
locations two thirds of the way back on its
main floor.
BATHROOMS ADA compliant toilets are
available.
EnTRY The front doors are not powered,
however, there will be an usher at that door
opening it for all patrons.
8 UMS 10-11
M A P + D I R E C T I O N SThis map, with driving directions to the Michigan Theater,
will be mailed to all attending educators three weeks before the performance.
MAP
E Washington St
E Huron St
E Liberty St
William St
N University Ave
Fletcher St
State St
Division St
Thompson St
Maynard St
Thayer St
Mall Parking &
(ON
E-WAY N
ORTH
!!) →
→
→
N
RACKHAM
HILL
Public Parking
MICHIGANTHEATERFront/EnterA
lley/
Wal
kway
M I C H I G A N T H E AT E R
VENUE
THE HISTORIC MICHIGAn THEATER
opened January 5,1928 at the peak of
the vaudeville/movie palace era. Designed
by Maurice Finkel, the 1,710-seat theater
cost around $600,000 when it was first
built. As was the custom of the day, the
theater was equipped to host both film
and live stage events, with a full-size
stage, dressing rooms, an orchestra pit,
and the Barton Theater Organ. At its
opening, the theater was acclaimed as
the best of its kind in the country. Since
1979, the theater has been operated by
the not-for-profit Michigan Theater Foun-
dation. With broad community support,
the Foundation has raised over $8 million
to restore and improve the Michigan The-
ater. The beautiful interior of the theater
was restored in 1986.
In the fall of 1999, the Michigan Theater
opened a new 200-seat screening room
addition, which also included expanded
restroom facilities for the historic theater.
The gracious facade and entry vestibule
was restored in 2000.
MICHIGAn THEATER
603 E liberty
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Emergency Contact number:
(734) 764-2538
(Call this number to reach a UMS staff person or
audience member at the performance.)
9UMS 10-11
10 UMS 10-11
WHEn pREpARInG STUDEnTS for a
live performing arts event, it is impor-
tant to address the concept of “concert
etiquette.” Aside from helping prevent
disruptive behavior, a discussion of concert
etiquette can also help students fully enjoy
the unique and exciting live performance
experience. The following considerations
are listed to promote an ideal environment
for all audience members.
YOUR SURROUnDInGS
Concert halls and performing arts •
venues are some of the most grand
and beautiful buildings you might ever
visit, so be sure to look around while
you follow an usher to your group’s
seats or once you are in your seat.
UMS Ushers will be stationed through-•
out the building and are identifiable
by their big black and white badges.
They are there to help you be as
comfortable as possible and if you
have a question (about the perfor-
mance, about where to go, or about
what something is), please ask them,
and don’t feel shy, embarrassed, or
hesitant in doing so.
SHARInG THE pERFORMAnCE HAll
WITH OTHER AUDIEnCE MEMBERS
Consider whether any talking you do •
during the performance will prevent
your seat neighbors or other audience
members from hearing. Often in large
rock concerts or in movie theaters,
the sound is turned up so loud that
you can talk and not disturb anyone’s
listening experience. However, in other
concerts and live theater experiences,
the sound is unamplified or just quite,
and the smallest noise could cause
your seat neighbor to miss an impor-
tant line of dialogue or musical phrase.
Movements or lights (from cell phones)
may also distract your audience neigh-
bors attention away from the stage,
again, causing them to miss important
action...and there’s no instant replay in
live performance!
At a performance, you are sharing the •
physical components of the perfor-
mance space with other audience
members. So, consider whether you
are sharing the arm rest and the leg
room in such a way that both you and
your seat neighbors are comfortable.
As an audience member, you are •
also part of the performance. Any
enthusiasm you might have for the
performance may make the perform-
ers perform better. So, if you like what
you are seeing make sure they know it!
Maybe clap, hoot and holler, or stand
up and cheer. However, when express-
ing your own personal enjoyment of
the performance, consider whether
your fellow audience members will be
able to see or hear what’s happening
on stage or whether they will miss
something because of the sound and
movement you are making. Given this
consideration, it’s often best to wait
until a pause in the performance (a
pause of sound, movement, or energy)
or to wait until the performer(s) bow to
the audience to share your enthusiasm
with them.
Out of respect for the performer(s), if •
you do not like some part of the per-
formance, please do not boo or shout
anything derogatory. Remember, a lot
of hard work went in to creating the
performance you are watching and it
takes great courage for the performer
to share his or her art with you.
SHARE YOUR ExpERIEnCE WITH
OTHERS
An important part of any performing •
arts experience is sharing it with others.
This can include whispering to your
seat neighbor during the performance,
talking to your friends about what you
liked and didn’t like on the bus back to
school, or telling your family about the
performance when you get home.
MORE InFORMATIOn
For more specific details about coming •
to the concert (start time, bathroom
locations, length), see pages 6-8 of this
guide.
B E I N G A N A U D I E N C E M E M B E R
DETAILS
11UMS 10-11
A B O U T A M E R I C A n R O O T S M U S I C
A M E R I C A N R O O T S M U S I C
ABOUT
MOST OF OUR IDEnTIFICATIOn with
American popular musical styles comes
from the names given to its genres.
Throughout American history, the nam-
ing of a musical style was always associ-
ated with its consumption; the style’s
name was a way of both marketing the
music and allowing the consumer to
know what they were buying. At the turn
of the twentieth century, these popular
categories were fairly limited: Waltz, Two-
Steps, Marches, Rags or Ragtime, etc.,
and when dealing with African-American
–inspired pop tunes the derogatory titles
“Coon Songs” or “Ethiopian Melodies”
were used. As the twentieth century
developed and as the music industry
grew, sheet music publishers and early
record companies needed to expand
their list of products to keep up with the
developing styles, and to make it easier
for consumers to identify a style they
liked. This led to the development of the
categories of folk, country, race records
(replacing “Coon Songs”), blues, jazz,
and ultimately rock and roll, pop, rap,
and other such genres. The more recently
developed term “roots music” attempts
to break free from this generic world and
place music within its cultural and histori-
cal framework. Root music, by its nature,
includes a much wider range of music
than can ever exist within any one of
the aforementioned genres. Today, roots
music is seen as any music (bluegrass,
blues, jazz, country, gospel, ol-timey,
folk, Cajun, Native America, etc.) that
served as the musical and cultural basis
for the American musical styles (rhythm
and blues, rock and roll, soul, even rap)
that would come after it. “Roots music”
emphasizes diversity in American music
and culture, whereas the genre-oriented
approach emphasized homogeneity.
“Roots music” celebrates cross-cultural
sharing, the tradition of musical and
cultural lineages, and the innovation of
those artists working today to keep this
rich heritage alive.
12 UMS 10-11
T H E P I E D M O N T R E G I O NThe Birthplace of Black String Band Music
ABOUT
SYnOnYMOUS WITH EAST COAST
blues and string band music was the
area known as the Piedmont Region of
the United States. Geographically, this
area runs along the Appalachian hills all
the way from New Jersey to Alabama. It
stretches as far west as the foothills of
Kentucky and Tennessee and as far east
as Raleigh, North Carolina and Rich-
mond, Virginia. Some of the major cities
included within this area are Birming-
ham, Alabama; Columbia and Atlanta,
Georgia; Greenville, South Carolina;
Chattanooga, Tennessee; Charlotte,
Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Durham,
and Raleigh, North Carolina; Lexing-
ton, Kentucky; Roanoke and Lexington,
Virginia. The range of this region makes
it accessible to seaports like Norfolk,
Virginia; Charleston, South Carolina;
Savannah, Georgia; and of course New
Orleans. And all of this means one thing:
cultural diversity!
During the Great Migration of African-
Americans out of the South from 1910-
1930 many individuals and families chose
to come to these eastern cities instead
of heading to the northern industrial
centers of Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh,
etc. These migrants brought with them
jazz from the southland and hard blues
from the Mississippi Delta. The urban
industrial cities throughout this region
were already immersed in the pop tunes
and ragtime of the day and these new
migrants would infuse this music with
their own unique styles creating a more
urbane, fluid, contemporary style of music
than they had known in their homes in the
deep south.
Whites had already settled in these areas
prior to the Great Migration and found
work in textile mills, factories, or coal
mines, bringing with them the Anglo
ballad tradition as well as fiddle jigs and
reels. Because the Piedmont was neither
as isolated nor severely racist as places
like the Mississippi Delta there was a great
deal of cultural interplay between African-
American and white musicians in this area.
White musicians would teach fiddle tunes
and Anglo traditions like the waltz to
African-Americans, and they in turn would
teach the blues to whites. One of the most
interesting bits of musical cross-breeding
from this region is the case of the develop-
ment of bluegrass music. Bluegrass is
known as a quintessentially white Ap-
palachian musical style, and yet its roots
are a remarkable hybrid. The “father”
of bluegrass music – Bill Monroe, a white
musician – was taught to play guitar and
mandolin by Arnold Schultz - an African-
American musician. The banjo, an instru-
ment closely associated with bluegrass, is
actually an African instrument, origi-
nally called a “banjar” and brought to
America by slaves. Dock Boggs, a white
musician credited with helping create the
bluegrass style of banjo playing, devel-
oped his style by trying to emulate the
blues guitar technique of the African-
American musician Mississippi John Hurt.
It was precisely this type of close cultural
interaction that made the music of the
Piedmont so unique. White and African-
13UMS 10-11
14 UMS 10-11
American string bands shared similar
repertoires, played for each others’ par-
ties and dances, and were often believed
to be of the opposite race. But it was the
African-American musicians who rose to
prominence in the commercial recordings
that were to come out of the Piedmont.
Because whites had greater access
to mainstream economic resources,
however, they tended to use music more
for social purposes than professional
advancement. Dock Boggs, for instance,
was offered several recording contracts
but he chose to hold on to the relative
economic safety of a coal mining job to
the caprice of a career in music. While a
handful of important recordings of white
string bands and solo artists from the
1920s and early 30s exist – a testament
to the cultural traditions and sharing
mentioned above – the primary artists to
emerge from this region were African-
Americans. String bands emerged from
Georgia - Peg Leg Howell and His Gang;
Tennessee - The Tennessee Chocolate
Drops, The Memphis Jug Band; North
Carolina – The Three ‘Bacca Tags; and
Mississippi – The Mississippi Sheiks. Indi-
vidual artists like Blind Willie McTell, Rev,
Gary Davis, Blind Boy Fuller, and Blind
Blake ruled the six string guitar and took
the instrument into new and innovative
directions. Throughout the 1930s artists
such as these would form the crux of a
great tradition on Race Records and in
cultural history. In the 1960s they would
serve as some of the great influences of
the folk/blues revival. And today they are
being rediscovered and celebrated by a
host of new artists such as the Carolina
Chocolate Drops.
15UMS 10-11
DATE GEnRE REGIOn ARTIST(S)
Unknown
Unknown
Prisoners:
(Reece Crenshaw (Black)
Blind Joe Walker (Black)
Robert Davis (Black)
John Davis (Black)
Bill Tatnall (Black)
Brewster Davis (Black)
John Brewster (Black)
Henry Blue (Black)
Jimmie Strothers (Black)
Willie Williams (Black)
Unknown
M U S I C + M U S I C I A N S O F T H E P I E D M O N T
TIMELINEF
IEL
D R
EC
OR
DIN
GS
+ C
OL
LE
CT
ION
S
1911
1925
1934
1935
1936
1937
Folk Songs
Work Songs
Work Songs, Blues,
Folk Songs
Blues,
Dance Pieces,
Breakdowns,
Two-Steps
Blues
Folk Songs
Georgia
(Newton County)
North Carolina
Georgia (Atlanta, Milled-
geville) & North Carolina
(Raleigh)
Georgia
(Frederica)
Virginia
(Lynn, Richmond)
South Carolina
16 UMS 10-11
17UMS 10-11
One More Rounder Gone,
Honey Take a One on Me
none listed
Trouble,
John Henry and In Trouble
Poor Joe Breakdown
John Henry
Fandango
Keep Away from the
Bloodstained Banders,
We Are Almost Down to
the Shore, Red River Runs
John Henry,
Corrina
Unknown
Vocal
Guitar
Guitar
Guitar
Guitar
Guitar
Guitar
Banjo
Guitar
Guitar, Washboard, Washtub Bass
Howard Odum
Robert Winslow Gordon
forthe Library of Congress
John Lomax
for the Library of Congress
John and Alan Lomax,
Zora Neale Hurston
for the Library of Congress
John Lomax
for the Library of Congress
John Lomax
for the Library of Congress
SOnGS InSTRUMEnTATIOn COllECTED BY
18 UMS 10-11
DATE GEnRE REGIOn ARTIST(S)
Unknown
Peg Leg Howell (Black) &
His Gang (Fiddler Eddie
Anthony & Guitarist Henry
Williams)
Blind Blake (Arthur Phelps)
Barbecue Bob Hicks (Black)
Blind Willie McTell (Black)
The Cofer Brothers(White)
Leon (guitar) Paul (fiddle),
The Georgia Crackers (the
Cofer Bros w/ Ben Evans- guitar)
Curley Weaver (Black)
Pink Anderson (Black)
Howard Armstrong (Black)
Georgia Cotton Pickers
(Black) (Barbecue Bob,
Curly Weaver guitar,
Buddy Moss harmonica)
Tennessee Chocolate
Drops (Howard Arm-
strong, Roland Armstrong,
Carl Martin) (added Ted
Bogan – guitar)
Buddy Moss – guitar
(Black) w/ Fred McMullen
guitar & Curley Weaver
Blind Boy Fuller (Fulton Allen)
Rev Gary Davis
CO
MM
ER
CIA
L R
EC
OR
DIN
GS
1924
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1933
1935
Blues
Blues
Blues
Blues
Blues
Blues
Blues
Blues
Georgia (Atlanta);
Ed Andrews (Black)
Georgia (Atlanta)
Florida (Jacksonville)
Georgia (Atlanta)
Georgia (Atlanta),
South Carolina (Greenville)
Tennessee
Georgia (Atlanta),
Tennessee (Knoxville)
Georgia (Atlanta)
North Carolina,
South Carolina
19UMS 10-11
Time Ain’t Gonna Make Me Stay
(reputed to be the first commer-
cially recorded country blues)
Fo’ Day Blues,
Too Tight
Diddie Wa Diddie
Barbecue Blues,
Mississippi Heavy Water Blues
Statesboro Blues
Keno the Rent Man
Diamond Joe,
The Georgia Black Bottom
No No Blues, Tippi’ Tom,
I Got Mine, In the Jailhouse Now
none listed
Diddle Da Diddle,
Sittin’ On Top of the World
State Street Rag, Ted’s Stomp
Bye Bye Mama, Red River Blues
Step It Up and Go, Rag Mama Rag I
Am the Light,
Cross and Evil Woman Blues
Guitar
String Band
Guitar
12 String Guitar
12 String Guitar
String Band
String Band
Guitar
Guitar
Fiddle, Mandolin, Guitar
String Band
String Band
String Band
Guitar
Guitar
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
SOnGS InSTRUMEnTATIOn COllECTED BY
20 UMS 10-11
M U S I C I A N S O F T H E P I E D M O N T
PEOPLE
Tennessee Chocolate Drops (Howard
Armstrong, violin, mandolin/ Carl
Martin, bass/ Ted Bogan, guitar)
The Tennessee Chocolate Drops em-
braced the entire spectrum of African-
American and white American popular
music while still retaining elements of
minstrel shows, country dance music,
ragtime, blues, vaudeville tunes, and jazz.
Throughout their peak years they played
extensively across the whole of the Appa-
lachian region. Howard Armstrong was a
virtuoso fiddle and mandolin player who
was raised in a family of eight performing
brothers and sisters. He began recording
in 1929 with the great black songster
Sleepy John Estes and perhaps the great-
est pure blues mandolinists Yank Rachell.
In 1930 Armstrong joined with bassist
Carl Martin and guitarist Ted Bogan to
form the Chocolate Drops. They were
an instant success on the medicine show
circuit and toured with such blues greats
as Big Bill Broonzy and Memphis Minnie.
In 1933 they appeared at the Chicago
World’s Fair, then settling in that city.
Martin and Armstrong were also virtuoso
players in their own right: Martin hav-
ing such a wide array of plucking and
bowing techniques on the bass that his
playing was considered to be a tour de
force of bass styles. Ted Bogan was an
extremely skilled flatpicker with an ap-
proach to chording that would equal any
jazz guitarist. Their playing was consid-
ered so dynamic that it was often said
about them “if they played any faster
they’d catch on fire!”
Peg Leg Howell and His Gang (Peg
Leg Howell, guitar/ Henry Williams,
guitar/ Eddie Anthony, violin)
Peg Leg Howell and His Gang called
Atlanta, Georgia their home and rep-
resented the rougher, bluesier side of
string band music. Howell first recorded
solo for Columbia in 1927 but for his
return visit to the recording studio later
that same year brought “His Gang” with
him. Their music was based heavily in
dance tunes and Anthony’s fiddling style
is unique in string band music: biting,
and wild in its attack on the strings. They
issued a number of highly successful re-
cordings (Beaver Slide Rag and Lonesome
Blues among them) but Anthony died
prematurely in 1934 and Howell gave up
performing.
The Georgia Cotton Pickers (Barbe-
cue Bob Hicks, guitar/ Curly Weaver,
guitar/ Buddy Moss, harmonica)
Barbecue Bob
STRInG BAnDS
21UMS 10-11
Bob Hicks was born in rural Georgia
in 1902 but moved to Atlanta around
1923. He got his nickname as a cook
in Tidwell’s Barbecue and entertained
patrons with his guitar. He was one of
the earliest African-American males to
record, beginning in 1927 and estab-
lished a successful solo career. In 1930
he established the Georgia Cotton Pick-
ers, one of the finest small groups of the
pre WWII era. Joining him were guitarist
Curly Weaver, who like Hicks had already
enjoyed a solo recording career, and
Buddy Moss on harmonica. Moss was
only 16 when he joined the Cotton Pick-
ers and after Hicks died in 1931. He went
on to create his own career as a singer/
guitarist. The Cotton Pickers recorded a
number of versions of previous hits (such
as Blind Blake’s “Diddy-Wah-Diddy”) but
turned them into newer-sounding rock-
ing ensemble pieces.
Mississippi Sheiks (Walter Vinson,
vocal and guitar/ Lonnie Chatman,
violin)
Although not physically from the
Piedmont region, the Mississippi Sheiks
were arguably the most successful string
band of the 1930s and their presence
was certainly felt on the East Coast,
both through their touring and record-
ings. They also recorded briefly as the
Mississippi Mud Steppers, adding banjo/
mandolinist Charlie McCoy to the group).
They were the most sophisticated of
bands of their ilk, utilizing complex
chords and playing in various keys, as
well as performing widely for white
audiences. Their repertoire consisted of
pop tunes, parlor songs, “hokum” pieces
(humorous songs generally with sexual
overtones), dance music, waltzes, and
country blues. Their first “hit” – “Sit-
ting on Top of the World” – became a
blues standard and has been covered by
innumerable artists. Lonnie Chatman
(aka Chatmon) came from a family that
produced several giants of the country
blues. Brother Armenter “Bo” Chatmon
(better known as Bo Carter) was one of
the most prolific of all Mississippi blues
musicians, brother Sam enjoyed a career
that extended well into the 1970s, and
the legendary Charley Patton – the
“Father of the Delta Blues” – has always
been rumored to be either an illegitimate
brother or some close relative. Walter
Vinson was a neighbor of the Chatmans
and started playing guitar when he was
six. The Sheiks were actually discovered
by recording artists while playing for a
white square dance.
Memphis Jug Band (Will Shade [aka
Son Brimmer] vocal and guitar/ Ben
Ramey, kazoo/ Charlie Burse, guitar
and vocal/ Jab Jones, jug/ Charlie
Pierce, fiddle/ et. al.)
The Memphis Jug Band was organized
in the late 1920s by Will Shade and over
its lifetime contained a wide variety of
musicians from the Memphis, Tennes-
see area (even including such notables
as the legendary Memphis Minnie). It is
only a matter of personal preference as
to whether one considers the Mississippi
Sheiks or the Memphis Jug Band to have
been the greatest string/jug band ever re-
corded, for they both crossed many musi-
cal genres from pop to blues, ragtime
to country, dance to ballads. Will Shade
had already played guitar in various
medicine and minstrel shows by the time
he got the idea to assemble a string band
around 1926. Shade and Will Weldon
(Shade’s first partner) played guitar duets
on street corners in Memphis until they
began to add other musicians and record
in 1927. Musically their large member-
ship pool allowed the Memphis Jug Band
the flexibility to play a mixture of many
genres. Interestingly, a number of their
songs mentioned hoodoo magical beliefs,
and some members also contributed to
gospel recordings, either uncredited or as
part of the Memphis Sanctified Singers.
Although their final recordings as a group
were in 1934, Shade kept them together
and working well into the 1940s.
The Baxters (Andrew Baxter, violin/
Jim Baxter, vocal and guitar)
Andrew and Jim Baxter hailed from
Calhoun in Gordon County, Georgia.
Andrew was a well-known fiddler in the
area and teamed up with his son Jim,
an excellent guitarist and singer, in the
1920s. They were much in demand for
dances performing country, blues, and
22 UMS 10-11
gospel songs. Indicative of the cultural
exchange between musicians of different
races in the Piedmont region the Baxters
often performed with the white string
band The Yellow Hammers (Charles
Moody, Jr. on guitar; Bud Landress on
banjo; Phil Reeve on guitar; and Bill
Chitwood on fiddle). Their first record-
ing session in 1927 was shared by both
groups, an extremely unusual interracial
event even given the informal mixed-race
performances in the area. The Baxters
were the first group to record the now
standard folk tune “K.C. Railroad Blues”.
The Three ‘Baccer Tags (George
Wade, mandolin and vocal/ Luther
Baucom, mandolin and vocal/ Reid
Summey, guitar and vocal)
The Three ‘Baccer Tags were a white
string band from Gastonia, North
Carolina that first recorded in Charlotte
in 1931. Their name came from RCA
Victor’s recording engineer Ralph S.
Peer who was alleged to have told the
group that if their records didn’t sell he’d
drop them like “the tin tags on plugs of
tobacco.” Fortunately they enjoyed a
great deal of success mixing sentimen-
tal ballads with pop tunes and comic
novelty numbers. The three members
of the group all met while working at the
Seminole Cotton Mills and soon began
to play for church picnics and other social
events in the area. By 1930 they were
regularly featured on radio station WRBU
in Gastonia. They were the most widely
recorded pre-WWII white string band
from southwest North Carolina.
The Carolina Twins - Fletcher and
Foster (Gwin Foster, guitar and har-
monica/ David Fletcher, guitar)
Gwin Foster began his music career in
North Carolina as a harmonica virtuoso
and guitar player. Although he was
white, Foster was dark complexioned and
was often mistaken for being of mixed
race. By the late 1920s he had teamed
with David Fletcher who originally played
the upright bass. The duo began playing
for parties and dances throughout North
Carolina and in 1928 had a regular half-
hour radio show on WBT-Charlotte. They
were billed as the Carolina Twins and
recorded some 21 sides between 1928
and 1930. While the majority of their
songs stayed within the typical string
band style, two of their recordings were
particularly noteworthy for their unique-
ness: Charlotte Hot Step and Red Rose
Rag, the latter a version of the 1911 rag-
time hit by the same name. They were
never able to make music their full-time
pursuit and like so many other musicians
of this period, Black and white alike, fell
victim to sel;f-destructive drinking and
difficult lifestyles.
The Allen Brothers (Austin, banjo and
vocals/ Lee, guitar and kazoo)
The Allens were another example of the
cultural interplay between Blacks and
whites in the Piedmont region. Although
young white musicians they developed
a great affinity for Black blues and string
band music and by the 1920s were
performing throughout the Appalachians
in coal towns and in medicine shows.
While not a terribly original group they
are important for their cultural impact.
In 1927 they cut their first records for
Columbia: a remake of the venerable
bluesman Papa Charlie Jackson’s “Salty
Dog,” “Chattanooga Blues,” “Coal Mine
Blues,” and “Laughin’ and Cryin Blues.”
When the recordings were sent to Co-
lumbia’s New York offices it was assumed
that given the sound and themes of the
songs that the Allen Brothers were Black
and an advertisement for “Laughin’ and
Cryin’ Blues” was sent out to national
newspapers with a drawing of the two
performers as being Black. Whether
or not this confusion was in any way
responsible, the record met with great
success, as did the others in the issue,
with “Salty Dog” selling 18,000 copies.
23UMS 10-11
Fiddlin’ John Carson
Carson was born in Fannin County,
Georgia in 1868, and as such his music
was indicative of the earliest examples
of American roots music. He started
to play fiddle while in his teens on an
instrument that had been brought to the
United States from Ireland. He combined
making music with working in a textile
plant until it went on strike in 1913
leaving him with no other option than to
play on the street for nickels and dimes.
Between 1914 and 1922 he was named
Champion Fiddler of Georgia 7 times. He
began to record in 1923 and eventually
produced over 150 sides of music.
Blind Blake (aka Arthur Blake, Arthur
Phelps) guitar
Blake’s first recordings were made in
1926 and his records sold very well. His
first solo record was “Early Morning
Blues” with the ragtime-inspired “West
Coast Blues” on the B-side. Both are con-
sidered excellent examples of his ragtime-
based guitar style and prototypes for the
Piedmont blues. Little is known about
his life or death but his complex and intri-
cate finger picking inspired generations
of musicians to follow: Reverend Gary
Davis, Jorma Kaukonen, Ry Cooder, and
many others.
Dock Boggs, banjo
Boggs’ style of banjo playing, as well as
his singing, is considered a unique com-
bination of Appalachian folk music and
African-American blues. He was born in
southern Virginia in 1898 and learned
much of his music from an African-Amer-
ican guitarist named “Go Lightning” who
would “hobo” up and down the railroad
tracks between Norton and Dorchester.
Boggs’s style is, as many other artists of
the time, a hybrid of Anglo and African-
American musical traits. He is considered
a seminal figure in part because of two
of his recordings from the 1920s, “Sugar
Baby” and “Country Blues. Boggs was
initially recorded in 1927 and again in
1929, although he worked primarily as
a coal miner for most of his life. He was
“rediscovered” during the folk music
revival of the 1960s, and spent much of
his later life playing at various folk music
festivals and recording for Folkways
Records.
Blind Willie McTell, guitar
Blind Willie McTell was born in 1898 in
Thompson, Georgia. He was a twelve-
string finger picking Piedmont blues
guitarist, and was one of the very few
country bluesmen to play the guitar in
both the complex, fingerpicking ragtime
style indicative of the Piedmont guitarists,
and a heavier bottleneck blues style. His
playing in both idioms is masterful, fluid
and inventive. McTell was also an excel-
lent accompanist, and recorded many
songs with his longtime musical compan-
ion, Curley Weaver; their recordings are
some of the most outstanding examples
of country blues guitar duets. He began
recording in 1927 and had one of the
longest careers of any artist in his style,
recording his last sessions in 1949.
Pink Anderson, guitar
Pinkney “Pink” Anderson was born in
South Carolina in 1900 and started play-
ing medicine shows as early as 1914. He
made his first recordings for Columbia in
1928. Anderson’s musical style on the
guitar was a combination of the typical
SOlO ARTISTS
24 UMS 10-11
Reverend Gary Davis, guitar, banjo
Gary Davis was born in Laurens, South
Carolina in 1896. Blind from infancy he
early on developed a unique two-finger
(thumb and index finger) style of finger-
picking on the guitar that enabled him to
create a four-part harmony sound. In the
mid-1920s he moved to Durham, North
Carolina and met, and apparently men-
tored, Blind Boy Fuller. At the same time
he was becoming an ordained Baptist
minister. Davis was perhaps the most so-
phisticated of all the Piedmont guitarists
and his repertoire ran the gamut of folk
ballads, ragtime pieces, military marches,
pop songs, lullabies, and blues (which
he was generally reluctant to perform in
public). He moved to New York City to
become a street preacher in the 1940s
and was extremely influential in the folk-
revival of the early 1960s.
Piedmont fingerpicking and the Anglo-
styled ballads common to the Appala-
chians. Although not as well-known
as many of his contemporaries, his few
recordings still stand out as some of the
best examples of the Piedmont blues.
Blind Boy Fuller (Fulton Allen), guitar
Fulton Allen was born in Wadesboro,
North Carolina in 1907 and became one
of the most popular Piedmont blues
guitarists of all time. He learned to play
guitar as a boy and quickly picked up
traditional songs and chants, ragtime
pieces, and blues. By 1927 he had lost
his sight and began studying the record-
ings of Blind Blake in earnest. It was also
at this time that he became associated
with Reverend Gary Davis. He began
playing on the streets of Durham, North
Carolina and developed a large follow-
ing, eventually leading to a record con-
tract in 1935. It was at his first recording
session that the American Recording
Company decided that Blind Boy Fuller
would be a more commercial name.
Over the next five years he recorded over
150 songs and became known as one
of the foremost of the Piedmont blues
guitarists. Many of his songs included
the double-entendre and, unlike virtually
any other Piedmont guitarist, he favored
playing his complex fingerpicking on a
National “steel” guitar, giving his playing
and recordings a unique sound.
25UMS 10-11
as 1781 when Thomas Jefferson named
the banjar as the “instrument proper to
them,” meaning his African slaves. The
early banjars were made out of gourds
with fretless necks, likely with heavy
strings, producing a deep, mellow sound.
By 1847, there are accounts of the fiddle
and banjo being played together; it was
the beginning of the modern string/blue-
grass band.
Eventually, this early Black folk tradition
was adopted, quite popularly, by whites,
heavily in the Appalachians. It became
the focus instrument in minstrel shows
(typically a show done by whites, high-
lighting African-(American) culture, often
performed in blackface), which began
to gain popularity in the early-to-middle
19th Century. African-Americans certainly
influenced the sound and repertoire of
these early minstrel groups by teaching
the first generation of white banjoists
Americans and Mexican-Americans also
developed unique fiddle styles in the
Southwest, likely picking up the instru-
ment from early frontiersmen.
Fiddling has often been associated
with classic American heroes. George
Washington had his favorite fiddle tune
(“Jaybird Sittin’ on a Hickory Limb”), as
did Thomas Jefferson (“Grey Eagle”).
Davy Crockett was a fierce fiddler, and
Andrew Jackson’s victory over the British
in the War of 1812 is still celebrated with
the popular “Eight of January.” In more
modern times, Henry Ford started a series
of fiddling contests in the 1920s to help
preserve the old American values.
Though the fiddle was the main instru-
ment in early country music in the 1920s,
it was gradually replaced by the steel
guitar and electric guitar. It re-emerged
in popularity in the 1940s as Bill Monroe,
Earl Scruggs, and Lester Flatt developed
bluegrass. Innovators like Chubby Wise,
Scotty Stoneman, Kenny Baker, and
Benny Martin turned the fiddle into a
driving vehicle for improvisation.
Banjo The banjo is instrument that finds
its roots in Africa, originally known as
the “banjar.” Where the fiddle can be
called the most significant instrumental
contribution from Northern Europe, the
banjo is the equivalent from Sub-Saharan
Africa. It can be traced back to 13th
century African culture and was being
written about here in America as early
Fiddle The fiddle is the oldest and most
basic instrument of roots music. Perhaps
due in part to its flexibility and sheer
loudness, the fiddle is the dominant
melodic instrument for old-time tunes.
It is accompanied by a variety of other
stringed instruments such as banjo,
guitar, mandolin, and bass. The fiddle
was virtually the only instrument found
on the early frontier. In the South, written
accounts of fiddle competitions can be
traced as far back as 1736. Even though
the fiddle is heavily rooted in Scottish
and Irish tradition and is therefore often
considered a “white instrument,” in the
19th century, a strong tradition began
among African-Americans. This occurred
because slave-owners would send slaves
away to learn traditional fiddle tunes for
the purpose of entertainment upon their
return. All of this translated into an even-
tual blues fiddling style that would persist
from the 1800s into the 1930s. Native
B A N J O , F I D D L E , A N D G U I TA R : A T Y P I C A L S T R I N G B A N D
ABOUT
26 UMS 10-11
how to play. Even after the minstrel
shows fell out of popularity, the banjo
remained prevalent among Southern,
whites. In the 1920s, several regional
styles emerged. Masters of the banjo, like
Uncle Dave Macon, could play as many
as 17 styles. The “banjo entertainer”
emerged with the rise of Vaudeville and
early radio, where the banjo would be
used by singers who told jokes, did comic
songs, and generally “cut up.”
It was in 1945 that the banjo was taken
in a different direction by a young Earl
Scruggs, from North Carolina. He per-
fected the three-finger roll, which allowed
him to play a rapid-fire cascade of notes.
With this, the banjo was capable of hold-
ing its own in the driving tempos of the
emerging bluegrass music. Scruggs be-
came probably the single-most influential
instrumentalist in American roots music,
as generations of younger musicians took
his style and built on it, even taking it into
the realms of jazz and formal music.
Guitar America’s archetypal instrument is
undoubtedly the guitar. While important
figures such as Benjamin Franklin and
Andrew Jackson’s wife played the guitar
or guitar-like instruments, the guitar did
not gain widespread popularity or usage
until the 20th century. As early as the
1600s, Spanish settlers had brought to
the New World a European-style guitar
with five sets of double-strings. By 1800,
the six-string instrument we are familiar
with today had developed and was also
brought over from Europe. The instru-
ment was popular enough by 1816 that
the first guitar instruction book was
published. Early guitars were smaller
than today’s modern style, were strung
with gut strings, and were finger-plucked
(as opposed to today’s popular style of
using a pick). A study of ex-slave narra-
tives reveals a number of memories of
guitar-playing by blacks in pre-Civil War
times, almost all of them located in the
Mississippi River delta. While it is unclear
the style with which these guitars were
played, the location of these recounts is
significant: it would later be the center
for the classic delta blues
By the turn of the 20th century, improved
guitar-making techniques allowed manu-
facturers like Martin (founded 1833) and
Gibson (founded 1894) to offer steel-
string guitars. When played with picks,
this allowed a much brighter, louder
sound and let the guitar hold its own in
a string band and as a solo instrument in
its own right. It was about this time that
the singer Lead Belly discovered an inex-
pensive Stella 12-string with steel strings
and as loud as a piano. Soon mail-order
catalogue stores like Wards and Sears-
Roebuck were adding inexpensive guitars
to their catalogues. Sears’ models ranged
from $2.70 to $10.20, and one inven-
tory in 1900 reported that over 78,000
guitars had been manufactured that year.
Throughout the 1920s, American musi-
cians set about inventing new ways to
tune and note these instruments.
The first generation of country or “hill-
billy” musicians tended to play a style
with loud, percussive strokes designed to
provide little but rhythm. But soon, key
players, like blind Riley Puckett, a north-
ern Georgia native who made hundreds
of records as a singer and band guitarist,
showed the guitar was capable of adding
melody lines as well as rhythm. And in
1927, at the famous Bristol sessions in
northeast Tennessee, Maybelle Carter (of
the Original Carter Family) introduced
what would become known as “the
Carter Scratch,” playing a melody on
the bass strings and brushing the higher
strings for rhythm. It would become the
quintessential lick for country music.
Down in Tennessee, a brash young man
named Sam McGee, the traveling partner
of Uncle Dave Macon, watched with fas-
cination as black section hands near his
farm in middle Tennessee played a blues
finger picking style. He would soon com-
bine this with ragtime he had learned
from a parlor guitar teacher in nearby
Franklin to create some of the first solo
records featuring the guitar: “Buck
Dancer’s Choice,” “Railroad Blues,” and
“Knoxville Blues.”
27UMS 10-11
O T H E R S T R I N G B A N D I N S T R U M E N T S
HARMOnICA
JUG
BOnES
SpOOnSWASHTUB BASS
KAzOO
While the banjo, fiddle, and guitar are the instruments of a typical string band, other complementary instruments often augment this core ensemble, including the following:
28 UMS 10-11
C A R O l I n A C H O C O A lT E D R O p S
29UMS 10-11
E N S E M B L E H I S T O RY
ABOUT
In THE SUMMER and fall of 2005, three
young black musicians, Dom Flemons, Rhian-
non Giddens, and Justin Robinson, decided to
travel to Mebane, North Carolina, every Thursday
night to sit in the home of old-time fiddler Joe
Thompson for a musical jam session. Joe was
in his 80’s, a black fiddler with a short bowing
style that he inherited from generations of
family musicians. He had learned to play a
wide ranging set of tunes sitting on the back
porch with other players after a day of field
work. Now he was passing those same lessons
on to a new generation.
When the three students decided to form
a band, they didn’t have big plans. It was
mostly a tribute to Joe - a chance to bring his
music back out of the house again and into
dance halls and public places. They called
themselves the Chocolate Drops as a tip of
the hat to the Tennessee Chocolate Drops,
the three black brothers - Howard, Martin
and Bogan Armstrong - who lit up the music
scene in the 1930s. Honing and experiment-
ing with Joe’s repertoire, the band often
coaxed their teacher out of the house to join
them on stage. Joe’s charisma and charm
regularly stole the show.
Being young and living in the 21st cen-
tury, the Chocolate Drops first hooked up
through a yahoo group, Black Banjo: Then
and Now (BBT&N) hosted by Tom Thomas
and Sule Greg Wilson. Dom was still living in
Arizona, but in April 2005, when the web-
chat spawned the Black Banjo Gathering in
Asheville, N.C., he flew east and ended up
moving to the Piedmont where he could get
at the music first hand.
The Chocolate Drops started to play around,
rolling out the tunes wherever anyone would
listen. From town squares to farmer’s mar-
kets, they perfected their playing and began
to win an avid following of foot-tapping,
sing-along audiences. In 2006, they picked
up a spot at the locally-based Shakori Hills
Festival where they lit such a fire on the
dance tent floor that Tim and Denise Duffy of
the Music Maker Relief Foundation came over
to see what was going on. The band was still
figuring out who they were, yet Duffy offered
to house them with people like Algie Mae
Hinton, musicians who were not pretenders
to a tradition, but the real thing.
The connection turned out to be a great
match. While the young “Drops” were
upstarts in a stable of deep tradition, they
were also the link between past and future.
They began to expand their repertoire, taking
advantage of what Dom calls “the novelty fac-
tor” to get folks in the door and then teaching
and thrilling them with traditional music that
was evolving as they performed. They teased
audiences with history on tunes like “Dixie”,
the apparent Southern anthem that musicolo-
gists suggest was stolen by the black-face min-
strel Dan Emmert from the Snowden family,
black Ohio musicians who missed their warm,
sunny home. The “Drops” gave new energy
to old tunes like John Henry and Sally Ann,
adding blues songs, Gaelic acappella, and flat-
footing to the show.
“Tradition is a guide, not a jailer. We play in an older tradition
but we are modern musicians.”—Justin Robinson
30 UMS 10-11
The band moved up through the festival
circuit, from the Mt. Airy Fiddler’s Convention
to MerleFest. They shared the stage with a
new fan, Taj Mahal, and traveled to Europe. In
2007 they appeared in Denzel Washington’s
film The Great Debators and joined Garrison
Keiler on Prairie Home Companion. In 2008,
they received an invitation to play on the
Grand Ole Opry. “The Drops were the first
black string band to play the Opry,” Duffy
notes. “The Opry has a huge black following
but you don’t see that on stage.” Opry host
Marty Stewart pronounced the performance a
healing moment for the Opry.
Off-stage, their connection to the Music
Maker Relief Foundation meant a place to
record. In 2007, Music Maker issued “Dona
Got a Ramblin’ Mind” and, in 2009, “Carolina
Chocolate Drops & Joe Thompson.” In 2010,
with the release of their Nonesuch recording
“Genuine Negro Jig,” the group confirmed its
place in the music pantheon. With its tongue
in cheek, multiple-meaning title, the album
ranges boldly from Joe Thompson’s “Cindy
Gal” to Tom Waits’ “Trampled Rose” and Rhi-
annon’s acoustic hip hop version of R&B artist
Blu Cantrell’s “Hit ‘Em Up Style.”
Rolling Stone Magazine described the Carolina
Chocolate Drops’ style as “dirt-floor-dance
electricity”. If you ask the band, that is what
matters most. Yes, banjos and black string
musicians first got here on slave ships, but
now this is everyone’s music. It’s OK to mix it
up and go where the spirit moves.
Yes, banjos and black string musicians
first got here on slave ships, but now this is
everyone’s music.
31UMS 10-11
D O M , R H I A N N O N , + J U S T I N
PEOPLE
“I lEFT ARIzOnA because I knew the
music would take me somewhere - but I
had no idea!”
You don’t have to be born in the Pied-
mont to feel the music in your blood.
It may even be fair to say that Dom
Flemons’ journey has been a trip from
instinct to action. It all began with a PBS
documentary about the history of rock
and roll. “There was an episode on the
folk music revival that got me wanting to
do it,” Dom explains. “At the time, Dylan
albums were inexpensive so I started
buying them. From there I read about the
folk scene in New York City and I tried to
do that in Phoenix. I began busking and
playing in coffee houses.”
Dom calls this a natural progression
backwards. From writing short stories
and poetry slams he moved to music,
from a fascination with the 60’s and play-
ing guitar he collected recordings of the
early masters and used them as teachers.
Finally, Dom added banjo to the mix,
going for the sound of the old-time play-
ers. While still a student in Arizona, he
headed off for Encanto Park in Phoenix
and jumped into Wednesday night music
jams. If he was the only young player
and the only black man with a banjo,
Dom didn’t care. He did find his way to
a website, blackbanjo.com, and learned
about plans for a Black Banjo Gathering
in North Carolina.
After the success at the Banjo Gather-
ing, Dom decided to move to the Pied-
mont. Here, he hooked up with Rhian-
non Giddens and followed her to Joe
Thompson’s house where Justin Robin-
son was playing. Without even planning,
Dom’s music revival dream was real. “It
gave me a different perspective” Dom
reflects, “going from being someone
who was learning from recordings – it
was very different to learn sitting next
to the artists and hearing them talk and
seeing how mannerisms are translated
into the music.”
On stage Dom rolls from one instrument
to another with a fearless attitude toward
tradition and repertoire. As the Carolina
Chocolate Drops push Joe Thompson’s
classics into new territory, Dom remem-
bers his idol, Mike Seeger, who died in
2009. “Mike is the person who changed
my outlook – he got me trying to do
what he was doing, taking traditional
things and smashing them together and
making something different.”
DOM FlEMOnS
32 UMS 10-11
“WE’RE FIRST and foremost entertainers
and musicians. The other stuff enriches,
deepens the experience - but if you can’t
enjoy the music, we aren’t doing our job.”
It’s hard to contain the energy and en-
thusiasm of Rhiannon Giddens. Her life
story reads like a post-modern novel with
overlapping plots. Talents and fascinations,
whims and obsessions tumble over each
other and pour out in a fiery stage perfor-
mance rooted in disciplined virtuosity. It’s
the training of opera overflowing into the
unchained world of old-time music.
At age 16, Rhiannon began her vocal
training at Oberlin College choral camp,
where she took on the deepest part of
the classical vocal river - opera. “I did five
operas and three main roles,” Rhiannon
summarizes, “I got into it pretty hard-
core.” So hardcore that she decided to
take some time off. That’s when Rhian-
non “eased into the folk world,” as she
puts it, although the sequence is not
quite so clean. Rhiannon had already
been sparked by a flyer at Oberlin adver-
tising English Country Dancing. “I’m a
Jane Austin fan and that’s what they do
in her books. Turned out to be contra.”
Back home with a day job in graphic
design, Rhiannon began to attend weekly
contra dances, moving rapidly from just
dancing to calling. It was one quick step
more and a slippery slope into playing
the music. “I decided I wanted to play
fiddle” Rhiannon says in a matter of fact
voice, “so I went into a store in Greens-
boro and picked one off the wall, gave
it a draw and bought it. It was a cheap
Chinese fiddle – hard to play, but that
toughens you up.”
Hands on the fiddle, Rhiannon began
to mix it up, singing as always with her
sister, Lalenja Harrington, joining up with
Cherise McCloud (“who is a Mezzo”),
forming a Celtic band, Gaelywand, and
entering Scottish music competitions.
After witnessing an inspiring banjo
performance by Joe Thompson, Rhian-
non heard about blackbanjos.com and
hooked up with Sule Greg Wilson and
Tom Thomas doing web work for the
Black Banjo Gathering. She also followed
up on an invitation from Daniel Laem-
ouahuma Jatta to visit Gambia, got a
gig as a singing hostess at the Macaroni
Grill and saved up the money for a trip to
Africa. By 2006 the Carolina Chocolate
Drops were moving to the top of the
list. In 2010, the band was a full-time
job – along with a new daughter who is
already a veteran road warrior.
RHIAnnOn GIDDEnS
33UMS 10-11
“SOME pEOplE SAY you should play
one instrument, but I feel a need for a
change of pace.”
While early string band musicians trace
their roots to front porches and frolics,
Justin Robinson began his musical educa-
tion with the careful discipline of classical
violin. “I was about 8 years old when I
started violin,” Justin recalls. “It was my
parents’ idea, but I wanted to play. They
were into classical music. At the time,
my mother was not performing yet, but
later she sang with Opera Carolina in
Charlotte.”
While Justin showed promise, as a
teenager he made the all too familiar
turn from practice to “other things”. He
was an avid listener, but it wasn’t until
the end of college that actually play-
ing the music became important again.
While Justin made a deliberate choice
to pick up the old instrument, violin, he
had made a second deliberate decision;
He was going to use the instrument to
fiddle. If there is one word that fits Jus-
tin’s music, it has to be eclectic. If there’s
a second word, it has be determined.
Asked how he ended up at the 2005
Black Banjo Gathering, Justin puts it
straight. “I invited myself,” he says. “I
went there with the intention of meet-
ing Joe [Thompson]. I knew he lived in
Mebane [N.C.] so I went up there with
the intention of meeting him and going
to his house to play.” Justin collected
JUSTIn ROBInSOn
banjo-playing friends and began to go
to Joe’s every week. Rhiannon started
coming along a month or two later and,
in October, Dom joined in. Soon Justin’s
quest became a regular apprenticeship
with a man tied by blood and time to
the origins of black string players. The
Chocolate Drops were formed as a band
and began to hone their own sound.
Justin and his new young black musi-
cian friends had inherited an unexpected
role as a new generation’s voice in black
string music.
34 UMS 10-11
C C D O N S T R I N G B A N D S
PEOPLE
THE CAROlInA CHOCOlATE DROpS
are the newest and youngest players in
a long lineage of Black String Bands. The
tradition traces its roots to musicians
from Africa who came to the Americas
in the holds of slave ships. The anchor
instruments were made of gourds with
a neck and a variety of string combina-
tions. The same basic gourd banjo, called
the ekontone, is played today in Gambia.
Alongside the banjo gourd, musicians
devised a number of fiddles, American-
born relatives of the African ritti or
one-stringed fiddle. Eventually, perhaps
under the influence or orders of masters
who wanted Irish jigs played in their
parlors, black fiddle-players picked up the
European violin, taking that instrument
back to their cabins, adding classical-style
fiddle to banjo and percussion; so the
blurring of boundaries began.
All three of the Carolina Chocolate Drops
can switch instruments, playing banjo
and fiddle, trading leads and playing
along with a stock of other instruments.
This mixing-it-up comes from the tradi-
tional black string band where the banjo
takes the lead, trading off with fiddle,
while any number of other instruments
join in around them. Joe Thompson
works in this way, always playing his
fiddle in the company of a banjo.
While string bands and old-time music
are often grouped with bluegrass at festi-
vals, the sound is very different. Bluegrass
has a fast-paced style and draws more
on the guitar and the mandolin. It rarely
includes the home-made instruments
common to string band players like
bones (or spoons), quills, and jugs. That
said, more and more bluegrass musicians
are opening up their style. Banjo players
like Béla Fleck and Tony Triska are just as
likely to show up around jazz musicians
as they are to play at a bluegrass festival.
Audiences expect a string band to stick
closer to home.
The string band, with its panoply of
instruments, is also a socially open form.
It says anyone can play or dance or sing.
It’s about getting together. Some suggest
that black string bands disappeared after
the Civil War because the musicians no
longer wanted to play music associated
with forced performances for white
plantation audiences. The immediacy and
self-taught quality of the music makes
it more likely that the documentation,
not the music, disappeared. Looking
back from early twentieth century play-
ers and contemporary players like Joe
Thompson, it’s clear that the music kept
going, passed down by family members
and played for dances and gatherings in
both the white and the black community.
As Rhiannon likes to tell her skeptical
fans, square dancing and string music is
all about African roots and black folks’
traditions.
In the end, it’s all about serious fun and
traditional innovation.
35UMS 10-11
L I K E LY T O B E P E R F O R M E D
REPERTOIRE
WHIlE THE CAROlInA CHOCOlATE DROpS will decide which pieces to perform much closer to the date of the Youth Perfor-
mance (they will announce the titles from stage), they are likely to play the following four pieces: “Little Rabbit,” “Georgie Buck,”
“Dona Got a Ramblin’ Mind,” and “Sourwood Mountain.” Below are video links to the Carolina performing each piece as well as
lyrics for the three songs with vocals.
“GEORGIE BUCK”
Video: http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=8yTijiKUUV8
Georgie Buck is dead
The last thing he said
“Don’t put no shortnin’ in my bread.”
Georgie Buck is dead
The last thing he said
“Don’t put no shortnin’ in my bread.”
CHORUS:
Down the road
Down the road I see
Trouble in my way
Trouble in my way
Trouble in my way down the line.
Georgie Buck is dead
Last word he said
“Don’t let a woman have her way.
“If she have her way,
She be gone all day.
Don’t let a woman have her way.”
(CHORUS)
Georgie Buck is dead
The last word he said
“Don’t put no shortnin’ in my bread.”
Put no shortnin in my bread...
Put no shortnin’ in my bread...
(CHORUS)
“SOURWOOD MOUnTAIn”
Video: http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=5v4ATabf07M
CHORUS:
Roosters a-crowin’ on Sourwood Mountain,
Hi ho fiddle, I ay
So many pretty ones you can’t count ‘em,
Hi ho fiddle, I ay
My true love’s a blue-eyed daisy
If I don’t get her, I’ll go crazy
(CHORUS)
Big dogs bark and little ones bite you
Big girls court and little ones spite you
(CHORUS)
My love lives at the head of the holler
She won’t come and I won’t foller
(CHORUS)
My true love lives over the river
A few more jumps and I’ll be with her
(CHORUS)
Ducks in the pond, geese in the ocean
Devil’s in the women if they take a notion
(CHORUS)
“DOnA GOT A RAMBlIn’ MInD”
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=N3CM5WOaJZ4&playnext=1&list=PL75
0203F197682997&index=9
Dona got a ramblin’ mind (x4)
Dona gone jump the fence
Dona gone down the line
“lITTlE RABBIT”
Video: http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=tszAmWRVVpU
36 UMS 10-11
V I S U A L + P E R F O R M I N G A R T SThe following artwork is part of the University of Michigan Museum of Art Collection.
CONNECTIONS
look at the image on to the right and
consider the following:
How does this image reflect your percep-
tion of American Roots Music? Of String
Band Music?
If you wrote or could pick a piece of
music to represent this image, what kind
of music would it be? Why?
How does this image physically represent
music?
What are three words you would use to
describe the image? How do these three
words relate to what you know about
American Roots Music?
How might the piece relate to the work
of Carolina Chocolate Drops?
What material (mode) is the image made
out of? How does that affect how it ap-
pears and what it represents?
Sherman lambdin
United States, born 1948
Red Devil Bird
1970–91
painted wood twig
Gift of the Daniel and Harriet Fus-
feld Folk Art Collection, 2002/1.211
37UMS 10-11
R E S O U R C E S
38 UMS 10-11
N AT I O N A L S TA N D A R D S
ENGAGE
The following are national standards addressed through this Youth Performance and through the ideas in the following curriculum connections.
EnGlISH lAnGUAGE ARTS
English K-12
NL-ENG.K-12.8 Developing Research Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills
pERFORMInG ARTS
Music K-4
NA-M.K-4.6 Listening To, Analyzing, and
Describing Music
NA-M.K-4.8 Understanding Relation-
ships Between Music, The Other Arts,
and Disciplines Outside the Arts
NA-M.K-4.9 Understanding Music in
Relation to History and Culture
Music 5-8
NA-M.5-8.8 Understanding Relation-
ships Between Music, the Other Arts, and
Disciplines Outside the Arts
NA-M.5-8.9 Understanding Music In
Relation to History and Culture
MATHEMATICS
Data Analysis and probability pre-K-2
NM-DATA.PK-2.1 Formulate Questions
That Can Be Addressed with Data and
Collect, Organize and Display Relevant
Data to Answer
Data Analysis and probability 3-5
NM-DATA.3-5.1 Formulate Questions
That Can Be Addressed with Data and
Collect, Organize and Display Relevant
Data to Answer
SOCIAl SCIEnCES
Civics K-4
NSS-C.K-4.2 Values and Principles of
Democracy
Civics 5-8
NSS-C.5-8.2 Foundations of the Ameri-
can Political System
NSS-C.5-8.3 Principles of Democracy
Geography K-12
NSS-G.K-12.2 Places and Regions
U.S. History K-4
NSS-USH.K-4.1 Living and Working To-
gether in Families and Communities Now
and Long Ago
NSS-USH.K-4.3 The History of the United
States: Democratic Principles and Values
and the People from Many Cultures Who
Contributed to its Cultural, Economic and
Political Heritage
U.S. History 5-12
NSS-USH.5-12.3 Revolution and the New
Nation
39UMS 10-11
C U R R I C U L U M C O N N E C T I O N S
ENGAGE
THE UMS YOUTH pERFORMAnCE by the Carolina Chocolate Drops gives students the chance to explore the music, geography,
history, communities, and cultures of America. To help connect these performances to classroom curriculum, pick one of these
concepts and activities or create an entire interdisciplinary curriculum with these as a base.
THE CAROlInA CHOCOlATE DROpS
is a three-piece string band that has its
roots in the Piedmont Region of North
Carolina and performs “roots” music.
Before attending this concert take the
opportunity to talk, not just about roots
music, but about the word roots, its
many meanings and the different ways it
is used.
Define homonym as one of a group of
words that share the same spelling and
the same pronunciation but have differ-
ent meanings. The word left is a good
example. As a verb, left refers to leaving
or exiting a place. As a noun it can refer
to direction.
The word root is a homonym. As a
whole class, or with students divided into
pairs come up with as many meanings
for the word root as you can. These can
include the following:
Root- the underground part of a plant
Root – to root out, destroy, get rid of,
eradicate
Root - to root around, dig with a snout
like a pig
Root – of something, it’s origin, where it
comes from
Kindergartners, first graders and second
graders study themselves, their families,
the communities to which they belong
and their local residential communities.
Families have roots. Discuss why a per-
son might want to know his or her fam-
ily’s roots. Include a little science here.
What is a root? What does it look like?
Do all plants have roots? What do roots
do for a plant? Roots nourish plants. Do
they also nourish families? How?
Find out where the families in your class
originated. Ask your students if they
know when their family settled in the
United States and where they came from
before they moved to this country. If
not, come up with a list of questions for
students to ask their parents or grandpar-
ents about their family roots. Graph the
results. You might find out the answer to
question like these:
Where did most of the families in
this class originate?
Where did the fewest families
come from?
How many countries are represented
as places of origin?
What are the names of those
countries?
When your graph is complete, take out
a wall map and put pins in each country
that is the country of origin of one of
your student’s families. This is a good
40 UMS 10-11
time to include some mapping skills.
Where is each country in relation to the
United States? Which is the furthest
away? Which is the closest? Are any of
the countries across an ocean? Which
countries and which oceans? Which
countries are closest to each other?
Talk about some of the reasons families
might have left their original country
to come to The United States. Discuss
the fact that our country is often called
a country of immigrants. What did im-
migrants bring with them to our country?
Which things are now an integral part of
our life and culture?
Using reference books or the computer,
show students how to find a few simple
facts about their family’s country of ori-
gin. Tell them to look for something spe-
cial that represents or is identified with
the country. Share these facts any way
you wish. Ask for written paragraphs
or reports, oral presentations, collages,
pictures, music, etc.
Tell students about the concert. Com-
pare the term roots music and its mean-
ing with the concept of family roots.
Communities have roots. Help students
look at their community and the com-
munities that surround theirs. Some
communities are made up of people from
all different cultures and countries. Oth-
ers have a mostly homogeneous popula-
tion. Some communities are composed
of families that have been in the Unitied
States for so many years that they don’t
have any ethnic affiliation.
There are “ethnic communities.” Ask
if anyone has been to a Chinatown, a
Mexican town, a little Italy? What was
it like? Wlhy do we have communi-
ties that are made up predominently of
one ethnic group? Discuss immigrants
coming to this country not knowing the
language or culture and settling near
other people from the same country.
Talk about comfort level, ease of living,
language, prejudice. Read aloud Henry
and the Kite Dragon by Bruce Edward
Hall, (conflict between ethnic groups) Tea
with Milk by Allen Say (different customs)
and The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi.
(Comfort with who you are)
Third graders study Michigan. Take a
look at Michigan. The state is made up
of different groups of people. Some eth-
nic groups are dispersed throughout the
state. Others are mostly found in one
part of the state. Who are the people
of Michigan? What are their roots?
Where did the early settlers come from
and where did they settle? What about
today’s new immigrants? Do they come
from the same countries as the early set-
tlers? Do they settle in the same areas?
Why or why not?
When the Carolina Chocolate Drops
decided they wanted to perform the
music of the Piedmon Region in North
and South Carolina, they went to a
man named Joe Thompson, an old-time
fiddler, who had performed that type
of music for years. They talked to him
41UMS 10-11
about the music, listened to him and
learned from him. They used his music as
a base and then added to it and changed
it until it was their own. Through the
years, we have used this same process to
develop some of the important institu-
tions and documents in our country.
Fifth graders study America’s past. The
first people in this country beside the na-
tive peoples, were mostly from England
and other parts of Western Europe.
Along with their families, they brought
their culture, traditions and ideas to this
new country. By the time of the Revo-
lutionary War, many of those ideas had
become a part of our nation.
Take a look at the Declaration of Inde-
pendence and the Constitution. Where
did the ideas in the those documents
originate? Did we change them in any
way? How?
The Constitution was formed so that it
could meet the changing needs of our
country. How can we change the Consti-
tution? What is the process? Have we
changed the Constitution? How?
Fourth graders study regions of the
United States. Find North Carolina on
the map. In what section of the country
is it? North, South, East or West?
The Piedmont Region of North Carolina
is a hilly section of the state at the base
of the mountains. In what geographical
region is North Carolina? How would
you describe that region? How does that
part of North Carolina compare to the
region in which you live?
When the Black people who lived in the
Piedmont Region of North Carolina got
together they played music for their own
entertainment. People took out kazoos
and banjos, fiddles and guitars, harmoni-
cas and bones and just had a good time
playing and singing and dancing. It was
a community activity, community music,
community entertainment. The same
kinds of things were happening with
other music in other parts of our country.
Small communities of people all across
the United States got together for barn
dances, singing and dancing to the kinds
of music they knew and liked. Does that
still happen? Do small groups of people
get together to make and enjoy music or
do we entertain ourselves in other ways
today? Do we come together as a com-
munity for entertainment? Is our enter-
tainment provided by people outside the
community? Do we entertain ourselves
with more solitary pursuits?
The music played by the Carolina Choco-
late Drops is head-bobbing, foot-stamp-
ing music. It’s available if you google
California Chocolate Drops. Play some of
this music for your students before they
attend the concert and set them loose to
move and dance to the sound. After stu-
dents have heard the Carolina Chocolate
Drops play, play a piece of classical music.
Have students think of as many words
as they can to describe and compare the
two kinds of music.
The band members of the Carolina
Chocolate Drops went to Joe Thompson
and listened to him talk about and play
his music and the music of the Piedmont
Region in North Carolina. He passed
down his musical heritage, the music he
knew and performed, to the members
of the band. We learn about our history
and feel connected to our past when
ideas, things and skills are passed down
to us from the generation before us the
way Joe Thompson passed down his
music. Ask students if anything in their
family has been passed down. Ask if
there is a song their grandmother sang
to their mother and their mother sang to
them? Is there a recipe that has been in
their family for generations? Does their
mother, perhaps, have a piece of jewelry
that belonged to her grandmother or
their dad have a watch from his grandfa-
ther? What kinds of customs, traditions
and celebrations are a part of their family
and have been a part of their family for
many years? Have students share these
things orally, or by writing a paper about
them and their importance.
Read aloud The Always Prayer Shawl
by Sheldon Oberman, Pink and Say by
Patricia Polacco, Always an Olivia by
Carolivia Herron and The Burnt Stick by
Anthony Hill. These are all books about
the connection between generations and
the passing down of customs, traditions,
ideas, stories and special things.
The following National Standards are met
completely or in part with the included
curriculum guide.
42 UMS 10-11
L E S S O N P L A N S
ENGAGE
lAnGSTOn HUGHES AnD THE BlUES
http://rockhall.com/education/resources/lesson-plans/sti-lesson-2/
An authentic African-American folk-music and the foundation for much American music including rock and roll, the blues is a
unique expression of black American culture. In addition to being an art form in its own right, the blues has inspired many writers
and artists including Langston Hughes. Exploring the connections between the blues and the poetry of Hughes will enrich students’
understanding of the African-American experience in the early part of this century.
YOU DOn’T KnOW WHAT YOU’VE GOT UnTIl IT’S GOnE: THE CHAnGInG AMERICAn lAnDSCApE
http://rockhall.com/education/resources/lesson-plans/sti-lesson-15/
The rise of American cities between 1865 and 1900 was spawned by the industrial revolution. Technological advancements in
industry and transportation fathered the enormous growth of large cities across the United States. The patterns of urban growth
then saw the rising middle-class moving further out from the cities creating the suburbs. Suburbs flourished as rural areas dwindled
with farmers selling off their land for new housing developments and shopping malls. Today, we have a global and mobile society
interconnected by computers, fax machines and the internet. These changes in the way Americans live and work have sparked
new challenges for each generation. Understanding the causes and effects of these changes may enable students to better prepare
for the world of the future. By studying contemporary song lyrics, students may be better able to recognize the effects of these
changes upon others.
RUnAWAY SlAVES
http://rockhall.com/education/resources/lesson-plans/sti-lesson-19/
The Underground Railroad was a significant part of American History. It served as a lifeline to hundreds of slaves who risked their
lives to escape the horrors of bondage. Through readings of primary sources and listening to music, students will gain a better
understanding of how slaves pursued their “freedom” by stealing away to “Follow The Drinking Gourd” to the north and to free-
dom.
I WEnT TO THE CROSSROADS: THE FAUST THEME In MUSIC, FIlM, AnD lITERATURE
http://rockhall.com/education/resources/lesson-plans/sti-lesson-27/
The Faust theme, that of risking eternal damnation by selling one’s soul to the devil in exchange for magical powers, can be found
in virtually every genre of music as well as in literature and the visual arts. Examples utilizing this theme can be found as early as
biblical times as a means of understanding humanity’s place in the universe and the struggle between good and evil. This interdisci-
plinary lesson focuses on the life and music of bluesman Robert Johnson as a twentieth-century interpretation of this famous myth
and demonstrates thematic connections between various art forms.
43UMS 10-11
GUITAR IS EVERYWHERE!
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/6351/preview/
A quick activity (10-15 minutes) in which students watch a guitar performance and discuss the versatility of this amazing instru-
ment.
WHAT DOES THIS SOnG REAllY SAY?
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons/grade-3-4/What_does_this_song_say.aspx
Students listen to, sing, and read the lyrics to various African-American spirituals. They discuss the coded messages in the songs,
and the purpose of these codes. Students then write original coded messages, and present their work in a performance format.
TWElVE-BAR BlUES: ExAMInInG THE HISTORY OF BlUES
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/lessons/grade-6-8/Twelve_Bar_Blues.aspx
Students will first learn about the history of blues music and important figures of this genre. Next, they will learn some of the
key vocabulary and compositional techniques associated with the blues. Using what they have learned, students will compose a
melody, using a 12-bar blues chord progression and present their melodies to the rest of the class.
44 UMS 10-11
O T H E R R E S O U R C E S
EXPLORE
ORGAnIzATIOnS
University Musical Society
881 N University Ave
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1101
(734) 615-0122
www.ums.org
The Ark
316 S Main St
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 761-1818
www.theark.org
The program in American Culture
at the University of Michigan
3700 Haven Hall
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1045
(734) 763-1460
www.lsa.umich.edu/ac
zingerman’s Roadhouse
(for a southern foodways dinner)
2501 Jackson Ave
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
(734) 663-3663
www.zingermansroadhouse.com
WEB SITES
Carolina Chocolate Drops
www.carolinachocolatedrops.com
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
www.rockhall.com
Smithsonian Folkwayswww.folkways.si.edu
Rolling Stone Magazine
www.rollingstone.com
The Folk Alliance International
www.folk.org
The American Folklife Center
www.loc.gov/folklife
45UMS 10-11
A B O U T U M S
46 UMS 10-11
W H AT I S U M S ?
UMS
THE UnIVERSITY MUSICAl SOCIETY (UMS) is committed to connecting audiences with performing artists from around the world
in uncommon and engaging experiences.
One of the oldest performing arts presenters in the country, the University Musical Society is now in its 132nd season. With a
program steeped in music, dance, and theater performed at the highest international standards of quality, UMS contributes to a
vibrant cultural community by presenting approximately 60-75 performances and over 100 free educational and community
activities each season.
UMS also commissions new work, sponsors artist residencies, and organizes collaborative projects with local, national, and
international partners.
UMS EDUCATIOn AnD COMMUnITY
EnGAGEMEnT DEpARTMEnT
MAIlInG ADDRESS
100 Burton Memorial Tower
881 North University Ave
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1011
STAFF
Kenneth C. Fischer,UMS President
Claire C. RiceInterim Director
Mary Roeder Residency Coordinator
Omari RushEducation Manager
InTERnS
Emily Barkakati
Neal Kelley
Matthew Mejía
Emily Michels
Bennett Stein
Sarah Suhadolnik
Britta Wilhelmsen
47UMS 10-11
K-12 SCHOOl pARTnERSHIpS
Working directly with schools to
align our programs with classroom
goals and objectives
• 14-year official partnerships with the
Ann Arbor Public Schools and the Washt-
enaw Intermediate School District.
• Superintendent of Ann Arbor Public
Schools is an ex officio member of the
UMS Board of Directors.
• UMS has significant relationships with
Detroit Public Schools’ dance and world
language programs and is developing
relationships with other regional districts.
• UMS is building partnerships with or of-
fering specialized services to the region’s
independent and home schools.
UnIVERSITY EDUCATIOn pARTnERSHIpS
Affecting educators’ teaching prac-
tices at the developmental stage
• UMS Youth Education is developing
a partnership with the U-M School of
Education, which keeps UMS informed
of current research in educational theory
and practice.
• University professors and staff are
active program advisors and workshop
presenters.
ACCESSIBIlITY
Eliminating participation barriers
• UMS subsidizes Youth Performance
tickets to $6/student (average subsidy:
$25/ticket)
• When possible, UMS reimburses bus-
sing costs.
• UMS Youth Education offers person-
alized customer service to teachers in
order to respond to each school’s unique
needs.
• UMS actively seeks out schools with
economic and geographic challenges to
ensure and facilitate participation.
ARTS EDUCATIOn lEADER
One of the premier arts education
programs in the country
• UMS’s peer arts education programs: Car-
negie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center.
• UMS has the largest youth education
program of its type in the four-state region
and has consistent school/teacher participa-
tion throughout southeastern Michigan.
• 20,000 students are engaged each sea-
son by daytime performances, workshops
and in-school visits.
• UMS Youth Education was awarded
“Best Practices” by ArtServe Michigan
and The Dana Foundation (2003).
U M S Y O U T H E D U C AT I O N P R O G R A M1 0 T H I N G S T O K N O W
UMS
QUAlITY
Every student deserves access to
“the best” experiences of world arts
and culture
• UMS presents the finest international
performing and cultural artists.
• Performances are often exclusive to
Ann Arbor or touring to a small number
of cities.
• UMS Youth Performances aim to
present to students the same perfor-
mance that the public audiences see (no
watered-down content).
DIVERSITY
Highlighting the cultural, artistic,
and geographic diversity of the world
• Programs represent world cultures and
mirror school/community demographics.
• Students see a variety of art forms:
classical music, dance, theater, jazz,
choral, global arts.
• UMS’s Global Arts program focuses
on 4 distinct regions of the world—
Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Arab
World—with a annual festival featuring
the arts of one region.
48 UMS 10-11
KEnnEDY CEnTER pARTnERSHIp
• UMS Youth Education has been a
member of the prestigious Kennedy
Center Partners in Education Program
since 1997.
• Partners in Education is a national con-
sortium of arts organization and public
school partnerships.
• The program networks over 100 na-
tional partner teams and helps UMS stay
on top of best practices in education and
arts nationwide.
pROFESSIOnAl DEVElOpMEnT
“I find your arts and culture work-
shops to be one of the ‘Seven Won-
ders of Ann Arbor’!”
–AAPS Teacher
• UMS Youth Education provides some
of the region’s most vital and responsive
professional development training.
• Over 300 teachers participate in our
educator workshops each season.
• In most workshops, UMS utilizes and
engages resources of the regional com-
munity: cultural experts and institutions,
performing and teaching artists.
TEACHER ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Meeting the actual needs of today’s
educators in real time
• UMS Youth Education works with a
50-teacher committee that guides pro-
gram decision-making.
• The Committee meets throughout
the season in large and small groups
regarding issues that affect teachers and
their participation: ticket/bussing costs,
programming, future goals, etc.
In-SCHOOl VISITS & CURRICUlUM
DEVElOpMEnT
Supporting teachers in the classroom
• UMS Youth Education places interna-
tional artists and local arts educators/
teaching artists in classes to help educa-
tors teach a particular art form or model
new/innovative teaching practices.
• UMS develops nationally-recognized
teacher curriculum materials to help
teachers incorporate upcoming youth
performances immediately in their daily
classroom instruction.
UMS Youth Education [email protected] | 734-615-0122
www.ums.org/education
49UMS 10-11
S E N D U S Y O U R F E E D B A C K !UMS wants to know what teachers and students think about this Youth Performance.
We hope you’ll send us your thoughts, drawings, letters, or reviews.
UMS YOUTH EDUCATIOn pROGRAM
Burton Memorial Tower • 881 N. University Ave. • Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1011
(734) 615-0122 phone • (734) 998-7526 fax • [email protected]
www.ums.org/education