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

umsyouth@umich.edu

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

ac.ing@umich.edu

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 Programumsyouth@umich.edu | 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 • umsyouth@umich.edu

www.ums.org/education