An illuminating history of the banjo, revealing its origins at the crossroads of slavery, religion, and music. In an extraordinary story unfolding across two hundred years, Kristina Gaddy uncovers the banjo's key role in Black spirituality, ritual, and rebellion. Through meticulous research in diaries, letters, archives, and art, she traces the banjo's beginnings from the seventeenth century, when enslaved people of African descent created it from gourds or calabashes and wood.

A comprehensive guide to the men and women who contributed to and defined the musical roots of South Carolina.

The ring shout is the oldest known African American performance tradition survivng on the North American continent. Performed for the purpose of religious worship, this fusion of dance, song, and percussion survives today in the Boldon community of McIntosh County, Georgia.

The ultimate front-row seat to the rise, fall, and rebirth of a band that was--for a time--the biggest in the world, Hootie & the Blowfish, and Jim Sonefeld's shattering and redeeming spiritual path from addiction to recovery and a more fruitful life. For a time, there was no bigger band in the world than Hootie & the Blowfish--rock & roll's unexpected foil to the grunge music that dominated the early 90s airwaves.