Ethnic and Border Music

Just as American culture has been constructed by people of many ethnicities, roots music in America is multicultural in nature. Native American music resonates from Indigenous traditions of the Great Plains and the American West. Hispanic culture has spawned Border Music styles such as Conjunto and Tejano, while Cajun and Zydeco grew from cultural cross-pollination in the American South. In northern regions, Polish-American musicians popularized Polka, while Irish-American music holds a rich tradition throughout many regions in the East. This unique volume presents influential musical cultures from throughout the multicultural history of American vernacular song.

Series blurb: This series presents five volumes on genres of music that have evolved in distinctly regional styles throughout the nation. With volumes authored by leading music scholars, the series traces the growth of Blues, Country, Folk, and Jazz in their many regional variations, as well as Ethnic and Border music traditions throughout America. Each volume presents an accessible analysis of the genre in its many regional forms, examining the musical elements and, when applicable, lyrical subjects as tied to specific cultures throughout the United States.

• Traditional music placed within regional perspectives
• The study of music shown to illustrate cultural nuances
• Musical elements explained in accessible language for the lay reader
• Glossaries of important biographical and topical entries related to the genres

Norm Cohen is the author of Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong (1981) and Traditional Anglo-American Folk Music: An Annotated Discography of Published Recordings (1994). He has edited and/or annotated two dozen albums, and written extensively on various aspects of folk, country, and popular music. He is a retired chemist and currently teaches physical science in Portland, Oregon. His previous book for Greenwood is Folk Music (2005).