Who gets to play the banjo in America?

Twenty years ago, the old-time string band Carolina Chocolate Drops turned heads and wowed audiences. They were young. They were Black. And with their fiddles and banjos, they launched a movement that would challenge long-standing stereotypes about traditional music in America. 

Today we’re sharing a special program called “Reclaiming the Banjo” – a collaboration between WPLN in Nashville, Tennessee and WUNC’s podcast The Broadside. 

It’s all about a Black folk music revival sweeping the country and its deep roots in North Carolina. We follow the movement to reclaim the Black roots of folk and country music we’ll travel from a festival in our backyard all the way to the stage of the Grand Ole Opry.

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