Single Strand: Parent of the Blues

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 00:05:00

Single Strand: Parent of the Blues

Bill Ferris directs the Center for the Study of the American South, at UNC Chapel Hill. He's also one of this country's outstanding folklorists.

Bill was in rural Mississippi in the 1970s, when for the first time in his life he heard a single strand of wire being played as a musical instrument. The wire was fixed to the side of a wooden shack, and played with a bottle. What he heard that day so moved him that he started to dig into the musical roots of the blues.

He's still digging today, and brings the riches he's unearthed into the studio with Dick. It's a musical argument that Bill makes: the blues is the defining music of the twentieth century, without which Bill says, he himself isn't even imaginable.

Find out more about Bill
Visit the Center for the Study of the American South
Peruse the Curriculum in Folklore
See a list of songs Bill and Dick listened to

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The Story from APM - Single Strand: Parent of the Blues

Single Strand: Parent of the Blues

Single Strand: Parent of the Blues