American Roots Music: A Sonic Adventure of Continental Proportions

Brian Pertl will take the audience on a lively exploration of American Roots Music. Roots Music refers to important early styles and forms of music that nurtured and inspired the growth of more contemporary music genres.

The acoustic country blues of Mississippi, for example, helped form the roots of the electric Chicago blues. The roots of music in America today run wide and deep, drawing from our country's rich cultural history. The music of Native American, African American, Anglo Americans, Latino-Americans, and Franco Americans are just a few of the many musical traditions that have shaped our musical culture.

Brian will use musical examples of African American field hollers, lead the audience in the call and response, and show how these traditions helped to form the foundations of the modern Blues and Rock music. Brian will also explore less well known traditions ranging from Conjuto and Cajun to Appalachian and Native American music forms.

For each of these musical styles, Brian will focus on how the roots music impacts the culture that hears and plays it, and how, in turn, the culture, influences and impacts the growth of the musical tradition.

Brian Pertl is an ethnomusicologist, with a Masters of Arts from Wesleyan University. He has been a teacher and lecturer at the University of Washington covering topics including American popular music, African American music and Anglo-American music. He has been an Inquiring Mind speaker for over 6 years, and has given well over 80 presentations on Aboriginal music of Australia, sacred music of Tibet, and world music.

Audience: elementary through adult