Table of Contents:
  • Introduction: Griots of piedmont North Carolina and portrait of songster Will Baldwin
  • Signifying at the crossroads : African-American traditions of the folk banjo
  • The ritual of minstrelsy : some were buffoons, but others were apprentices
  • Mountain echoes of the African banjo
  • The banjo : its changing form, construction, and use
  • The transmission of playing methods and tunings
  • The banjo song genre : Dink Roberts' man-against-the-law songs
  • Garfield : man against the law, but a man with a community
  • Conclusion.