Tim Weed has heard all the banjo jokes -- the constant digs about the banjo in the movie Deliverance or the Beverly Hillbillies TV show. But a funny thing happens when Weed actually plays the ...

At the back of the pizza parlor sit five rows of musicians, plucking and bouncing away. They all wear red vests. They all wear black bow ties. And they all wear broad smiles. They say they can't help ...

Beyoncé's surprise new country album has kicked open the saloon doors to a new audience. While this may not be Beyoncé's first rodeo when it comes to country music, people are now exploring the genre ...

Early American banjo music is Black music. The banjo was created by enslaved African Americans, and according to the Smithsonian Institute, up until the 1830s, the banjo was exclusively an African ...

Pop superstar Beyoncé released "Texas Hold 'Em" a few weeks ago and it features an instrument that she had never emphasized before. This hit song, on her new (and hugely popular) Cowboy Carter album, ...

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with researcher Joe Johnson and musician Jake Blount about the new Library of Congress guide to African American banjo music resources in its collection. A new generation of ...