In this segment of Backroads & Banjos, Art begins a 2-part exploration of a style of American roots music that he realized he’s neglected on the show up until this point and that’s the jubilant sounds of zydeco. Art explains the unique origins of this French/African/Angelo strain of music and plays renditions of some of its classic repertoire as recorded by the Balfa Brothers and several others.

This week’s Backroads & Banjos segment is devoted to the music of little known banjo player Omer Forster. Forster was a Tennessee musician who developed his own two-finger style of picking the banjo that made for a very clean tone and great precision on the instrument.

For this segment of Backroads and Banjos, Art brings along his friend and fiddle great Earl Murphy for a session featuring Earl on fiddle and Art on guitar/banjo. Between songs, Earl recalls some of his time on the radio in the 1930s and 1940s, his musical upbringing in Missouri, and the origin of the Backroads & Banjos theme song

In honor of “The Art Show” taking place at the Hotel Indigo in Athens, Art discusses how the field recorder/musician aspect of his work crosses over into the world of the paintings and murals he creates as a visual artist. The event will feature many of his works on display as well as performances by the Georgia Crackers, the Skillet Lickers, and the Around The Globe Sea Chantey Singers.

The subject of this airing of Backroads and Banjos is the jug band, a genre not always well-received by the musical world, which originated in the late nineteenth century and was most popular in the seedier areas of society. This type of music is made by simply humming into the jug, which gives the needed resonance to make the signature deep sound.

While Art was still in college in the late 1950’s, he went to work at a resort in Michigan one summer and befriended some migrant worker families on nearby Allegan Farm. In this segment, Art reminisces about the time he spent with these people, his first exposure to Southern music, and the first field recordings that he ever captured.