{"id":3890,"date":"2019-09-23T19:50:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T00:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=3890"},"modified":"2019-09-23T19:50:05","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T00:50:05","slug":"a-symbol-that-transcends-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/09\/23\/a-symbol-that-transcends-race\/","title":{"rendered":"A Symbol That Transcends Race?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As I began looking through images of bluegrass musicians from almost a century ago, I realized that amidst the controversial discussion about which culture bluegrass music sprang from, one element in this polarized history remains constant. It was present whether the musician was Celtic or Cajun, young or old, man or woman.<\/p>\n

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Front porches<\/strong><\/em>\u2026 they abound in the bluegrass music world. Scroll through the Lomax photo archives from the 1930s, or do a quick, modern-day Google search, and your results will be similar. Front porches have become a constant, universal symbol of a bluegrass musician. Front porches had no racial bias–they crossed the lines between races at a time when no other thing did. Cajun fiddlers and white fiddlers, black guitarists and Mexican guitarists, cajun singers and black singer-songwriters alike; Lomax images show that front porches were the bluegrass musician\u2019s favorite place.<\/p>\n