#5184, Americana Roots, New Routes

Hear tunes that take American roots music in unusual directions, whether rearranged and/or connected with other sounds – especially minimalism- and in Jake Blount’s case – Afrofuturism.

There's new music from singer, banjo player, fiddler, and musicologist Jake Blount. After offering a queer Black vision of bluegrass music with his 2019 album Spider Tales, Blount began exploring original music that blended Afrofuturism with old spirituals and other folk songs as part of a concept record, The New Faith, strongly influenced by Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. Now he’s preparing a new project that moves into a different musical territory altogether, but first, he’s just released a final album of string band music called Single-Footing Horse. This farewell record offers “Country Blues”, and a tune called “Pork Fat Makes My Chicken Tan”.

Then, bluegrassy string band music (mandolin, banjo) meets minimalism in music from the trio Ellipsis (from the back wall of the New Sounds library.)  Also, hear some of Benh Zeitlin and Dan Romer’s score to Beasts of the Southern Wild, which features a mix of Cajun sounds - fiddle, accordion, guitars - from the Louisiana-based swinging party band Lost Bayou Ramblers. There’s also a kind of chamber music by the Dan Joseph Ensemble, led by hammered dulcimer player and composer Dan Joseph, which includes harpsichord, and string instruments. And more. - Caryn Havlik

#5184, Americana Roots, New Routes (First aired 9/18/26)

ARTIST: Jake Blount
WORK: Country Blues [1:29]
RECORDING: Single-Footing Horse
SOURCE: Jake Blount
INFO: https://jakeblountmusic.bandcamp.com/album/single-footing-horse

ARTIST: Jake Blount
WORK: Pork Fat Makes My Chicken Tan [3:34]
RECORDING: Single-Footing Horse
SOURCE: Jake Blount
INFO: https://jakeblountmusic.bandcamp.com/album/single-footing-horse

ARTIST: The Horse Flies
WORK: Sally Ann [4:35]
RECORDING: New Sounds Live, Merkin Hall, 1991
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: https://www.thehorseflies.com

ARTIST: Jake Blount
WORK: Once There Was No Sun [4:22]
RECORDING: The New Faith
SOURCE: Smithsonian Folkways
INFO: https://orcd.co/jake-blount-the-new-faith

ARTIST: Jake Blount
WORK: Country Blues [4:18]
RECORDING: Single-Footing Horse
SOURCE: Jake Blount
INFO: https://jakeblountmusic.bandcamp.com/album/single-footing-horse

ARTIST: Ellipsis
WORK: Lebadang [6:44]
RECORDING: Ellipsis
SOURCE: Flying Fish  FF-339
INFO: Out of print. Try auction sites

ARTIST: Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin / The Lost Bayou Ramblers
WORK: The Bathtub [3:38]
RECORDING: Beasts of the Southern Wild Soundtrack
SOURCE: Cinereach Music
INFO: beastsofthesouthernwild.com

ARTIST: Dan Joseph Ensemble
WORK: Percussion and Strings [4:33]
RECORDING: Archaea
SOURCE/INFO: https://danjoseph.bandcamp.com/album/archaea