photograph courtesy the Music Maker Relief Foundation
Today the Southern Folklife Collection is reporting that the legendary Mount Airy fiddler Benton Flippen has passed away. We had a chance to write about Mr. Flippen last year, and we have great respect for this man and his music; our thoughts go out to Mr. Flippen's family and friends.
Yesterday also saw the release of the long-awaited The Harrow and The Harvest by Gillian Welch, an artist who has done a great deal to further the cause of traditional and roots music in this country. We feel that the new ways in which Ms. Welch carries forward this music illuminates how we can rethink the place of the rural arts within the rural-urban continuum and within the ever-shifting dialogue between traditional and modern forms of expression. Below, Ms. Welch and David Rawlings perform "The Way It Goes" last night on The Conan O'Brien Show:
