Fife and drum blues
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Fife and Drum blues is a rural derivation of traditional country blues. It is performed typically with one lead fife player often also the band leader and vocalist, and a troop of drummers. The drum troop is loosely structured unlike drum corps and may have any number of snare, tom and bass drum players. Fife and drum performances were family affairs often held at reunions and big picnics. It is suggested by most texts that it has roots not in the American Revolutionary War, but actually in Africa; the use of fife is merely a replacement for instruments the slaves had used in Africa.
Fifes were carved from cane that grew locally. Drums were often hand-made, and equally often just percussive objects. The vocals seem to derive from two main styles:
- Traditional call and response of Black Spirituals
- Short repetative lyric
Related texts
- David Evans, "Black Fife and Drum Music in Mississippi"
- Howard W. Odum, "Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negro"
- Eileen Southern "The Music of Black Americans: A History"
- [http://www.folkstreams.net/context,86]
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See also
Ancient Fife and Drum Corps
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