I remember one time a man was asking me about the music I perform and play, and I mentioned “folk” music in my reply. He asked me point blank, “What is folk music?” I was a little surprised....

June 24, 2014, marked the official release of the latest album from Smithsonian Folkways called Classic African American Songsters.  It is a celebration of the vast variety of repertoire that these "songsters," or traveling African American musicians of...