The Next American Music

The story of American music is, like America itself, a story of re-invention. The rhythms carried by African slaves and European immigrants blossomed into the Delta blues and Appalachian folk in American soil, starting a cycle of grafting, borrowing and stealing yesterday’s hits for today’s audiences.

We have the legend of Elvis Presley, the white boy who took rhythm and blues music to the bank. Of Leadbelly, the convict who wrote hit songs and died destitute. The outlaw, the man in black - those tales may seem like distant past, but their legends endure today. Artists like Bonnie Prince Billy, Devendra Banhart, Vetiver, and Wilco are modern musicans connected to the narratives of the rural, poor immigrants - singing songs about freedom and enslavement, of life and death, God and the Devil.

Music critic Amanda Petrusich is a staff writer at Pitchforkmedia.com and a senior contributing editor at Paste. She took to the blue highways to discover where American music has been and where it’s going. She writes about it in her new book, It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music. She joins Word of Mouth with a discussion of Americana's roots and evolution.