"Even in songs that aren't outwardly racist or outwardly offensive, there can be underlying references or just a history that is not perceived on the first listen," she explained. The banjo later found roles in ragtime and jazz movements, and was also strongly associated with folk troubadours like Pete Seeger.īrown said in considering songs she is careful to understand their back stories, "because much of the recorded music that we are able to reference today was recorded in a very vicious and gross time in history." When her parents gifted Nora Brown a ukulele for Christmas at age six they never envisioned she would emerge as one of the bluegrass world's rising stars It was notably central to the racist minstrel shows of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. White people in Appalachia appropriated the instrument and it became a key component of the American folk vernacular. Today's banjo is built in the image of its ancestors, West African folk lute instruments, concepts of which enslaved Africans brought to the United States in the 1600s and 1700s. "I think that's due just to lack of understanding of the complexities of this music."Īs a steward of the genre, Brown is acutely aware of the banjo's complicated history the string instrument commonly associated with white men from the American south is of West African origin. People often treat the banjo as "a bit of a joke," she said. Nora Brown attends a performing arts-focused high school in Queens, a balancing act that sometimes requires "tricky decisions" between perfect attendance and concert appearances Speaking to AFP at the tip of Brooklyn Bridge Park where she recently headlined the borough's Americana Music Festival, Brown said part of her drive to perform is "to spread awareness of more of the complexity of old-time traditional music that I feel is not valued, or like, recognized within popular culture." © Angela Weiss © Angela WeissĪt an age when most teenagers are busy learning the latest Tik Tok dance craze, banjo virtuoso Nora Brown has just released her second album of old-time twang The 16-year-old raised in Brooklyn first encountered the banjo while taking lessons with the late Shlomo Pestcoe, a local expert in traditional music.Īnd now Brown is among the musicians carrying on traditions from the mountains of Appalachia, passed down from the genre's old masters.Īs a child "I wasn't aware of how unique and how special it was to be learning that, especially in Brooklyn," Brown said. When her parents gifted her a ukulele for Christmas at age six they never envisioned she would emerge as one of the bluegrass world's rising stars. Musician Nora Brown plays her banjo prior to performing at the Brooklyn Americana Music Festival on September 19, 2021, in New York CityĪt an age when most teenagers are busy learning the latest TikTok dance craze, banjo virtuoso Nora Brown has just released her second album of old-time twang.