What is roots music?

December 16, 2009 Author: David Newland

You tell us!

{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

Neil Cotton January 16, 2010 at 9:40 am

Is there any other kind?

A ground swell of musical expression based on universal values, human emotion and life experiences.

rosemary phelan February 5, 2010 at 8:38 pm

… music that draws its sustenance from deep within the collective spirit. it sends out intrepid shoots, r-e-a-c-h-i-n-g for the light. flowering, it nourishes myriad creatures and the souls of men; in seed, it carries the miracle-germ of fresh inspiration, clinging to the pants-legs of passersby on its humble, tenacious way to immortality… heehee… *sigh!* back to regularly scheduled programming…

John Mulligan April 14, 2010 at 5:12 pm

Folk-inspired, hand made, reproducible at parties.

John Morrow May 27, 2010 at 8:51 am

Part of the reason I love roots music is that it “fights against the boxes” (something Joe Grass once said to me, and I thought it was brilliant. It’s one of those things like porn that you know when you hear – primal, evocative, complex in its simplicity.

Oh, and no pitch control.

Angel Records Canada Inc. August 22, 2010 at 5:07 pm

Roots music speaks of geographical areas within a country or area of that country. It can also be music that is considered to be a relic of that area. For this reason roots music varies slightly from one region to another, but generally has a folk feel to it, and sometimes a country-folk feel. It is literally about singing inspired by ones own “roots”.

Doug Koyama November 18, 2010 at 11:09 pm

Roots music connects you to your root. It is a symbiosis between the need for song in our world and the provision of that (those), song(s). It defies clear classification, you’ll know it when you hear it.

You’ll know it when you close your eyes and feel it take you away.

Jay Sewall January 28, 2011 at 5:41 pm

Music from the earth. (chuckle)
To play it, you have to listen to previous masters. So it is music that has been around for a long time. Definetly a challenge musically.

Steven Tanner November 4, 2011 at 7:50 am

Roots Music is music that knows no genre.
isn’t confined to rules or styles. It is music for the people, of the people, about the people. …. at least it is for me.

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