DESCRIPTION:
BEFORE THE WIRE: African American Acoustic Arts.
Before the advent of recording devices spread individuality far and wide, and began to homogenize culture, Black folks were creating all kinds of things: dance (buck dance, cakewalk, ring shout); string band music (banjo songs, fiddle tunes); sacred songs; classic story (Old John, Brer Rabbit, Anansi); instrumentation (banjo, bones, drums, fife, kazoo, jug) and more. Ancestral voices still reside within these "Before the Wire" arts.

Before the Wire delves into these ancient AfrAm arts and offers instruction in several pre-Jazz Age arts: song, dance, story, rhythm, instrumentation.