New Harmonies   Celebrating American Roots Music

Whether called blues, country western, folk, or gospel, the sounds are as sweet as mountain air and as sultry as a summer night in the Mississippi delta. American music, both sacred and secular, reveals distinct cultural identities and records the histories of peoples reshaping themselves in a new and changing world. New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music explores the growth of American music, as rich and eclectic as the country itself. The instruments vary from fiddles to banjos, from accordions to drums, and the origins of the sounds are just as diverse, from Africa to Europe to Native America. Still, all of these rhythms merge, as do the melodies and harmonies, creating completely new sounds—new music.

The main beat of the exhibition is the ongoing cultural process that has made America the birthplace of such great music. An inspiring and toe-tapping examination of America’s multi-cultural exchange, New Harmonies is full of surprises about familiar songs and instruments while exploring the continuity of musical roots—from the flourishing of sacred music to the emergence of commercial folk and country.

New Harmonies is designed for small museums and cultural institutions in rural areas. Between April 2007 and February 2008, the exhibition will travel statewide where each site will host it for six weeks. In addition to displaying New Harmonies, each site will create a local companion exhibit that will focus on roots music themes that are important to their communities and present related public humanities programs. This national exhibition is curated by Seattle local Robert Santelli, Director of Programs for Experience Music Project.

Credits
New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Federation of State Humanities Councils. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and The Hearst Foundation.