Americana is a music that defies definition. It isn’t rock, although it does encompass rock. It isn’t folk, but folk is there. It isn’t Celtic, but it is woven with Celtic threads. It is a blend of forms, music that draws on a wide range of influences. Gathering these many genres together, Americana continually reinvents itself and actively tells the story of its origins and its future.The Americana Revolution: From Country and Blues Roots to the Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons, and...

Her mother's rules were simple, but Annie Meadows rarely followed them.The rules were required, though, if they didn't want to get caught.Sometimes Annie believed what she and her mother did was wrong, but she was told they were helping the children in the basement. When Annie heard them cry in their locked rooms, it didn't feel that way.As she got older, Annie reflected on what she had done and vowed never to be like her mother. Then she met little...

Shortly after Cleburne landed the largest railroad shops west of the Mississippi, it set its sights on securing a professional baseball team. Against the odds, Cleburne became a Texas League town in 1906. After the first championship, the Railroaders loaded a train and left Cleburne. The town's professional teams would amass two championships, three pennants and several legendary major league players, including Tris Speaker, before disappearing. Despite lacking a professional club, the tow...

Artists have often provided the earliest demonstrations of conscience and ethical examination in response to political events. The political shifts that took place in the 1960s were addressed by a revival of folk music as an expression of protest, hope and the courage to imagine a better world. This work explores the relationship between the cultural and political ideologies of the 1960s and the growing folk music movement, with a focus on musicians Phil Ochs; Joan Baez; Peter, Paul and Ma...