"What happened to my family's music?"

Annise Bradley, oral historian and proponent of the Young Family Fife And Drum Tradition, joins “Shifting and Shaping” to discuss her family’s legendary impact on the blues and what the future holds for the genre.

While the Young family appeared on “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood” and scored Hollywood films of the 20th century, African-American fife and drum music can be traced back to early American military music. In a time when drumming was strictly forbidden, the fife and drum was an acceptable outlet for slaves. The military music eventually gave birth to jazz and blues. These bands performed ballads, reels, and old-time music on instruments like the cane fife, snare, and a bass drum. This is the third and final episode in the podcast's blues trilogy.