Community Calendar: John Davidson September 29, 7:30 pm John Davidson is an established star who has made his name in Hollywood, Las Vegas, Broadway and on TV. He and his banjo will appear in a dynamic one-man show. Individual admission: $20; full season membership: $45. Location: WNUM Fine Arts Center Theater Phone: (575) 538-5862 Hi Lo Silvers Autumn Concert October 15, 3:00 pm Location: First Presbyterian Church on Swan Street Phone: 575-388-8771 Hi Lo Silvers Spring Concert October 17, 3:00 pm Location: First Presbyterian Church on Swan Street Phone: 575-388-8771 See complete calendar.

High Lonesome Radio KSIL 105.5 FM in Silver City brings southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona the best mix of Americana, roots, country, rock and more.

From our station in the heart of historic downtown Silver City, we broadcast music we select ourselves: We're locally owned and managed, and the music we play is the music we love!

As part of our efforts to spread this exciting blend of American music traditions, KSIL reports to the Americana Music Association, the Roots Music Report and the Freeform American Roots Chart. These organizations can provide even more information on American Roots Music.

American folk music, also known as Americana, is a broad category of music including Bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, and Cajun. The music is considered "American" because it is either native to the United States or there varied enough from its origins that it struck musicologists as something distinctly new; it is considered "roots music" because it served as the basis of music later developed in the United States, including rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and jazz.

Roots musical forms reached their most expressive and varied forms in the first two to three decades of the 20th century. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl were extremely important in disseminating these musical styles to the rest of the country, as Delta blues masters, itinerant honky tonk singers and Latino and Cajun musicians spread to cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. The growth of the recording industry in the same approximate period was also important; increased possible profits from music placed pressure on artists, songwriters and label executives to replicate previous hit songs. This meant that fads like Hawaiian slack-key guitar never died out completely as rhythms or instruments or vocal stylings were incorporated into disparate genres. By the 1950s, all the forms of roots music had led to pop-oriented forms. Folk musicians like the Kingston Trio, pop-Tejano and Cuban-American fusions like boogaloo, chachacha and mambo, blues-derived rock and roll and rockabilly, pop-gospel, doo wop and R&B (later secularized further as soul music) and the Nashville sound in country music all modernized and expanded the musical palette of the country.

Notable roots musicians include Old Crow Medicine Show, Ralph Stanley, Woody Guthrie, Son House, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly, Hazel Dickens, Mahalia Jackson, Washington Phillips, Fiddlin' John Carson (1868 - 1949) Jean Ritchie, and Ani DiFranco (b 1970). More recent musicians who occasionally or consistently play roots music include Keb' Mo', Ralph Stanley, Pete Seeger, Iron & Wine, and Ricky Skaggs. Additionally, the soundtrack to the 2000 comedy film O Brother, Where Art Thou? is exclusively roots music, performed by Alison Krauss, The Fairfield Four, Emmylou Harris, Norman Blake and others. The 2003 film A Mighty Wind is a tribute to (and parody of) the folk-pop musicians of the early 1960s.

American roots music was the subject of a documentary series on PBS in 2001.

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