The Death of John Henry and the African-American Roots of Rock & Roll

Scott Nelson will explore how songs sung by African-American railway trackliners in the South helped produce the music that we call rock & roll. He will also discuss the most famous of these songs, "The Ballad of John Henry," and the song's origins in the Reconstruction South. The lecture covers material in Nelson's book Steel Drivin' Man and his young adult book, Ain't Nothing but a Man.