Banjo Romantika: American Bluegrass Music & The Czech Imagination

BANJO ROMANTIKA introduces the musicians who play this unique bluegrass hybrid. Czechs first heard bluegrass during World War II when the Armed Forces Network broadcast American music for soldiers. At the time, Czechs were living under a repressive Communist rule. Intrigued by their luminous impressions of the Old West, American cowboys and other iconic images, this different sounding American music represented freedom to them. Czechs’ love for the music was solidified when Pete Seeger visited and performed in 1964. Inspired by classic American bluegrass sounds, an assortment of musicians from across the formerly communist Czech Republic have melded the past, the political and the present into a lively musical tradition entirely its own.