Jayme Stone & Mansa Sissoko's African American Folk

From blues to R&B to disco to electronica to bluegrass, every strain of American music can trace its DNA back to ideas rooted in the African American and African traditions, from the rhythms and melodies to the instruments themselves. Jayme Stone and Mansa Sissoko's new collaborative album, Africa to Appalachia, brings that shared history to light in deft arrangements of Stone's banjo and Sissoko's kora playing.

After Stone's trip to Mali a year ago, they were inspired to update West African traditions, showing how American folk and 12th century Malian court songs grew from many of the same ideas, and to show the rich and idiosyncratic history of African music that didn't cross the Atlantic on slave ships. We talked with Stone about where American folk really came from, and where West African folk is going in the future.