MTSU’s Center for Popular Music, in partnership with Linebaugh Public Library and the city of Murfreesboro, has been awarded a grant to mount a six-week program, “America’s Music: A Festival of America’s Great Popular Music.”

Click on the poster above for a printable version.

Starting on Thursday, March 21, Linebaugh Library will host free weekly film viewings on popular music, followed by a discussion led by Dr. Felicia Miyakawa of MTSU’s School of Music.

After each Thursday’s film viewing, each Friday will feature a concert by local musicians performing in the style just discussed.

The series will end with film and concert events set for April 25 and 26.

“America’s Music” will feature documentary film screenings, scholar-led discussions and concerts by local musicians of 20th-century American popular music.

The series aims to enlighten and entertain audiences with images, thoughts and sounds on America’s great music.

Musical genres covered include blues and gospel, Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, swing jazz, bluegrass, rock ’n’ roll and rock, mambo and hip hop.

Among the performers lined up for the “America’s Music” series are the Olive Branch Church Choir; the cast of “Jesus Christ Superstar”; bluegrass/old-time bands Sweet Fancy Moses and Bradford Lee Folk and the Bluegrass Playboys; the MTSU Jazz Combo; DJ Amerigo Gazaway and B-boys; and 2nd and Vine, an MTSU faculty rock band.

Murfreesboro is one of 50 sites nationwide selected to host the program series. A printable schedule is available by clicking on the poster at right.

“We are thrilled to participate in this exciting program, which will explore and give sound to the nation’s great music,” said Dr. Dale Cockrell, director of MTSU’s Center for Popular Music.

“America’s Music” is a project by the Tribeca Film Institute in collaboration with the American Library Association, Tribeca Flashpoint and the Society for American Music, via a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“America’s Music,” which is designed to appeal to a general audience, will introduce genres of 20th-century American popular music that are deeply connected to the history, culture and geography of the United States.

For more details, please visit http://popmusic.mtsu.edu, contact the Center for Popular Music at 615-898-2449 or email ctrpopmus@mtsu.edu.

— Jimmy Hart (jimmy.hart@mtsu.edu)