He eschewed insouciance. This seemingly contradictory attitude used to be called country singing. Country Blues lets us hear blasts from its newborn lungs. B OGGS'S repertoire and banjo-playing may also raise questions for new listeners. In modal form, tension is all.
Tunes refuse to resolve and can therefore go on forever.
In American folk this repetitive, throbbing sound seems to rise at once from the war cries of Celtic warriors, the field hollers of black slaves, the court ceremonies of African nobility, the harsh laments of Welsh captives. For us, modal music seems to unify West Africa and the British Isles. Of course, British Isles emigrants and West African slaves came here from radically different cultures with radically different theories of music. Certainly they had radically different lives in the New World. Country music is no mere reduction of British ballad and dance, despite the hobbitry of certain folkies.