String band
The term string band describes bands that consist of simple string instruments. The line- up for string bands is usually fiddle , guitar , banjo and sometimes a fourth individual instrument such as a mandolin or a double bass . String bands formed in the United States since the 19th century and played old-time music . Well-known formations include Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers , the Leake County Revelers , Charlie Poole and the North Caroline Ramblers and also Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys .
Until the 1930s, string bands in various variations were very popular. These formations revived during the Folk Revival and are now widespread in the USA as bluegrass bands.
In the 1920s and 1930s there were also African American string bands who mixed the rural music of the white southern population with the black blues (for example the Mississippi Sheiks or the Dallas String Band ).