This is the place you'll find the blues, the country, bluegrass, folk and the singer/songwriter goodies you've been searching for. The roots of roots music come from a few different spots, from the African spirituals and worksongs sung by the men and women working the field to the Appalachian bluegrass or old-timey music led by a fiddle or two of the early parts of last century (which would evolve into honky tonk and western swing music along the way, if you were to throw in a jazzy measure or two) to the story-telling virtues of the folk singers from the 1950s on, including the ones singing about and commenting on the world today. Roots music is named such, due to its heavy influence on other genres of music: I guess you could say this is where the song as we know it, all began. (Well ok, post-Classical Music period, if you will.)