Welcome to Culture Currents, and its new header theme photo (above the headline of this post). I enjoyed using the Grand Tetons as a theme image but I recently contemplated the subject of a header and came up with this image as more apropos in its symbolism. It’s a picture of the Delaware River in the Delaware Water Gap of the Pocono Mountains. The Gap and this part of the river are actually in New Jersey and part of the great Appalachian Trail, the footpath stretching over 2,000 miles from Georgia to northern Maine.
So the river and trail signify a current running through the Appalachian culture that produced some of America’s great indigenous music, like bluegrass and country music.
And of course, the river is the key Culture Currents image because one of America’s greatest waterways, the mighty Mississippi, spread the profound and central currents of American vernacular music: the blues, gospel music, R&B and jazz.
And as previous readers know, this blog may explore virtually any noteworthy development or event of common (and uncommon) culture, regardless of medium, as well as political strains of culture.
So enjoy the new theme image and come on up and down the rivers and trails with me, and hear the vernaculars speak. We’ll stop off at virtually any port on the cultural map, from low-down folk to “high” art.
— Kevernacular (Kevin Lynch)
Love the new photo, Mr. Kevin. Very beautiful.
Ann