Go Back And Fetch It

by Kristina R. Gaddy and Rhiannon Giddens 

For the first time, this groundbreaking songbook collaboration by music writer Kristina R. Gaddy and Grammy Award winner Rhiannon Giddens makes nineteen examples of early Black Atlantic music accessible and playable for today’s musicians, music enthusiasts, and historians. Presenting music from 1687 through the 1860s in modern treble clef and banjo tablature, along with the rich stories behind each song, Gaddy and Giddens take readers on a journey from the Caribbean across the Americas.

Immensely readable for amateurs and professionals alike, Go Back and Fetch It explains the significance of early Black Atlantic music and how the patterns of tunings, melodic lines, and lyrics shed light on the impact that Black American music has had on nineteenth-century popular music, early country, old time, and bluegrass. Each tune pairs with an engaging essay on its historical background and how the tune transformed over time, as well as information about the collector. Deeply researched and carefully approached, this essential source restores the roots of Black music to the musical canon.

Kristina R. Gaddy is the author of Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo’s Hidden History, among other books of nonfiction.

Rhiannon Giddens is a Grammy Award–winning singer, instrumentalist, and composer, a MacArthur recipient, and a Pulitzer Prize winner.

“Such a fresh notion, expertly brought to fruition. . . . Go Back and Fetch It is a notable feat of reclamation and illumination. Using scholarly tools and inspired insight, Gaddy and Giddens have expanded our understanding of early Black American music to a depth and breadth never previously reached.”—Songlines

“A captivating book overall with plenty of interesting facts about the instruments, the people and essentially the tunes. Gaddy [and] Giddens . . . have done a fantastic job tracking down as much information as possible. Included in the book are plenty of drawings and early artwork, giving a feel for the times. Now that it has been fetched, we can all read about it, and those talented ones among us can play it."—Americana UK

“Giddens and Gaddy make a perfect team for this book, with Rhiannon’s knowledge of the music and how to play it, and Kristina’s of the history of the instrument. It’s certain to be a welcome and valuable contribution to the library of any banjo enthusiast. . . . May there be many more such volumes.”—Bluegrass Today

“An impressive two-pronged reclamation project that shines a light on early Black music from the Americas. . . . Go Back and Fetch It stands in stark contrast to the brazen attempts to erase African American history and culture that are taking place in the United States today.”—Living Blues

“This volume beautifully showcases the rich diversity of Afro-Atlantic music in a welcoming and accessible way. All those who love and play this music should get this book!”—Laurent Dubois, author of The Banjo: America’s African Instrument

“Giddens and Gaddy have threaded music scholarship’s most troublesome needle, making the tunes more accessible than ever before without simplifying, distorting, or discarding the important history that comes with them.”—Jake Blount, musician and interpreter of Black folk music

Published September 16, 2025; Paperback, 120 Pages, 8.50 × 11.00 in, 29 halftones, notes, bibl., index