Military March | Fife and Drum Blues

Fife and drum blues is a rural derivation of traditional country blues. It is performed typically with one lead fife player, often also the band leader and vocalist, and a troop of drummers. Unlike a drum corps, the drum troop is loosely structured. As such, a fife and drum band may have any number of snare, tom, and bass drum players. Fife and drum performances were family affairs often held at reunions and big picnics. It is suggested by most texts that it has roots not in the American Revolutionary War, but actually in Africa; the use of fife is merely a replacement for instruments the natives had used in Africa.