We cultivate the integration and intersectionality of the American roots music community, including the musicians onstage and the audiences who come to see them. We produce content and media documenting the work of an ever-growing community of musicians, scholars and culture creators. Through community collaborations, we generate cultural criticism, re-interpretations of the music canon, tributes to under-recognized artists and other projects that repair the forgotten histories of the queer, brown, indigenous and “other-ed” folks who have contributed to and who continue to generate into the landscape of American roots music.

Our team is based in Durham, NC, but our music community spans from Nashville to New York to Los Angeles to Canada and many places between. As a community we endeavor to paint a fuller picture of the American story, generating an easily accessible archive that celebrates the past, present, and future of these musical lineages through underrepresented voices.

CSSB organizes an annual virtual Summit to gather community and cultivate the sharing of ideas among an ecosystem of passionate artists, scholars, advocates, activists and creatives who create and care about equity and reparative storytelling in American roots music and culture.