America250 Speaker Series: Rolling Along a River of Song

Location: Kenton County Public Library Covington Branch - Truist Meeting Room

Rolling Along a River of Song: How Early 19th-Century Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Launched American Music to the World

Join music historian and career navigator librarian John Schlipp for an immersive journey into the “musical highway” of the 18th and 19th centuries. Long before the Cincinnati region became a modern metropolis, its proximity to the Ohio River made it a premier cultural and musical melting pot, where Indigenous Native Americans, European immigrant traditions, Appalachian folk, and African American river work songs collided. This session examines how the unique frontier environment of the region fostered the emergence of the first truly American musical genres, transforming it into a global center for musical innovation, sheet music publishing, and eventually, recording and broadcast media.