Music history exhibit celebrates innovators

Golden East Crossing mall in Rocky Mount, NC is featuring a music history exhibit at the mall through the end of the month.

The collection — Rhythm & Roots, Southern Music — is a display of instruments and information dedicated to the music and musicians of the South. It is located in the space near PacSun and is free to view. The exhibit focuses on traditional music forms from the South, such as blues, country and gospel, and it highlights transplanted music from Asian, Caribbean, Latino and Native American communities. Rhythm & Roots comes from the Southern Arts Federation, a coalition of state arts agencies across the South, as a traveling exhibit.

“Rhythm & Roots is a tribute to all of the musical forms that come together to create the Southern sound,” Southern Arts Federation Executive Director Gerrie Combs said in a statement.

The exhibit recognizes musicians such as Thomas A. Dorsey, Charley Patton, Arnold Schultz, Dewitt “Snuffy” Jenkins and Earl Scruggs — deemed “early innovators” for their pioneering types of music.

The exhibit is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.