Ballad of America, Inc.
Ballad of America, Inc. is a nonprofit with tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) educational organization.
Our Mission
Our mission is to preserve and celebrate music from America’s diverse cultural history.
Our Vision
We envision an engaged and informed citizenry that respects people of varying backgrounds and appreciates how different cultures have contributed to America’s musical landscape.
Our Work
We develop and promote online resources and live events that encourage and enable:
Understanding
of the story of the United States
Appreciation
of the different cultures that have contributed to America’s musical landscape
Preservation
of America’s unique musical heritage
Participation
in music making and the continuation of musical traditions
Our Music
The music in America today is part of a continuum that reaches back to Colonial America and stretches across the Atlantic Ocean to the Old World. Music, instruments, and songs tell the story of the ordinary and extraordinary people who have populated the United States and propelled it into the 21st century. Not only do the lyrics directly reflect the hopes, fears, struggles, sorrows, triumphs, and humanity of the real people who lived history, but to follow the path taken by the music itself is to understand the great cultural stew that is the United States of America.
Through this music, you can engage with the strength and beauty that have emerged from the often troubled history of the United States. The genres of music explored through Ballad of America include traditional folk songs, fiddle tunes, ballads (both Old and New World), sea shanties, railroad and cowboy songs, Appalachian, ragtime, spirituals, work songs, minstrel, blues, jazz, jug band, rhythm and blues, old-time, country and western, bluegrass, and rock & roll.
Our Why
The music of the United States is a result of the often-hidden connections among cultural groups in our diverse society. We at Ballad of America, Inc. have experienced how the music brings people together, transcending age and ethnicity, to foster understanding and create community. We believe it connects people to the beauty and good that has arisen from the country's often troubled history.
In addition, a 2003 University of Florida study found that children are not learning and singing the songs of their heritage nearly as much as they once did. The study suggests that the United States is in jeopardy of losing a longstanding and rich part of its identity. Research has shown that these songs enable people to empathize with the hardships and joys of their ancestors. Researcher Marilyn Ward notes, “Music broadens our understanding by letting us experience history – making it more memorable and meaningful than reading isolated stories of events from another time.”
Finally, as Caroline Kennedy writes in A Patriot’s Handbook, “...children have an immense capacity for faith and for patriotism. If their introduction to the story of our country is captivating, they can develop a lifelong interest in history and a willingness to engage in civic life.”
In this time when too many people of all ages seem to be lacking knowledge of the story of our country, Ballad of America, Inc. provides a captivating introduction.
Projects
Building a Knowledge Base
We continually research, write, and add new music articles to this website. Music is an incredibly powerful tool that helps people connect to the past and better understand each other.
Developing Resources for Teachers
We develop resources to help teachers, both traditional and home school, integrate music into the study of history. Music offers a fascinating access point that can ignite students' passion for exploring the story of the United States.
Teaching American Folk Songs to Children
We make sing-along recordings, lead sheets, and more to facilitate the singing of American folk songs by children and people of all ages. Research shows that children are no longer learning the songs of their own heritage. It is essential for children to learn and sing American folk songs in order to preserve this important aspect of American culture and to help them better understand and empathize with others.
Promoting Group Singing
We make recordings and resources to encourage groups of all ages to sing together. Group singing is a powerful act that unites people and communities.
Board of Directors
Matthew Sabatella
Founder and President
Matthew Sabatella is a singer, instrumentalist, recording artist, performer, speaker, writer, and content curator who illuminates the connection between music and the story and people of the United States. Sabatella performs regularly, both as a solo artist and as the leader of the Rambling String Band.
He teaches about music from America's diverse cultural history as a guest lecturer at Florida Atlantic University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and through his live performances. Serving on the board of directors for the Southeast regional chapter of Folk Alliance International (SERFA) and leading the Roots & Sources committee, Sabatella ensures that traditional folk music retains a prominent place at the annual conference and within the organization.
Matthew Sabatella and the Rambling String Band have released three albums in the Ballad of America series, each with a different historical theme. They recently debuted America's Music: From Plymouth Rock to Rock & Roll, a 90-minute multimedia stage show that celebrates the music of America.
Sabatella holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Miami and a Master of Arts in History from Florida International University. He has studied singing and banjo playing with such masters as Alice Gerrard, Sheila Kay Adams, Paul Brown, Kirk Sutphin, Mac Benford, and Walt Koken.
John R. Doyle
Vice President
John R. Doyle is a lifelong educator. He currently serves as a consultant specializing in leadership training and curriculum development. He retired from Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) in 2012 after 40 years of service as both a teacher (12 years) and administrator (28 years).
As Administrative Director for M-DCPS' Division of Social Sciences and Life Skills, he was responsible for administering all curricular programs, grants, and professional development activities for social sciences and performing arts, among other disciplines. Doyle previously served the district as a secondary school teacher, Director for Social Sciences, Director of General Education, and Social Studies Supervisor. He has delivered numerous presentations at the district, state, and national levels on a wide variety of topics and has written a wide range of curricular materials.
Doyle holds a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education from Florida Atlantic University, as well as Masters degrees from Florida International University in Elementary and Secondary School Administration and Social Studies Education.
Elizabeth A. Bieler
Secretary and Treasurer
Elizabeth A. Bieler is a seasoned marketer and general manager with 20 years of experience in all aspects of marketing – from direct marketing to product development to market research and communication to vendor management, deal negotiations, sales, and P&L management. She has successfully led and developed a variety of high-performing teams – cross-functional, international, and diverse - in organizations both large and small.
At Liz Bieler Productions LLC, Bieler advises Fortune 100 as well as mid-size and small business clients, helping them achieve their business goals. Her projects take her beyond traditional consulting to hands-on participation and execution. While focusing on marketing and communication, she is actively engaged in key areas ranging from business strategy, market research, sales and contract negotiation, telemarketing, new business and product development, executive and employee coaching, and customer satisfaction.
Bieler is also a jazz singer and voice actor who performs on TV, radio, online, audiobooks, educational recordings, corporate promotion, and IVR’s. She holds a B.A. in economics from Tufts University and an M.B.A. in finance and marketing from Columbia University.
Advisory Council
Valerie Diaz Leroy
Valerie Díaz Leroy has spent the past 20 years in the educational field as a music teacher, coach, and clinician. Her current assignment as Research and Pedagogy Specialist at QuaverEd provides an opportunity to assess and create multiple types of curricula that reflect cultural relevance. Valerie exudes a passion for exploring the origins of the banjo, using this work to frame her message to teachers on how to weave significant elements of history and culture into their lessons. As Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee at QuaverEd and co-chair of the Equity Committee at the Organization of American Kodály Educators, Valerie concentrates her professional efforts on uniting people through social justice work. Her strong belief is that equity and diversity are foundational elements of 21st Century environments that foster an ethos of collaborative team building and success among all members of the organization.
Craig Evans
After a lengthy career in marketing and advertising, Craig Evans embraced his inner muse… an Old-time banjo nerd. For his 60th birthday present (to himself), he decided to drive across North America interviewing banjo builders to find out what makes a perfect banjo. This launched a 9-year (ongoing) journey to document today’s Traditional Music Community, resulting in the Old-Time Conversations video series. The first of his 3-series DVD collection – Conversations with North American Banjo Builders – is now at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Craig performed 10 years with Bluegrass/Gospel/Old-time group Singleton Street and 12 years with Old-time holler‘n dance band, the Eelpout Stringers. And for the past 18 years Craig’s favorite yearly gig is the Afton Apple Orchard where, armed with banjo and fiddle, he “ambushes children with joy!”
With an adult step-daughter on the autism spectrum, Craig also finds time to use his journalist and video skills to promote positive messages of “thriving with autism.” He has co-written and produced two books with Dr.Tony Attwood, the world’s leading authority on Asperger’s Syndrome.
Kristina Gaddy
Kristina Gaddy is an award-winning writer and author of the forthcoming Well of Souls: Music, Dance, Spirituality, and the Early Banjo (W.W. Norton 2022). The book is a literary exploration of the little-known history of the banjo in the Americas, its role as a spiritual device in the hands of enslaved Africans, and the instrument's legacy in today's culture and society. In 2018, Kristina received a Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Ruby's Artist Award to support the writing and researching of Well of Souls. She was also a 2019 Logan Nonfiction Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good and received a Parsons Award from the Library of Congress in 2020. She is also the author of Flowers in the Gutter (Dutton 2020), the true story of the teenage Edelweiss Pirates who fought the Nazis. Through narratives based on memoirs, oral history interviews, and Nazi documents, she immerses the reader in the world of these teenagers as they resist the Third Reich. She holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from Goucher College. Her writing explores and highlights forgotten and marginalized histories, and has appeared in The Washington Post, Baltimore magazine, Washington City Paper, Baltimore Sun, Bitch Magazine, Narratively, Proximity, Atlas Obscura, OZY, Shore Monthly, and other history and music publications.
Art Menius
Art Menius has enjoyed a distinguished career in American roots music and non-profits, as writer, music festival and concert presenter, non-profit and trade association executive, and radio host. Originally a public sector historian, he entered music with the Fire on the Mountain show hosted by David Holt on The Nashville Network in 1983, the same year he began publishing articles in magazines and newspapers mostly about roots music. He served as the first Executive Director of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), President of Folk Alliance International, Director of Appalshop, and Director The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, North Carolina.
Since late 2014 he has developed Art Menius Radio into one of the leading firms promoting recordings to folk and bluegrass radio and print, limited artist management, and consulting in fundraising, planning, and marketing. His side efforts have included serving as part-time Executive Director of the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance, grant writing, non-profit training, and hosting an arts talk show on commercial station WCHL and music shows on WHUP and WCOM. Community service since 2014 includes the Orange County United Transportation Board, the Orange County Historical Commission, and the boards of Public Gallery of Carrboro dba WCOM LP, and Chapel Hill Rotary Club, and as president of the Carrboro Business Alliance. He is a member of the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame and received the Distinguished Achievement and Print Media Personality of the Year Awards from IBMA.
Marc Sabatella
Marc Sabatella has been teaching music online since the dawn of the World Wide Web, and he has been teaching in person for even longer. Marc is one of the developers and chief ambassadors for MuseScore, the world's most popular music notation software. He is the founder and director of the Mastering MuseScore School, which offers courses on MuseScore as well on music in general, including Basic Music Theory, Harmony and Chord Progressions, and Music Master Class. Marc is a strong advocate for accessibility in music education, and he has worked hard to make MuseScore and his courses usable by blind musicians. An accomplished jazz pianist, composer, and educator, Marc has released several albums of his own material and performed and recorded with many other artists. From the publication of his groundbreaking Jazz Improvisation Primer in the 1990s to his years on the faculty at major music schools, and culminating in the Mastering MuseScore School, Marc has dedicated most of his life to helping as many musicians as he can.
Dr. Sherrilyn Scott
Dr. Sherrilyn Scott serves as a District Social Studies Supervisor for Miami-Dade County Public Schools and was a member of the State of Florida's African American History task force. Dr. Scott graduated from Florida A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. She also holds a Master's degree in Reading and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University.
Dr. Scott has worked as a social studies teacher at the Juvenile Justice Center and as an Administrative Assistant at the 500 Role Model Academy of Excellence school. She has been instrumental in supporting literacy by fostering strategic partnerships among colleges/universities and corporations. These partnerships assist in not only promoting literacy but also helping needy families prepare for the beginning of school throughout South Florida. She has led several community projects, but at the center of her heart is her annual “Back to School” community giveaway event which she has coordinated for the past seven years. This event has provided over 5,000 families with school supplies, health information and services, and community outreach information for parents.
Our Story
by Matthew Sabatella
I was never particularly interested in history. In high school, I halfheartedly attempted to "memorize the important identifications" from the U.S. history textbook, as instructed to do by my teacher. As a musician and music enthusiast, the history of music began with Elvis Presley. That is until an album by one of my favorite rock bands started me on a journey into the past, and a six-album collection of folk songs opened my eyes, ears, and mind to the story of the United States of America.
The history of the United States came alive for me as I began to understand people from the past through their music: early colonial settlers through the ancient ballads, religious songs, and dance tunes they carried to the New World; people in slavery through the spirituals and work songs born out of their suffering. Blues music, Appalachian folk songs, songs of frontiersmen, factory workers, sailors, cowboys, soldiers, railroad workers, activists, and others are all ingredients in the great cultural stew that is the United States of America.
Since this epiphany, I have been singular in my mission to share this rich musical heritage with others, both for the sheer love of the music and for its value in inspiring people to better understand each other and America's past, present, and future. I formed the Rambling String Band and developed educational programs that we presented to audiences from elementary schools to retirement communities. Building on my Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Miami, I resumed formal schooling in 2013 to earn a Master of Arts in History from Florida International University.
In an effort to reach as many people as possible with this important music and message, in 2019 I formed Ballad of America, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, with colleagues who shared my passion for music, history, and education. Being on this journey has deepened our understanding and appreciation of many genres of music, new and old. The music keeps us connected to the strength and beauty that have emerged from the often troubled history of the United States. We believe that it can do the same for you.