Vienna Carroll

I sing Black Roots music with a Groove.

I interweave old songs  - Spirituals, work songs, sea chanteys - and buried stories of Black heroes to show how *We Freed Ourselves* from slavery and to serve up Black history. My folksy blues and soulful funk style are cornerstoned  in the  Black church tradition to light a fire in your soul with passion and masterful storytelling

I learned music from the Black Ladies of my youth, including my fearsome great grandmother, Mother Susie Stokes, who played guitar to Grand Ole Opry radio every Saturday night but only proper Pentecostal chords on Sunday.  At my Alabama grandmother’s 125 acre working farm, I joined in the Sunday church services an hour’s drive away down a dusty road, where singing was often accompanied only by the hand clapping and shouting of its fervent members. 

I formalized my studies of early Black music at Yale University, with a BA in African American Studies. I live in Harlem with my wife, garden and window boxes.