MUSICAL DIVERSITY: The Ebony Hillbillies come to Christ Congregation Church on Friday, September 19 at 8 p.m.

The Princeton Folk Music Society presents The Ebony Hillbillies on Friday, September 19 at 8 p.m. at Christ Congregation Church, 50 Walnut Lane. Tickets are $40 ($35 members). The band is known for their mix of pop, country, bluegrass, folk, and jazz.

The band originated when classically trained violinist and vocalist Henrique Prince met banjo, mountain dulcimer, guitar, and vocal ace Norris Washington Bennett at an audition for a New York City bluegrass band. With his formal West Coast musical education, Prince might have become a member of a symphony orchestra. Instead, he fell under the influence of recordings by the popular 1930s guitar and fiddle group The Mississippi Sheiks, and the Altamont: Recordings of Black Stringband Music. String band music became a mission for Prince and Bennett. They played on New York street corners and their partnership grew into a full band, as other musicians on vocals, bass and percussion joined.

Prince likes to introduce The Ebony Hillbillies by saying that it’s a dance band that has “magically put together music that covers centuries, that’s modern and ancient at the same time.” One of the fascinating ironies about String Band music is that while the music is born of deprivation, and disappointment, it’s still leaping with joy even if it’s just as often weeping with melancholy. African American string bands were an essential part of daily life throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Its practitioners played for pleasure, for church, and to relieve the stresses of life on the plantation. And they played for dances.

For more information, visit princetonfolk.org.