Dave Yim

What do David Bowie, NWA, and the theme song to Futurama all have in common? They’ve all used the Amen break, a four-bar drum solo that has become the most sampled loop in recorded music. The six second sample originates from the 1969 song “Amen, Brother” by a band called The Winstons. For years, the solo was buried deep in the musical archives, until hip-hop pioneer “Breakbeat Lou” Flores and his partner featured it on their compilation, “Ultimate Breaks and Beats.” Once producers caught wind of the solo, it took off and changed the course of music history.

Back in the days before electricity, a peculiar tradition rose out of southeastern North Carolina. Over vast swaths of farmland, voices would ring out to say good morning, ask for help, or just to share a ditty. The old timers called this tradition “hollerin’.” Part singing and part yelling, it was the text message of the pre-industrial age with a complicated history. But, just as telephones and automobiles were about to make hollerin’ obsolete, a group of North Carolinians put together a one-of-a-kind event that may have saved this folk tradition from dying out forever.