Bringing together Afrofuturist fiddler Jake Blount, old-time banjoist Kaia Kater, bluegrass banjo iconoclast Tray Wellington and protean bassist Nelson Williams, roots music visionaries New Dangerfield are on a self-proclaimed “mission to liberate the Black string band tradition.”

And that righteous quest begins now, with the release of the quartet’s debut single, a frisky fiddle tune with ties to an old Bill Monroe cut, learned from New Ballards Branch Bogtrotters’ Eddie Bond. The stirring instrumental also pays titular tribute to the band’s namesake, Dangerfield Newby, one of the few Black abolitionists who died during John Brown’s infamous 1859 raid on a federal armoury in Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

“I put together New Dangerfield originally to collaborate with other Black artists that I feel are constantly breaking barriers with their music,” says Wellington. It quickly became apparent, though, that this is a project that roots music wants and needs… Working from a shared love for Black string music and culture, we’re developing new sounds and ideas that keep these traditions fully grounded in the present while steeped in shared history.”

Listen here: ‘Dangerfield Newby’