For most of British history, Englishmen have been able to take zither music—or leave it to the Tyrolese. Last week, nonetheless, the humble, lap-sized stringed instrument was the musical rage of ...

Washington Phillips is the kind of oddball musician listeners love to romanticize. A preacher from Texas who recorded a scant 18 gospel songs in the late 1920s, he played a strange-sounding zither of ...