BLUEGRASS
2020
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UNLIKELY ANGEL
The Songs of Dolly Parton
LYDIA R. HAMESSLEY Foreword by Steve Buckingham The creative process of a great American songwriter “Lydia Hamessley invites us on a deep dive into the world of Dolly Parton as songwriter. The book weaves together insightful analyses of the musical forms, cultural roots, and meanings found in Parton’s vast catalog, with Parton’s own accounts of her music. Hamessley unveils these songs as the heart and substance of Parton’s contributions to popular culture, and will inspire every reader to take yet another listen.” —JOCELYN R. NEAL, author of Country Music: A Cultural and Stylistic History OCTOBER
Dolly Parton’s success as a performer and pop culture phenomenon has overshadowed her achievements as a songwriter. But she sees herself as a songwriter first, and with good reason. Parton’s compositions like “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene” have become American standards with an impact far beyond country music.
296 PAGES. 6.125 X 9.25 INCHES 31 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS, 1 MUSIC EXAMPLE, 5 TABLES
HARDCOVER, 978-0-252-04352-9 $125.00x £100.00
Lydia R. Hamessley’s expert analysis and Parton’s characteristically straightforward input inform this comprehensive look at the process, influences, and themes that have shaped the superstar’s songwriting artistry. Hamessley reveals how Parton’s loving, hardscrabble childhood in the Smoky Mountains provided the musical language, rhythms, and memories of old-time music that resonate in so many of her songs. Hamessley further provides an understanding of how Parton combines her cultural and musical heritage with an artisan’s sense of craft and design to compose eloquent, painfully honest, and gripping songs about women’s lives, poverty, heartbreak, inspiration, and love.
PAPER, 978-0-252-08542-0 $19.95 £14.99 E-BOOK, 978-0-252-05240-8 A volume in the series Women Composers All rights: University of Illinois
Filled with insights on hit songs and less familiar gems, Unlikely Angel covers the full arc of Dolly Parton’s career and offers an unprecedented look at the creative force behind the image. LYDIA R. HAMESSLEY is a professor of music at Hamilton College.
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INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH BLUEGRASS
Southwestern Ohio’s Musical Legacy
Edited by FRED BARTENSTEIN and CURTIS W. ELLISON Foreword by Neil V. Rosenberg High lonesome in the heartland “A new urban folk music, nurtured and shaped by a folk community in an industrial setting, has made the world familiar with southwestern Ohio’s bluegrass. Many facets of the region’s rich musical heritage are explored and celebrated in this book, a welcome addition to the literature on bluegrass.” —NEIL V. ROSENBERG, from the foreword JANUARY 2021
In the twentieth century, Appalachian migrants seeking economic opportunities relocated to southwestern Ohio, bringing their music with them. Between 1947 and 1989, they created an internationally renowned capital for the thriving bluegrass music genre, centered on the industrial region of Cincinnati, Dayton, Hamilton, Middletown, and Springfield. Fred Bartenstein and Curtis W. Ellison edit a collection of eyewitness narratives and in-depth analyses that explore southwestern Ohio’s bluegrass musicians, radio broadcasters, recording studios, record labels, and performance venues, along with the music’s contributions to religious activities, community development, and public education. As the bluegrass scene grew, southwestern Ohio’s distinctive sounds reached new fans and influenced those everywhere who continue to play, produce, and love roots music.
272 PAGES. 6.125 X 9.25 INCHES 112 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS, 1 CHART
HARDCOVER, 978-0-252-04364-2 $110.00x £88.00 PAPER, 978-0-252-08560-4 $29.95s £22.99 E-BOOK, 978-0-252-05253-8 A volume in the series Music in American Life
Revelatory and multifaceted, Industrial Strength Bluegrass shares the inspiring story of a bluegrass hotbed and the people who created it.
Publication supported by a grant from the Judith McCulloh Endowment for American Music.
Contributors: Fred Bartenstein, Curtis W. Ellison, Jon Hartley Fox, Rick Good, Lily Isaacs, Ben Krakauer, Mac McDivitt, Nathan McGee, Daniel Mullins, Joe Mullins, Larry Nager, Phillip J. Obermiller, Bobby Osborne, and Neil V. Rosenberg.
All rights: University of Illinois
FRED BARTENSTEIN is an adjunct instructor in music at the University of Dayton. He is the editor of Bluegrass Bluesman, The Bluegrass Hall of Fame, and two anthologies of writings by folk arts impresario Joe Wilson. CURTIS W. ELLISON is a professor emeritus of history and American studies at Miami University. He is the author of Country Music Culture: From Hard Times to Heaven and editor of Donald Davidson’s The Big Ballad Jamboree.
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NEW IN PAPER
PEGGY SEEGER
A Life of Music, Love, and Politics
JEAN R. FREEDMAN A full-length biography of the folk music legend “O, how I love this book! It gives me everything I wanted to know about my friend, the salty and sweet Peggy Seeger and her unique and prolific family. All the pain is there, but so are the achievements and the joys. This book goes on my shelf next to The Mayor of MacDougal Street, and I can offer no higher praise than that.” —TOM PAXTON Born into folk music’s first family, Peggy Seeger has blazed her own trail artistically and personally. Jean R. Freedman draws on a wealth of research and conversations with Seeger to tell the life story of one of music’s most charismatic performers and tireless advocates. Here is the story of Seeger’s multifaceted career from her youth to her pivotal role in the American and British folk revivals, from her instrumental virtuosity to her tireless work on behalf of environmental and feminist causes. Freedman also delves into Seeger’s fruitful partnership with Ewan MacColl, including their creation of the renowned Festival of Fools, their legendary Radio Ballads series, their many projects with the young folksingers of the Critics Group, and their recording company Blackthorne Records.
408 PAGES 6.125 X 9.25 INCHES 19 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS
JEAN R. FREEDMAN earned a Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University. She is the author of Whistling in the Dark: Memory and Culture in Wartime London.
A volume in the series Music in American Life
PAPERBACK 978-0-252-08513-0 $19.95 £15.95 E-BOOK, 978-0-252-09921-2
Publication of this book was supported by grants from the Manfred Bukofzer Endowment of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and from the L. J. and Mary C. Skaggs Folklore Fund. All rights: University of Illinois
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HILLBILLY MAIDENS, OKIES, AND COWGIRLS
Women’s Country Music, 1930–1960
STEPHANIE VANDER WEL Pioneering women and their soundtrack of searching in country music “Women’s struggle for inclusion is one of the biggest stories in country music today. Vander Wel’s rich history shows how female artists fought for a voice and made it central to country’s stories of gender, class, and migration in mid– twentieth-century America.” —NADINE HUBBS, author of Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music From the 1930s to the 1960s, the booming popularity of country music threw a spotlight on a new generation of innovative women artists. These individuals blazed trails as singers, musicians, and performers even as the industry hemmed in their potential popularity with labels like woman hillbilly, singing cowgirl, and honkytonk angel.
256 PAGES 6 X 9 INCHES 11 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS, 3 MUSIC EXAMPLES
Stephanie Vander Wel looks at the careers of artists like Patsy Montana, Rose Maddox, and Kitty Wells against the backdrop of country music’s golden age. Analyzing recordings and appearances on radio, film, and television, she connects performances to real and imagined places and examines how the music sparked new ways for women listeners to imagine the open range, the honky-tonk, and the home. The music also captured the tensions felt by women facing geographic disruption and economic uncertainty. While classic songs and heartfelt performances might ease anxieties, the subject matter underlined women’s ambivalent relationships to industrialism, middle-class security, and established notions of femininity.
HARDCOVER, 978-0-252-04308-6 $110.00x £91.00 PAPER, 978-0-252-08495-9 $25.95s £20.99 E-BOOK, 978-0-252-05194-4 Publication of this book was supported by a grant from the Judith McCulloh Endowment for American Music, and by the AMS 75 PAYS Endowment of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
STEPHANIE VANDER WEL is an associate professor of music at the University at Buffalo.
A volume in the series Music in American Life All rights: University of Illinois
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EARL SCRUGGS AND FOGGY MOUNTAIN BREAKDOWN
The Making of an American Classic
THOMAS GOLDSMITH The breakneck banjo tune that became a song for the ages “The Bluegrass Reader successfully manages to appeal to both the bluegrass insider and the newcomer to the genre, and in the process has given well-deserved new life to some masterful bits of writing.” —BLUEGRASS UNLIMITED
“An enormous contribution to the history of bluegrass and a fascinating read, well organized and well told. Goldsmith’s lengthy interview with Earl is a treasure trove of information not only about ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’ but about the early days of bluegrass and specifically Earl’s working relationship with Bill Monroe, which has long been clouded in mystery.” —MURPHY HICKS HENRY, author of Pretty Good for a Girl: Women in Bluegrass 200 PAGES. 6 X 9 INCHES 12 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS
Recorded in 1949, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” changed the face of American music. Earl Scruggs’s instrumental essentially transformed the folk culture that came before it while helping to energize bluegrass’s entry into the mainstream in the 1960s. The song has become a gateway to bluegrass for musicians and fans alike as well as a happily inescapable track in film and television.
HARDCOVER, 978-0-252-04296-6 $99.00x £79.00 PAPER, 978-0-252-08478-2 $19.95 £14.99
Thomas Goldsmith explores the origins and influence of “Foggy Mountain Break down” against the backdrop of Scruggs’s legendary career. Interviews with Scruggs, his wife Louise, disciple Béla Fleck, and sidemen like Curly Seckler, Mac Wiseman, and Jerry Douglas shed light on topics like Scruggs’s musical evolution and his working relationship with Bill Monroe. As Goldsmith shows, the captivating sound of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” helped bring back the banjo from obscurity and distinguished the low-key Scruggs as a principal figure in American acoustic music.
E-BOOK, 978-0-252-05182-1 A volume in the series Music in American Life Publication of this book was supported in part by a grant from the Judith McCulloh Endowment for American Music.
THOMAS GOLDSMITH is a music journalist. For more than thirty years, he has worked both in daily newspapers in North Carolina and Tennessee and as a freelance writer. He is the editor of The Bluegrass Reader and was the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Print Media Person of the Year.
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DIXIE DEWDROP
The Uncle Dave Macon Story
MICHAEL D. DOUBLER From Tennessee earth to hillbilly heaven with the grandfather of country music “An eminently readable chronicle.” —RAMBLES.NET
“Michael D. Doubler has given us a rich and highly nuanced portrait of the complex, highly gifted man who helped put country music on the map. As Macon’s great-grandson, Doubler was able to draw on family archives and reminiscences that might otherwise be unavailable, and his excellent writing skills have allowed him to weave this material together into a compelling and entertaining narrative.” —JOURNAL OF FOLKLORE RESEARCH 288 PAGES. 6 X 9 INCHES 36 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS, 2 CHARTS
One of the earliest performers on WSM in Nashville, Uncle Dave Macon became the Grand Ole Opry’s first superstar. His old-time music and energetic stage shows made him a national sensation and fueled a thirty-year run as one of America’s most beloved entertainers.
PAPER, 978-0-252-08365-5 $19.95 £15.99
Michael D. Doubler tells the amazing story of the Dixie Dewdrop, a country music icon. Born in 1870, David Harrison Macon learned the banjo from musicians passing through his parents’ Nashville hotel. After playing local shows in Middle Tennessee for decades, a big break led Macon to vaudeville, the earliest of his 200-plus recordings and eventually to national stardom. Uncle Dave—clad in his trademark plug hat and gates-ajar collar—soon became the face of the Opry itself with his spirited singing, humor, and array of banjo picking styles. For the rest of his life, he defied age to tour and record prolifically, manage his business affairs, mentor up-and-comers like David “Stringbean” Akeman, and play with the Delmore Brothers, Roy Acuff, and Bill Monroe.
E-BOOK, 978-0-252-05069-5 A volume in the series Music in American Life Publication of this book is supported by the Dragan Plamenac Endowment of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and by the Judith McCulloh Endowment for American Music.
MICHAEL D. DOUBLER is the great-grandson of Uncle Dave Macon. His books include Closing with the Enemy: How GIs Fought the War in Europe, 1944–1945 and Civilian in Peace, Soldier in War: The Army National Guard, 1636–2000.
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BILL MONROE
The Life and Music of the Blue Grass Man
TOM EWING From cradle to great, a chronicle of Bill Monroe’s epic life “Insightful . . . [Bill Monroe: The Life and Music of the Blue Grass Man] presents bluegrass history as it happened, as well as a fresh look at ‘this extraordinary individual.’” —WALL STREET JOURNAL
“This account bears witness to the gigantic achievement which was Bill Monroe’s music. His energy and creativity knew no bounds. This book successfully captures that.” —JIM ROONEY, Grammy-winning record producer and author of In It for the Long Run: A Musical Odyssey The Father of Bluegrass Music, Bill Monroe was a major star of the Grand Ole Opry for over fifty years, a member of the Country Music and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, and a legendary figure in American music. This authoritative biography sets out to examine his life in careful detail—to move beyond hearsay and sensationalism to explain how and why he accomplished so much.
656 PAGES. 6.125 X 9.25 INCHES 30 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS
HARDCOVER, 978-0-252-04189-1 $34.95 £28.99 E-BOOK, 978-0-252-05058-9
Former Blue Grass Boy and veteran music journalist Tom Ewing draws on hundreds of interviews, his personal relationship with Monroe, and an immense personal archive of materials to separate the truth from longstanding myth. Ewing tells the story of the Monroe family’s musical household and Bill’s early career in the Monroe Brothers duo. He brings to life Monroe’s 1940s heyday with the Classic Bluegrass Band, the renewed fervor for his music sparked by the folk revival of the 1960s, and his declining fortunes in the years that followed. Throughout, Ewing deftly captures Monroe’s relationships and the personalities of an ever-shifting roster of band members while shedding light on his business dealings and his pioneering work with Bean Blossom and other music festivals.
A volume in the series Music in American Life Publication of this book is supported by the Otto Kinkeldey Endowment of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and by a grant from the L. J. and Mary C. Skaggs Folklore Fund.
Filled with a wealth of previously unknown details, Bill Monroe offers even the most devoted fan a deeper understanding of Monroe’s towering achievements and timeless music.
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TOM EWING was guitarist/lead singer of Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys for ten years. He is the editor of The Bill Monroe Reader and wrote the “Thirty Years Ago This Month” column for Bluegrass Unlimited.
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BLUEGRASS GENERATION
A Memoir
NEIL V. ROSENBERG Foreword by Gregory N. Reish Bean Blossom, banjos, and bluegrass becoming bluegrass “Bluegrass Generation: A Memoir is highly recommended to all students of bluegrass, but especially anyone who has fond memories of the Bean Blossom Festivals in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.” —BLUEGRASS BREAKDOWN
“An ode to a time and a place when college kids and country folks bonded over a love of bluegrass.” —WALL STREET JOURNAL Neil V. Rosenberg met the legendary Bill Monroe at the Brown County Jamboree. Rosenberg’s subsequent experiences in Bean Blossom put his feet on the intertwined musical and scholarly paths that made him a preeminent scholar of bluegrass music.
304 PAGES. 6 X 9 INCHES 33 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS
HARDCOVER, 978-0-252-04176-1 $99.00x £82.00
Rosenberg’s memoir shines a light on the changing bluegrass scene of the early 1960s. Already a fan and aspiring musician, his appetite for banjo music quickly put him on the Jamboree stage. Rosenberg eventually played with Monroe and spent four months managing the Jamboree. Those heights gave him an eyewitness view of nothing less than bluegrass’s emergence from the shadow of country music into its own distinct art form. As the likes of Bill Keith and Del McCoury played, Rosenberg watched Monroe begin to share a personal link to the music that tied audiences to its history and his life—and helped turn him into bluegrass’s foundational figure.
PAPER, 978-0-252-08339-6 $21.95 £17.99 E-BOOK, 978-0-252-05044-2 A volume in the series Music in American Life Publication of this book is supported by grants from the Manfred Bukofzer Endowment of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and from Memorial University of Newfoundland.
An intimate look at a transformative time, Bluegrass Generation tells the inside story of how an American musical tradition came to be. NEIL V. ROSENBERG is professor emeritus of folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is the author of Bluegrass: A History and coauthor of Bluegrass Odyssey and The Music of Bill Monroe.
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BANJO ROOTS AND BRANCHES Edited by ROBERT B. WINANS West African precursors, African-Caribbean origins, North American journeys “An excellent book with plenty of material for both specialist and casual readers.” —GALPIN SOCIETY JOURNAL
“Roots and Branches collects an extraordinary amount of research into the ongoing discovery of the banjo’s Byzantine history. . . . Each essay speaks directly to all others, lending the book an unusual level of cohesion for an edited volume.” —WORLD OF MUSIC 344 PAGES. 6.125 X 9.25 INCHES 20 COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS, 20 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS, 2 MAPS 22 MUSIC EXAMPLES, 11 TABLES
The story of the banjo’s journey from Africa to the western hemisphere blends music, history, and a union of cultures. In Banjo Roots and Branches, Robert B. Winans presents cutting-edge scholarship that covers the instrument’s West African origins and its adaptations and circulation in the Caribbean and United States. The contributors provide detailed ethnographic and technical research on gourd lutes and ekonting in Africa and the banza in Haiti while also investigating tuning practices and regional playing styles. Other essays place the instrument within the context of slavery, tell the stories of black banjoists, and shed light on the banjo’s introduction into the African- and Anglo-American folk milieus.
HARDCOVER, 978-0-252-04194-5 $99.00x £82.00 PAPER, 978-0-252-08360-0 $32.95s £26.99
Wide-ranging and illustrated with twenty color images, Banjo Roots and Branches offers a wealth of new information to scholars of African American and folk musics as well as the worldwide community of banjo aficionados.
E-BOOK, 978-0-252-05064-0 A volume in the series Music in American Life
Contributors: Greg C. Adams, Nick Bamber, Jim Dalton, George R. Gibson, Chuck Levy, Shlomo Pestcoe, Pete Ross, Tony Thomas, Saskia Willaert, and Robert B. Winans.
Publication of this book was made possible in part through a donation from the Uncle Shlomo’s Brooklyn Kids Fund for Music, dedicated to ensuring that Shlomo Pestcoe’s generous spirit will continue to enrich us with the music he so loved to share, and by a grant from the L. J. and Mary C. Skaggs Folklore Fund.
ROBERT B. WINANS is a professor emeritus of American literature and folklore at Gettysburg College.
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