Traditional and folk music Books

Book SynopsisIn the early nineteenth century Serb scholar Vuk Karadzic collected and published now classic transcriptions of Balkan oral poetry.

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Book SynopsisUsing ethnographic data collected in China and South Korea between 2004 and 2011, Sound of the Border provides a comprehensive view of the music of Koreans in China (Chaoxianzu), from its time as manifestation of a displaced culture to its return home after more than a century of amalgamation and change in China.

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Book SynopsisThe first English-language book on Korea's rich folksong heritage, and the first major study of the effects of Japanese colonialism on the intangible heritage of its former colony.

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Book SynopsisFolk music is more than an idealized reminder of a simper past. It reveals a great deal about present-day understandings of community and belonging. It celebrates the shared traditions that define a group or nation. In America, folk music--from African American spirituals to English ballads and protest songs--renders the imagined community more tangible and comprises a critical component of our diverse national heritage. In I Hear America Singing, Rachel Donaldson traces the vibrant history of the twentieth-century folk music revival from its origins in the 1930s through its end in the late 1960s. She investigates the relationship between the revival and concepts of nationalism, showing how key figures in the revival--including Pete Seeger , Alan Lomax, Moses Asch, and Ralph Rinzler--used songs to influence the ways in which Americans understood the values, the culture, and the people of their own nation. As Donaldson chronicles how cultural norms were shaped over the course of

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Book SynopsisFor more than fifty years, Rounder Records has been the world’s leading label for folk music of all kinds. David Menconi’s book is the label’s definitive history, drawing on previously untapped archives and extensive interviews with artists, Rounder staff, and founders Ken Irwin, Marian Leighton Levy and Bill Nowlin.Trade ReviewAn admiring tribute [and] well-researched celebration of Rounder's influence and accomplishments."—Kirkus Reviews

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Book SynopsisThis major collection of courting and fertility songs documents a nearly lost element of highland Maya ritual life, revealing significant remnants of the ancient Maya belief system in songs that date back to the early colonial era.Trade Review"[A] new classic in the field of Mayan music studies." * Latin American Music Review *"[O'Brien-Rothe's research practices] allowed for a collaborative research approach that was not merely a mechanism to compensate for her language skills but a way to understand the broader uses and meanings of ritual language in songs." * Latin American Research Review *Table of Contents Forewords Allen J. Christenson Sandra L. Orellana Acknowledgements Introduction A Personal Note Research in Santiago Atitlán Chapter 1. The World of the Tz'utujil Maya The World of Spirits "Song of the Spirit-Lord of the World" ("B'ix rxin Rajau Mund") Duality and Metaphor in the Santo Mundo The Presence of the Nawals Chapter 2. The Dance and Songs of the Nawals Old Mam Creates the Recibos "Song of APla's Sojuel" ("B'ix rxin APla's Sojuel") Dance, Movement, and Songs: The Divine Currency of Sacrifice Dancing the Bundle of San Martín Midwife's Prayer and "Song of San Martín" ("B'ix rxin Martín") Rocking the Cradle of the Marias "Song of the Rocking Cradle" Dancing the Wind-Men and the Rain-Men Rousing San Martín and the Spirit-Lords of Rain with Song "Song of Martín" ("B'ix rxin Martín") Calling the Spirits of the Dead and the Drowned with Songs Chapter 3. The "Songs of the Road": Texts and Contexts The Road in the Tz'utujil Maya World Old Mam, the Guardian of the Road, Creates Music and Dance The "Songs of Mam" ("B'ix rxin Mam") The First and Second "Songs of the Road" The "Third Song of the Road": Songs of Courtship and Fertility "Songs of the Young Man" ("B'ix rxin C'jol") "Songs of the Young Girl" ("B'ix rxin K'poj") "AtPal": A Song of Courting "Songs of the Young Men and Young Girls, of Insults and Ridicule" ("B'ix rxin C'jola K'poja Xyo'k'a Xtz'u'ja") "Songs of the Old Maid" Witchcraft and Shapeshifters in the Songs "Songs of the Young Girl" ("B'ix rxin K'poj") The "Sad Songs" or "Tristes" "They Fought" ("Xqueti' qui'") "Sad Song of Our Fathers, Our Mothers" ("B'ix rxin Kadta, rxin Kate' Bis") "Songs of the Flowers and the Fruit"("B'ix rxin Cotz'ej, Sk'ul") Chapter 4. The Poetics of Tz'utujil Songs and Their Relationship to K'iche'an Literature The Poetics of the Popol Vuh The Poetics of Tz'utujil Song Texts Parallelism Meter Onomatopoeia Lists Assonance and Alliteration Composition of the Texts and the Influence of Musical Rhythm Chapter 5. The Music of the "Songs of the Nawals" Form and Style of the Songs The "Recibos of Old Mam": The Vessel of Tz'utujil Culture The "Songs of Mam" "Sad Song of the Young Man" "Song of the Young Girl Who Says Goodbye to Her Mother" "Song of the Old Maid" or "Song of the Road" "Song of the Fruit" The Tz'utujil Guitar Historical Origins of the Tz'utujil Guitar Tuning Playing Style and Technique Repertoire How the Songs Survived: The Process of Assimilation and Transmission Final Words Audio Files of Recorded Examples Notes Glossary Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisThe legendary singer-songwriter who wrote Willie Nelson's signature song Whiskey River tells about his life in honky-tonk music.Table of Contents Foreword by Willie Nelson Introduction Acknowledgments Prologue 1. I Love You So Much It Hurts 2. The Pipeliner Blues 3. Forever and Always 4. Crazy Arms 5. Night Life 6. Devil's Disciple 7. The Other Woman 8. The Sound of a Heartache 9. Undo the Right 10. You Gave Me a Mountain 11. Whiskey River 12. Man with No Soul at All 13. Time Changes Everything 14. Please Talk to My Heart 15. Home to Texas Johnny Bush Discography Selected Reading List Index Permissions

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Book SynopsisA graceful and searching photographic ode to the people of the Kerrville Folk Festival, who gather annually in the Texas Hill Country to celebrate music and live an idealistic combination of nonconformity and intentional community.Trade ReviewA striking collection of black-and-white film images capturing the spirit of the festival—guitars, sandals, tents, caliche dust, and all...In the absence of the chance to gather at Quiet Valley Ranch at least until the fall, Johnson’s tribute in It Can Be This Way Always serves as both a satisfying fix for old-timers and an intriguing intro for newcomers. * Texas Highways *Johnson pays joyful homage to the 49-year-old festival…The festival…comes to life in the pages of [It Can Be This Way Always]...Johnson’s black and white photography centers attendees and volunteers instead of the musicians, capturing the spur-of-the-moment campfires, hazy summer fashion, and communal living that define Kerrville. * Texas Monthly *Johnson’s black-and-white photos take in the entire scene, a mélange of campground, be-in, jamboree, dance floor, and jam session...Recommended for its depictions of a vibrant counterculture gathering and visual evocation of the power of music. * Library Journal *As David Johnson’s photographs make clear, that ounce of difference continues to hold sway at Quiet Valley Ranch: it can be this way always. * Journal of American Folklore *Table of ContentsForeword (Mary Muse) Preface (David Johnson) Plates Roots of the Ballad Tree: Visions of Kerrville in Historical Context (Jason Mellard) List of Plates Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisAt the height of the blues revival, Marina Bokelman and David Evans made two trips to Louisiana and Mississippi, made recordings and interviews and took extensive field notes and photographs of blues musicians and their families. This book presents their experiences in vivid detail.

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Book SynopsisRugs handwoven in southern Mexico, luthier-made guitars, and southern US fiddle styles experience parallel changes, all absorbing just enough of the complex flavours, dynamics, and rhythms of modern life to translate inherited folklore into traditions that can be widely celebrated today.

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Book SynopsisRugs handwoven in southern Mexico, luthier-made guitars, and southern US fiddle styles experience parallel changes, all absorbing just enough of the complex flavours, dynamics, and rhythms of modern life to translate inherited folklore into traditions that can be widely celebrated today.

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Book SynopsisIn 2015, Bob Dylan said, I learned lyrics and how to write them from listening to folk songs. And I played them, and I met other people that played them, back when nobody was doing it. Sang nothing but these folk songs, and they gave me the code for everything that''s fair game, that everything belongs to everyone. In Hear My Sad Story, Richard Polenberg describes the historical events that led to the writing of many famous American folk songs that served as touchstones for generations of American musicians, lyricists, and folklorists. Those events, which took place from the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, often involved tragic occurrences: murders, sometimes resulting from love affairs gone wrong; desperate acts borne out of poverty and unbearable working conditions; and calamities such as railroad crashes, shipwrecks, and natural disasters. All of Polenberg's account of the songs in the book are grounded in historical fact and illuminate the social hTrade ReviewI never knew that 'Railroad Bill,' which I used to sing at summer camp, is about an African American outlaw (real name Morris) who terrorized Alabama in the 1890s. People had good reason to fear Bill, but that fear was also used as an excuse for the blatantly racist treatment of people whose only connection to him seems to have been the color of their skin. ('A number of Negroes have been arrested,' Polenberg quotes an 1895 news report. 'None of them will be permitted to go about for fear that they might sneak some information to Railroad.') Many of Polenberg's stories shed similar light on the uglier aspects of American history, and he tells them well. -- Peter Keepnews * New York Times Book Review *Polenberg writes engagingly about the Crescent City at the turn of the last century, as he does about everything he addresses in this entertaining and enlightening book. -- Jerome Clark * fRoots *This thought-provoking study will help us to delve further into the reasons why so many of America's most popular songs have concerned white and male violence while obscuring black agency and side-stepping the terrorism of racism and male supremacy. Perhaps then we can better ask the questions we might have gleaned from these songs all along. Thanks to Richard Polenberg for pulling the covers off and allowing us to think more deeply about our history when we sing the folk songs that tell my sad story. -- Michael K. Honey * Missouri Historical Review *Well researched and packed with fascinating detail, Hear My Sad Story tells more than just the origins of popular folk songs. It tells an unflinching and honest story of America. At times viciously misguided and undoubtedly ugly, the country's history has nevertheless been documented through the lenses of those who witnessed these events and passed them down to subsequent generations. Celebrated in song, the tales outlined through the book’s nearly 300 pages seem poised to continue their grip on the fabric of society as we move further away from the actual events. As history continues to unfold, there are surely those amongst us today whose interpretations of modern events will be relied upon by future songwriters to help make sense of life in our time. It’s the American tradition.. -- Jeff Strowe * PopMatters *Table of ContentsPrologue: The Streets of Laredo St. Louis1. St. Louis Blues (1914) 2. Duncan and Brady (1890) 3. Stagolee (1895) 4. Frankie and Johnny (1899) Lying Cold on the Ground5. Omie Wise (1807) 6. The Ballad of Frankie Silver (1831) 7. Tom Dooley (1866) 8. Poor Ellen Smith (1892) 9. Pearl Bryan (1896) 10. Delia's Gone (1900) Bold Highwaymen and Outlaws11. Cole Younger (1876) 12. Jesse James (1882) 13. John Hardy (1894) 14. Railroad Bill (1896) 15. Betty and Dupree (1921) Railroads16. John Henry (1870s) 17. Engine 143 (1890) 18. Casey Jones (1900) 19. Wreck of the Old 97 (1903) Workers20. Cotton Mill Blues (1930s) 21. Chain Gang Blues (1930s) 22. Only a Miner (1930s) 23. House of the Rising Sun (1930s) Disasters24. The Titanic (1912) 25. The Boll Weevil (1920s) Martyrs26. Joe Hill (1915) 27. Sacco and Vanzetti (1927) Epilogue: Hear My Sad Story

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Book SynopsisThe raw material and interviews behind Anthony Scaduto’s iconic biography of Bob Dylan draw an intimate and multifaceted portrait of the singer-songwriter who defined his era When Anthony Scaduto’s Bob Dylan: An Intimate Biography was first published in 1971, the Nobel Prize–winning songwriter, at thirty, had already released some of the most iconic albums of the 1960s, including Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. Scaduto’s book was one of the first to take an investigative journalist’s approach to its subject and set the standard for rock music biography. The Dylan Tapes, compiled from thirty-six hours of interviews, is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Scaduto’s landmark book—and a close-up encounter with pivotal figures in Dylan’s life. These reel-to-reel tapes, found in a box in Scaduto’s basement, are a never-bootlegged trove of archival material about Dylan, drawn from conversations with those closest to him during the early years of his career.In the era of ten-second takes, these interviews offer uncommon depth and immediacy as we listen to friends and lovers recall the Dylan they knew as he created his professional persona and perfected his craft—from folk music, protest songs, and electric rock through the traumatic impact of a motorcycle crash to his later, more self-reflecting songwriting. Echo Helstrom, Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country,” is here, as are Suze Rotolo, who graced the cover of the Freewheelin’ album, and Joan Baez, remembering her relationship “to Bobby.” We hear from Mike Porco, who gave Dylan his first gig in New York City; Sid and Bob Gleason, who introduced him to his hero Woody Guthrie; folk artists from Greenwich Village, like Phil Ochs and Ramblin’ Jack Eliot; John Hammond Sr., who gave him his first record contract; plus a host of musicians, activists, folk historians, and archivists—and, of course, Dylan himself.From these reflections and frank conversations, many published here for the first time, a complex, finely observed picture emerges of one of the best known yet most enigmatic musicians of our time.Trade Review "Tony Scaduto was my teacher. As a young reporter I was awed by his ability to find new angles others had missed. To enlighten and move within the confines of the newspaper style. Later, I saw how he applied obsessive concern with accuracy, meticulous research, and the revelatory probings of a brief interview to fashion what remains the definitive biography. (And Dylan's favorite.) Anyone interested in journalism should read the book and the tapes together to get an insight into the methods of a master."—Heywood Gould "Anthony Scaduto’s seminal biography on Dylan was the first one I read. I’ll never forget coming across the line, ‘He created a new identity every step of the way in order to create identity.’ For me it was a eureka moment, this idea of Dylan creating and recreating identity, and of identity itself as something mutable and ever-changing, that would lead to the concept for my film biography, I’m Not There."—Todd Haynes "Scaduto’s Bob Dylan is considered one of the best biographies of the iconic singer/songwriter. These insightful interviews are like pieces to a puzzle that the author ably wove together. For Dylan fans, it’s like revisiting an old friend."—Kirkus Reviews "The Dylan Tapes is a behind-the-scenes view of one of modern music’s true legends- and of one of the first long-form pieces of music journalism. "—Foreword "The life and music of the now 80-year-old Bob Dylan has been analyzed, dissected, dug into, debated, argued about and postulated on perhaps more than any other musical artist. But what The Dylan Tapes has that most of them don’t are the raw and then-relatively recent thoughts and memories of those where there, and early on in the journey."—Houston Press "This how-the-sausage-is-made collection has some illuminating comments from Joan Baez, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and the elusive bard himself that will intrigue Dylanologists."—StarTribune "Written in a Q&A format, the book provides a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Scaduto's landmark book, as well as close-up encounters with a couple dozen key figures in Dylan's life."—Minnesota Alumni "The raw material and interviews behind Anthony Scaduto’s iconic biography of Bob Dylan draw an intimate and multifaceted portrait of the singer-songwriter who defined his era. "—KTNF AM Table of ContentsContentsIntroduction: Anthony Scaduto’s Basement Tapes -- Stephanie TrudeauGirl from the North Country -- Echo Helstrom, Martha HelstromFree Wheelin’ Dinkytown -- Gretel Hoffman, David Whitaker, Spider John KoernerBlowin’ in the Wind -- Mike Porco, Dave Van Ronk, Terri ThalHey, Hey Woody Guthrie -- Sid and Bob GleasonMr. Tambourine Man -- The Clancy Brothers (Pat and Tom Clancy), Phil Ochs, Ramblin’ Jack ElliottBoots of Spanish Leather -- Suze Rotolo, Carla Rotolo, Peter KarmenPositively 4th Street -- Miki Isaakson, John Hammond, Sr.Bringing It All Back Home -- Carolyn Hester, Eric Von Schmidt and Barry KornfeldLike a Rolling Stone -- Izzy Young, Carl OgelsbyVisions of Johanna -- Joan BaezAnother Side of Bob Dylan -- Bob DylanAfterword: New Morning -- Stephanie TrudeauAcknowledgments

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Book SynopsisThis study reconstructs the history of the folk-music revival in the States, tracing its origins to the early decades of the 20th century. Drawing on scores of interviews and numerous manuscript collections, as well as his own extensive files, Cohen shows how a broad range of traditions - from hillbilly, gospel, blues and sea shanties to cowboy, ethnic and political-protest music - all contributed to the genre known as folk. Cohen documents the crucial work of John Lomax and other collectors who, with the assistance of recording companies, preserved and distributed folk music in the 1920s. During the 1930s and 1940s, the emergence of left-wing politics and the rise of the commercial music marketplace helped to stimulate wider interest in folk music. As Cohen explains, stars emerged, such as Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives and Josh White. With the success of the Weavers and the Kingston Trio in the 1950s, the stage was set for the full-blown ""folk revival"" of the early 1960s. This book should be of interest to those teaching or taking courses in American music of the 20th century.Trade ReviewThorough, engaging, and informative, this book makes a significant contribution to the field and will be valuable to those teaching or taking courses in American music of the twentieth century. - Paul F. Wells, director, Center for Popular Music, Middle Tennessee State University ""There is an enormous amount of historical information here. It is wonderful to have it all available in one place."" - Norm Cohen, author of Folksong America: A Twentieth-Century Revival

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Book SynopsisThis is the first complete publication of the late composer and scholar Ruth Crawford Seeger's major work on American folksongs. It preserves them as well as demonstrates how they should be played so that they remain a living partof the American musical tradition. This is the first publication of an annotated monograph by the noted composer and folksong scholar Ruth Crawford Seeger. Originally written as a foreword for the 1940 book Our Singing Country, it was considered too longand was replaced by a much shorter version. According to her stepson, Pete Seeger, when the original was not included "Ruth suffered one of the biggest disappointments of the last ten years of her life. It just killed her . . .She was trying to analyze the whole style and problem of performing this music." Along with her children Mike and Peggy Seeger, he has long desired to see this work in print as it was meant to be read. The manuscript hasbeen edited from several varying sources by Larry Polansky, with the assistance of Seeger's biographer Judith Tick. It is divided into two sections: I. "A Note on Transcription" and II. "Notes on the Songs and on Manners of Singing." Seeger examines all aspects of the relationship between singer, song, notation, the eventual performer, and the transcriber. In Section I, Seeger develops a complex and well-organized system of notation for these songs which is meant to be both descritive [transcription as cultural preservation] and prescriptive [she intended that others would be able to perform these songs]. In Section II, she provides an interpretive theory for performance of this music, and suggests how performers might make the songs "their own" through a deep knowledge of the original styles. Ruth Crawford Seeger considered this work to be both a major accomplishment and a central statement of herownideas on the topic. Larry Polansky is Associate Professor of Music at Dartmouth College, and a well-known composer and theorist on American music. Judith Tick is Professor of Music at Northeastern University and author of the first major biography of Ruth Crawford Seeger.Trade ReviewThis volume should find a place in every serious folk music fan's library. It's certainly a fitting legacy from so gifted and encompassing an intelligence as Ruth Crawford Seeger's. * SING OUT, Winter 2004 *Table of ContentsA Note on Transcription Notes on the Songs and on Manners of Singing

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Book SynopsisThe essays in this collection range from the impact of technology on the British folksong revival to regional characteristics of early rock and roll in New Orleans. Attention is given to the blues, Sacred Harp singing, ethnic music, both black and white gospel, country music, and the polka. Other essays consider the relationship of music from the Yiddish-American theater with that of Broadway, the wide influence and commercialization of black music in today's popular music, myths about early black music, and Charles Ives as folk hero. Contributors include Amiri Baraka, Doris J. Dyen, Dena J. Epstein, David Evans, Kenneth S. Goldstein, Anthony Heilbut, William Ivey, Charles Keil, A. L. Lloyd, Bill C. Malone, Robert Palmer, Vivian Perlis, Mark Slobin, Richard Spottswood, and Charles K. Wolfe.

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Book SynopsisFrom a small mountain town in West Virginia, elder fiddler Melvin Wine has influenced musicians and music enthusiasts far beyond his homeplace. Music, community, and tradition permeate all aspects of life in this rural region. Fiddling Way Out Yonder: The Life and Music of Melvin Wine shows how in Wine's playing and teaching all three have created a vital and enduring legacy. As a musician, Wine has been honored nationally for his musical skills and his leadership role in an American musical tradition. A farmer, a coal miner, a father of ten children, and a deeply religious man, he has played music influenced by the hard lessons of his own experience and shaped a musical tradition even while passing it on to others. Fiddling Way Out Yonder examines the fiddler, his music, and its context from a variety of perspectives. Many rousing fiddlers came from isolated mountain regions like Wine's home stomp. The book makes a point to address the broad historical issues related both to North American fiddling and to Wine's personal history. Wine (b.1 909) has spent almost all of his life in rural Braxton County, an area where the fiddle and dance traditions that were strong during his childhood and early adult life continue to be active today. Utilizing models from folklore studies and ethnomusicology, Fiddling Way Out Yonder discusses how community life and educational environment have affected Wine's music and his approaches to performance. Such a unique fiddler deserves close stylistic scrutiny. The book reveals Wine's particular tunings, his ways of holding the instrument, his licks, his bowing techniques and patterns, his tune categories, and his favorite keys. The book includes transcriptions and analyses of ten of Wine's tunes, some of which are linked to minstrelsy, ballad singing traditions, and gospel music. Narratives discuss the background of each tune and how it has fit into Wine's life. This biography heralds a musician who wants both to communicate the spirit of his mountains and to sway an audience into having an old-fashioned good time. Drew Beisswenger is a music librarian at Southwest Missouri State University.

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Book SynopsisAcclaimed Scottish singer Jean Redpath (1937–2014) is best remembered for her impressive repertoire of ancient ballads, Robert Burns songs, and contemporary folk music, recorded and performed over a career spanning some fifty years, from the 1960s until her death in 2014. In Giving Voice to Traditional Songs, Mark Brownrigg helps capture Redpath’s idiosyncratic and often humorous voice through his interviews with her during the last eighteen months of her life. Here Redpath reflects on her humble beginnings, her Scottish heritage, her life’s journey, and her mission of preserving, performing, and teaching traditional song.A native of Edinburgh, Redpath was raised in a family of singers of traditional Scots songs. She broadened her knowledge of the tradition through work with the Edinburgh Folk Society and later as a student of Scottish studies at Edinburgh University. Prior to graduation, Redpath abandoned her studies to follow her passion of singing. Her independent spirit took her to the United States, where she found commercial success amid the Greenwich Village folk-music revival in New York in the 1960s. There she shared a house and concert stages with Bob Dylan and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Often praised for her unaccompanied, gentle voice, Redpath received a rave review in the New York Times, which launched her career and lead to her wide recognition as a true voice of traditional Scottish songs.As a regular guest on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion radio show, Redpath endeared herself to millions with her soft melodies and amusing tales. Her extensive knowledge of traditional Scottish music history led to appointments as artist in residence at universities in the United States and Scotland, where she taught courses on traditional song. Among her final performances was a 2009 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.Redpath’s extraordinary career has been celebrated with many accolades, including honorary doctorates from several universities, an appointment as Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, and induction into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame. Although Redpath preferred not to be labeled as a folk singer, a term she found restrictive, she is revered as the most prominent Scottish folk singer of the postwar era.

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Book SynopsisExploring American Folk Music: Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions in the United States reflects the fascinating diversity of regional and grassroots music in the United States. The book covers the diverse strains of American folk music--Latin, Native American, African, French-Canadian, British, and Cajun--and offers a chronology of the development of folk music in the United States.The book is divided into discrete chapters covering topics as seemingly disparate as sacred harp singing, conjunto music, the folk revival, blues, and ballad singing. It is among the few textbooks in American music that recognizes the importance and contributions of Native Americans as well as those who live, sing, and perform music along our borderlands, from the French speaking citizens in northern Vermont to the extensive Hispanic population living north of the Rio Grande River, recognizing and reflecting the increasing importance of the varied Latino traditions that have informed our folk music since the founding of the United States. Another chapter includes detailed information about the roots of hip hop and this new edition features a new chapter on urban folk music, exploring traditions in our cities, with a case study focusing on Washington, D.C. Exploring American Folk Music also introduces you to such important figures in American music as Bob Wills, Lydia Mendoza, Bob Dylan, and Muddy Waters, who helped shape what America sounds like in the twenty-first century. It also features new sections at the end of each chapter with up-to-date recommendations for ""Suggested Listening,"" ""Suggested Reading,"" and ""Suggested Viewing.""

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a collection of essays on the debates about origins, authenticity, and identity in folk and blues music. The essays had their origins in an international conference on the Transatlantic routes of American roots music, out of which emerged common themes and questions of origins and authenticity in folk music, black and white, American and British. The central theme is musical influences, but issues of identity--national, local, and racial--are also recurring subjects. The extent to which these identities were invented, imagined, or constructed by the performers, or by those who recorded their work for posterity, is also a prominent concern and questions of racial identity are particularly central. The book features a new essay on the blues by Paul Oliver alongside an essay on Oliver's seminal blues scholarship. There are also several essays on British blues and the links between performers and styles in the United States and Britain and new essays on critical figures such as Alan Lomax and Woody Guthrie. This volume uniquely offers perspectives from both sides of the Atlantic on the connections and interplay of influences in roots music and the debates about these subjects drawing on the work of eminent established scholars and emerging young academics who are already making a contribution to the field. Throughout, the contributors offer the most recent scholarship available on key issues.

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Book SynopsisPerhaps no instrument better represents the music of Appalachia than the fretted dulcimer. The instrument was no longer confined to back porches and local music halls when Jean Ritchie so melodically thrust herself and her dulcimer into the national limelight during the folk revival of the 1950s. But where did the dulcimer, known to exist in no other folk culture in the world, come from?In The Story of the Dulcimer, Ralph Lee Smith traces the dulcimer’s beginnings back to European immigration to America in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania and Appalachia, they brought with them scheitholts, a type of northern European fretted zither. As German immigrants intermingled with English and Scotch-Irish immigrants, the scheitholt, which was customarily played to a slower tempo in German cultural music, began to be musically integrated into the faster tempos of English and Scotch-Irish ballads and folk songs. As Appalachia absorbed an increasing flow of English and Scotch-Irish immigrants and the musical traditions they brought with them, the scheitholt steadily evolved into an instrument that reflected this folk music amalgamation, and the modern dulcimer was born.In this second edition, Smith brings the dulcimer’s history into the twenty-first century with a new preface and updates to the original edition. Copiously illustrated with images of both antique scheitholts and contemporary dulcimers, The Story of the Dulcimer is a testament to the enduring musical heritage of Appalachia and solves one of the region’s musical mysteries.

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Book SynopsisIn the past fifty years, the bodhrÁn, or traditional Irish circular frame drum, has undergone a rapid evolution in development. Traditionally, it is a shallow drum ranging from ten to twenty-six inches in diameter, covered in goatskin on the top (or drum) side and open on the other. Unlike any other instrument associated with Irish traditional music, the bodhrÁn has been dramatically altered by its confrontation with modern instrument design, performance techniques, and musical practice. Colin Harte's The BodhrÁn: Experimentation, Innovation, and the Traditional Irish Frame Drum presents a definitive history of the bodhrÁn from its early origins to its present-day resurgence in Irish American folk music.The bodhrÁn has global roots and bears many characteristics of older drums from northern Africa and the Middle East. Harte picks up on these basic similarities and embarks on an engaging tour of the instrument's historical and organological development, gradual evolution in playing styles, and more recent history of performative practice. Drawing from a host of interviews over a multi-year period with participants primarily located in Europe and North America, this work provides a platform for multiple perspectives regarding the bodhrÁn. Participants include bodhrÁn makers, professional performers, educators, amateur musicians, historians, and enthusiasts. Growing out of rich ethnographic interviews, this book serves as the definitive reference for understanding and navigating the developments in the bodhrÁn's history, organology, performance practices, and repertoire.

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Book SynopsisBeginning with a comparison of the American acoustic guitar world in the early 1960s with that of today, then describing iconic performances at storied venues such as The Ark in Ann Arbor while meticulously researching the instrument’s top makers, Smith assembles a passion-filled and eye-opening history of that “cool wooden box” from the folk era through the pandemic. The author focuses on both the playing and making of the acoustic guitar, concluding that the instrument has been transformed in both aspects during the last sixty years. On the playing side, Smith examines the influences on, and the impact of, such guitarists as David Bromberg, Elizabeth Cotten, Paul Geremia, and Norman Blake. On the making side, the author takes the reader into the tradition-minded yet dynamic world of lutherie. He traces how the oldest, most revered companies whose reputations are based on legendary breakthroughs in lutherie, Gibson and Martin, have adapted as the new lutherie movement of innovative small-scale producers, exemplified by interviewees such as Michael Gurian, Bill Collings, Richard Hoover, and Dana Bourgeois, arose. Starting small and then growing exponentially, Taylor Guitars is a wholly different “player” in acoustic guitar building, and Smith compellingly tells its story. Finally, Cool Wooden Box considers the effects of globalization on the industry.Clocking thousands of miles and hours of interviews with guitar makers, suppliers, and sellers, W. Rand Smith has created not only a detailed history of the acoustic guitar, but also a lasting tribute to an instrument he so clearly reveres.Trade ReviewAfter coming out of the disco . . . era, when people rediscovered how cool that wooden box is, they just keep rediscovering it." —Christopher F. Martin IV, CEO, C. F. Martin Co."There are books on acoustic guitars, acoustic guitar players, and acoustic guitar makers, but Rand Smith brings them all together for the first time as he explores and explains the evolutionary Big Bang that the acoustic guitar has undergone in the last five decades. An important work—and entertaining, too." —Walter Carter, founder, Carter Vintage Guitars

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Book SynopsisWith roots in Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, New Orleans, the Piedmont, Memphis, and the prairies of Texas and the American West, the musical genre called Americana can prove difficult to define. Nevertheless, this burgeoning trend in American popular music continues to expand and develop, winning new audiences and engendering fresh, innovative artists at an exponential rate.As Lee Zimmerman illustrates in Americana Music: Voices, Visionaries, and Pioneers of an Honest Sound, “Americana” covers a gamut of sounds and styles. In its strictest sense, it is a blanket term for bluegrass, country, mountain music, rockabilly, and the blues. By a broader definition, it can encompass roots rock, country rock, singer/songwriters, R&B, and their various combinations. Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Carl Perkins, and Tom Petty can all lay valid claims as purveyors of Americana, but so can Elvis Costello, Solomon Burke, and Jason Isbell. Americana is new and old, classic and contemporary, trendy and traditional.Mining the firsthand insights of those whose stories help shape the sound—people such as Ralph Stanley, John McEuen (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), Chris Hillman (Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers), Paul Cotton and Rusty Young (Poco), Shawn Colvin, Kinky Friedman, David Bromberg, the Avett Brothers, Amanda Shires, Ruthie Foster, and many more—Americana Music provides a history of how Americana originated, how it reached a broader audience in the '60s and '70s with the merging of rock and country, and how it evolved its overwhelmingly populist appeal as it entered the new millennium.Trade Review50 years of American music appreciation brought music journalist Lee Zimmerman to where he is today: a fan of Americana. In his book Americana Music: Voices, Visionaries and Pioneers of an Honest Sound, Zimmerman paints a portrait of Americana as the last honest form of pop music. Its proponents may come from blues, honky tonk, rock ’n’ roll, or pop. From diverse origins, their quest for authenticity led them to Americana. As well as offering many of his own insights, Zimmernan turns to pioneers of the genre—Chris Hillman, David Crosby, Poco, Delbert McClinton—alongside some of the genre's younger proponents—the Avett Brothers, Ruthie Foster, Derek Trucks, Reverend Peyton—to explore the quest for music that’s both real and timeless."" - Cary Baker, Conqueroo""In his primer on Americana music, Zimmerman gives voice to a range of important artists who shape and influence the art form and helps the reader understand the challenges of identifying and labeling the genre."" - Tamara Saviano, author of Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark

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Book SynopsisBetween 1959 and 1968, New England saw a folk revival emerge in more than fifty clubs and coffeehouses, a revolution led by college dropouts, young bohemians, and lovers of traditional music that renewed the work of the region's intellectuals and reformers. From Club 47 in Harvard Square to candlelit venues in Ipswich, Martha's Vineyard, and Amherst, budding musicians and hopeful audiences alike embraced folk music, progressive ideals, and community as alternatives to an increasingly toxic consumer culture. While the Boston-Cambridge Folk Revival was short-lived, the youthful attention that it spurred played a crucial role in the civil rights, world peace, and back-to-the-land movements emerging across the country. Fueled by interviews with key players from the folk music scene, I Believe I'll Go Back Home traces a direct line from Yankee revolutionaries, up-country dancers, and nineteenth-century pacifists to the emergence of blues and rock 'n' roll, ultimately landing at the period of the folk revival. Thomas S. Curren presents the richness and diversity of the New England folk tradition, which continues to provide perspective, inspiration, and healing in the present day.Trade Review“Accessibly written by a knowledgeable and esteemed author, I Believe I’ll Go Back Home does a good job of taking the reader on a journey along the ethnic origins of folk music that have absorbed into our culture.”- John Kane, author of The Last Seat in the House: The Story of Hanley Sound

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Book SynopsisAlan Lomax (1915-2002) began working for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress in 1936, first as a special and temporary assistant, then as the permanent Assistant in Charge, starting in June 1937, until he left in late 1942. He recorded such important musicians as Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters, Aunt Molly Jackson, and Jelly Roll Morton. A reading and examination of his letters from 1935 to 1945 reveal someone who led an extremely complex, fascinating, and creative life, mostly as a public employee. While Lomax is noted for his field recordings, these collected letters, many signed ""Alan Lomax, Assistant in Charge,"" are a trove of information until now available only at the Library of Congress. They make it clear that Lomax was very interested in the commercial hillbilly, race, and even popular recordings of the 1920s and after. These letters serve as a way of understanding Lomax's public and private life during some of his most productive and significant years. Lomax was one of the most stimulating and influential cultural workers of the twentieth century. Here he speaks for himself through his voluminous correspondence.

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Book SynopsisTransatlantic Roots Music presents a collection of essays on the debates about origins, authenticity, and identity in folk and blues music. These essays originated in an international conference on the Transatlantic paths of American roots music, out of which emerged common themes and questions of origins and authenticity in folk music, be it black or white, American or British. While the central theme of the collection is musical influences, issues of national, local, and racial identity are also recurring subjects. Were these identities invented, imagined, constructed by the performers, or by those who recorded the music for posterity?The book features a new essay on the blues by Paul Oliver alongside an essay on Oliver's seminal blues scholarship. There are also several essays on British blues and the links between performers and styles in the United States and Britain. And there are new essays on critical figures such as Alan Lomax and Woody Guthrie.This volume uniquely offers perspectives from both sides of the Atlantic on the interplay of influences in roots music and the debates about these subjects. The book draws on the work of eminent, established scholars and emerging, young academics who are already making a contribution to the field. Throughout, contributors offer the most recent scholarship available on key issues.

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Book SynopsisThe Contemporary Leonard Cohen is an exciting new study that offers an original explanation of Leonard Cohen’s staying power and his various positions in music, literature, and art. The death of Leonard Cohen received media attention across the globe, and this international star remains dear to the hearts of many fans. This book examines the diversity of Cohen’s art in the wake of his death, positioning him as a contemporary, multi-media artist whose career was framed by the twentieth-century and neoliberal contexts of its production. The authors borrow the idea of “the contemporary” especially from philosophy and art history, applying it to Cohen for the first time—not only to the drawings that he included in some of his books but also to his songs, poems, and novels. This idea helps us to understand Cohen’s techniques after his postmodern experiments with poems and novels in the 1960s and 1970s. It also helps us to see how his most recent songs, poems, and drawings developed out of that earlier material, including earlier connections to other writers and musicians.Philosophically, “the contemporary” also sounds out the deep feelings that Cohen’s work still generates in readers and listeners. Whether these feelings are spiritual or secular, sincere or ironic, we get them partly from the sense of timeliness and the sense of timelessness in Cohen’s lyrics and images, which speak to our own lives and times, our own struggles and survival. From a set of international collaborators, The Contemporary Leonard Cohen delivers an appreciative but critical examination of one of our dark luminaries.Trade Review“Anyone who walks the streets of Montreal knows just how present Leonard Cohen is. His visage enfolds the city, reminding us about all the ways he transcended politics to seek something spiritual, something aesthetically sustaining. This new collection captures Cohen’s historic cultural impact, but it also defines the myriad ways in which he was always contemporary. Anyone who wants to understand Cohen’s influence and the trajectory of his writing will need this book. Its perceptive introduction helps to frame the evolution of Cohen’s multi-faceted career. It offers a rich conversation among some of the most accomplished critics writing about Cohen today.” —Robert Lecker, McGill University “The Contemporary Leonard Cohen presents readers with a kaleidoscope of perspectives, illuminating the multifaceted richness of Cohen's body of work, from his earliest writings to the posthumously released productions. Ultimately, our own stance as scholars, artists, and fans of Cohen’s texts, in which we are so often directly addressed, is challenged, making this volume relevant not only to those interested in Leonard Cohen but also to anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of artistic communication.” —Francis Mus, Ghent University | University of AntwerpTable of Contents Introduction: The Contemporary Leonard Cohen - Kait Pinder and Joel Deshaye “A Man Must Be Very Alone”: The Contemporary as the Outsider “I Desire Only Your Love by the Telling”: Alienation and Authenticity in “A Ballet of Lepers” and The Favourite Game - Laura Cameron and Claudine Gélinas-Faucher Leonard Cohen, Marianne Ihlen and Hydra’s Summer of Love - Tanya Dalziell and Paul Genoni Untimely Meditations: Critical History in Flowers for Hitler - Kait Pinder Is It Really Revolting? Towards an Ethics of Loss in Leonard Cohen’s Beautiful Losers and Dionne Brand’s In Another Place, Not Here - Gregory Betts After “THE DACHAU GENERATION”: Contemporaries in Song Fame, Failure, and Redemption: Leonard Cohen and His Contemporaries - Norman Ravvin Gossip, Rumour, and Relationship: Learning Leonard Cohen from Joni Mitchell - Joel Deshaye “I Undid Your Gown”: Rhyming Decorum in the Lyrics of Leonard Cohen - Brian Laidlaw “A Song the People Loved was Written by a Thief”: Cohen’s Songs of Revolt - Patrick Nickleson “Desire the Horse / Depression the Cart”: Feeling Contemporary “I’ve Seen the Future, Baby: It is Murder”: The Apocalypse in Leonard Cohen’s Pop Theology - Christophe Lebold The Humble One: A Polyptych of Self-Portraits in Book of Longing and The Flame - Joan Angel “Memory White from Loss of Guilt”: Guilt and Detachment in the Early Cohen - Brian Trehearne Ways to Say Goodbye: Valedictions in Book of Longing - Paul Robichaud Conclusion: “A Brief Elaboration”: Fan-Scholars and Cohen Studies - Joel Deshaye and Kait Pinder Contributors Kait Pinder, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS Joel Deshaye, Memorial University, St. John's, NFLD Laura Cameron, Toronto, ON Claudine Gélinas-Faucher, Québec City Tanya Dalziell, University of Western Australia, Perth Paul Genoni, Curtin University, Perth Gregory Betts, Brock University, St. Catharine's ON Norman Ravvin, Concordia University, Montréal Patrick Nickleson, Queen's University, Toronto Brian Laidlaw, University of Denver, Boulder Christophe Lebold, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg FR Joan Angel, Independent, Quebec Brian Trehearne, McGill University, Montreal Paul Robichaud, Albertus Magnus College, New Haven

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Book SynopsisFirst full monograph to focus entirely on the English-language songs set to music by Byrd. As he grappled with the challenges of composing for various instrumental and vocal ensembles, William Byrd (c. 1540-1623), England's premier Renaissance composer, devoted considerable attention to the poetry and prose of his native language, producing such treasured masterpieces as the hauntingly beautiful "Lulla lullaby"; the infectiously comedic "Though Amarillis dance in green"; and two extraordinarily dramatic Easter anthems. This book, the first full-length study specifically devoted to Byrd's English-texted music, provides a close reading of all of the works he published in the late 1580s, constituting nearly half of his total song output. It delves into the musical, political, literary, and, specifically, the sequential qualities of Byrd's 1588 and 1589 published collections as a whole, revealing, explaining, and interpreting an overall grand narrative, while remaining fully attentive to the particularities of each individual piece. Often deemed "unliterary" and generally considered political only in his approach to Latin texts, which were often of special interest to his fellow Catholics, Byrd was not only an inspiredcomposer who had mastered the challenges of his nation's burgeoning verse, but also one who used his voice in song to foster a more inclusive polity in a time of religious strife. Jeremy L. Smith is Associate Professorof Musicology at the University of Colorado Boulder.Trade ReviewAn excellent addition to Byrd scholarship. * THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL *On the basis of the allusions and intertextualities that he teases out of the songs, Smith posits an original interpretation: an expansive, continuous sequence and underlying narrative span both volumes. * RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY *[V]ital reading for musicologists, contains much of great value for literary scholars, and must not be neglected by historians. * BRITISH CATHOLIC HISTORY *[U]ntil now there has been no extensive study of what the words set by Byrd in his 1588 and 1589 song collections really mean, that is, 'what they are,' apart from songs. Smith...offers a brilliant, rich, provocative examination of Byrd's manipulation of his song texts-how he organized them and conveyed hidden meanings and a grand narrative to his Catholic, recusant friends...This superlative study is replete with arcane vocabulary, forests of footnotes, and a definitive display of Smith's control of the literature and the original documents. This demanding book is for scholars with deep knowledge of Byrd. Summing Up: Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction Psalmes Sonets & Pastoralls, I Sonets & Pastoralls, II Sonets & Pastoralls, III Songs of sadnes and pietie Songs of Three Parts Songs of Four Parts Songs of Five Parts Songs of Six Parts Conclusion Selected Bibliography

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Book SynopsisReconstructs the socio-political history of the heroic in music through case studies spanning the middle ages to the twenty-first century The first part of this volume reconstructs the various musical strategies that composers of medieval chant, Renaissance madrigals, and Baroque operas, cantatas or oratorios employed when referring to heroic ideas exemplifying their personal moral and political values. A second part investigating the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries expands the previous narrow focus on Beethoven's heroic middle period and the cult of the virtuoso. It demonstrates the wide spectrum of heroic positions - national, ethnic, revolutionary, bourgeois and spiritual - that filtered not only into 'classical' large-scale heroic symphonies and virtuoso solo concerts, but also into chamber music and vernacular dance music. The third part documents the forced heroization of music in twentieth-century totalitarian regimes such as Nazi-Germany and the Soviet Union and its consequences for heroic thinking and musical styles in the time thereafter. Final chapters show how recent rock-folk and avant-garde musicians in North America and Europe feature new heroic models such as the everyday hero and the scientific heroine revealing new confidence in the idea of the heroic.Table of ContentsIntroduction Beate Kutschke and Katherine Butler Part I. The Configuration of Heroic Music as a Tool for Shaping Moral and Political Identity 1. Holy Heroes: On the Varieties of a Metaphor and its Musical Expression in the Medieval Historiae Roman Hankeln 2. The Heroic in Music and the Musicality of the Hero in Late Sixteenth-Century England Katherine Butler 3. Virtù eroica: Heroic Music, Social Norms, and Musical Reflections in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Italy Berthold Over 4. Handel's Heroes Jonathan Rhodes Lee Part II. Music, its Ethics and Politics - Beyond 'Beethoven Hero' 5. Design Principles for the Musical Heroic Lawrence M. Zbikowski 6. Tonal Relationships and Spiritual Heroism in Beethoven's Late Style Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska 7. Music, Content, and Context: The Case of Nineteenth-Century Hungarian Music in the Light of the Romantic Heroic Vision Csilla Pethő-Vernet 8. The Austro-German Heroic in the Music-Hermeneutical Era: Musical Discourse in the Service of Nationalist-Patriotic Armament between 1887 and the Early 1930s Beate Kutschke Part III. Heroic Music and its Moralities in Dictatorships and Post-Heroic Democracies 9. Heroicizing Handel in the Third Reich: Towards the Collapse of Political Propaganda Juliane Riepe 10. Soviet War Symphonies and the Heroic Russian Epic Nathan Seinen 11. 'Someone to Save the Day': Popular Music, Springsteen, and the Circle of Hero Production Dietrich Helms 12. Émilie du Châtelet, Kaija Saariaho, and Heroes of the Twenty-First Century Judith Lochhead Afterword Scott Burnham Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisExplores the world of women's professional and amateur musical activity as it developed on and beyond the island of Ireland. In a story which spans several centuries, the book highlights representative composers and performers in classical music, Irish traditional music, and contemporary art music whose contributions have been marginalised in music narratives. As well as investigating the careers of public figures, this edited collection brings attention to women who engaged with and taught music in a variety of domestic settings. It also shines a spotlight on women who worked behind the scenes to build infrastructures such as festivals and educational institutions which remain at the heart of the country's musical life today. The book addresses and reconsiders ideas about the intersections of music, gender, and Irish society, including how the national emblem of the harp became recast as a symbol of Irish womanhood in the twentieth century. The book is divided into four parts. Part 1 surveys women musicians in Irish society of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Part 2 discusses women and practice in Irish traditional music. Part 3 studies gaps and gender politics in the history of twentieth-century women composers and performers. Part 4 situates discourses of women, gender, and music in the twenty-first century. The book's contributors encompass musicologists, cultural historians, composers, and performers.Table of ContentsPreface Lorraine Byrne Bodley and Harry White Introduction Laura Watson, Jennifer O'Connor-Madsen, and Ita Beausang Part I: Establishing a Place for Women Musicians in Irish Society of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 1. Daughters of Hibernia: Seen and Not Heard? Ita Beausang 2. 'No Accomplishment So Great for a Lady': Women and Music in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Elite Irish Household Karol Mullaney-Dignam 3. The Development of the Female Musician in Nineteenth Century Dublin Jennifer O'Connor-Madsen 4. Family, Filial Ties, and Forging Careers as Female Musicians in the Nineteenth Century: The Story of the Glover Sisters Mary Louise O'Donnell Part II: Women and Practice in Irish Traditional Music 5. The Daghda, the Minstrel Boy, and Convent Schools: Reflections on Gender and the Harp in Ireland Helen Lawlor 6. 'No Longer Second Fiddle': Due Recognition for Josephine Keegan Daithí Kearney 7. Ireland's Female Harping Triumvirate: The Legacy of Sheila Larchet Cuthbert, Mercedes Garvey, and Gráinne Yeats Teresa O'Donnell Part III: Gaps and Gender Politics in the History of Twentieth-Century Women Composers and Performers 8. 'A Daughter of Music': Alicia Adélaïde Needham's Anglo-Irish Life and Music Axel Klein 9. Mary Dickenson-Auner: A Life with the Violin Margarethe Engelhardt-Krajanek 10. 'Opera Over a Cooking Stove': Gender Dynamics in the Music Career of Joan Trimble Ruth Stanley 11. Rhoda Coghill and the Gender Politics of Piano Performance Laura Watson Part IV: Situating Discourses of Women, Gender, and Music in the Twenty-First Century 12. Women and Composition: Fifty Years of Progress? Nicola LeFanu 13. Transcending Conventional Habits: Music and the Collaborative Process in Joint Works Rhona Clarke 14. Surveying the Scene: Current Thoughts on Women and Electroacoustic Music in Ireland Barbara Jillian Dignam 15. We Buried the Heteropatriarchy and Danced on its Grave: Towards a Liberation Movement for Irish Traditional Music Tes Slominski Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAt the heart of traditional song rest the concerns of ordinary people - the folk. And folk throughout the centuries have found themselves entangled with the law: abiding by it, breaking it, and being caught and punished by it. Who Killed Cock Robin? is an anthology of just such songs compiled by one of Britain's senior judges, Stephen Sedley, and most respected and best-loved folk singers, Martin Carthy. The songs collected here are drawn from manuscripts, broadsides and oral tradition. They are grouped according to the various categories of crime and punishment, from Poaching to The Gallows. Each section contains a historical introduction, and every song is presented with a melody, its lyrics and an illuminating commentary that explores its origins and sources. Together, they present a unique, sometimes comic, often tragic, and always colourful insight into the past, while preserving an important body of song for the pleasure and performance of future generations.Trade Review'At last, a simple, reader-friendly book on the cause-effect relationship between the CRIMES of the UPPER classes (documented in court and prison records, history books, the lives lost via law, scaffolds, transportation, et al) and the ‘crimes’ of the ‘lower’ classes (as documented in folk songs and ballads). The savagery of our toxic system of governance, the endless, pitiless theft of the property and rights of the public are kept in the public memory in the only unassailable form: the oral tradition. A trustworthy, authoritative, edifying and highly enjoyable read. Put it into school curricula.-Peggy Seeger, songwriter, performer and activist, author of First Time Ever 'A rich and rewarding journey through the law – and lore – of song and balladry. With such outstanding authors/compilers it’s no surprise whatsoever but their understanding, respect and regard for their source material mean that expertise and scholarship never swamp but only enhance and enlighten the reading experience. As well as opening my eyes to some previously unknown example of legal chicanery or barely believable repressive legislation and practice, every page made me want to sing these songs and ballads of the wronged and the ruthless, the cruel and cunning and the good, the bad - and the lovely. What a great delight of a book.-Willy Russell, playwright and composer, author of Educating Rita and Blood Brothers

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Book SynopsisA compelling account of the role of Fado and the fadista in Portuguese film and the wider culture. Colvin studies the evolution of Fado music as the soundtrack to the Portuguese talkie. He analyzes the most successful Portuguese films of the first two decades of the Estado Novo era, showing how directors used the national songto promote the values of the young Regime regarding the poor inhabitants of Lisbon's popular neighborhoods. He considers the aesthetic, technological, and social advances that accompany the progress of the Estado Novo---Futurism;the development of sound film; the inception of national radio broadcast; access to the automobile; and urban renewal---within a historical context that considers Portugal's global profile at the time of António de Oliveira Salazar's rise to power and the inauguration of António Ferro's Secretariado da Propaganda Nacional; Portugal's role as a secret ally of the Falange during the Spanish Civil War; Lisbon's role as a neutral refuge during World War II; and the Portuguese colonial empire as an anachronism in the post-World War II years. Colvin argues that Portuguese directors have exploited the growing popularity of the Fado and Lisbon's fadistas to dissuade citizens from alien values that promote individual ambitions and the notion of an easy life of poverty in the capital. As the public image of the Fado evolves, the fadista's role in film becomes more prominent and eventually the fadista is the protagonist and the Fado the principal concern of national film. The author exposes the irony that as the social profile of the Lisbon fadista improves with the international fame of singer Amália Rodrigues, Portuguese film perpetuates and validates the outdated characterization of the fadista as a social pariah that Leitão de Barros proposed in the first Portuguese talkie, A Severa (1931). Michael Colvin is Associate Professor of HispanicStudies at Marymount Manhattan College.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Images of Defeat: Early Fado Films and the Estado Novo's Notion of Progress The Musical War Against Lisbon: Aldeia da Roupa Branca's Rural Family Values in Conflict with an Easy Fadista Life in the Capital A Return to Marialvismo: O Costa do Castelo and the Comedies of the 1940s Lisbon (Fado) versus Coimbra (Fado): New Severas, the Colonial Enterprise, and Class Conflict in Capas Negras Fado, História d'um Cantadeira: Construction and Deconstruction of the Fado Novo Conclusions: Fado Malhoa, etc. Afterword Bibliography Filmography Index

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Book SynopsisThe first book in English to consider the full extent of the accomplishments and influence the Chilean cultural icon, Violeta Parra. Violeta Parra was an extraordinary figure. She is best known for her contribution to the Latin American New Song movement and for her visual art, which was exhibited in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs of the Louvre gallery in 1964. Parra spent her early career singing Mexican songs in bars and researching traditional Chilean culture. All the different phases of Parra's life and work are discussed in this book, with analyses of her music, paintings, sculptures, embroideries (arpilleras), and poetry. Her exhibition in the Louvre gallery and the music venue that she set up before she died, La Carpa de la Reina, are also covered. Among the individual essays collected here are seminal works by Patricio Manns and Leonidas Morales, which have been translated into English for the first time. These works introduce the historical and biographical context for Parra's work. Other essays feature thelatest research and findings by Catherine Boyle, Ericka Verba, Paula Miranda, Serda Yalkin, Romina A. Green, and Lorna Dillon. The book also includes an interview with Violeta Parra's brother, the influential poet Nicanor Parra and a Foreword by Marjorie Agosín. Lorna Dillon earned her PhD at King's College London. She is currently a network facilitator and associate lecturer at the University of Kent.Trade ReviewVioleta Parra: Life and Work is a portrait of this major Chilean artist and folklorist that should engage casual fans and Parra specialists alike . . . . [P]rovides exceptional insights into the articulation of Parra's work and complex subject positions. . . . Much of the writing is moving, and in some cases beautiful. Parra is a fascinating person who, past the grave, seems to have demanded the same skill, dedication, and loyalty of these authors as she did of her students at La Carpa de la Reina at the end of her life. * JOURNAL OF FOLKLORE RESEARCH *Table of ContentsList of Contributors Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction Violeta Parra: The Genesis of her Art Extracts from La guitarra indócil (The Unruly Guitar) Conversation with Nicanor Parra about Violeta Back in the Days when She sang Mexican Songs on the Radio...Before Violeta Parra was Violeta Parra Violeta Parra, Creative Researcher Unearthing Violeta Parra: Counter-Memory, Rupture, and Authenticity Outside of the Modern Violeta Parra at the Louvre: The 'Naïve' as a Strategy of the Authentic Violeta Parra's Contribution to the 1960s Art Scene Violeta Parra and the Empty Space of La Carpa de la Reina Conclusion Index

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Book SynopsisIn 1933, John Lomax and his young son Alan traveled by car to a number of prisons scattered throughout Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. In the nation’s most restricted spaces, they recorded African-American convicts, who Lomax thought would be some of the last singers of traditional folk material due to the isolation of the institutions that held them. As a result of this fieldwork, we now have access to a multitude of powerful songs, both well and little known, which provide some understanding of this folk group during the era of Jim Crow in America’s South.

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Book SynopsisFolk-Songs of the South: Collected Under the Auspices of the West Virginia Folk-Lore Society is a collection of ballads and folk-songs from West Virginia. First published in 1925, this resource includes narrative and lyric songs that were transmitted orally, as well as popular songs from print sources.Through 186 ballads and songs and 26 folk tunes, this collection archives a range of styles and genres, from English and Scottish ballads to songs about the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the opening of the American West and boat and railroad transportation. It includes children’s play-party and dance music, songs from African American singers, and post–Civil War popular music. The original introduction by Cox contains vibrant portraits of the singers he researched, with descriptions of performance style and details about personalities and attitudes.With an introduction by Alan Jabbour, this edition renews the importance of this text as a piece of scholarship, revealing Cox’s understanding of the workings of tradition across time and place and his influence upon folk-song research.

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