Bluegrass Breakdown: THE MAKING OF THE OLD SOUTHERN SOUND (Music in American Life)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.11 (757 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0252071174 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 336 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-08-07 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Well versed in the history of the tradition and equally as interested in those who listen to the music as in those who create it, Cantwell links bluegrass to its hillbilly roots in Appalachia and shows how the music was transformed by African American folk traditions, the influence of jazz, ragtime, blues, and country music, and the growth of radio and recording technology.. Winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award Bluegrass Breakdown is an expansive foray into the makings of bluegrass. Robert Cantwell engages the historical background, commercial origins, internal workings, and cultural and social significance of popular, old-time music to provide a unique musicological and sociological perspective. More than any other book of its kind, it gets to the roots of a uniquely American music that is deeply linked to working-class ideals and romanticism
Bluegrass Breakdown is, without a doubt, the most thought-provoking work on bluegrass--and its father, Bill Monroe--I have ever read." . "Bluegrass Breakdown is a seminal work in its field. Robert Cantwell has had the foresight, the initiative, and the intellectual creativity to create a model for explaining a major force in southern and, indeed, American culture.""A thoroughly researched and often brilliant attempt to place bluegrass music into a historical, as well as musicological, cultural, and imaginative context
Robert Cantwell has taught at Kenyon College, the University of Iowa, Georgetown University, and the University of North Carolina. Bluegrass Breakdown is his first book, and it won the ASCAP–Deems Taylor Award and the Ambassador of Honor Book Award.
Tony Thomas said An essential book for to know American Music neds "An essential book for to know American Music neds 20 stars" according to Tony Thomas. If you study American traditional musics of any kind, if you play bluegrass, if you want to know what country music is, or if you are concerned with what African American or Southern music is, this is the book you have to own. I am still in the middle of reading this book, but every chapter on its own makes me wish I had read, reread, and studied this book the day it came out, not a decade or two later. This is an essential book for serious knowledge of music in America, not just Bluegrass.Frankly, I have been negatively impressed by many of the books on Bluegra. 0 stars. If you study American traditional musics of any kind, if you play bluegrass, if you want to know what country music is, or if you are concerned with what African American or Southern music is, this is the book you have to own. I am still in the middle of reading this book, but every chapter on its own makes me wish I had read, reread, and studied this book the day it came out, not a decade or two later. This is an essential book for serious knowledge of music in America, not just Bluegrass.Frankly, I have been negatively impressed by many of the books on Bluegra. Mike said The author spends too much time trying to impress us. The author spends too much time trying to impress us with his use of words and phrases that no one other than an English phd. would be familiar with. I put the book down after a few chapters and couldn't finish it.. Five Stars Claudia Good!