Bluegrass: A History (Music in American Life) [Hardcover]

Neil V. Rosenberg (Author)

Book Description

Series: Music in American Life | Publication Date: October 1, 1985

Beginning with the musical cultures of the American South in the 1920s and 1930s, "Bluegrass: A History" traces the genre through its pivotal developments during the era of Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys in the forties. It describes early bluegrass' role in postwar country music, its trials following the appearance of rock and roll, its embracing by the folk music revival, and the invention of bluegrass festivals in the mid-sixties. Neil V. Rosenberg details the transformation of this genre into a self-sustaining musical industry in the seventies and eighties is detailed and, in a supplementary preface written especially for this new edition, he surveys developments in the bluegrass world during the last twenty years. Featuring an amazingly extensive bibliography, discography, notes, and index, this book is one of the most complete and thoroughly researched books on bluegrass ever written.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Rosenberg's book is the publisher's second excellent bluegrass history in two years. Robert Cantwell's Bluegrass Breakdown ( LJ 5/15/84) was a scholarly study of the music and its cultural roots, while this one expands the reader's appreciation by focusing on the performers. There is considerable overlap, of course, as both authors describe Bill Monroe's founding influence and the contributions of pioneers such as the Stanley Brothers and Flatt and Scruggs. Rosenberg offers many more biographical details, however, and discusses the musical impact of many more persons than does Cantwell. Fans as well as scholars will find much to like in this well-researched, well-indexed work. William Hepfer, SUNY at Buffalo Libs.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (October 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252002652
• ISBN-13: 978-0252002656
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,260,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The story and glory of bluegrass - straight from the heart, June 25, 2003

By 

Kevin Cook "Darlin' Boy" (McDonough, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: BLUEGRASS: A History (Music in American Life) (Paperback)

Bluegrass music's greatest practitioners have always been plain-as-burlap folks who wouldn't give a hoot about dissecting and intellectualizing the music that pops out of them as naturally as sweat. As an appreciator of real deals, I wouldn't have it any other way. However, I'm glad that folklorist/musical historian Neil V. Rosenberg has been around for several decades now, poking his scholarly nose into the fascinating haystack that is bluegrass and putting the needles into cultural perspective. This sweeping and heartfelt book, Rosenberg's crowning achievement as the planet's foremost bluegrass oracle, will stand as the last word on the subject for a long, long spell.

Unlike rock 'n' roll, whose Big Bang genesis one fateful day in Memphis reverberated like a sonic boom, bluegrass had more fitful beginnings. The music's raw ingredients had been fermenting in Appalachia for untold years in the form of homemade "hillbilly" music before a shy Kentuckian named Bill Monroe began distilling them in the 1930s into a distinctive musical form. Monroe deliberately crafted the sound and personality of bluegrass and, much more round-aboutly, gave it its name. As the central figure in bluegrass, Monroe's patriarchal spirit looms magnificently large over Rosenberg's history, which, after all, is ultimately Monroe's story.

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, arguably the next most important innovators in bluegrass, also figure prominently. In the 1940s, the two had been underpaid sidemen in Monroe's Blue Grass Boys band before abruptly striking out on their own in 1948 and becoming Monroe's main competition. Heavy turnover was a fact of life with the Blue Grass Boys, but the mercurial Monroe was outraged by the pair's defection and didn't speak to them for over twenty years. Transformed in the Sixties by television ("The Beverly Hillbillies") and movie ("Bonnie and Clyde") exposure into world-wide icons, Flatt & Scruggs achieved fame and commercial viability the likes of which bluegrass - including its inventor - had never known. Rosenberg's delineation of the famous Monroe/Flatt & Scruggs "feud" is one of the best things in the book.

Rosenberg's writing style can be stiff and he tends to exaggerate the significance of certain events, such as the use of a bluegrass soundtrack on an obscure experimental art film called "Football As It Is Played Today." Also, his laborious investigation into how the term "bluegrass" came to be applied specifically to the music is a bit of a yawn. The book is thorough almost to a fault, but it's petty to criticize Rosenberg's leave-no-stone-unturned work ethic. He has written the definitive bluegrass bible and clearly done it from the heart. If you appreciate true country music, of which bluegrass is the truest, this book will both delight and enlighten you, as it did me.

447 pages (including index), extensive notes, bibliography and discography, 40 pages of photos.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Landmark Work - and fun to read, August 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: BLUEGRASS: A History (Music in American Life) (Paperback)

Rosenberg is a practing academic, and it shows in his attention to detail and writing style. However, he is also a former Blue Grass Boy and manager of Bean Blossom, and it shows in his thorough love of the Music. Fascinating details alternate with a comprehensive picture of how Bluegrass fits into the wider context of American popular music. The Big Mon (Bill Monroe) comes out as a true creative genius, yet still very much subject to outside forces, for example, the folk music revival. Rosenberg avoids sensationalism, which sometimes limits the "juicy" stories that can be told about Monroe and many others, and instead focuses on the movement and the social forces around it.

Highly recommended for fans and scholars alike, even if somewhat hard reading for non-academics.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent History of Bluegrass, March 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: BLUEGRASS: A History (Music in American Life) (Paperback)

If you're interested in the history of bluegrass music, I would recommend that you begin with this book. Rosenberg is an engaging writer and a fine historian. He also performed with Bill Monroe and has continued to maintain a strong presence in bluegrass music. The work rightly focuses on Monroe's early contributions to bluegrass music, and Rosenberg demonstrates how the musical structure and context is linked to major social issues and cultural expressions in American life. The connections that Rosenberg makes between bluegrass and baseball are fascinating and right on the money.