Customer Reviews

The Bluegrass Reader (Music in American Life)

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A few years ago, a certain tenacious fan (yours truly), trying to get an interview with Mitch Jayne of The Dillards, managed to irritate him to the point that he stormed, "Bluegrass people are not readers!" This comprehensive anthology, compiled from a surprising variety of sources by journalist Thomas Goldsmith (the International Bluegrass Music Association's 2004 Print Media Personality of the Year), would seem to prove otherwise. Collecting "particularly strong, influential, and representative writing about bluegrass" from books, magazines and liner notes, "The Bluegrass Reader," like Neil V. Rosenberg's definitive "Bluegrass - A History," is a book with limitless appeal for the growing legion of hard-core bluegrass aficionados who revel in dissecting and debating every facet of the music, no matter how trivial. (For those eggheads, the totally frivolous article "Is There a Link between Bluegrass Musicianship and Sexuality?" is recommended.) There is scholarly fodder aplenty, but the book is more fun when it captures bluegrass stars behaving badly. For instance, in "So You Don't Like the Way We Do It (or Damn Your Tape Recorder)" from a 1967 issue of "Bluegrass Unlimited," John Duffey of the Country Gentlemen seems to have a bug up his bum as he burns more bridges than Sherman defending his playing style. Then there's the guilty pleasure of Jimmy Martin's wildly profane attack on Ricky Skaggs at the Grand Ole Opry in a controversial piece originally from "The Oxford American" (and later expanded into a skimpy book) by Tom Piazza. And in "Rolling Stone," bluegrass darling Alison Krauss indelicately declares she "just about crapped myself" after hearing a really good Merle Haggard tune. Browsers of "The Bluegrass Reader" will be rewarded by a treasure trove of facts and opinionated insights, some of which may sting. David Gates, for example, profiling Ralph Stanley in "The New Yorker," observes, "Good bluegrass...is sweet and sad, wild and sexy. Mediocre bluegrass...is among the most wearisome music on the planet." Ouch!

I`ve never much enjoyed reading about music; far more fun to play or listen to it. Lately, though, I`ve become addicted to Amazon`s "cheap reads" covering a variety of subjects and after checking out a few pages of this one on line, ordered it and can highly recommend the book for anyone interested in bluegrass or old time string band music.
Bluegrass slammed me in the back of the head from out of nowhere back in the early 1950s when I happened across Don Reno`s "Dixie Breakdown" courtesy of Ray Davis` broadcast on WBMD AM from Johnnie`s Used Car Lot in Baltimore. I hadn`t a clue what the instrument was, called Ray who gave me a brief education about the 5-string banjo. That same day I rented a banjo for $2.00 monthly "applicable to purchase price" from Ted Martini`s amazing music store on Center Street in Baltimore. (My two criticisms of the book are, by the way, are that there is no mention of Ray Davis, who has probably done more for the music than anyone else in the Baltimore area, and that Walter Hensley, the most underrated banjo player alive, is also overlooked.)
There are interviews with just about all the original bluegrass musicians one can name; Monroe, Reno, Wiseman and many more, as well as accounts of various events, one of which is the late great Mike Seeger`s account of the "Banjo Pickers Contest" at Sunset Park back in 1958. After reading that one I came to the sobering realization I had been performing "Home Sweet Home" in contests, and far more often than not losing, for at least fifty two years.
A great little book!