Customer Reviews

The Music of Bill Monroe (Music in American Life)

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I can't say enough about the thoroughness and accuracy of this important work. It will be on my reference shelf for many years to come!

I just got my long awaited copy of the new Neil Rosenberg/Charles Wolfe book "The Music of Bill Monroe" and to my utmost sincere disappointment there was not one photo except the paper cover photo of Monroe. While the 350 fine print pages will be some great reading I was really expecting hundreds of rare unpublished photos of Monroe over the decades like Neil had done in his long out of print 1974 Monore Discography. It was my understanding the new book was just an update from the '74 paperback with more photos. What I've read so far is very informative and entertaining.
With the late Charles Wolfe involved in the project there is a lot more insight into the details of Monroe's music but you would think between those two world reknowned authors they could have put in a dozen pages or so of photos of the various Bluegrass Boys, photos of LP and EP covers,advertisments, promotional photos of Monore over the years to coincide along with the recording details. While I really am disappointed of the lack of photos I will just have to live with the attitude that anything new Monroe is better than nothing at all. I would assume this book will be avaiable in paperback in a few years. Heafty $35 price will scare away the meger fans with the lack of photos. True Monroe diehards will want this one. A must read if you want to get into the real Bluegrass music and it's creator. How about a 300 page follow up of the "Life of Bill Monroe in Photo" to make up for this one not having any photos!

well done book on the father of bluegrass and his songs, with a good timeline to how events occurred