Roots Music in America ─ Collected Writings of Joe Wilson

Joe Wilson directed the National Folk Festival and worked for the National Council for Traditional Arts. This book collects his writing on the origins and cross-fertilization of various branches of folk music, roots music, and vernacular music of North America, covering styles such as minstrelsy, old-time, hillbilly, bluegrass, urban bluegrass, blues, gospel, cowboy, and country music. The writings come from liner notes, magazines, tour booklets, and unpublished manuscripts. While Wilson was a scholar, he wrote in a non-scholarly style with humor and a conversational tone, looking at issues of race, class, and ethnicity, as well as historical sources of American vernacular music. Several pieces describe the history of folk musical instruments: folk fiddle, banjo, guitar, and pedal steel. Major figures celebrated include John Dee Holman, Doc Watson, Janette Carter, The Seldom Scene, and Willie Nelson. Annotation ©2017 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)