| Book Details Title: Capital Bluegrass: Hillbilly Music Meets Washington, DC (American Musicspheres)
Author: Kip Lornell
Number of pages:
Publisher: Oxford University Press (January 10, 2020)
Language: English
ISBN: 0199863113
Rating: 4,4  4 reviews |
Book Description About the Author Kip Lornell has taught courses in Ameircan music and ethnomusicology at George Washington University since 1992. Lornell won a 1997 Grammy for Best Liner Notes for Smithsonian Folkways “Anthology of American Folk Music,” and Lornell and Charles Wolfe earned the ASCAP-Deems Taylor book award for The Life and Legend of Leadbelly (Harper Collins, 1993). He has been interviewed numerous times on NPR for his expertise on American folk music. Read more Customers Review: Was thrilled to see the write up about my father and his band in this book along with all of the other great musicians that hit the blue grass stage in and around the DC area!
“Capital Bluegrass” is an excellent look at how Washington DC had a heavy influence on making “real country” and defining American hillbilly music. In direct rivalry to the Nashville sound, second generation bluegrass groups like the Country Gentlemen playing at the Birchmere Music Hall and a constellation of other local bars made DC an international bluegrass capital. Covering Bill Monroe’s descendants and pre-war hillbilly bands up through Newgrass, through oral histories, rare photographs, and close examination of bluegrass festivals circuits and the impact of new radio and tv programing, Professor Lornell’s latest work is an enjoyable and detailed roadmap to the overlooked mix of urban and rural vernacular bluegrass culture of the DC metro area, the uniquely American music form Alan Lomax called “folk music in overdrive.”
As one who has followed the rise and fall of Bluegrass in the DC region over the last 40 years, I loved the depth and behind-the-scenes look in this book. But the many, many typos were extremely distracting. Please, please invest in a proofreader. Such a well-researched book, published by a world-class publisher should not leave such an impression. |
