Sunday, May 01, 2005

 

In works on fiddling etc., the pickings are good

From the Boston Globe
Who can doubt that the world is too much with us these days? And so in abreaction people turn back to the past, to what seem like simpler times: listening to box-issue CDs of 1960s folk music, seeking out vintage instruments, maybe even taking up ukulele or Hawaiian guitar -- sales of both of which are booming. Meanwhile, repelled by the ever-increasing commercialization that has turned country music into just another barely distinguishable branch of pop, thousands of listeners have found an alternative in bluegrass, swelling the ranks at festivals and concerts.

''Discovering Bluegrass" is the subtitle of Stephanie P. Ledgin's recent ''Homegrown Music" (Praeger, $39.95), and her book is indeed a lively, readable introduction to this distinctly American form. Chapters cover in a basically conversational mode the crossbreeding of Appalachian and African-American strains that formed bluegrass, its history, bluegrass festivals, instruments, and major performers.

Read the article
Boston Globe


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