A local bookstore asked me to compile a short reading list on the subject of bluegrass music, and I thought I might as well share it with you on the ‘Net. \u00a0It’s\u00a0very<\/em> brief, but additions are welcomed, and it does make a good start for those interested in learning more about what I feel is a very misunderstood \/ unknown kind of music:<\/p>\n

A reading list on bluegrass music\r\n----------------------------------\r\n\r\n\"Bluegrass\" denotes a musical style, a way of playing American country\r\nmusic, that is unique in having its origin attributable to a single\r\nperson, Bill Monroe, of Western Kentucky.\r\n\r\nMonroe himself was influenced by folk songs and tunes, as played by\r\nfiddlers and string bands from the Appalachians, mountain church hymns,\r\nblues from black musicians, as well as early jazz.  It would seem\r\nappropriate to begin with books on the inventor of the style.  There\r\nhave been several books on Monroe over the past few years, of varying\r\nquality.  Two of the best, in my view, are:\r\n\r\n\"The Bill Monroe Reader\", (a series of articles and columns on Monroe\r\ncovering almost 50 years) edited by Tom Ewing.  Some fine, and sometimes\r\nintimate, glimpses of Monroe as seen by his contemporaries.  University\r\nof Illinois Press, 2000.\r\n\r\n\"The Music Of Bill Monroe\", Neil V. Rosenberg and Charles K. Wolfe,\r\nUniversity of Illinois Press, 2007.  This volume lists every recording\r\nmade by Bill Monroe in a discography, session date, personnel, location,\r\nand date, as well as a discussion of aspects of every song and tune Bill\r\nrecorded.\r\n\r\n
An earlier Monroe discography by Neil Rosenberg<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\nFor a more general overview, I would recommend:\r\n\r\n\"Country Music USA: A Fifty Year History\", Bill C. Malone, University Of\r\nTexas Press, 1968.  A great basic introduction to the country music genre.\r\n\r\n\"Bluegrass Breakdown\", Robert Cantwell, University of Illinois Press,\r\n1984, 2003.  A sometime maddening (in terms of scholastic language and\r\napproach) but excellent historical survey of bluegrass.\r\n\r\n\"Bluegrass, A History\", Neil Rosenberg, University of Illinois Press,\r\n1985.  The best general history I've found.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A local bookstore asked me to compile a short reading list on the subject of bluegrass music, and I thought I might as well share it with you on the ‘Net. \u00a0It’s\u00a0very brief, but additions are welcomed, and it does … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[102,101,103,104],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-bill-monroe","tag-bluegrass-books","tag-bluegrass-discography","tag-neil-rosenberg"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/poY5E-3l","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluegrasswest.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluegrasswest.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluegrasswest.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluegrasswest.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluegrasswest.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bluegrasswest.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212,"href":"https:\/\/bluegrasswest.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluegrasswest.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluegrasswest.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluegrasswest.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}