People's Songs, American Communism, and the Politics of Culture, 1930-50
Winner of an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, 1990.''A spirited and scholarly account of the relationship between the U.S. Communist movement and the folk music revival of the 1940s and 1950s.'' -- Paul C. Mishler, Nature, Society, and Thought''Shows the ways in which the folk music revival of the 1960s and the participatory cultures of the civil rights ......
''Milton Brown is one of the great unsung heroes of American music; and one of the true fathers of western swing. Ginell's biography offers a wealth of new information on Brown and his times and paints a marvelously detailed portrait of the rich Texas music scene of the Depression era.'' -- Charles K. Wolfe, Middle Tennessee State University
This fascinating account of how the racial and cultural dynamics of American cities created the music, life, and business that was jazz is the first comprehensive analysis of the role of jazz in its formative years.
''A rich, descriptive account. . . . Shelemay presents extraordinary personal experiences that shaped her research process and make reading this text pleasurable.''-- Library Journal''Highly recommended to generalists in music as well as to specialists interested in Ethiopia. . . . Also makes an excellent case study text for university-level ......
Long a symbol of American culture, the banjo actually originated in Africa and was later adopted by European-Americans. In this book Karen Linn shows how the banjo - despite design innovations and several modernizing agendas - has failed to escape its image as a ''half-barbaric'' instrument symbolic of antimodernism and sentimentalism. Caught in ......
''A big juicy wedge of jazz history. . . . Lots of wonderful stories.'' -- Los Angeles Daily News ''Kansas City was a hub for Jazz bands that crisscrossed the country in the 1930s. . . . The interviews go beyond jazz into the infamous political machinery that made Kansas City a wide-open and corrupt town where jazz could flourish.'' -- Choice ''A ......
Athapaskan Fiddle Music and Square Dancing in Northeast Alaska and Northwest Canada
Named for a popular local fiddle tune, The Crooked Stovepipe is a rollicking, detailed, first-ever study of the indigenous fiddle music and social dancing enjoyed by the Gwich'in Athapskan Indians and other tribal groups in northeast Alaska, the Yukon, and the northwest territories. Though the music has obvious roots in the British Isles, French ......
The hit movie La Bamba (based on the life of Richie Valens), the versatile singer Linda Ronstadt, and the popular rock group Los Lobos all have roots in the dynamic music of the Mexican-American community in East Los Angeles. With the recent ''Eastside Renaissance'' in the area, barrio music has taken on symbolic power throughout the Southwest, ......
