Stephen Wade: The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience

Review of Ricky Skaggs: Kentucky Traveler: My Life in Music

Review of The Oxford Book of American Poetry: The Difficulty of Anthologizing American Poetry

Excerpt: An unpublished song by Blind Alfred Reed, transcribed by Reed’s granddaughter Delores Crawford.

Excerpt: The so-called 1927 Bristol sessions—the recording sessions conducted in Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia, during July-August 1927 by A&R (Artists & Repertoire) producer Ralph Peer and his employer, the Victor Talking Machine Company—garnered relatively little attention until the 1970s. At that point, a few scholars (notably, music historians Charles K. Wolfe, Bill C. Malone, Tony Russell, and Nolan Porterfield) and some serious music fans began to view this long-ago event in a small Appalachian city as one of the most important recording sessions of all time.

Excerpt: In an interview published in the February 1992 issue of The Banjo Newsletter and conducted by bluegrass historian Neil Rosenberg and banjo player and instruction book author Tony Trischka, Carroll Best conveyed the depth of his connections to the instrument he had mastered: “When I was old enough to pick up a banjo I wanted to play.”

Excerpt: In a recent interview, musician Wynton Marsalis said, “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve suggested to musicians to get The Bristol Sessions—Anglo-American folk music.

Banjo Romantika introduces the musicians who play this unique bluegrass hybrid. Czechs first heard bluegrass during World War II when the Armed Forces Network broadcast American music for soldiers. The music represented freedom to dissatisfied Czechs living in a communist state. Czechs’ love for the music was solidified when Pete Seeger visited and performed in 1964. Inspired by classic American bluegrass sounds, an assortment of musicians from across the formerly communist Czech Republic have melded the past, the political and the present into a lively musical tradition entirely its own.Screening and discussions occurred on the following dates and places: Czech and Slovak Cultural Association / Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association, St. Paul, MN (11/18/2017) William King Museum Speaker Series, Birthplace of Country Music Museum, Bristol, VA (02/07/2017)Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Society of Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, Charlottesville, VA (03/05/2016)Appalachian Studies Association, Johnson City (03/27/2015)Society for Ethnomusicology, Pittsburgh, PA (11/13/2014)IBMA World of Bluegrass Business Conference, Raleigh, NC (09/28/2014)International Country Music Conference, Nashville, TN (05/24/2014)Colgate University, (9/20-21/2016)Merlefest, Wilkesboro, NC (4/24/2015)College of Charleston (3/19/2015)West Virginia University (11/12/2014)University of Virginia Dept. of Music, Charlottesville, VA (11/8/2013)Walker Arts and History Center, Cary, NC (9/26/2013)Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Series, American Center at the U.S. Embassy, Prague, Czech Republic (6/20/2013)Banjo Jamboree Bluegrass Festival, Čáslav, Czech Republic (6/21/2013, 6/22/2013)Jerome College of Prague, Prague, Czech Republic (6/24/2013)Moravská Zemská Knihovna, Brno (6/27/2013)White Stork Bluegrass Festival, Luka nad Jihlavou (7/8/2013)

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