I only want to add that the effort has some value anyway--mainly by way of
all those interviews lurking behind the "Oral History" part of the title.
The tendency to avoid calling the country aspect of Western Swing country
strikes me, in reading this, more on the lines of "I've gotta have an
"original" thesis point, and this is mind, and bygard I'm gonna stick with
it" than some serious preeejudice against country music...On the other
hand. Ms. Boyd seems WAY more at home and familiar with naming, say, jazz
violinists who may have influenced Wills or Bruner than country fiddlers;
she just doesn't seem to have heard enough of those--or want to bring them
up here. A worthwhile addition to the general, undercovered picture
though, I think, if from a skewed point of view easily taken into account.
Barry M.
(Better include the M I guess; I've noticed some other Barrys around again!)
"The Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral History of Western Swing" by
>> > Jean A. Boyd....has much to say about how Western
>> > Swing is jazz at its root, underappreciated jazz, and maybe underplays
>> > the country side in saying so...
>>
>> And the book was panned for doing just that by some western swing expert
>> (Kevin Coffey? Cary Ginell?) in a recent issue of (I think) the Journal Of
>> Country Music.
>
>Coffey, in the most recent issue.
>
>Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
