RE: Bluegrass Advice

[Jon Weisberger]

 Can any of you good knowledgable folks recommend a history or two of
 bluegrass worth reading?

There aren't that many books devoted to bluegrass, which makes it a fairly
easy job.  Start with Neil V. Rosenberg's _Bluegrass: A History_, and follow
it up with Richard D. Smith's _Bluegrass: An Informal Guide_ for more detail
on latter-day developments and artists.  Artis's _Bluegrass_ is pretty
decent, though largely superseded by Rosenberg's later book, and Barry
Willis's _America's Music: Bluegrass_ has a lot of useful detail mixed in
with some dubious stuff, though it's very badly organized.  In my opinion,
the other book that frequently gets asked about - Robert Cantwell's
_Bluegrass Breakdown_ - needs to be treated with a lot of caution, and is
best tackled after grounding in Rosenberg and Smith.

Jon Weisberger  Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/

RE: Bluegrass Advice

[Jon Weisberger]

Shannon mentions:

 Another book that is edited
 by Rosenberg is also interesting reading, it is called "Transforming
 Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined"  a couple of chapters in
 that book deal with bluegrass.

To which I'd add that the book as a whole ought to be of great interest to
P2ers interested in questions of "authenticity," etc.  Other chapters deal
with blues, folk music, etc.  Highly recommended.

Jon Weisberger  Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/

RE: Bluegrass Advice

[BARNARD]

Jon:
 To which I'd add that the book as a whole ought to be of great interest to
 P2ers interested in questions of "authenticity," etc. 

Hmm, I'll check that out right away! g,

--junior