Roots Music in America: Collected Writings of Joe Wilson
“Joe Wilson represented a deep diversity in American vernacular music and culture. He directed the National Folk Festival and roots music tours, engaging government support for traditional communities. Joe combined Appalachian wisdom with searching intellect to create original brilliance. ‘America’s foremost hillbilly intellectual,’ laughed at my sobriquet and worked tirelessly for the music and people he loved.”
—Nick Spitzer, American Routes

Joe Wilson served for twenty-eight years as executive director of the National Folk Festival and National Council for Traditional Arts. Throughout his impressive career, Wilson wrote extensively and colorfully about many facets of vernacular music in North America, including works on major folk instruments, as well as on characteristic musical styles, especially old-time, bluegrass, modern country, blues, cowboy, a cappella gospel, and others. This volume, a companion to Lucky Joe’s Namesake: The Extraordinary Life and Observations of Joe Wilson, compiles Wilson’s best writings on musical topics, including some previously unpublished works.

With wry humor, Wilson covers the origins of roots music in eighteenth-century America and its subsequent dispersion through races, classes, ethnic groups, and newly settled regions. Wilson knew, worked with, and wrote about many iconic artists of the twentieth century, including Willie Nelson, Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, the Stanley Brothers, Kenny Baker, Cephas & Wiggins, John Jackson, and members of the Hill Billies—the band whose name came to signify an entire genre of the earliest recorded roots music. This carefully curated volume is comprised of works previously scattered in liner notes, small-circulation magazines, tour booklets, and unpublished manuscripts, all collected here and organized by theme.

The writings of this legendary, internationally recognized figure will be indispensable to roots music fans and will delight readers and students interested in the traditional arts and dedicated to preserving historic folkways.

Fred Bartenstein teaches country and bluegrass music history at the University of Dayton. He is the editor of Bluegrass Bluesman: Josh Graves, a Memoir and coauthor and editor of The Bluegrass Hall of Fame: Inductee Biographies, 1991-2014.

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Roots Music in America: Collected Writings of Joe Wilson
“Joe Wilson represented a deep diversity in American vernacular music and culture. He directed the National Folk Festival and roots music tours, engaging government support for traditional communities. Joe combined Appalachian wisdom with searching intellect to create original brilliance. ‘America’s foremost hillbilly intellectual,’ laughed at my sobriquet and worked tirelessly for the music and people he loved.”
—Nick Spitzer, American Routes

Joe Wilson served for twenty-eight years as executive director of the National Folk Festival and National Council for Traditional Arts. Throughout his impressive career, Wilson wrote extensively and colorfully about many facets of vernacular music in North America, including works on major folk instruments, as well as on characteristic musical styles, especially old-time, bluegrass, modern country, blues, cowboy, a cappella gospel, and others. This volume, a companion to Lucky Joe’s Namesake: The Extraordinary Life and Observations of Joe Wilson, compiles Wilson’s best writings on musical topics, including some previously unpublished works.

With wry humor, Wilson covers the origins of roots music in eighteenth-century America and its subsequent dispersion through races, classes, ethnic groups, and newly settled regions. Wilson knew, worked with, and wrote about many iconic artists of the twentieth century, including Willie Nelson, Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, the Stanley Brothers, Kenny Baker, Cephas & Wiggins, John Jackson, and members of the Hill Billies—the band whose name came to signify an entire genre of the earliest recorded roots music. This carefully curated volume is comprised of works previously scattered in liner notes, small-circulation magazines, tour booklets, and unpublished manuscripts, all collected here and organized by theme.

The writings of this legendary, internationally recognized figure will be indispensable to roots music fans and will delight readers and students interested in the traditional arts and dedicated to preserving historic folkways.

Fred Bartenstein teaches country and bluegrass music history at the University of Dayton. He is the editor of Bluegrass Bluesman: Josh Graves, a Memoir and coauthor and editor of The Bluegrass Hall of Fame: Inductee Biographies, 1991-2014.

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Roots Music in America: Collected Writings of Joe Wilson

Roots Music in America: Collected Writings of Joe Wilson

Roots Music in America: Collected Writings of Joe Wilson

Roots Music in America: Collected Writings of Joe Wilson

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Overview

“Joe Wilson represented a deep diversity in American vernacular music and culture. He directed the National Folk Festival and roots music tours, engaging government support for traditional communities. Joe combined Appalachian wisdom with searching intellect to create original brilliance. ‘America’s foremost hillbilly intellectual,’ laughed at my sobriquet and worked tirelessly for the music and people he loved.”
—Nick Spitzer, American Routes

Joe Wilson served for twenty-eight years as executive director of the National Folk Festival and National Council for Traditional Arts. Throughout his impressive career, Wilson wrote extensively and colorfully about many facets of vernacular music in North America, including works on major folk instruments, as well as on characteristic musical styles, especially old-time, bluegrass, modern country, blues, cowboy, a cappella gospel, and others. This volume, a companion to Lucky Joe’s Namesake: The Extraordinary Life and Observations of Joe Wilson, compiles Wilson’s best writings on musical topics, including some previously unpublished works.

With wry humor, Wilson covers the origins of roots music in eighteenth-century America and its subsequent dispersion through races, classes, ethnic groups, and newly settled regions. Wilson knew, worked with, and wrote about many iconic artists of the twentieth century, including Willie Nelson, Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, the Stanley Brothers, Kenny Baker, Cephas & Wiggins, John Jackson, and members of the Hill Billies—the band whose name came to signify an entire genre of the earliest recorded roots music. This carefully curated volume is comprised of works previously scattered in liner notes, small-circulation magazines, tour booklets, and unpublished manuscripts, all collected here and organized by theme.

The writings of this legendary, internationally recognized figure will be indispensable to roots music fans and will delight readers and students interested in the traditional arts and dedicated to preserving historic folkways.

Fred Bartenstein teaches country and bluegrass music history at the University of Dayton. He is the editor of Bluegrass Bluesman: Josh Graves, a Memoir and coauthor and editor of The Bluegrass Hall of Fame: Inductee Biographies, 1991-2014.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781621903154
Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
Publication date: 04/07/2017
Series: Charles K. Wolfe Music Series
Edition description: 1st Edition
Pages: 312
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Fred Bartenstein teaches country and bluegrass music history at the University of Dayton. He is the editor of Bluegrass Bluesman: Josh Graves, a Memoir and coauthor and editor of The Bluegrass Hall of Fame: Inductee Biographies, 1991-2014.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Remembering Joe Wilson Ted Olson xi

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xxi

Historical Sources of American Vernacular Music

"The Blue Ridge: A Place Near the Heart in American Musical History" 3

"Country Music in Tennessee: From Hollow to Honky-tonk" 10

"Ballads: Music from the Mists" 15

"The Wild Horse at Stony Point, with a Salute to Peter Francisco and a Bow to Jenny Lind" 18

"Rachel and the Eighth of January" 25

"Durang's Dance and Hoffmaster's Tune" 31

"John Dee Holeman: Juba Dancer" 34

"Dance All Night" with Ken Landreth 37

"The Toby Character: When Bluegrass Bands Needed Lightning Rod Salesmen" 40

"The Hicks and Related Families: Carriers of Tradition" 44

"Minstrelsy (or Why Blacks Gave Up the Banjo)" 47

"Fries: Where the Music Began" 50

"Radio and the Blue Ridge" 55

Instruments

"The Devil's Box" 69

"Origins of the Banjo in North America" 79

"Men and Kings: A Mini-History of the Guitar" 84

"The Pedal Steel: A Folk Instrument of Our Time" 94

"Stanley Hicks" 101

Old-Time Music

"The Hill Billies: The Band That Named the Music" 107

"Grayson and Whitter" 113

"Clarence 'Tom' Ashley" 119

"Doc Watson: Just One of Us" 128

"Fred Price, Old-Time Fiddler: A Remembrance" 136

"Doc Hopkins: Singer, Guitarist, and Banjoist, 1900-1988" 141

"Carroll Best: Too Tall to Steep in a Car" 145

"Memories of Janette Carter" 148

Bluegrass Music

"Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Defined" 153

"They Changed the World" 156

"Bristol's WCYB: Early Bluegrass Turf 161

"How 'The Old Prospector' Met Ralph Stanley" with Walt Saunders 167

"Everett Lilly Don Stover, and Tex Logan at Loy Beaver's, 1969" 169

Bluegrass Breakdown (Book Review) 173

"The Seldom Scene: Creators of Urban Bluegrass" 178

"Doyle Lawson: Standing on the Rock" 182

"Farewell to Kenny Baker, 1926-2011" 185

Modern Country Music

"When Willie Came to Town" 189

"Nashville Cats: On the Road with Cowboy Copas and Grandpa Jones" 199

Nashville Babylon (Book Review) 201

"Kentucky Thumb picking" 205

The Blues

"The Birth of the Blues" 213

"Cephas and Wiggins: Masters of the Piedmont Blues" 218

"John Jackson: Front Porch Blues" 222

"Little Butch (Norvus Miller Jr.) Memorial" 225

"Blues and Bluegrass: Tough Arts of the Underclass" 227

Cowboy Music and Poetry

"The Cowboy Tour" 235

"Brownie Ford: The Clown Who Taught Courage" 238

"Grizzly Ropers and Bald Grazers: A Mini-History of Cattle Ranching and Cowboying" 241

Other Vernacular Musical Styles

"The Chestnut Grove Quartet: 'We Come from a Place…'" 253

"Northern Plains Courting Flute and Robert 'Tree' Cody" 259

"Solás and a Story from the Bus" 262

"The Memphis Sound" 265

Index 273

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