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Delta Music and Film
9781467113953
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $17.49 Save 30%
The Delta Lowlands, a place of stunning innovation and creativity in music and film, has laid an incredible foundation for American entertainment. Talented singers, producers, and musicians from a narrow stretch of Arkansas Delta land--traversing U.S. Highway 65 south near England down to Pine Bluff and on through Lake Village/Eudora--have garnered every conceivable distinction, including Grammys as well as Country Music Association (CMA), Gospel Music Association (GMA), Stellar, Dove, Soul Train, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and other music awards. The mosaic of cotton blossoms, catfish farms, blues juke joints, foot-stomping churches, and rich Delta dirt has also served as the training ground for legends in blues, R&B/soul, country music, jazz, and gospel. In film and television, the Delta Lowlands has birthed the invention of sound in movies, the development of slow-motion footage, the creation of television's Neilson's ratings, the first western-genre movie star, a cadre of Emmy and Oscar award-winning personalities, and a television tower that was once the second tallest man-made structure in the world.
West Virginia's Traditional Country Music
9781467123112
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $17.49 Save 30%
West Virginia has been known for a century as a rich repository of traditional country music and musicians. Beginning in the mid-1920s, phonograph recordings and radios brought this music to a wider audience. With the passing of time and the influence of commercialization, this music developed into what became first known as "hillbilly" and then into the more refined "country" because of its long appeal to those of rural background. Although modernization has caused the traditional element to recede considerably, much still remains. Many folk still cling to the older sounds exemplified by the "raw" traditionalists and the neo-traditional bluegrass style that emerged in the 1940s. From the earliest recording artists, such as the Tweedy Brothers and David Miller, who was blind, to contemporary stars like Kathy Mattea and Brad Paisley, West Virginians and others have held their musicians in high esteem.
Memphis Music
9780738544113
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $17.49 Save 30%
Memphis means music. That relationship was solidified in 1909 when W. C. Handy wrote the song "Mr. Crump" and later published it as the "Memphis Blues." As Handy's songs were sung and played in streets and music halls, a spotlight began to shine on a new mecca for innovation in music--Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis Music: Before the Blues surveys the people, music, and events that contributed to the rich musical life that emerged against the backdrop of the Civil War and yellow fever in the 19th century. The story is not just one of the building blocks to what has been called America's greatest export--popular music--but rather it is a story of ongoing innovation and creativity that came from a convergence of people of different cultures.
Louisiana's Zydeco
9781467110051
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $17.49 Save 30%
The bayou sings and the trees sway with the untold stories of many unsung heroes, including Louisiana's amazing Zydeco musicians. The music is an extraordinary blend of the accordion, the bass and electric guitars, the drums, the rub or scrub board, and other instruments. It tells stories about finding and losing love, life lessons, and other revelatory events that rise from the skillful hands of musicians playing the diatonic and piano accordions. The diverse population of Louisiana creates a rich culture with Zydeco festivals, Creole foods, and the unique music that fills the air with a foot-stomping beat like no other. Louisiana's Zydeco is a snapshot of some of the many musicians who live and play the homegrown music known as Zydeco.
Nashville Music before Country
9780738553986
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $17.49 Save 30%
Nashville is a name synonymous with music. Years before the first radio broadcast of country music from Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, music and publishing were central to Nashville's self-identity. Thousands of songs flooded into the Cumberland and Tennessee River valleys from Southern Appalachia, sung by folk performers. These songs became the foundation for the folk-hymn traditions that grew throughout Tennessee. Into this stream flowed a body of African American spirituals, gospel, and minstrel songs. The arrival of trained German musicians brought classical styles to this gathering stream of musical confluences. These musicians found a home in the academies and businesses of Nashville. Nashville Music before Country is the story of how music merged with education, publication, entertainment, and distribution to set the stage for a unique musical metropolis. The images for Nashville Music before Country come from private collections as well as public libraries and archives.
Kentucky's Bluegrass Music
9780738585611
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $17.49 Save 30%
It is likely that most fans of bluegrass music would concede that no state should be more associated with bluegrass music than Kentucky--and rightly so. Bluegrass music draws its name from the band that Kentuckian Bill Monroe formed during the late 1930s and 1940s. Bill named his band Bill Monroe and The Blue Grass Boys to honor his home state. Eventually, the music these bands and others like them were playing came to be known as bluegrass music. Later, another Kentuckian, Ebo Walker, while playing with the Bowling Green-based bluegrass band, New Grass Revival, coined the phrase "newgrass" to describe the band's progressive style of music. Other Kentuckians such as Bobby and Sonny Osborne, J. D. Crowe, Ricky Skaggs, and Dale Ann Bradley have become bluegrass stars. Some of the musicians from Kentucky covered in this book are quite famous--some are not. Famous or not, all of them have a deep-rooted passion for the music they play.
Birmingham's Theater and Retail District
9780738517773
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $17.49 Save 30%
From the 1890s to the 1970s, the thriving area of Birmingham between Eighteenth and Twenty-first Streets along First, Second, and Third Avenues was the bustling heart of this quickly growing city. Before the age of the shopping mall, the downtown was the center of retail and entertainment in Birmingham. Along these streets, entrepreneurial immigrants built department stores--including Pizitz and Loveman, Joseph, and Loeb--while the marquees of the Alabama, Ritz, and Lyric theaters, among others, shined over the busy downtown sidewalks.
South Carolina Blues
9781467114721
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $17.49 Save 30%
The history of South Carolina blues is a long, deep--and sometimes painful--story. However, it is a narrative with aspects as compelling as the music itself. Geographical differences in America led to variations in the styles of music that developed from African rhythms. The wet, marshy landscape and hot, muggy weather of the Carolina Lowcountry combined to cultivate not only rice, but a Gullah-based style of South Carolina blues. In drier climates, toward the Midlands and the Upstate, the combination of European influences led to the emergence of Piedmont blues, which in turn spawned country music as well as bluegrass. Those same Gullah roots resulted in four major dance crazes, starting with the Charleston.
Music Makers of the Blue Ridge Plateau
9780738554105
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $17.49 Save 30%
During the late 1920s, Ralph Peer and the Victor Recording Company visited the city of Bristol to look for new talent. They stumbled upon Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, two future legends of country music; however, other amazing musicians were unable to make the trip to Bristol for the auditions because of work and family obligations. For the locals, music was more than a way to earn fame and fortune; the music was part of the fabric of life in this rural environment. Some individuals did become famous, including the Stoneman Family, who recorded "The Ship That Didn't Return/ The Titanic," and Henry Whitter, who recorded "The Wreck of Old 97," but that was never the focus. The songs they played and created accompanied an entire generation through the Great Depression and World War II and into the vigorous growth of the 1950s and 1960s. All of these musicians influenced the birth, growth, and continued development of the Galax Fiddlers Convention, which is known around the world by old-time mountain music fans.
Charleston Jazz
9780738543505
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $17.49 Save 30%
Charleston Jazz sets out to reveal the rich, untold story of the evolution of American jazz in one of its major cradles: Charleston, South Carolina. The text and images show that what happened on the Gullah coast of South Carolina in terms of history, culture, and entertainment had a huge impact on jazz as we know it today. By all accounts, jazz is America's classical music. It now stands at the dawn of its second century and is poised to take its place as one of the more meaningful cultural phenomena ever to come along. Since Charleston was the gateway for enslaved Africans into the United States, it is no wonder that this uniquely beautiful place produced key creators of what many believe to be this country's most important influence on world culture. An international Charleston diaspora of jazz musicians attests to the fact that the likes of Freddie Green, William "Cat" Anderson, and Edmund Thornton Jenkins spread the Charleston style everywhere. Charleston jazz is one of the last great unknown stories in American history.
