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Documenting the history and development of bluegrass in and around the nation's capital since it emerged in the 1950s,
Capital Bluegrass: Hillbilly Music Meets Washington, D.C. is central to our understanding of bluegrass in the United States and its place in our nation's capital.
List of contents
- Introduction and Thanks
- Chapter One: Before Bluegrass (1920s-1946)
- Chapter Two: Back Then It Was Called Hillbilly Music (1946-1957)
- Chapter Three: Country Gentlemen and The Folk Music Revival (1957-1966)
- Chapter Four: Bluegrass Unlimited (1966-1977)
- Chapter Five: Not Seldom Heard or Scene (1977-1991)
- Chapter Six: 'A Cold Wind A Blowin' (1991-2018)
- Sources
About the author
Kip Lornell has taught courses in Ameircan music and ethnomusicology at George Washington University since 1992. Lornell won a 1997 Grammy for Best Liner Notes for Smithsonian Folkways "Anthology of American Folk Music," and Lornell and Charles Wolfe earned the ASCAP-Deems Taylor book award for The Life and Legend of Leadbelly (Harper Collins, 1993). He has been interviewed numerous times on NPR for his expertise on American folk music.
Summary
Documenting the history and development of bluegrass in and around the nation's capital since it emerged in the 1950s, Capital Bluegrass: Hillbilly Music Meets Washington, D.C. is central to our understanding of bluegrass in the United States and its place in our nation's capital.
Additional text
A wonderfully detailed, deeply researched, and entertaining journey tracing DC bluegrass from its roots as hillbilly music from the 1920s into the mid-'40s before leading to Washington's surprising emergence as the nation's bluegrass urban capital that began in the mid-'50s and continued for some forty years. It's a compelling story of innovators, virtuosos, larger-than-life characters, and community building through local radio, clubs, festivals, and record labels that gradually expanded the local audience into a cultural phenomenon that propelled groups like the Country Gentlemen and the Seldom Scene into the national limelight.
