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Counterculture Kaleidoscope

by Nadya Zimmerman

Forty years after the fact, 1960s counterculture---personified by hippies, protest, and the Summer of Love---basks in a nostalgic glow in the popular imagination as a turning point in modern American history and the end of the age of innocence. Yet, while the era has come to be synonymous with rebellion and opposition, its truth is much more complex. In a bold reconsideration of the late sixties San Francisco counterculture movement, Counterculture Kaleidoscope takes a close look at the cultural and musical practices of that era. Addressing the conventional wisdom that the movement was grounded in rebellion and opposition, the book exposes two myths: first, that the counterculture was an organized social and political movement of progressives with a shared agenda who opposed the mainstream (dubbed "hippies"); and second, that the counterculture was an innocent entity hijacked by commercialism and transformed over time into a vehicle of so-called "hip consumerism." Seeking an alternative to the now common narrative, Nadya Zimmerman examines primary source material including music, artwork, popular literature, personal narratives, and firsthand historical accounts. She reveals that the San Francisco counterculture wasn't interested in commitments to causes and made no association with divisive issues---that it embraced everything in general and nothing in particular.

Countercultures and Popular Music (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series)

by Sheila Whiteley Jedediah Sklower

’Counterculture’ emerged as a term in the late 1960s and has been re-deployed in more recent decades in relation to other forms of cultural and socio-political phenomena. This volume provides an essential new academic scrutiny of the concept of ’counterculture’ and a critical examination of the period and its heritage. Recent developments in sociological theory complicate and problematise theories developed in the 1960s, with digital technology, for example, providing an impetus for new understandings of counterculture. Music played a significant part in the way that the counterculture authored space in relation to articulations of community by providing a shared sense of collective identity. Not least, the heady mixture of genres provided a socio-cultural-political backdrop for distinctive musical practices and innovations which, in relation to counterculture ideology, provided a rich experiential setting in which different groups defined their relationship both to the local and international dimensions of the movement, so providing a sense of locality, community and collective identity.

Countermelodies: A Memoir in Sonata Form

by Ernestine Whitman

Offering a uniquely musical perspective on the #MeToo experience, this is the story of a talented and fiercely determined musician—a young woman with everything to gain and, ultimately, nothing left to lose—who finds a way through despite multiple betrayals by the men in her life.Jealous of her brilliant older sister, Ernestine longs for her father’s approval as a little girl but is never good enough. When she discovers a talent for the flute, she meets a charismatic teacher who gives her the encouragement she craves and becomes her surrogate father. After winning several competitions, she dreams of being a professional musician, but her stern father ridicules the idea and forces her to attend Emory University as a math major like her sister. Ernestine doesn’t give up on her musical dreams, however, and halfway through college she wins the second flute chair in the Atlanta Symphony. There, she sits beside her former teacher, the principal flute. At first, she loves working with him, but after one successful season he turns on her and does everything in his power to get her fired. Devastated by her idol’s merciless harassment, she’s driven into a spiral of suicidal depression. As she tries to recover, her vulnerability is exploited, again and again, by the very men she turns to for help. A harrowing account of one woman’s battle with twentieth-century misogyny, Countermelodies follows Ernestine as, through the darkness, she clings to her love for the flute and her unshakable dream of making it in the cutthroat world of classical music.

Counterpoint The Polyphonic Vocal Sixteenth Century: The Polyphonic Vocal Style Of The Sixteenth Century (classic Reprint)

by Knud Jeppesen

This classic introductory text focuses on the polyphonic vocal style perfected by Palestrina. Unlike many other texts, it maintains a careful balance between theoretical and practical problems, between historical and systematic methodology. The result is an exceptionally useful resource, ideal for classroom use in teaching modal counterpoint.In Part One, Knud Jeppesen (1892–1974), the world-renowned musicologist and leading authority on Palestrina, offers a superb outline history of contrapuntal theory. He begins by exploring the beginnings of contrapuntal theory from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries. This is followed by separate discussions of each succeeding century, the styles of Palestrina and Bach, the "Palestrina Movement" after Fux, and more. The section ends with illuminating coverage of notation, the ecclesiastical modes, melody, and harmony.The second part of the book contains an extended treatment of "species" counterpoint in two, three, and four parts, as well as counterpoint in more than four parts, and specific discussions of the canon, the motet, and the Mass. Throughout, the text is generously supplied with musical examples―exercises, solutions, and illustrations, including many by the great composers.-Print ed.

Counterpoint and Compositional Process in the Time of Dufay: Perspectives from German Musicology (Criticism and Analysis of Early Music)

by Kevin N. Moll

During the 1950s and 1960s, Austro-German scholars made decisive advances in developing concepts to account for harmonic processes in late medieval music. Despite the considerable potential these ideas hold for analysis and criticism of early music, they have hitherto exerted little influence outside their countries of origin. In order to render this valuable literature more immediately accessible to English-speaking students and scholars, this book presents translations of twelve seminal articles that originally appeared during the years 1948-1967, along with a comprehensive introductory chapter detailing the evolution of competing theories and terminology.

Counterpoint, Composition and Musica Ficta (Criticism and Analysis of Early Music #Vol. 4)

by Margaret Bent

Musica ficta is the practice of sharpening or flattening certain notes to avoid awkward intervals in medieval and Renaissance music. This collection gathers Margaret Bent's influential writings on this controversial subject from the past 30 years, along with an extensive author's introduction discussing the current state of scholarship and responding to critics. Also includes 25 musical examples.

Counterpoint: A Memoir Of Bach And Mourning

by Philip Kennicott

A Pulitzer Prize–winning critic reflects on the meaning and emotional impact of a Bach masterwork. As his mother was dying, Philip Kennicott began to listen to the music of Bach obsessively. It was the only music that didn’t seem trivial or irrelevant, and it enabled him to both experience her death and remove himself from it. For him, Bach’s music held the elements of both joy and despair, life and its inevitable end. He spent the next five years trying to learn one of the composer’s greatest keyboard masterpieces, the Goldberg Variations. In Counterpoint, he recounts his efforts to rise to the challenge, and to fight through his grief by coming to terms with his memories of a difficult, complicated childhood. He describes the joys of mastering some of the piano pieces, the frustrations that plague his understanding of others, the technical challenges they pose, and the surpassing beauty of the melodies, harmonies, and counterpoint that distinguish them. While exploring Bach’s compositions he sketches a cultural history of playing the piano in the twentieth century. And he raises two questions that become increasingly interrelated, not unlike a contrapuntal passage in one of the variations itself: What does it mean to know a piece of music? What does it mean to know another human being?

Counterpoint: The Polyphonic Vocal Style of the Sixteenth Century (Dover Books on Music)

by Knud Jeppesen

This classic introductory text focuses on the polyphonic vocal style perfected by Palestrina. Unlike many other texts, it maintains a careful balance between theoretical and practical problems, between historical and systematic methodology. The result is an exceptionally useful resource, ideal for classroom use in teaching modal counterpoint. In Part One, Knud Jeppesen (1892–1974), the world-renowned musicologist and leading authority on Palestrina, offers a superb outline history of contrapuntal theory. He begins by exploring the beginnings of contrapuntal theory from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries. This is followed by separate discussions of each succeeding century, the styles of Palestrina and Bach, the "Palestrina Movement" after Fux, and more. The section ends with illuminating coverage of notation, the ecclesiastical modes, melody, and harmony. The second part of the book contains an extended treatment of "species" counterpoint in two, three, and four parts, as well as counterpoint in more than four parts, and specific discussions of the canon, the motet, and the Mass. Throughout, the text is generously supplied with musical examples―exercises, solutions, and illustrations, including many by the great composers. For this edition, the distinguished scholar Alfred Mann has contributed a new foreword to Jeppesen's classic study. Now available in paperback for the first time, it will be welcomed by musicians, composers, theorists, musicologists―any student of counterpoint and the Western musical tradition.

Counting Down Bruce Springsteen: His 100 Finest Songs

by Jim Beviglia

This ultimate playlist for fans of the Boss &“makes for great debate among friends&” (Asbury Park Press). For decades, Bruce Springsteen has held center stage as the quintessential American rock and roll artist, expressing the hopes and dreams of the American everyman (and woman) through his vast array of insightful and inspirational songs. In Counting Down Bruce Springsteen, rock writer Jim Beviglia dares to rank his finest songs in descending order from the 100th to his #1 greatest song. He also reflects on why each song has earned its place on the list, and lays out the story behind each of the 100, supplying fresh insights on the musical and lyrical content of Springsteen&’s remarkable body of work—in a compelling read for the diehard fan or the newbie just getting acquainted with the Boss. &“Many of Springsteen&’s most popular songs are here, and rightly so, but so are just as many of his obscure ones . . . Of course, Springsteen fans will shake their collective heads in disagreement at times, but that&’s part of the fun.&” —Booklist &“Beviglia has created so much more than a list . . . If you have ever seen Springsteen perform live in concert, those musical memories will all come rushing back as your turn the pages.&” —Osceola News Gazette

Country & Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival (Emersion: Emergent Village Resources For Communities Of Faith Ser.)

by Mark Guarino

The untold story of Chicago’s pivotal role as a country and folk music capital. Chicago is revered as a musical breeding ground, having launched major figures like blues legend Muddy Waters, gospel soul icon Mavis Staples, hip-hop firebrand Kanye West, and the jazz-rock band that shares its name with the city. Far less known, however, is the vital role Chicago played in the rise of prewar country music, the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, and the contemporary offspring of those scenes. In Country and Midwestern, veteran journalist Mark Guarino tells the epic century-long story of Chicago’s influence on sounds typically associated with regions further south. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and deep archival research, Guarino tells a forgotten story of music, migration, and the ways that rural culture infiltrated urban communities through the radio, the automobile, and the railroad. The Midwest’s biggest city was the place where rural transplants could reinvent themselves and shape their music for the new commercial possibilities the city offered. Years before Nashville emerged as the commercial and spiritual center of country music, major record labels made Chicago their home and recorded legendary figures like Bill Monroe, The Carter Family, and Gene Autry. The National Barn Dance—broadcast from the city’s South Loop starting in 1924—flourished for two decades as the premier country radio show before the Grand Ole Opry. Guarino chronicles the makeshift niche scenes like “Hillbilly Heaven” in Uptown, where thousands of relocated Southerners created their own hardscrabble honky-tonk subculture, as well as the 1960s rise of the Old Town School of Folk Music, which eventually brought national attention to local luminaries like John Prine and Steve Goodman. The story continues through the end of the twentieth century and into the present day, where artists like Jon Langford, The Handsome Family, and Wilco meld contemporary experimentation with country traditions. Featuring a foreword from Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks and casting a cross-genre net that stretches from Bob Dylan to punk rock, Country and Midwestern rediscovers a history as sprawling as the Windy City—celebrating the creative spirit that modernized American folk idioms, the colorful characters who took them into new terrain, and the music itself, which is still kicking down doors even today.

Country Boys and Redneck Women: New Essays in Gender and Country Music (American Made Music Series)

by Diane Pecknold and Kristine M. McCusker

Country music boasts a long tradition of rich, contradictory gender dynamics, creating a world where Kitty Wells could play the demure housewife and the honky-tonk angel simultaneously, Dolly Parton could move from traditionalist "girl singer" to outspoken trans rights advocate, and current radio playlists can alternate between the reckless masculinity of bro-country and the adolescent girlishness of Taylor Swift.In this follow-up volume to A Boy Named Sue, some of the leading authors in the field of country music studies reexamine the place of gender in country music, considering the ways country artists and listeners have negotiated gender and sexuality through their music and how gender has shaped the way that music is made and heard. In addition to shedding new light on such legends as Wells, Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Charley Pride, it traces more recent shifts in gender politics through the performances of such contemporary luminaries as Swift, Gretchen Wilson, and Blake Shelton. The book also explores the intersections of gender, race, class, and nationality in a host of less expected contexts, including the prisons of WWII-era Texas, where the members of the Goree All-Girl String Band became the unlikeliest of radio stars; the studios and offices of Plantation Records, where Jeannie C. Riley and Linda Martell challenged the social hierarchies of a changing South in the 1960s; and the burgeoning cities of present-day Brazil, where "college country" has become one way of negotiating masculinity in an age of economic and social instability.

Country Music Broke My Brain: A Behind-the-Microphone Peek at Nashville's Famous and Fabulous Stars

by Gerry House

Nashville is filled with stars and lovers and writers and dreamers. Nashville is also teeming with lunatics and grifters and dip wads and moochers. Gerry House fits easily into at least half of those categories. Someone would probably have to be brain-damaged or really damn talented to try to entertain professional entertainers over a decades-long radio show in Music City, USA. Fortunately, House is little of both. Host of the nationally syndicated, top-rated morning show, &“Gerry House & The Foundation" for more than 25 years, he has won virtually every broadcasting award there is including a place in the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Gerry also spent that time deep inside the songwriting and recording world in Nashville. In Country Music Broke My Brain, Gerry tells his stories from the other side of the microphone. He reveals never-aired, never-before published conversations with country music's biggest names—Johnny Cash, Brad Paisley, and Reba McEntire to name a few—and leaves you with his own crazy antics that will either have you laughing or shaking your head in disbelief. With exclusive celebrity stories, humorous trivia and anecdotes, and broadcasting wisdom, this book is a treat for country music fans or for anyone who wants a good laugh.

Country Music Changed My Life: Tales of Tough Times and Triumph from Country's Legends

by Ken Burke

In this book based on new interviews, some of country music's greatest stars share personal moments of redemption, inspiration, and heartache related to the music that shaped their lives. Brenda Lee explains how her childhood singing gift raised her entire family out of dire poverty, and Pat Boone speaks about the spiritual influence of his father-in-law, Red Foley. Barbara Pittman talks about her childhood friendship with Elvis Presley, while Little Jimmy Dickens divulges how Hank Williams came to write a song for him and why he never recorded it. Mickey Gilley talks about gladly living in, then gladly escaping, the shadow of his cousin Jerry Lee Lewis, and Hank Thompson reveals how his background in electrical engineering helped revolutionize country music. More stories from Glen Campbell, Don Williams, Johnny Legend, Chris Hillman, and many others explain the inspiration and effect of country music in their lives.

Country Music Hair

by Erin Duvall

Country music’s greatest mullets, bobs, beehives, and bouffants collected together in one entertaining volume, illustrated with dozens of color and black-and-white photographs."The higher the hair, the closer to god."From mullets to mustaches and teased hair to bobs, country singers each have their own distinct looks which enhance their performance and image. Some wear hats and others wear wigs. Some follow the trends and others set them. Some have stylists on the tour bus and others rely on God and hair-spray. As Dolly Parton famously said, "People always ask me how long it takes to do my hair. I don’t know, I’m never there."As country has grown in stature and popularity since the 1960s, country musicians have evolved their music—and their hairstyles and fashion as well. Industry insider Erin Duvall takes fans on a lively tour in this entertaining history that combines interviews with famous hairstylists and fifty of country music stars’ best ’dos, including 1990s mullet king, Billy Ray Cyrus.While business in the front and party in the back may be outdated today, twenty years ago it was one of country’s defining styles. In Country Music Hair, Duvall tells a tale of the day the mullet died and the rumor of the strong emotional reaction from the "Achy Breaky Heart" singer’s young daughter, Miley, who desperately pleaded with him to keep his mane.A fantastic and fun trip down memory lane, Country Music Hair is a must for country listeners and pop culture fans.

Country Music USA

by Bill C. Malone Tracey E. W. Laird

“Fifty years after its first publication, Country Music USA still stands as the most authoritative history of this uniquely American art form. Here are the stories of the people who made country music into such an integral part of our nation’s culture. We feel lucky to have had Bill Malone as an indispensable guide in making our PBS documentary; you should, too.” —Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, Country Music: An American Family Story From reviews of previous editions: “Considered the definitive history of American country music.” —Los Angeles Times “If anyone knows more about the subject than [Malone] does, God help them.” —Larry McMurtry, from In a Narrow Grave “With Country Music USA, Bill Malone wrote the Bible for country music history and scholarship. This groundbreaking work, now updated, is the definitive chronicle of the sweeping drama of the country music experience.” —Chet Flippo, former editorial director, CMT: Country Music Television and CMT.com “Country Music USA is the definitive history of country music and of the artists who shaped its fascinating worlds.” —William Ferris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities and coeditor of the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture Since its first publication in 1968, Bill C. Malone’s Country Music USA has won universal acclaim as the definitive history of American country music. Starting with the music’s folk roots in the rural South, it traces country music from the early days of radio into the twenty-first century. In this fiftieth-anniversary edition, Malone, the featured historian in Ken Burns’s 2019 documentary on country music, has revised every chapter to offer new information and fresh insights. Coauthor Tracey Laird tracks developments in country music in the new millennium, exploring the relationship between the current music scene and the traditions from which it emerged.

Country Music USA: 50th Anniversary Edition

by Bill C. Malone Tracy E. Laird

&“Still stands as the most authoritative history of this uniquely American art form . . . Bill Malone [was] an indispensable guide in making our PBS documentary.&” —Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, Country Music: An American Family Story This is the newly updated edition of Country Music USA, &“considered the definitive history of American country music&” (Los Angeles Times). Starting with the music&’s folk roots in the rural South, it traces country music from the early days of radio into the twenty-first century. In this fiftieth-anniversary edition, Bill C. Malone, the featured historian in Ken Burns&’s 2019 documentary on country music, has revised every chapter to offer new information and fresh insights. Coauthor Tracey Laird tracks developments in country music in the new millennium, exploring the relationship between the current music scene and the traditions from which it emerged.Praise for Country Music USA: &“The country-music history bible.&” ―Rolling Stone &“This groundbreaking work, now updated, is the definitive chronicle of the sweeping drama of the country music experience.&” —Chet Flippo, former editorial director, CMT: Country Music Television and CMT.com &“The definitive history of country music and of the artists who shaped its fascinating worlds.&” —William Ferris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, former chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities and coeditor, Encyclopedia of Southern Culture &“If anyone knows more about the subject than [Malone] does, God help them.&” —Larry McMurtry, from In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas

Country Music USA: 50th Anniversary Edition

by Bill C. Malone Tracy E. Laird

&“Still stands as the most authoritative history of this uniquely American art form . . . Bill Malone [was] an indispensable guide in making our PBS documentary.&” —Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, Country Music: An American Family Story This is the newly updated edition of Country Music USA, &“considered the definitive history of American country music&” (Los Angeles Times). Starting with the music&’s folk roots in the rural South, it traces country music from the early days of radio into the twenty-first century. In this fiftieth-anniversary edition, Bill C. Malone, the featured historian in Ken Burns&’s 2019 documentary on country music, has revised every chapter to offer new information and fresh insights. Coauthor Tracey Laird tracks developments in country music in the new millennium, exploring the relationship between the current music scene and the traditions from which it emerged.Praise for Country Music USA: &“The country-music history bible.&” ―Rolling Stone &“This groundbreaking work, now updated, is the definitive chronicle of the sweeping drama of the country music experience.&” —Chet Flippo, former editorial director, CMT: Country Music Television and CMT.com &“The definitive history of country music and of the artists who shaped its fascinating worlds.&” —William Ferris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, former chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities and coeditor, Encyclopedia of Southern Culture &“If anyone knows more about the subject than [Malone] does, God help them.&” —Larry McMurtry, from In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas

Country Music's Greatest Lines: Lyrics, Stories & Sketches from American Classics

by Bobby Braddock

&“One of country music&’s greatest songwriters has given us his own private tour of the collective genius of his profession.&” —Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author and host of the Revisionist History podcast Bobby Braddock, the only living songwriter to have written number-one country songs in five consecutive decades, celebrates standout lines in more than eighty country masterpieces. Unique stories give the reader a behind-the-scenes look at classics from Hank Williams, Bill Anderson, Roger Miller and Merle Haggard, as well as twenty-first-century icons like Alan Jackson, Taylor Swift and Eric Church. Artist Carmen Beecher brings these tales to vivid life with strikingly realistic illustrations of seldom-seen songwriters, easily recognizable superstars and unforgettable song characters. From late 1940s jukebox hits to present-day chart toppers, Braddock and Beecher offer a magical journey from the songwriter&’s pen to the singer&’s lips to the listener&’s ear. &“Country Music&’s Greatest Lines works as an insider&’s take on the business of country, and it also sent me to a dozen records I wanted to hear immediately. Braddock and Beecher evoke the mythology of country without sentimentalizing the music or its creators. It&’s a remarkable achievement.&” —Nashville Scene &“We see how stand-alone powerful and effective a few well-crafted lines can be, even when removed from the context of the entire song.&” —Sounds Like Nashville &“Country songs, from Hank Williams till today, remain faithful to their tradition of reminding their listeners about the life they live. Braddock, a 60-year creator of songs, remembered that when he decided to write this book.&” —American Songwriter

Country Music: A Biographical Dictionary (American Popular Music Ser.)

by Richard Carlin

This illustrated A-Z guide covers more than 700 country music artists, groups, and bands. Articles also cover specific genres within country music as well as instruments used. Written in a lively, engaging style, the entries not only outline the careers of country music's greatest artists, they provide an understanding of the artist's importance or failings, and a feeling for his or her style. Select discographies are provided at the end of each entry, while a bibliography and indexes by instrument, musical style, genre, and song title round out the work.For a full list of entries, a generous selection of sample entries, and more, visit the Country Music: A Biographical Dictionary website.

Country Music: A Cultural and Stylistic History

by Jocelyn Neal

Written by an experienced teacher and renowned scholar of the genre, Country Music: A Cultural and Stylistic History, Second Edition, offers a chronological narrative that explains country music's origins, development, and meaning from the first commercial recordings of the 1920s up to the present. It highlights significant performers, songs, and institutions throughout the history of country music. It also considers key social, political, and musical issues that span many decades of evolution within the genre.

Country Music: An Illustrated History

by Ken Burns Dayton Duncan

The rich and colorful story of America's most popular music and the singers and songwriters who captivated, entertained, and consoled listeners throughout the twentieth century--based on the upcoming eight-part film series to air on PBS in September 2019This gorgeously illustrated and hugely entertaining history begins where country music itself emerged: the American South, where people sang to themselves and to their families at home and in church, and where they danced to fiddle tunes on Saturday nights. With the birth of radio in the 1920s, the songs moved from small towns, mountain hollers, and the wide-open West to become the music of an entire nation--a diverse range of sounds and styles from honky tonk to gospel to bluegrass to rockabilly, leading up through the decades to the music's massive commercial success today.But above all, Country Music is the story of the musicians. Here is Hank Williams's tragic honky tonk life, Dolly Parton rising to fame from a dirt-poor childhood, and Loretta Lynn turning her experiences into songs that spoke to women everywhere. Here too are interviews with the genre's biggest stars, including the likes of Merle Haggard to Garth Brooks to Rosanne Cash. Rife with rare photographs and endlessly fascinating anecdotes, the stories in this sweeping yet intimate history will captivate longtime country fans and introduce new listeners to an extraordinary body of music that lies at the very center of the American experience.

Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South

by Charles L. Hughes

In the sound of the 1960s and 1970s, nothing symbolized the rift between black and white America better than the seemingly divided genres of country and soul. Yet the music emerged from the same songwriters, musicians, and producers in the recording studios of Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama--what Charles L. Hughes calls the "country-soul triangle." In legendary studios like Stax and FAME, integrated groups of musicians like Booker T. and the MGs and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section produced music that both challenged and reconfirmed racial divisions in the United States. Working with artists from Aretha Franklin to Willie Nelson, these musicians became crucial contributors to the era's popular music and internationally recognized symbols of American racial politics in the turbulent years of civil rights protests, Black Power, and white backlash. Hughes offers a provocative reinterpretation of this key moment in American popular music and challenges the conventional wisdom about the racial politics of southern studios and the music that emerged from them. Drawing on interviews and rarely used archives, Hughes brings to life the daily world of session musicians, producers, and songwriters at the heart of the country and soul scenes. In doing so, he shows how the country-soul triangle gave birth to new ways of thinking about music, race, labor, and the South in this pivotal period.

Country and Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival (Emersion: Emergent Village Resources For Communities Of Faith Ser.)

by Mark Guarino

The untold story of Chicago’s pivotal role as a country and folk music capital. Chicago is revered as a musical breeding ground, having launched major figures like blues legend Muddy Waters, gospel soul icon Mavis Staples, hip-hop firebrand Kanye West, and the jazz-rock band that shares its name with the city. Far less known, however, is the vital role Chicago played in the rise of prewar country music, the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, and the contemporary offspring of those scenes. In Country and Midwestern, veteran journalist Mark Guarino tells the epic century-long story of Chicago’s influence on sounds typically associated with regions further south. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and deep archival research, Guarino tells a forgotten story of music, migration, and the ways that rural culture infiltrated urban communities through the radio, the automobile, and the railroad. The Midwest’s biggest city was the place where rural transplants could reinvent themselves and shape their music for the new commercial possibilities the city offered. Years before Nashville emerged as the commercial and spiritual center of country music, major record labels made Chicago their home and recorded legendary figures like Bill Monroe, The Carter Family, and Gene Autry. The National Barn Dance—broadcast from the city’s South Loop starting in 1924—flourished for two decades as the premier country radio show before the Grand Ole Opry. Guarino chronicles the makeshift niche scenes like “Hillbilly Heaven” in Uptown, where thousands of relocated Southerners created their own hardscrabble honky-tonk subculture, as well as the 1960s rise of the Old Town School of Folk Music, which eventually brought national attention to local luminaries like John Prine and Steve Goodman. The story continues through the end of the twentieth century and into the present day, where artists like Jon Langford, The Handsome Family, and Wilco meld contemporary experimentation with country traditions. Featuring a foreword from Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks and casting a cross-genre net that stretches from Bob Dylan to punk rock, Country and Midwestern rediscovers a history as sprawling as the Windy City—celebrating the creative spirit that modernized American folk idioms, the colorful characters who took them into new terrain, and the music itself, which is still kicking down doors even today.

Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock 'n' Roll

by Nick Tosches

Celebrating the dark origins of our most American music, Country reveals a wild shadowland of history that encompasses blackface minstrels and yodeling cowboys; honky-tonk hell and rockabilly heaven;

Cover Letter Magic: Trade Secrets of Professional Resume Writers

by Louise Kursmark Wendy Enelow

Professional resume and cover letter writers reveal their inside secrets for creating phenomenal cover letters that get attention and land interviews. .<P> <i>Advisory: Bookshare has learned that this book offers only partial accessibility. We have kept it in the collection because it is useful for some of our members. To explore further access options with us, please contact us through the Book Quality link on the right sidebar. Benetech is actively working on projects to improve accessibility issues such as these. </i>

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