Finally, a comprehensive book about Billy Murray, the most popular and recognizable singer of the acoustic recording period! The discography alone is worth the price of the book. Titles, record numbers, labels, dates of recording, and matrix mumbers are included.

The biography part is somewhat sketchy because Murray was a private person who didn't seem to want to talk about his family or recording career. He was married three times, and had no children. His siblings had no children, either, so there were really no close relatives to provide biographical information. Still, I found the book fascinating, and it is an invaluable resource for those collectors who want to catalog their recordings, and learn about the recordings that they don't have and would like to get.

There are some nice photographs included, among them one that Mr. Murray said was his favorite. Billy was well liked and friendly, and the book was a pleasure to read. I'm glad I have it!

This book represents a fine piece of research, well documented and well presented. It follows the life story of Billy Murray, the first great popular recording artist.

However the book suffers from two serious problems. First of all, it is over-footnoted. I found myself constantly turning pages and being distracted by numerous footnotes that should have been worked into the body of the text. Unfortunately, the footnotes are all endnotes, so the reader needs two fingers to mark where he is and where the footnotes are.

The other problem with the book is more serious. It should have been two books, not one. The biography section ends at page 206. The rest of the book, all 544 pages, consists of appendixes, lots of them, in every shape, form and size. Realistically, the authors need to make one book about Murray, and another one about early recorded music. I get the impression that the authors had a lot of extra information laying around, so they decided to stick it in the back.

To the Billy Murray enthusiast, or the early recorded music aficionado, the book is a must even at $75. For all you other casual readers, check it out of the library before you buy it.

Murray presents ten teaching methods for Bible study. Some of his ideas are quite good including theological Bible study, all senses Bible study, depth Bible study, and shared praxis Bible study. In these four methods, Murray helps us move past the written words to personalization and deeper understanding on both the part of student and teacher. However, in comparing all ten teaching methods Murray tends to be redundant, as there is a good deal of overlap in the ten methods. Additionally, some of the more current methods are not included in this book, which could be due in part to the fact that the material is somewhat dated, i.e. no material is presented which covers learning stations and/or cooperative learning groups. This book would be a good starting point for a novice Bible study teacher; but, for someone with any teaching experience, this book is not recommended.

Mr. Murray provides a refershing look at Bible Study that is well thought out and well organized. The themes that author provides are fully discussed anfd the author is very thorough.
This is a good guide for any Bible Study teacher in any setting Because the author is sensitive to the learning needs and abilities of different people, he provides a diversity of different approaches.
Murray obviously desires to share his faioth woith others and through this book he not only underscores the value of Bible Study but the value of the method as well.
The reader is surprised by the quantity and duiversity of the methods in Murray's book.

This book provided explicit procedures for implementing various Bible study methods. Each of the methods outlined gave detailed approaches to develop meaningful studies. Being non-technical, the methods used were very student oriented. Evaluations were also given of different prepared Bible studies, although these were somewhat outdated. Several of these methods were used in a class setting and most were very effective. This book is highly recommended for anyone interesting in beginning a Bible study, since it gives a wide variety of ideas for getting started.