Bluegrass music's greatest practitioners have always been plain-as-burlap folks who wouldn't give a hoot about dissecting and intellectualizing the music that pops out of them as naturally as sweat. As an appreciator of real deals, I wouldn't have it any other way. However, I'm glad that folklorist/musical historian Neil V. Rosenberg has been around for several decades now, poking his scholarly nose into the fascinating haystack that is bluegrass and putting the needles into cultural perspective. This sweeping and heartfelt book, Rosenberg's crowning achievement as the planet's foremost bluegrass oracle, will stand as the last word on the subject for a long, long spell.

Unlike rock 'n' roll, whose Big Bang genesis one fateful day in Memphis reverberated like a sonic boom, bluegrass had more fitful beginnings. The music's raw ingredients had been fermenting in Appalachia for untold years in the form of homemade "hillbilly" music before a shy Kentuckian named Bill Monroe began distilling them in the 1930s into a distinctive musical form. Monroe deliberately crafted the sound and personality of bluegrass and, much more round-aboutly, gave it its name. As the central figure in bluegrass, Monroe's patriarchal spirit looms magnificently large over Rosenberg's history, which, after all, is ultimately Monroe's story.

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, arguably the next most important innovators in bluegrass, also figure prominently. In the 1940s, the two had been underpaid sidemen in Monroe's Blue Grass Boys band before abruptly striking out on their own in 1948 and becoming Monroe's main competition. Heavy turnover was a fact of life with the Blue Grass Boys, but the mercurial Monroe was outraged by the pair's defection and didn't speak to them for over twenty years. Transformed in the Sixties by television ("The Beverly Hillbillies") and movie ("Bonnie and Clyde") exposure into world-wide icons, Flatt & Scruggs achieved fame and commercial viability the likes of which bluegrass - including its inventor - had never known. Rosenberg's delineation of the famous Monroe/Flatt & Scruggs "feud" is one of the best things in the book.

Rosenberg's writing style can be stiff and he tends to exaggerate the significance of certain events, such as the use of a bluegrass soundtrack on an obscure experimental art film called "Football As It Is Played Today." Also, his laborious investigation into how the term "bluegrass" came to be applied specifically to the music is a bit of a yawn. The book is thorough almost to a fault, but it's petty to criticize Rosenberg's leave-no-stone-unturned work ethic. He has written the definitive bluegrass bible and clearly done it from the heart. If you appreciate true country music, of which bluegrass is the truest, this book will both delight and enlighten you, as it did me.

447 pages (including index), extensive notes, bibliography and discography, 40 pages of photos.

If you're interested in the history of bluegrass music, I would recommend that you begin with this book. Rosenberg is an engaging writer and a fine historian. He also performed with Bill Monroe and has continued to maintain a strong presence in bluegrass music. The work rightly focuses on Monroe's early contributions to bluegrass music, and Rosenberg demonstrates how the musical structure and context is linked to major social issues and cultural expressions in American life. The connections that Rosenberg makes between bluegrass and baseball are fascinating and right on the money.

Rosenberg is a practing academic, and it shows in his attention to detail and writing style. However, he is also a former Blue Grass Boy and manager of Bean Blossom, and it shows in his thorough love of the Music. Fascinating details alternate with a comprehensive picture of how Bluegrass fits into the wider context of American popular music. The Big Mon (Bill Monroe) comes out as a true creative genius, yet still very much subject to outside forces, for example, the folk music revival. Rosenberg avoids sensationalism, which sometimes limits the "juicy" stories that can be told about Monroe and many others, and instead focuses on the movement and the social forces around it.

Highly recommended for fans and scholars alike, even if somewhat hard reading for non-academics.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of bluegrass music. Carl Fleischhauer's photographs are worth the cost of the book alone. He has stunning black and white photos of early concerts featuring some of the greatest bluegrass musicians to grace the stage. He also has terrific backstage shots, photos of parking lot pickings, and nostalgic images, such as Uncle Pen's fiddle. These photos portray fascinating facets of bluegrass music's history. Neil Rosenberg's writing complements and enhances these images. His writing provides sufficient information to answer significant questions raised in looking at Fleischhauer's photographs. As a special treat, the book includes a fine photo memorial and essay to Bill Monroe. This book is an excellent record of the early history of bluegrass, and it vividly portrays images that ring true today.

Neil Rosenberg wrote the introduction and edited a series of articles on the place of revivalism within folk music. Revivalism refers to a number of movements within traditional music. It can refer to ways in which older forms and genres are repopularized, a common dynamic in folk music. Revivalism can also refer to ways in which those who grew up outside of a particular musical tradition become interested in a form of musical expression. This dynamic happens a great deal as, for example, teenagers from Philadephia became interested in old-time music during the 1960s. The book provides a great range of ways to think about revivalism, and it is an excellent historical study of folk music from the 1950s and 60s. Many of the writers take very different approaches and offer different perspectives on the music, and the work should stimulate lively discussion and more study of this facet of musical history. There is a lack of a unified way of pulling together the disparate threads of thought, but perhaps that is task that remains to be done by those at the cutting edge of folklore study.