Bluegrass Generation: A Memoir PDF
Preview Bluegrass Generation: A Memoir
Bluegrass Generation MUSIC IN AMERICAN LIFE A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book. BLUE GR ASS GENERATION A MEMOIR Neil V. Rosenberg Foreword by Gregory N. Reish Publication of this book is supported by grants from the Manfred Bukofzer Endowment of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and from Memorial University of Newfoundland. © 2018 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rosenberg, Neil V., author. Title: Bluegrass generation: a memoir / Neil V. Rosenberg; foreword by Gregory N. Reish. Description: Urbana: University of Illinois Press, [2018] | Series: Music in American life | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017049202| ISBN 9780252041761 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780252083396 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780252050442 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Rosenberg, Neil V. | Banjoists—United States—Biography. | Bluegrass musicians—United States— Biography. | Bluegrass music—1961–1970—History and criticism. Classification: LCC ML419.R672 A3 2018 | DDC 781.642092 [B] —dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017049202 Cover illustration: October 15, 1961. Benny Martin’s Caddy parked at the back of the Brown County Jamboree barn. (Courtesy of Ann Milousoroff) Contents ix Foreword xiii Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 Prologue SUMMER 1961 15 Meeting Monroe: June–July 1961 19 Bean Blossom: 1961 23 House Band: July–August 1961 26 Meeting the Audience: July 1961 30 Playing the Five: 1953–June 1961 33 Letters to Home: August 1961 38 Meeting the Regulars: August 1961 46 Bloomington: July–August 1961 FALL 1961 53 Monroe Again: September 1961 59 Autumn Work: September–October 1961 61 Stepping Up: October 1961 68 Connections: October 1961 72 White House Blues: October 1961 75 End of the Season: November 1961 77 Cannonball Blues: December 1961 SPRING 1962 83 Meeting Marvin Hedrick: January–June 1962 89 College Kids: March–May 1962 SUMMER 1962 97 Back to the Jamboree: July–August 1962 104 Folk in Bloomington: July–September 1962 FALL 1962 111 Mocking Bird Hill: September 1962 119 Folk and Country: October 1962 College Folk, Bluegrass, Banjo Necks: 124 November 1962 SPRING 1963 131 On the Road: January–March 1963 138 Spring Pickin’: April 1963 146 Reno & Smiley: April 1963 150 Stonemans, Banjo Contest: May 1963 SUMMER 1963 159 Meeting Ralph Rinzler: June 1963 168 Ralph Fires Birch: June 1963 173 A Business Model: June–July 1963 177 Bobby Hits the Barn: June 1963 182 Two Country Sundays: July 1963 187 Conversations with Ralph: July 1963 191 Week 6 and the Letter: July–August 1963 195 Mandolin Sunday: August 1963 202 Berkeley Bluegrass: August–September 1963 206 Marvin Takes Over: August–September 1963 FALL 1963 213 Back to the Barn: September 1963 218 Monroe Day: September–October 1963 224 Bluegrass HQ: October–November 1963 229 Bean Blossom Hop: November 1963 233 Last Report to Ralph: November–December 1963 235 After the Jamboree: 1964–1967 239 Afterword RECORDINGS, NOTES, AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 245 Recordings 249 Notes 255 Bibliography 259 Credits 261 General Index 271 Song Title Index Foreword I MET NEIL ROSENBERG in September 2005 during the Blue- grass Symposium held at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. This was my first foray into bluegrass and country music scholarship af- ter some ten years of musicological focus on twentieth-century European classical music. Though confident about my presentation on the roots of bluegrass guitar styles in prewar “hillbilly” music work, I was unusually nervous, fearing that my analytical approach and heavy reliance on my own transcriptions of well-known recordings would meet resistance from an audience of folklorists and historians, many of whom relished the music’s oral tradition. Adding to my anxiety, the chair of my session was the most distinguished bluegrass historian in the field, Neil Rosenberg. He seemed to enjoy my presentation, but not knowing Neil I wasn’t sure whether his supportive response was genuine, merely polite, or obligatory in his role as chair. The next day, Rosenberg gave the symposium’s keynote address and, in the follow-up, was asked to reflect on promising developments in the field of bluegrass scholarship. To my delight and astonishment, he cited my presentation as a new model, one in which “serious” musical scholars turn their attention to this music that had been largely ignored by the previous generation of musicologists. It is no exaggeration, therefore, to state that Neil Rosenberg helped to set me on my path as a country and bluegrass scholar, and he has continued to offer his generous support since that first encounter. Neil’s work had already been an inspiration to me, from his seminal early article on the emergence of bluegrass, to his Bill Monroe discography, to his magisterial Bluegrass: A History, first published in 1985 and still the definitive broad look at the music’s evolution. What makes these writings
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