Lost Bluegrass

The Bluegrass region has come to define what makes Kentucky a place unlike any other. What began as the homeland of native tribes developed into ideal farmland for early settlers. Development continued as the region evolved into the premier breeding grounds for world-famous thoroughbreds, helping to bring the Bluegrass international recognition as the epicenter of American horseracing and equestrian culture. Yet development of the region has never stopped. The rolling hills, limestone fences and legendary horse farms that once defined the landscape continue to vanish as suburban sprawl stretches into the far reaches of the Bluegrass. Join author Ronnie Dreistadt as he tracks the history of the Bluegrass, whats been lost and the ongoing efforts to save what remains.

The twentieth anniversary paperback edition, updated with a new preface Winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association Distinguished Achievement Award and of the Country Music People Critics' Choice Award for Favorite Country Book of the Year Beginning with the musical cultures of the American South in the 1920s and 1930s, Bluegrass: A History traces the genre through its pivotal developments during the era of Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys in the forties. It describes early bluegrass's role in postwar country music, its trials following the appearance of rock and roll, its embracing by the folk music revival, and the invention of bluegrass festivals in the mid_sixties. Neil V. Rosenberg details the transformation of this genre into a self-sustaining musical industry in the seventies and eighties is detailed and, in a supplementary preface written especially for this new edition, he surveys developments in the bluegrass world during the last twenty years. Featuring an amazingly extensive bibliography, discography, notes, and index, this book is one of the most complete and thoroughly researched books on bluegrass ever written.

Created by legendary Bill Monroe of Kentucky and made famous by his Blue Grass Boys, bluegrass has been sweeping musicians and audiences off their feet since 1939. This lively and authoritative guide covers: all the important sounds from traditional Monroe-style bluegrass, jazz-flavoured northern 'newgrass', and Nashville-influenced country grass to the distinctive sounds of Japanese and European bands; famous groups, instrumentalists, and vocalists; women blue grassers; with insider anecdotes, resource listings, the lowdown on bluegrass festivals, and more than 500 recommendations for listening.

“A suspenseful page-turner . . . jolts and entertains the reader.”—Mary Higgins Clark Inside Boston Doctors Hospital, patients are dying. In the glare of the operating room, they survive the surgeon's knife. But in the dark, hollow silence of the night, they die. Suddenly, inexplicable, horribly. A tough, bright doctor will risk his career—his very life—to unmask the terrifying mystery. A beautiful and dedicated young nurse unknowingly holds the answer. Together they will discover that no one is safe from . . . the sisterhood “Teriffic . . . a compelling suspense tale.”—Clive Cussler

Bluegrass music is an original characterization, simply called a 'representation, ' of traditional Appalachian music in its social form.

Diaries by Kentucky Rebels are a rarity; the soldiers, cut off from their homes and families in the Union Bluegrass, were themselves atypical. In this massive and eloquent journal, Captain Edward O. Guerrant evocatively portrays his unusual wartime experiences attached to the headquarters of Confederate generals Humphrey Marshall, William Preston, George Cosby, and, most notably, John Hunt Morgan. Able to see the inner workings of campaigns in the little-known Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and east Tennessee, where some of the most vicious small-scale fighting occurred, Guerrant made scrupulous daily entries remarking upon virtually everything around him.

Wayne Erbsen's newest book takes a deep look at bluegrass music to uncover its true roots: ballads of early pioneers, Scots-Irish fiddle tunes, black spirituals, plantations melodies, blues, murder ballads, sentimental parlor songs from Tin Pan Alley, North Carolina banjo styles and gospel songs. the book is richly illustrated with over 100 vintage photos and includes lyrics, musical notation, chords, history and playing tips to 94 songs. There are also nearly 80 pages of history and profiles portraying important musicians including the Monroe Brothers, Carter Family, Bradley Kincaid, Riley Puckett, Charlie Poole, Wade & J.E. Mainer, Vernon Dalhart, Carolina Tar Heels, G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter, Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, Ernest V. Stoneman, Blue Sky Boys, Fiddlin' John Carson, Coon Creek Girls, Earl Scruggs, Eck Robertson, Callahan Brothers, Samantha Bumgarner, Bill Monroe Zeke & Wiley Morris, Jimmie Rodgers and Stringbean. Optional CD by Wayne Erbsen and Laura Boosinger is available containing fourteen songs from the book.

On October 20, 1923, at New York's Belmont Park, Kentucky Derby champion Zev toed the starting line alongside Papyrus, winner of England's greatest horse race, the Epsom Derby. The $100,000 purse for the novel intercontinental showdown was the largest in the history of America's oldest sport and writers across the country were calling it the "Race of the Century." A victory for the American colt in this blockbuster event would change how the nation viewed horse racing forever. In this book, James C. Nicholson exposes the central role of politics, money, and ballyhoo in the Jazz Age resurgence of the sport of kings. Though the Zev-Papyrus face-off was one of the most hyped sporting events of the early twentieth century, Nicholson reveals that it soon faded from American popular memory when it became known that Zev's owner, oil tycoon Harry F. Sinclair, was involved in an infamous scandal to defraud the United States of millions of barrels of publicly owned oil. As a result, Zev became an apt mascot for a nation struggling to reconcile its traditional values with the modern complexities of the Roaring Twenties, and his tainted legacy ultimately proved to be incompatible with tenets of national mythology that celebrate America as a place where hard work and fair play lead to prosperity.