A biography of the legendary folk and blues singer discusses his influences; his close relationships with folk greats Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger; his involvement in left-wing politics and the labor movement; and much more. National ad/promo.

The Life and Legend of Leadbelly

Lornell, Kip

Wolfe, Charles K.

Humor & Entertainment

Harpercollins

A biography of the legendary folk and blues singer discusses his influences, his close relationships with folk greats Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and his involvement in left-wing politics and the labor movement

Perennial

Spanning more than a thousand separate performances, The Music of Bill Monroe presents a complete chronological list of all of Bill Monroe's commercially released sound and visual recordings. Each chapter begins with a narrative describing Monroe's life and career at that point as well as the producers, sidemen, and others who become part of the story. The narratives, a who's who of bluegrass, connect Monroe to the music's larger history and contain many intriguing stories. The second part of each chapter presents a discography of Monroe's work during those years. The information includes a session's place, date, time, and producer; master/matrix numbers, song/tune titles, composer credits, personnel, instruments, and vocals; and catalog/release numbers and reissue data. The only complete bio-discography of this American musical icon, The Music of Bill Monroe is the starting point for any study of Monroe's contributions as a composer, interpreter, and performer.

The Music of Bill Monroe (Music in American Life)

Biographies & Memoirs

Rosenberg, Neil V.

Arts & Literature

University of Illinois Press

Now for the first time, country music authority Charles K. Wolfe gathers together his profiles of 50 legends of country music, including Bill Monroe, Lefty Frizzell, and Kitty Wells.

Classic Country: Legends of Country Music

Arts & Photography

Music

Routledge

Classic Country

Kentucky Country is a lively tour of the state's indigenous music, from the days of string bands through hillbilly, western swing, gospel, bluegrass, and honkey-tonk to through the Nashville Sound and beyond. Through personal interviews with many of the living legends of Kentucky music, Charles K. Wolfe illuminates a fascinating and important area of American culture. The list of country music stars who hail from Kentucky is a long and glittering one. Red Foley, Bill Monroe, Loretta Lynn, Tom T. Hall, the Judds, Dwight Yaokum, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ricky Skaggs, John Michael Montgomery, and Keith Whitely―all these and many others have called Kentucky home. Kentucky Country is the story of these stars and dozens more. It is also the story of many Kentucky musicians whose contributions have been little known or appreciated, and of those collectors, promoters, and entrepreneurs who have worked behind the scenes to bring Kentucky music to national attention.

Kentucky Country: Folk and Country Music of Kentucky

University Press of Kentucky

Kentucky Country is a lively tour of the state's indigenous music, from the days of string bands through hillbilly, western swing, gospel, bluegrass, and honkey-tonk to through the Nashville Sound and beyond. Through personal interviews with many of the living legends of Kentucky music, Charles K. Wolfe illuminates a fascinating and important area of American culture. The list of country music stars who hail from Kentucky is a long and glittering one. Red Foley, Bill Monroe, Loretta Lynn, Tom T. Hall, the Judds, Dwight Yaokum, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ricky Skaggs, John Michael Montgomery, and Keith Whitely―all these and many others have called Kentucky home. Kentucky Country is the story of these stars and dozens more. It is also the story of many Kentucky musicians whose contributions have been little known or appreciated, and of those collectors, promoters, and entrepreneurs who have worked behind the scenes to bring Kentucky music to national attention.

Country Music Goes To War

Country Music Goes to War

Akenson, James E.

The key players and favorite tunes in the commercial emergence of Southern fiddling in the first half of the twentieth century are the focus of this lucid and engaging study. Drawing on such seldom-tapped resources as small regional newspapers, personal correspondence, and rare interviews with the fiddlers themselves as well as their families, Charles Wolfe conjures up vivid portraits of the individuals who fashioned this distinctly American music.

The Devil's Box: Masters of Southern Fiddling

Vanderbilt University Press

The Story of the Opry's Humble Beginnings. Winner of a Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award Winner of The ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award Vanderbilt University Press and the Country Music Foundation Press are Proud to Bring You the Story of the Opry's Humble Beginnings. 
 On November 28, 1925, a white-bearded man sat before one of Nashville radio station WSM's newfangled carbon microphones to play a few old-time fiddle tunes. Uncle Jimmy Thompson played on the air for an hour that night, and throughout the region listeners at their old crystal sets suddenly perked up. Back in Nashville the response at the offices of National Life Insurance Company, which owned radio station WSM ("We Shield Millions"), was dramatic; phone calls and telegrams poured into the station, many of them making special requests. It was not long before station manager George D. Hay was besieged by pickers and fiddlers of every variety, as well as hoedown bands, singers, and comedians -- all wanting their shot at the Saturday night airwaves. "We soon had a good-natured riot on our hands," Hay later recalled. And, thus, the Opry was born. 
 Or so the story goes. In truth, the birth of the Opry was a far more complicated event than even Hay, "the solemn old Judge," remembered. The veteran performers of that era are all gone now, but since the 1970s pioneering country music historian Charles K. Wolfe has spent countless hours recording the oral history of the principals and their families and mining archival materials from the Country Music Foundation and elsewhere to understand just what those early days were like. The story that he has reconstructed is fascinating. Both a detailed history and a group biography of the Opry's early years, A Good-Natured Riot provides the first comprehensive and thoroughly researched account of the personalities, the music, and the social and cultural conditions that were such fertile ground for the growth of a radio show that was to become an essential part of American culture. 
 Wolfe traces the unsure beginnings of the Opry through its many incarnations, through cast tours of the South, the Great Depression, commercial sponsorship by companies like Prince Albert Tobacco, and the first national radio linkups. He gives colorful and engaging portraits of the motley assembly of the first Opry casts -- amateurs from the hills and valleys surrounding Nashville, like harmonica player Dr. Humphrey Bate ("Dean of the Opry") and fiddler Sid Harkreader, virtuoso string bands like the Dixieliners, colorful hoedown bands like the Gully Jumpers and the Fruit Jar Drinkers, the important African American performer DeFord Bailey, vaudeville acts and comedians like Lasses and Honey, through more professional groups such as the Vagabonds, the Delmore Brothers, Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, and perennial favorite Roy Acuff and his Smoky Mountain Boys. 
 With dozens of wonderful photographs and a complete roster of every performer and performance of these early Opry years, A Good-Natured Riot gives a full and authoritative portrayal of the colorful beginnings of WSM's barn dance program up to 1940, by which time the Grand Ole Opry had found its national audience and was poised to become the legendary institution that it remains to this day.

A Good-Natured Riot: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry (Co-published with the Country Music Foundation Press)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wolfe, Charles K.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Wolfe, Charles K.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wolfe, Charles K.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Life and Legend of Leadbelly

The Life and Legend of Leadbelly

The Music of Bill Monroe (Music in American Life)

Classic Country: Legends of Country Music

Classic Country

Kentucky Country: Folk and Country Music of Kentucky

Kentucky Country: Folk and Country Music of Kentucky

Country Music Goes to War

The Devil's Box: Masters of Southern Fiddling

A Good-Natured Riot: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry (Co-published with the Country Music Foundation Press)