The Bluegrass Reader (Music in American Life)

Rating:
Summary: Purty entertainin', even without no pictures
Review: A few years ago, a certain tenacious fan (yours truly), trying to get an interview with Mitch Jayne of The Dillards, managed to irritate him to the point that he stormed, "Bluegrass people are not readers!" This comprehensive anthology, compiled from a surprising variety of sources by journalist Thomas Goldsmith (the International Bluegrass Music Association's 2004 Print Media Personality of the Year), would seem to prove otherwise. Collecting "particularly strong, influential, and representative writing about bluegrass" from books, magazines and liner notes, "The Bluegrass Reader," like Neil V. Rosenberg's definitive "Bluegrass - A History," is a book with limitless appeal for the growing legion of hard-core bluegrass aficionados who revel in dissecting and debating every facet of the music, no matter how trivial. (For those eggheads, the totally frivolous article "Is There a Link between Bluegrass Musicianship and Sexuality?" is recommended.) There is scholarly fodder aplenty, but the book is more fun when it captures bluegrass stars behaving badly. For instance, in "So You Don't Like the Way We Do It (or Damn Your Tape Recorder)" from a 1967 issue of "Bluegrass Unlimited," John Duffey of the Country Gentlemen seems to have a bug up his bum as he burns more bridges than Sherman defending his playing style. Then there's the guilty pleasure of Jimmy Martin's wildly profane attack on Ricky Skaggs at the Grand Ole Opry in a controversial piece originally from "The Oxford American" (and later expanded into a skimpy book) by Tom Piazza. And in "Rolling Stone," bluegrass darling Alison Krauss indelicately declares she "just about crapped myself" after hearing a really good Merle Haggard tune. Browsers of "The Bluegrass Reader" will be rewarded by a treasure trove of facts and opinionated insights, some of which may sting. David Gates, for example, profiling Ralph Stanley in "The New Yorker," observes, "Good bluegrass...is sweet and sad, wild and sexy. Mediocre bluegrass...is among the most wearisome music on the planet." Ouch!