Bluegrass odyssey : a documentary in pictures and words, 1966-86 /

The work of photographer Carl Fleischhauer, who coordinates projects at the National Digital Library Program, and folklorist Neil Rosenberg, author of Bluegrass: A History (CH, May'86), this one-hundredth title in the outstanding "Music in American Life" series documents and interprets two central decades of one of America's least glamorous but most persistent musical traditions. Divided into six chapters, this book is about not just the musicians but also the devoted fans, the streets and stores and offices, the buses and pickups and festival sites and musical instruments and traditions that reveal the cultural landscape of bluegrass. Rosenberg's narratives set the stage for Fleischhauer's compelling, black-and-white photographs, photographs that invoke a remarkable intimacy in the revealing faces, the intensity and stillness, at the hillside and nightclub, in the parking lot jams or at a peaceful mountain gravesite. An introduction by Rosenberg and an afterword by Fleischhauer set out the two perspectives that shape this worthwhile book. A welcome addition to photography collections as well as to those supporting popular music. All levels. D. Gordon Christopher Newport University