Reviews

PLAY ME SOMETHING QUICK AND DEVILISH: OLD-TIME FIDDLERS IN MISSOURI BY—HOWARD WIGHT MARSHALL. University of Missouri Press 9780826219947. Includes CD with 39 tunes, 398 pp., $29.95. (Univ. Of Missouri Press, 2910 LeMone Blvd., Columbia, MO 65201, press.umsystem.edu.) It’s rare for a work to combine—as this one does—academic rigor, multi disciplinary comprehensiveness, and compelling writing. To…

KIM ROBINS 40 YEARS LATE Forty Years Late Music No Number Langston Hughes asked: What happens to a dream deferred? In the case of vocalist Kim Robins, the dream was set aside, but never abandoned, and has now re-emerged as her debut recording featuring seven of her originals, a couple of standards, and three others….

THE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC ALL AROUND US: FIELD RECORDINGS AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE—BY STEPHEN WADE—University of Illinois Press 9780252036880. Clothbound, 504 pp., b&w photos, 13-track CD included, $24.95. (Univ. Of Illinois Press, 1325 S. Oak St., MC-566, Champaign, IL 61820, press.uillinois.edu.) Banjo player Stephen Wade, who is also an actor (Banjo Dancing), writer, researcher, and historian,…

LILLY OF THE WEST SWINGS & HEARTACHES Musicautor MK Nr. 55687/15.11.2011 Bulgarian songstress Lilly Drumeva and her band Lilly of the West are probably familiar to many bluegrass fans, having performed widely across Europe, toured several times in the U.S., making appearances at IBMA’s World Of Bluegrass and a number of bluegrass festivals. Over the…

ELLEN CARLSON PEOPLE I PLAY WITH No Label CD 3535    Ellen Carlson is a New Hampshire fiddler with a strong grasp on several genres.  Her major influences include Vassar Clements and Pete Southerland.  Hints or more of both of these fiddlers show up in her playing.  She has also absorbed much from other fiddlers she…

JODY STECHER WONDERS & SIGNS Vegetiboy Music TLSFN2 Jody Stecher, that musical wunderkind (in spite of his now-white hair), has finally released an album of all-original songs and tunes. He said he got brave enough to do this when folks started asking him not “Did you write that song?” but “Where did you learn that…