Southern Mountain Music: The Collected Writings of Wayne Erbsen
Published by McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers
Wayne Erbsen is a familiar name to most bluegrass fans due not only to his musical performances and recordings but also for the many instructional books, historical books, songbooks, articles, and essays that he has written over the years. Many of his articles have appeared in Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine, dating back to 1979, with the majority of the articles appearing in the early 1980s.
In presenting Southern Mountain Music, Erbsen has brought together many of the magazine articles and essays that he has put out over his career and together these articles paint a clear picture of the history of bluegrass and old-time music, especially in the states of North Carolina and Virginia.
Many of the musicians that Erbsen features in this book are those—like “Pop” Stoneman, Eck Robertson, Fiddlin’ John Carson, Henry Whitter, Eck Dunford, The Carter Family, The Morris Brothers, Walter Davis, Dock Walsh, Charlie Poole, Wade and J.E. Mainer, Snuffy Smith and others—who were performing and recording southern mountain music prior to Bill Monroe forming The Blue Grass Boys and creating a new genre that was based in that music.
Others who are featured—like Cleo Davis, Tommy Davis, and Jim Shumate—worked as Blue Grass Boys prior to Flatt and Scruggs joining the band and helping to define the sound that we call bluegrass today. So, for bluegrass fans who don’t know much about the mountain music pioneers that “foreshadowed” bluegrass, this book presents a good look at those pioneers and their stories. Of course, bluegrass heroes—such as Earl Scruggs, Lester Woodie, Raymond Fairchild, Bill Clifton, Clarence White, and others—are also featured here.
The 195-page book is presented in six chapters and two appendices and includes 100 photographs placed throughout. The chapters start with articles that highlight the mountain music pioneers, then there is a chapter dedicated to the early brother duets. Next there is a chapter that focuses on fiddling, then one that presents articles about banjo players. The group of articles in the next chapter takes a look at more bluegrass pioneers. The final chapter talks about songwriters and songs. If you enjoy reading the histories and stories behind your favorite bluegrass songs, you will enjoy this chapter. Erbsen discusses 20 different songs in this section, all of them familiar to bluegrass and old-time music fans. In the two appendices, the first titled “miscellaneous” and the second titled “quickies,” Erbsen adds short stories that he has either heard about or lived during his years playing, teaching, and reporting on bluegrass and old-time music.
One of the nice features of this book is that when Erbsen wrote the majority of these feature articles they were based on first-hand interviews with the people he is writing about. Erbsen—someone who studied American history at both the undergraduate and graduate levels—sought out, met, and interviewed these pioneers of Southern music. Some of the people that Erbsen interviewed over 40 years ago were in their later years at the time and had retired from playing music. Erbsen heard about them, sought them out, and talked with them about their careers in music. These first-hand accounts are valuable in helping players and fans today understand the roots of this music. As Tim O’Brien writes in his endorsement of the book, “The many entertaining and informative essays in Wayne Erbsen’s Southern Mountain Music bring the reader up close to the pioneers of bluegrass music.” I wholeheartedly agree and recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the earliest days of the music that came to be known as bluegrass.
