Capital Bluegrass

With its rich but underappreciated musical heritage, Washington, D.C. is often overlooked as a cradle for punk, the birthplace of go go, and as the urban center for bluegrass in the Untied States. Capital Bluegrass: Hillbilly Music Meets Washington, D.C. richly documents the history and development of bluegrass in and around the nation's capital since it emerged in the 1950s. In his seventeenth book, American vernacular music scholar Kip Lornell discusses both well-known progressive bluegrass bands including the Country Gentlemen and the Seldom Scene, and lesser known groups like the Happy Melody Boys, Benny and Vallie Cain and the Country Clan, and Foggy Bottom. Lornell focuses on colorful figures such as the brilliant and eccentric mandolin player, Buzz Busby, and Connie B. Gay, who helped found the Country Music Association in Nashville. Moving beyond the musicians to the institutions that were central to the development of the genre, Lornell brings the reader into the nationally recognized Birchmere Music Hall, and tunes in to NPR powerhouse WAMU-FM, which for five decades broadcast as much as 40 hours a week of bluegrass programming. Dozens of images illuminate the story of bluegrass in the D.C. area, photographs and flyers that will be new to even the most veteran bluegrass enthusiast. Bringing to life a music and musical community integral to the history of the city itself, Capital Bluegrass tells an essential tale of bluegrass in the United States.

Kip Lornell began investigating American vernacular music in 1970, resulting in scores of publications, record projects, and films. He has received research grants from (among others) the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Virginia Commission for the Arts, NEA, and NEH. Additionally Dr. Lornell served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Smithsonian Folkways from 1988-90, won the 1993 ASCAP Deems-Taylor book award for The Life and Legend of Leadbelly (co-authored with Charles K. Wolfe) and the 1997 Grammy for "Album Notes Writer" for his contribution to Smithsonian Folkways' Anthology of American Folk Music. In 2020 the Association for Recorded Sound Collection (ARSC) awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award. In May 2023, Dr. Lornell retired from teaching courses in American music and ethnomusicology at George Washington University after 31 years. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Beltway Region Volleyball Officials, is Senior Lecturer of Music at American University, and is working on his 20th book, a co-authored exploration of "race record" advertisements from the 1920s.

Introduction and Thanks Chapter One: Before Bluegrass (1920s-1946) Chapter Two: Back Then It Was Called Hillbilly Music (1946-1957) Chapter Three: Country Gentlemen and The Folk Music Revival (1957-1966) Chapter Four: Bluegrass Unlimited (1966-1977) Chapter Five: Not Seldom Heard or Scene (1977-1991) Chapter Six: 'A Cold Wind A Blowin' (1991-2018) Sources