Discovering Folk Music

From Ani DiFranco to Bob Dylan to Woodie Guthrie, American folk music comprises a truly diverse and rich tradition-one that's almost impossible to define in broad terms. This book explains why folk music is still highly relevant in the digital age. From indigenous music to Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen singing "This Land Is Your Land" side-by-side at the pre-inaugural concert for our first African American president, folk music has been at the center of America's history. Thomas Jefferson wooed his bride-to-be with fiddle playing. Stephen Foster captured the mood of our country in transition. The Carter Family adapted music from across the pond to Appalachia. Paul Robeson carried folk music of many lands to the world stage. Woody Guthrie's dust bowl ballads spoke to the common man, while Sixties protest music put folk on the map, following the Kingston Trio's hit, "Tom Dooley." Folk music has evolved with America's changing landscape, celebrating its multi-cultural traditions. From Irish step dancers to rap, parlor songs to Dixieland, blues to classical, Discovering Folk Music presents the genre as surprisingly diverse, every bit the product of our national melting pot. Demonstrating continuing relevance of folk music in our everyday lives, the book spotlights an amazing array of personalities, with special emphasis on the folk revival era when Dylan, Baez, Odetta, and Peter, Paul and Mary sang out. These and others influenced such contemporary performers as Shawn Colvin and Ani DiFranco. Those on today's "fringes of folk" scene continue to look to these deep roots while embracing alternative sounds. Included are interviews with such legendary artists as Janis Ian, Tom Paxton, and Jean Ritchie. Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, also weighs in. Discovering Folk Music is a ground-breaking look at 21st-century folk music in our rapidly changing digital world, family friendly while ripe for rediscovery by the Woodstock generation.

STEPHANIE P. LEDGIN is a journalist and photographer who has focused on bluegrass and traditional folk music since 1975, when she began work as an editor of the seminal bluegrass magazine Pickin'. Her work has also appeared in such publications as Bluegrass Unlimited, Acoustic Guitar, Sing Out!, and Bluegrass Now.

Foreword by Gregg and Evan Spiridellis Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Why Folk Music? Chapter 1 What Is Folk Music? Beyond "Kumbaya" Chapter 2 American Folk Music: A Cultural Mosaic Chapter 3 Folk Revival: 50 Years On Chapter 4 No Boundaries: New Folk to Anti-Folk Chapter 5 The Power of Song Chapter 6 Guitars, Harmonicas, and Banjos.Oh, My! Chapter 7 Folk: Family-Friendly Chapter 8 Folk Alive! Front Porches to Festivals Chapter 9 Bridging Folk: Tom Paxton to the Abrams Brothers Chapter 10 A Living Tradition: The Times They Keep A-Changin' More Folk: Selected Resources Listening Space: A Folk Continuum Index A photo essay appears after page 88 in this book.