"There are no definitive histories," writes Elijah Wald, in this provocative reassessment of American popular music, "because the past keeps looking different as the present changes." Earlier musical styles sound different to us today because we hear them through the musical filter of other styles that came after them, all the way through funk and ...
In this book that is part travelogue and part musical history, Wald traces the roots of the contemporary Latin-American folk music known as corrido. While hitchhiking throughout the southwestern US and Mexico, Wald interviewed singers and fans of this style of music which often explores the lives of drug dealers and other outlaws, and often ...
A close-up look at the life and music of Robert Johnson and his contributions to the evolution of blues music describes his obscurity during his own life, his innovative influence on American popular music, and how the history of blues music was shaped and transformed by white fans with different tastes and standards, in a biography complemented by
The official companion to a major PBS documentary series starting in January, "River of Song" tells the story of the Mississippi River and its place in the heart of American music. Photos.
Singer, songwriter, folk revivalist, and masterly guitarist Dave Van Ronk's autobiography, THE MAYOR OF MACDOUGAL STREET, is a vivid letter from 1950s and early-'60s Greenwich Village. Here, in 1959, just before the young Bob Dylan's arrival on the scene (as described in Dylan's CHRONICLES), an apartment rents for $90 a month, and the cafes and ...
How Genetic Information Is Produced and Manipulated by Scientists, Physicians, Employers, Insurance Companies, Educators, and Law Enforcers With a new Preface "With their rich array of citations and examples . . . [Hubbard and Wald] show how the marriage of science and business . . . has created that most treacherous of American progeny: ...
A gifted and charismatic entertainer, Josh White (1914-1969) was one of the best-known folk-blues artists of his day. In the early 1960s, one survey ranked him as America's third most popular male folksinger, surpassed only by Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. He appeared on national television, performed at numerous college concerts and club dates, and ...
This fascinating tale of the author's cross-country hitchhiking journey is a captivating look into the pleasures and challenges of the open road. As the miles roll by he meets businessmen, missionaries, conspiracy theorists, and truck drivers from all ages and ethnicities who are eager to open their car doors to a wandering stranger. This memoir ...
Born in South Carolina, White spent his childhood as a "lead boy" for traveling blind bluesmen. In the early '30s he moved to New York and became a popular blues star, then introduced folk-blues to a mass white audience in the 1940s. He was famed both for his strong Civil Rights songs, which made him a favorite of the Roosevelts, and for his sexy ...
A persuasive indictment of genetic determinism--with a new afterword on the latest genetic discoveries, including the 'breast cancer gene, ' and their social consequences.
Journalist Wald presents an in-depth exploration of the popular Latin music trend of the narcocorridos, Mexican ballads about the daring deeds of cross-border drug traffickers.
"Global Minstrels: The World of World Music" introduces today's leading performers from around the world. From urban nightclubbers dancing to salsa to suburbanites relaxing with Cuban and Brazilian melodies, to the host of pop and rock stars who have added international flavors to their music, "world" sounds have become part of the basic fabric of ...
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