Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley, the original Folkways recordings 1960-1962
transcribed by Dix Bruce
Mel Bay Publications/Smithsonian Folkways ISBN 0-7866-4498-2 (1999)
The first records to feature Doc Watson were early 60s sessions called Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's, Parts 1 & 2. The impact of these recordings was huge. Almost every song became a standard, and Watson's guitar work was a giant step in the evolution of the guitar from accompaniment to featured lead instrument. Of course his guitar work was only one part of a shifting group sound that included a capella vocals and tracks where Watson played banjo. Rather than leave those songs out, Dix Bruce has made guitar transcriptions of banjo and fiddle parts or song melodies, and in some cases written out Watson's very eye-opening backup parts. These are particularly valuable since earlier Watson collections don't cover this aspect of his work. It's great to have the words to all the songs, too. - Duck Baker (Richmond, CA)
World-Beat & Funk Grooves: Playing a Drumset the Easy Way
by Alan Dworsky & Betty Sansby
Dancing Hands Music ISBN 0-9638801-3-6 (1999); 122 pp., $24.95; includes 2CDs
Playing a drum kit is much more than slapping out a rhythm with your hands. Rather, as Alan Dworsky and Betty Sansby put it in this fine instructional packet, it is more like a dance involving all four limbs. As the subtitle suggests, the book and two CDs focus on funk, African, and Latin rhythms, focusing on different four- and six-beat patterns. The two CDs allow the student to practice the exercises in two different ways. The timelines CD just provides the beat, much like a metronome or click track, whereas the second disc provides the entire percussion sequence to be learned. The lessons progress rapidly from the basics to more challenging rhythmic explorations, but the CDs and the innovative tablature, which has the beats played by each limb on a different line, makes the material readily accessible. - Michael Parrish (Downer's Grove, IL)
A Good-Natured Riot: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry
by Charles K. Wolfe
Vanderbilt University Press and Country Music Foundation Press, ISBN 0-8265-1331-X (1999)
Charles Wolfe has contributed significantly to our knowledge of American traditional music, both as editor of important collections by earlier folklorists and as author of numerous essays and books on subjects from Leadbelly to the Louvin Brothers. Wolfe combines a keen understanding of the cultural and sociological setting of the book's time and place with a deep feeling for the music and the characters who played it, many of whom he has known and interviewed over the years. His love of the subject has translated into work of prodigious proportions, and the resulting book confirms the sense that figures like Uncle Dave and Sam McGee were people you would have loved to have known. Great as biography, social history, and musicological reference book. - Duck Baker (Richmond, CA)
