Dirty Linen: Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Here's just a few of the reviews available in Issue #71

Appalachian Autoharp
by Carol Stober
Mel Bay MB95472 (1996)
Carol Stober is an award-winning musician on several instruments. Her history with the autoharp goes back to a time when she was teaching school in the mountains of Kentucky. She was moved by the music she heard there and realized that it might soon be lost or forgotten. As she listened and learned, she shared her discoveries with the children and adults at her school. That is basically what she does in this book — three dozen traditional songs of various vintages are presented with music and tab. They range from "Stewball" to "The Four Marys" in style and content. The book will be a great resource for those looking for autoharp tab for those songs that always turn up when people get together to sing — "In the Pines," "Hush Little Baby," "Shenandoah" and the like are all here. - Kerry Dexter (Tallahassee, FL)

The Great Dobro Sessions
by Stacy Phillips (with Curtis Burch)
[Mel Bay Publications (1996)]
The acoustic instrumental event of 1995 was The Great Dobro Sessions, a recording project for which Jerry Douglas and Tut Taylor assembled a who's who of resophonic guitarists in a Nashville studio and let them cut loose for a week or so. Now album participant Stacy Phillips has assembled a tablature book of most of the tunes from the recording. One of the most instructive aspects of the CD was the way that different musicians approached the same instrument and the same types of material. In addition to taking on the formidable task of transcribing the solos of all the other session pickers (except for Burch and Mike Auldridge, who contribute their own tablature), Phillips offers enlightening and often wry commentary on what characterizes the styles of his various colleagues, and on what went on during the recording sessions. This beautifully produced and illustrated book provides a wealth of information that should prove a godsend for medium to advanced Dobro players. - Michael Parrish (St. Charles, IL)