Southern music has flourished as a meeting ground for the
traditions of West African and European peoples in the region,
leading to the evolution of various traditional folk genres,
bluegrass, country, jazz, gospel, rock, blues, and southern
hip-hop. This much-anticipated volume in
The New Encyclopedia of
Southern Culture celebrates an essential element of southern
life and makes available for the first time a stand-alone reference
to the music and music makers of the American South.
With nearly double the number of entries devoted to music in the
original
Encyclopedia, this volume includes 30 thematic
essays, covering topics such as ragtime, zydeco, folk music
festivals, minstrelsy, rockabilly, white and black gospel
traditions, and southern rock. And it features 174 topical and
biographical entries, focusing on artists and musical outlets. From
Mahalia Jackson to R.E.M., from Doc Watson to OutKast, this volume
considers a diverse array of topics, drawing on the best historical
and contemporary scholarship on southern music. It is a book for
all southerners and for all serious music lovers, wherever they
live.