Neil V. Rosenberg

Bluegrass academic Neil Rosenberg looks back at his experience with Bill Monroe in the early 1960s, when he played in the house band and (later) managed the operations at Monroe's music ranch in Bean Blossom, Indiana.

A wonderful book. Looking back, Rosenberg can see the legends surrounding Monroe being constructed.

Much of the book is based on documents and concert recordings the author collected during that period. Having those resources at this fingertips allowed him to reconstruct events of some importance to all bluegrass fans. Both the events, and the processes used to research them, are fascinating.

A great read. Highly recommended.… (mehr)

Best thought of as a picture book, mostly taken in the 1970s. The photographs are fascinating.

Someone looking for a more thorough history of the music would indeed be better served by one of Rosenberg's other books. But this book is valuable in its own right.

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Revised comment on reread, 10/31/2019: I like Rosenberg's essays better this time, viewing them more as comments on the photographs than an attempt at history. And Fleischhauer's concluding note about photographing bluegrass musicians and festivals really struck a nerve; it's much like my experience doing the same thing. Carl's photographs are truly delightful.… (mehr)

Carl Fleischhauer has been the brilliant and indefatigable photo-chronicler of Bluegrass music for almost half a century, and Neil Rosenberg has likewise been the only historian of Bluegrass worth reading. Sadly, this opus seems to be mostly leavings from many other books, recordings, and lectures, with no discernable direction motivation other than getting another book into print. Those who know Bluegrass won't see or read much that they don't already know, while those unfamiliar with it will gain little sense of that special, wonderful (and occasionally nightmarish) world which is Bluegrass.… (mehr)