Research Catalog

Title

The devil's box : masters of southern fiddling / Charles Wolfe ; foreword by Mark O'Connor.

Author

Wolfe, Charles K.

Publication

Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press : Country Music Foundation Press, 1997.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxiv, 232 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

The key players and favorite tunes in the commercial emergence of Southern fiddling in the first half of the twentieth century are the focus of this lucid and engaging study. Drawing on such seldom-tapped resources as small regional newspapers, personal correspondence, and rare interviews with the fiddlers themselves as well as their families, Charles Wolfe conjures up vivid portraits of the individuals who fashioned this distinctly American music.

Subjects

• Fiddle tunes > History and criticism
• Fiddling > History and criticism
• Fiddlers > Southern States > Biography

Note

• Discography: p. 217-218.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Foreword / Mark O'Connor -- Introduction: The Commercial Fiddling Tradition -- 1. The Oldest Recorded Fiddling Styles -- 2. The Recordings of Eck Robertson -- 3. Across the Amerikee: The Story of Uncle Jimmy Thompson -- 4. Fiddlin' Powers and His Family -- 5. Mr. Grayson's Train -- 6. Doc Roberts: Behind the Masks -- 7. Clayton McMichen: The Reluctant Hillbilly -- 8. Kessinger -- 9. Fiddlers' Dream: The Legend of Arthur Smith -- 10. Bob Wills, Fiddler -- 11. Slim Miller of Renfro Valley -- 12. The Mystery of "The Black Mountain Rag" -- 13. "Over the Waves": Notes toward a History -- 14. Tommy Jackson: Portrait of a Nashville Session Fiddler -- 15. Ernie Hodges: From Coal Creek to Bach.

ISBN

0826512836 (cloth : alk. paper)

LCCN

96051254

OCLC

• 36037955
• ocm36037955

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries