A New History of American and Canadian Folk Music

Description

Building on his 2006 book, Which Side Are You On?, Dick Weissman’s A New History of American and Canadian Folk Music presents a provocative discussion of the history, evolution, and current status of folk music in the United States and Canada. North American folk music achieved a high level of popular acceptance in the late 1950s. When it was replaced by various forms of rock music, it became a more specialized musical niche, fragmenting into a proliferation of musical styles. In the pop-folk revival of the 1960s, artists were celebrated or rejected for popularizing the music to a mass audience. In particular the music seemed to embrace a quest for authenticity, which has led to endless explorations of what is or is not faithful to the original concept of traditional music. This book examines the history of folk music into the 21st century and how it evolved from an agrarian style as it became increasingly urbanized. Scholar-performer Dick Weissman, himself a veteran of the popularization wars, is uniquely qualified to examine the many controversies and musical evolutions of the music, including a detailed discussion of the quest for authenticity, and how various musicians, critics, and fans have defined that pursuit. Cover Contents Preface: A personal note Acknowledgments Introduction: A New Look at American and Canadian Folk Music 1 From the Beginning: Folksong Collectors and Collections and Regional Music Styles in the United States and Canada 2 Mass Distribution: Radio, Records, and Pre-World War Two Artists 3 Early Protest Music: The Industrial Workers of the World, the Coal Miners, the Cotton Mills, and the Communist and Socialist Agitators 4 The Almanac Singers, People’s Song, People’s Artists, and the Blacklist 5 The Weavers and the Beginning of the Folk Revival 6 Meanwhile, Back in Canada 7 Selling the Music: The New York Scene 8 Beyond the Big Apple: The Coffeehouses, Folk Music Organizations, and Folk Music Instrument Shops in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, the Pacific Northwest, San Francisco, and Toronto 9 The Riddle of Authenticity 10 The Civil Rights Movement 11 Folk-Rock, the British Invasion, and the Rise of the Singer-Songwriters 12 The Increasing Influence of Singer-Songwriters and the Women’s Music Movement 13 North American Folk Festivals and Summer Teaching Camps 14 Instrumental Music: The Development and Expansion of Musical Possibilities 15 The Folk Music Business 16 What’s Going On: Expansion, Contraction, and Evolution 17 Looking Back: An Evaluation of Four Major Figures in the Folk Revival 18 Today and Tomorrow Appendix Index