Joe Wilson served for twenty-eight years as executive director of the
National Folk Festival and National Council for Traditional Arts.
Throughout his impressive career, Wilson wrote extensively and
colorfully about many facets of vernacular music in North America,
including works on major folk instruments, as well as on characteristic
musical styles, especially old-time, bluegrass, modern country, blues,
cowboy, a cappella gospel, and others. This volume, a companion to
Lucky Joe's Namesake: The Extraordinary Life and Observations of Joe
Wilson, compiles Wilson's best writings on musical topics, including
some previously unpublished works.
With wry humor, Wilson covers the origins of roots music in
eighteenth-century America and its subsequent dispersion through races,
classes, ethnic groups, and newly settled regions. Wilson knew, worked
with, and wrote about many iconic artists of the twentieth century,
including Willie Nelson, Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, the Stanley
Brothers, Kenny Baker, Cephas & Wiggins, John Jackson, and members of
the Hill Billies--the band whose name came to signify an entire genre of
the earliest recorded roots music. This carefully curated volume is
comprised of works previously scattered in liner notes,
small-circulation magazines, tour booklets, and unpublished manuscripts,
all collected here and organized by theme.
The writings of this legendary, internationally recognized figure will
be indispensable to roots music fans and will delight readers and
students interested in the traditional arts and dedicated to preserving
historic folkways.
