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I WAS DOZING in bed after a late night working on the mag. "Where shall I put the mail?" quizzed my wife Jean. "Just drop it on the bed, " murmured I - and she did. My first impression was of lying under a tombstone... It didn't take long to wake up! After I'd figured out how to get into the package I dragged out a book and... WOW! I lay reading until lunch time...

My wife had gone direct to College and hadn't seen it. When she arrived home I said "Sit here, darling, and close your eyes... " then put the tome in her hands, which dropped to her lap. "OK, open now."

"WOW!" she exclaimed. Any self-professed 'grassers who don't react likewise must have something wrong with them.

This is every reviewer's dream - a book on a topic that fascinates you but in which there are gaping holes in your knowledge. Twelve years in the making, this is a thorough work of the history of bluegrass music, written for novices and veterans alike. It is a detailed story of the music told through thousands of quotations and stories of the music's important musicians, promoters, managers and historians - the largest single source of first-person quotations ever assembled.

As well as being a reference book, history book, picture book and story book all rolled into one, this essential reading for any serious follower of Bluegrass, America's Music - Bluegrass is also the perfect coffee table book - just pick it up and start reading at any page and there will be something there of interest. But more to the point it will be in a completely self-contained section can be read in from 5 minutes to 30 minutes top end. And it will contain interesting things that you didn't know (I don't care who you are!) and could easily be about something of which you knew nothing, or almost so.

Right now I am opening the book at random pages and what do I find? A short chapter Jim Eanes: 'If you got no timing you ain't got nothin'! Three-quarters of a page on Flatt & Scruggs and Martha White Flour Mills. Two pages on The Delmore Brothers - did you know that by 1933 they had 25 original tunes and had only $5 between them when they were given an audition for the Opry? Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys get over 9 pages, nearly all new to me. Tex Logan: The Man Who Wrote 'Christmas Times a-Comin' - hands up those who can write more than 10 words about him! When kicking off a song our friend and NWBN author Ted Silverman always asks "Who's got the taters?" I knew what it meant, but why? The 11-line section The Origin of 'Four Potatoes' explains, but many historians might challenge what is written! A whole page on Sally Van Meter, but I can't agree with here thoughts that "There's a lot of percussion in bluegrass ... it's not necessarily a bad thing unless it detracts from the music... that's the line you can't cross." AKUS rates 2½ pages (did you know that Ricky Skaggs was only 28 when he joined?). In the chapter The Festivals there is a section The First Bluegrass Festival- 1965. Well maybe you have different ideas, but all the history and evidence is presented. I could go on forever.

The book is organised into Chapters covering these main themes: The Roots of Bluegrass; Understanding Bluegrass Music; Technology and the Recording Industry; Radio & Television; Comics & Entertaining; Bill Monroe & the Bluegrass Boys; Pioneers; Bluegrass Banjo; Bluegrass Mandolin; Bluegrass Fiddle; Bluegrass Guitar; Bluegrass Bass; The Dobro and Resonator Guitar; Branches of Bluegrass; Women in Bluegrass; Regional Bluegrass; The Studio Musicians & Their Music; Carlton Haney - The Man Responsible for the Bluegrass Festival; The Festivals; The Business of Bluegrass; Record Companies; Instrument Companies & Makers; The Invention of Bluegrass and Controversies; Around The World with an International Music; The Future of Bluegrass; The People of Bluegrass - Personal Data. Every Chapter contains lots of sections covering every possible aspect and more.

I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. If you want to find something it will be there. If you want to pass a little time just pick it up and start - any place will do. If you are writing a perverse bluegrass quiz, you can easily find questions almost no-one can answer...

Derek Brandon, Chester.

Captain Barry Willis

Published by Pine Valley Music, Jan & Barry Willis, 73-1400 Hamiha Street, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 96740, (808) 325-0321 (Write to) (web site).

Softcover ($49.95) ISBN 0-9652407-0-3; Hardcover ($69. 95 Check for availability!)
ISBN 0-9652407-1-1 (July 2000 prices). 630 pages (9" / 23cm x 12" / 30. 5cm) plus 6 pages comprising forewords by Dan Crary and Dick Pierle, foreword and author's & editor's bios., etc.
Second printing 1992.

21st Sept 2000