University Press of Mississippi

MUSIC | FOLKLORE
Southern Fiddlers and Fiddle Contests
Chris Goertzen
A journey to the main
public venue for the most
vigorous American folk
music tradition
SSouthern Fiddlers and Fiddle
Contests explores the phenomenon
of American fiddle
contests, which now have
replaced dances as the main
public event where American
fiddlers get together.
Chris Goertzen studies this
change and what it means
for audiences, musicians,
traditions, and the future of
southern fiddle music.
Goertzen traces fiddling
and fiddle contests
from mid-eighteenth-century
Scotland to the modern
United States. He takes the
reader on journeys to the
important large contests,
such as those in Hallettville,
Texas; Galax, Virginia;
Weiser, Idaho; and also to
smaller ones, including his
favorite in Athens, Alabama.
He focuses on what happens
on stage and such off stage
activities as camping, jamming, and socializing, which many fiddlers
consider much more important than the competition.
Through multiple interviews, Goertzen also reveals the fiddlers’
lives as told in their own words. The reader learns how and
in what environments these fiddlers started playing, where they
perform today, how they teach, what they think of contests, and
what values they believe fiddling supports. Southern Fiddlers and
Fiddle Contests shows how such contests have become living embodiments
of American nostalgia.
Chris Goertzen is associate professor of music history and world
music at University of Southern Mississippi. He is the author of
Fiddling for Norway: Revival and Identity and coeditor of the volume
on Europe in the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music.
NOVEMBER, 192 pages (approx.), 6 x 9 inches, 12 b&w photographs, bibliography,
appendix, index
Cloth $50.00S, 978-1-60473-122-4
American Made Music Series
Photograph—Old-time fiddler Richard Bowman at Felts Park in Galax,
Virginia, courtesy the author
ALSO IN THE AMERICAN MADE MUSIC SERIES
Fiddling Way Out Yonder
The Life and Music of Melvin Wine
Drew Beisswenger
Cloth $45.00S, 978-1-57806-441-0
Paper $25.00D, 978-1-60473-202-3
Waltz the Hall
The American Play Party
Alan L. Spurgeon
Cloth $50.00S, 978-1-57806-742-8
16 University Press of Mississippi
MUSIC | BIOGRAPHY
Rare Birds
Conversations with Legends
of Jazz and Classical Music
Thomas Rain Crowe with Nan Watkins
RRare Birds is a collection of
conversations with worldclass
jazz musicians and
classical composers, featuring
luminaries Philip Glass,
Charles Lloyd, Abdullah
Ibrahim, Steve Reich, Eugene
Friesen, and Sathima
Bea Benjamin. These indepth,
candid interviews
focus not only on the music
but also on the artists.
The six interviews, conducted
by poet and author
Thomas Rain Crowe and
musician Nan Watkins,
delve into the creative process,
individual as well as
global perspectives on the
arts, the human condition,
and various personal issues
that are addressed in the
music itself. These cuttingedge
artists have singular
ideas about what it means
to be a composer and musician.
An important addition
to the documentation of
modern jazz musicians and
composers, Rare Birds will
appeal to anyone who is
interested in jazz music or
the contemporary classical canon.
Thomas Rain Crowe is a poet, translator, and author of twenty books,
including the award-winning book of nonfiction Zoro’s Field: My
Life in the Appalachian Woods. Nan Watkins is a musician, writer,
and translator. She is the author of East Toward Dawn: A Woman’s
Solo Journey around the World.
NOVEMBER, 176 pages (approx.), 5½ x 8½ inches, 6 b&w photographs, discographies,
index
Unjacketed cloth $50.00S, 978-1-60473-103-3
Paper $20.00T, 978-1-60473-110-1
Photographs—Abdullah Ibrahim by Manfred Rindersbacher; Eugene Friesen
by Sean Kernan
RELATED
Jazz Planet
Edited by E. Taylor Atkins
Paper $22.00S, 978-1-57806-609-4
A Trumpet around the Corner
The Story of New Orleans Jazz
Samuel Charters
Cloth $40.00T, 978-1-57806-898-2
Conversations with the
leading edge of contemporary
composers
Call 1-800-737-7788 to order toll-free.