The Beautiful Music All Around Us - Stephen Wade
In The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience (Univ. of Illinois, $24.95), folklorist and musician Stephen Wade (and star of the long-running Banjo Dancing at Arena Stage) chose thirteen songs recorded by the Library of Congress and traced their stories. Bill Stepp’s virtuosic fiddling on “Bonaparte’s Retreat” leads off; a gospel quartet, a jump-rope rhyme, a lullaby, and a heart-rending spiritual follow. The songs were recorded between 1934 and 1942 at schools, churches, prisons, on street corners, and in homes. Wade spent over fifteen years researching the lives of the musicians, their descendants, their communities, and the afterlife of each song. These are powerful performances and narratives, and with his passionate quest, Wade keeps them in our collective hearts. A CD with all thirteen songs is included in the boo
