In the book My Grandfather, Artem Erkomaishvili, the musical biography of the great Georgian singer-chanter Artem Erkomaishvili is described. He was born to a traditional family of singers in 1887. He finished school for chanters and became a professional chanter thereafter (he knew more than 2,000 hymns). After the October Revolution, chanting was forbidden in Georgia. Artem formed a choir in Batumi that won in the first Olympiad of the Republic. Since that time, Artem Erkomaishvilis choirs have always deserved the highest appraisals. Though Artem experienced a difficult life that was quite painful and tragic, he channeled his talent in order to persevere. The book also comprises quite a few references about old singers-chanters. This book informs readers about old traditions and customs like the Georgian New Year, Christmas, and Easter holidays. It also contains information on the rules for performing the traditional songs Batonebo (a healing song), Alilo (a Christmas song), Elesa (a work song), etc. The book is also interesting in terms of its ethnographic point of view. Cultural activities such as tree cutting, wine-making, the distillation of spirits like Russian vodka, Japanese sake, and Georgian araki, the raising of the silkworms, or the carving of the chonguri (traditional Georgian musical instrument) are described and detailed within this monograph. The musical epoch of Artem Erkomaishvilis period, which was full of severe repressions under the Communist regime echoes throughout the pages. Church hymns, traditional songs, and anything connected to this question was strictly banned. Artem Erkomaishvili and his followers saved Georgian songs chants at their own risk. It is Artems outstanding contribution to the recognition of the Georgian polyphony as a masterpiece by UNESCO. The book will act as a detailed reference for folklorists, and lovers of Georgian folk music will enjoy it very much.

When it comes to Texas honky-tonk, nobody knows the music or the scene better than Johnny Bush. Author of Willie Nelson's classic concert anthem "Whiskey River," and singer of hits such as "You Gave Me a Mountain," "Undo the Right," "Jim, Jack and Rose," and "I'll Be There," Johnny Bush is a legend in country music, a singer-songwriter who has lived the cheatin', hurtin', hard-drinkin' life and recorded some of the most heart-wrenching songs about it. He has one of the purest honky-tonk voices ever to come out of Texas. And Bush's career has been just as dramatic as his songs-on the verge of achieving superstardom in the early 1970s, he was sidelined by a rare vocal disorder that he combated for thirty years. But, survivor that he is, Bush is once again filling dance halls across Texas and inspiring a new generation of musicians who crave the authenticity-the "pure D" country-that Johnny Bush has always had and that Nashville country music has lost. In Whiskey River (Take My Mind), Johnny Bush tells the twin stories of his life and of Texas honky-tonk music. He recalls growing up poor in Houston's Kashmere Gardens neighborhood and learning his chops in honky-tonks around Houston and San Antonio-places where chicken wire protected the bandstand and deadly fights broke out regularly. Bush vividly describes life on the road in the 1960s as a band member for Ray Price and Willie Nelson, including the booze, drugs, and one-night stands that fueled his songs but destroyed his first three marriages. He remembers the time in the early 1970s when he was hotter than Willie and on the fast track to superstardom-until spasmodic dysphonia forced his career into the slow lane. Bush describes his agonizing, but ultimately successful struggle to keep performing and rebuild his fan base, as well as the hard-won happiness he has found in his personal life. Woven throughout Bush's autobiography is the never-before-told story of Texas honky-tonk music, from Bob Wills and Floyd Tillman to Junior Brown and Pat Green. Johnny Bush has known almost all the great musicians, past and present, and he has wonderful stories to tell. Likewise, he offers shrewd observations on how the music business has changed since he started performing in the 1950s-and pulls no punches in saying how Nashville music has lost its country soul. For everyone who loves genuine country music, Johnny Bush, Willie Nelson, and stories of triumph against all odds, Whiskey River (Take My Mind) is a must-read.

In this book Sara Le Menestrel explores the role of music in constructing, asserting, erasing, and negotiating differences based on the notions of race, ethnicity, class, and region. She discusses established notions and brings to light social stereotypes and hierarchies at work in the evolving French Louisiana music field. She also draws attention to the interactions between oppositions such as black and white, urban and rural, differentiation and creolization, and local and global. Le Menestrel emphasizes the importance of desegregating the understanding of French Louisiana music and situating it beyond ethnic or racial identifications, amplifying instead the importance of regional identity. Musical genealogy and categories currently in use rely on a racial construct that frames African and European lineage as an essential difference. Yet as the author samples music in the field and discovers ways music is actually practiced, she reveals how the insistence on origins continually interacts with an emphasis on cultural mixing and creative agency. This book finds French Louisiana musicians navigating between multiple identifications, musical styles, and legacies while market forces, outsiders' interest, and geographical mobility also contribute to shape musicians' career strategies and artistic choices. The book also demonstrates the decisive role of non-natives' enthusiasm and mobility in the validation, evolution, and reconfiguration of French Louisiana music. Finally, the distinctiveness of South Louisiana from the rest of the country appears to be both nurtured and endured by locals, revealing how political domination and regionalism intertwine.

While music lovers and music historians alike understand that folkmusic played an increasingly pivotal role in American labor and politicsduring the economic and social tumult of the Great Depression, how did thisrelationship come to be? Ronald D. Cohen sheds new light on the complexcultural history of folk music in America, detailing the musicians, governmentagencies, and record companies that had a lasting impact during the1930s and beyond. Covering myriad musical styles and performers, Cohennarrates a singular history that begins in nineteenth-century labor politicsand popular music culture, following the rise of unions and Communismto the subsequent Red Scare and increasing power of the Conservativemovement in American politics-with American folk and vernacular musiccentered throughout. Detailing the influence and achievements of such notablemusicians as Pete Seeger, Big Bill Broonzy, and Woody Guthrie, Cohenexplores the intersections of politics, economics, and race, using the rootsof American folk music to explore one of the United States' most troubledtimes. Becoming entangled with the ascending American left wing, folkmusic became synonymous with protest and sharing the troubles of real peoplethrough song.

Istanbul is home to a multimillion dollar transnational music industry, which every year produces thousands of digital music recordings, including widely distributed film and television show soundtracks. Today, this centralized industry is responding to a growing global demand for Turkish, Kurdish, and other Anatolian ethnic language productions, and every year, many of its top-selling records incorporate elaborately orchestrated arrangements of rural folksongs. What accounts for the continuing demand for traditional music in local and diasporic markets? How is tradition produced in twenty-first century digital recording studios, and is there a "digital aesthetics" to contemporary recordings of traditional music? In Digital Traditions: Arrangement and Labor in Istanbul's Recording Studio Culture, author Eliot Bates answers these questions and more with a case study into the contemporary practices of recording traditional music in Istanbul. Bates provides an ethnography of Turkish recording studios, of arrangers and engineers, studio musicianship and digital audio workstation kinesthetics. Digital Traditions investigates the moments when tradition is arranged, and how arrangement is simultaneously a set of technological capabilities, limitations and choices: a form of musical practice that desocializes the ensemble and generates an extended network of social relations, resulting in aesthetic art objects that come to be associated with a range of affective and symbolic meanings. Rich with visual analysis and drawing on Science & Technology Studies theories and methods, Digital Tradition sets a new standard for the study of recorded music. Scholars and general readers of ethnomusicology, Middle Eastern studies, folklore and science and technology studies are sure to find Digital Traditions an essential addition to their library.