Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Recent Music Scholarship, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Review of Recent Music Scholarship:

The Music of Multicultural America: Performance, Identity, and Community in the United States, 2nd edition. Ed. Kip Lornell and Anne K. Rasmussen. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2016. Pp. 425, website and acknowledgments, introduction, notes, references cited, additional sources, audiographies, videographies, index.)

Country Boys and Redneck Women: New Essays in Gender and Country Music. Ed. Diane Pecknold and Kristine M. McCusker. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2016. Pp. xviii + 280, introduction, notes, index.)

Sing Me Back Home: Southern Roots and Country Music. By Bill C. Malone. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017. Pp. x …

In The Deep Heart’S Core: A Mystic Cabaret By Joseph Sobol, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

A cycle of songs and spoken pieces from the verses and essays of Ireland's master poet, W. B. Yeats, In the Deep Heart’s Core is a stunning evening of musical theatre. The Chicago Tribune called it "A joy--poetry to the ears, alternately tender and rousing." Featuring Joseph Sobol and original cast member Kathy Cowan. Performers include Lee Bidgood, Dominic Aquilino, Clara Ray Burrus, and Robbie Link.

Bill Monroe And Czech Bluegrassers: Imagination And The Production Of Place In Music, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Journal Summary: Bluegrass and Old Time Country Music: Buried Roots is a collection of articles by noted country music scholars Wayne Daniel, James Akenson, Gregory Hansen and Lee Bidgood. This is a special publication of the International Country Music Journal, an extension of the International Country Music Conference held annually at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Review Of The Original Carolina Chocolate Drops: Giddons, Rhiannon. 2015. Tomorrow Is My Turn; Flemons, Dom. 2015. Prospect Hill; And Robinson, Justin. 2012. Bones For Tinder, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson met at the Black Banjo Gathering at Appalachian State University in 2005. Inspired by this meeting in Appalachia, the trio worked to connect the legacy of Cumberland Plateau fiddler Howard Armstrong (of the 1920s band the Tennessee Chocolate Drops) with musical material they learned from their mentor, North Carolina Piedmont fiddler Joe Thompson. As the Carolina Chocolate Drops (CCD), these musicians explored a variety of black string band traditions.

Czech Bluegrass In Play, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Drawing from scholarship on play, ritual, and performance, I propose that Czech bluegrass thrives – as does my fieldwork – in a state of in-betweenness, in a territory that is between work, play, here and there, self and other. Being comfortable with this kind of in-between state is important for fieldwork, and for music-making – play, I find, is both a central activity and metaphor in both. The bluegrass play I discuss in this essay can become a response to the encroachment of Americanization in economic and cultural globalization, but also a way of being “Americanist” – and entirely Czech.

Collaboration, Fieldwork, And Film, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: I never imagined that I would help produce a documentary film based on my ethnographic fieldwork. Meeting documentary filmmaker Shara Lange during new faculty orientation at the university where we were both newly hired eventually led to our film Banjo Romantika (2013)—a full-length feature based on my research on bluegrass music in the Czech Republic, in which I play a key role as writer, producer, and on-screen character. Taking part in this film project has led me to consider how film enriches relationships with field colleagues, providing new opportunities for teaching and learning. I find that collaborations like ours …

Book Review Of 'Exploring American Folk Music, Ethnic, Grassroots, And Regional Traditions In The U.S.’ By Kip Lornell, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Review of ‘Exploring American Folk Music, Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions in the U.S.’ by Kip Lornell

Czech Bluegrass Fiddlers And Their Negotiations Of Past And Present, Lee Bidgood

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: Proc ty housle? ("Why the fiddle?") - "Fiddlers are all bad here - Why not write about the banjo or something else that Czechs are good at?"These questions about my ethnographic fieldwork came from musician colleagues with whom I working in researching bluegrass music in the Czech Republic, during a jam circle around a table. While these colleagues were mainly banjo and guitar players, these critiques of Czech fiddling are common even among Czech fiddlers, who are in many cases not as accomplished (in technical skill or musicality) as are their banjo-playing and mandolin-picking compatriots.