Wayne Erbsen has dedicated his whole professional life to playing, teaching, broadcasting, and writing about traditional mountain music. As a professor at the University of North Carolina Asheville, he has taught and performed old time and bluegrass music, hosted Country Roots for three decades on Blue Ridge Public Radio, and written a total of 38 books, most of them music instruction manuals.
Now he has collected the dozens of artist profiles, historical essays, and interviews into book form as Southern Mountain Music – The Collected Writings of Wayne Erbsen, now available from booksellers worldwide.
Erbsen breaks these essays into six categories:
- Mountain Music Pioneers
- Brothers Duets
- Fiddling
- Banjo Picking
- More Bluegrass PIoneers
- Songwriters and Songs
Each chapter includes a number of concise biographies of important figures whose contributions are worth noting, some based on interviews Wayne has conducted with them, in person. Some are obvious; Earl Scruggs in the banjo chapter and Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith in fiddling, but many reach way back to very early artists, or take a look at young artists who are making a mark today.
Especially tasty is the second appendix, which is titled “Quickies,” featuring more than 50 brief snippets about individuals, songs, and experiences the author has chosen to insert.
Anyone with an interest in the history of the music of the southern Appalachian region will find Southern Mountain Music either a sterling resource, or an entertaining read, as you may prefer. One would expect to find this book on the reading list of Appalachian Studies programs all over the southeast.
With a Foreword by Tim Stafford, this is a “can’t lose” volume that belongs in the library of anyone with a passion for traditional mountain music.
Southern Mountain Music is available directly from the publisher, and from many online resellers.
