The most atypical of bluegrass artists, Bill Clifton has enjoyed a long career as a recording artist, performer, and champion of old-time music. Bill C. Malone pens the story of […]
Category: music
Ask the Bolshevik: A Nobel confusion
Dear Bolshevik, As a part of the highbrow academic publishing community, what do you think about Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize in Literature? I know you’re not putting out […]
Dylan the high-heeled marionette
Excerpted from Rob White‘s book Todd Haynes. The black-and-white poise of the re-created tour in I’m Not There softens the actual color footage of these 1966 performances, shot by Pennebaker […]
Bob Dylan Can’t Get In the Door
Excerpted from Jim Rooney’s book In It for the Long Run. Occasionally we would make a weekend trip to New York to hang out with all the pickers down there. On […]
Sa-lute! to Penny Parsons
Last week, the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) named UIP author Penny Parsons Bluegrass Print/Media Person of the Year. A tireless music journalist, Parsons also published Foggy Mountain Troubadour: The […]
WPAQ interview with Penny Parsons on bluegrass icon Curly Seckler
Penny Parsons’ acclaimed biography of bluegrass legend Curly Seckler keeps earning plaudits and getting attention. Recently, Penny sat down at WPAQ in Mt. Airy, North Carolina to discuss Mr. Seckler […]
Marty Robbins, El Paso, and Mr. Teardrop
In three decades as a singer and songwriter Robbins placed a staggering 94 songs on Billboard’s country music charts. His musical style ranged from rockabilly rave-ups to pop standards and […]
Q&A with The Street is My Pulpit author Mwenda Ntarangwi
Mwenda Ntarangwi is an associate professor of anthropology at Calvin College. He recently answered some questions about his book The Street Is My Pulpit: Hip Hop and Christianity in Kenya. […]
Release Party: A Latin American Music Reader
In this new UIP collection, Javier F. León and Helena Simonett curate a group of essential writings from the last twenty-five years of Latin American music studies. Chosen as representative, outstanding, […]
Throwbacklist Thursday: Humor Has It
One man’s opinion: if I had to choose the hardest gig in show business or performance, without a doubt I would say “comedian.” It is hard to spin a funny story. […]
200 Years of Illinois: This one goes out to Johnsburg
September 13, 1983, saw the release of the song “Johnsburg, Illinois,” by Tom Waits, an artist fated to become the most beloved acquired taste in American music. Dubiously referred to […]
Release Party: Blue Rhythm Fantasy
Behind the iconic jazz orchestras, vocalists, and stage productions of the Swing Era lay the talents of popular music’s unsung heroes: the arrangers. In this new entry in our acclaimed […]