Welcome to the Press’s 2020 IBMA Virtual Exhibit. Step inside, and browse our extensive collection of bluegrass titles, author publications, playlists, and more. Also, enjoy 50% off all bluegrass titles, as well as the chance to buy three titles to get a free copy of the Winter 2020 issue of American Music. Use Code IBMA20 when you order. Browse all of our titles on sale here.
Enter our IBMA drawing for a free copy of INDUSTRIAL BLUEGRASS and its companion CD from Smithsonian Folkways! Learn more here: https://mailchi.mp/83d1d9be3b7c/4985clvb40
Featured Publications
American Music is an independent, peer-reviewed journal published quarterly by the University of Illinois Press. Get the Winter 2020 issue for free with the purchase of three bluegrass titles. Click here to view the latest issues of American Music
Let’s Talk!
Make an appointment to talk about your book project with music editor Laurie Matheson or about your journal article with Todd Decker, editor of American Music.
To schedule an appointment with Laurie Matheson, please email lmatheso@illinois.edu
To schedule an appointment with Todd Decker, editor of American Music please email tdecker@wustl.edu
Bluegrass Music at the Press
Revel in our Dolly Parton, Foggy Mountain Breakdown and female country music trailblazers playlists inspired by our books.
Unlikely Angel: The Songs of Dolly Parton Playlist
Your Foggy Mountain Breakdown Playlist Recorded in 1949, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” changed the face of American music. The song has become a gateway to bluegrass for musicians and fans alike as well as a happily inescapable track in film and television. Thomas Goldsmith has chosen his favorite versions of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” for your listening pleasure. So sit back, relax and enjoy two minutes and forty-three seconds of heaven.
Hillbilly Maidens, Okies, and Cowgirls Playlist
Sneak Peak Inside Bill Monroe: The Life and Music of the Blue Grass Man
Tom Ewing presents fans of bluegrass music with an in-depth and long-awaited biography on the Blue Grass Man himself, Bill Monroe. To learn more, read an excerpt of the insightful text here.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Banjo
Spanning centuries of music history, the banjo remains a recognizable and unique instrument in genres including bluegrass and folk. As the banjo reaches new parts of the world, we can trace back its appearances in the rise of many musical figures in American music. Read about eight books and two journal articles that explore the history and growth of the banjo and those who mastered its complex chords here.
Sneak Peak Inside Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics
Born into folk music’s first family, Peggy Seeger has blazed her own trail artistically and personally. Jean R. Freedman draws on a wealth of research and conversations with Seeger to tell the life story of one of music’s most charismatic performers and tireless advocates. Read an excerpt from the book here.
Here More from Our Authors and Editors
- Tom Ewing’s “Adventures of a Blue Grass Boy”
- Thomas Goldsmith on Earl Scruggs and Foggy Mountain Breakdown
- Stephanie Vander Wel’s chapter in The Honky Tonk on the Left: Progressive Thought in Country Music
- Stephanie Vander Wel’s “The Lavender Cowboy and “The She Buckaroo”: Gene Autry, Patsy Montana, and Depression-Era Gender Roles”
- Jean R. Freedman on writing Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics
- Jean R. Freedman’s Interview with Deborah Kalb about Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics
- Jean R. Freedman’s Essay about Peggy Seeger
- Lydia R. Hamessley’s “Within Sight: Three-Dimensional Perspectives on Women and Banjos in the Late Nineteenth Century”
- Lydia R. Hammesley’s chapter in Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Worlds: Innovation and Tradition in Twentieth-Century American Music
- Fred Bartenstein on his career in bluegrass
