Bluegrass in Baltimore: The Hard Drivin' Sound and its Legacy is a book written by Tim Newby and published by McFarland & Company in 2015. [1] It was released in June 2015. It had its formal release August 2, 2015 at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, Maryland.
Bluegrass in Baltimore looks in detail at the highly-influential scene in Baltimore that contributed to the success of Del McCoury, Earl Taylor, Walt Hensley, Alice Gerrard, Hazel Dickens, Mike Seeger, and Mike Munford and explores the impact the music they made had on a wide range of other musicians including Jerry Garcia, Jorma Kaukonen, Pete Wernick, Sam Bush and Chris Hillman.
Author Tim Newby is a teacher as well as serving as a writer for various music publications including Paste Magazine, Relix Magazine and Honest Tune, where he is a features editor. [2] Following the release of Bluegrass in Baltimore Newby was featured on the Maryland Morning Radio Show on WYPR in an interview with Tom Hall that examined the unique legacy of Baltimore's rich bluegrass history. [3] Newby was also featured on the Bluegrass Byway podcast out of Nashville in an in-depth interview about the book. [4]
Honest Tune Magazine featured an excerpt of the book following its release in June 2015.
In November 2016, the book was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections for excellence in Best Research in Recorded Country Music. [5] In January 2017 it was named one of the thirty best books about bluegrass music by About Great Books. [6]
Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Like mainstream country music, it largely developed out of old-time string music, though in contrast, bluegrass is traditionally played exclusively on acoustic instruments and also has roots in traditional English, Scottish, and Irish ballads and dance tunes as well as in blues and jazz. Bluegrass was further developed by musicians who played with Monroe, including 5-string banjo player Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt. Monroe characterized the genre as, "Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin'. It's a part of Methodist, Holiness and Baptist traditions. It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound."
Leftover Salmon is an American jam band from Boulder, Colorado, formed in 1989. The band's music is a blend of bluegrass, rock, country, and Cajun/Zydeco. Over their thirty years as a band Salmon have released seven studio albums and three live albums. The band celebrated their continuing thirty-year career with the release of the biographical book, Leftover Salmon: Thirty Years of Festival! and a vinyl box-set re-release of all of their studio albums.
Hazel Jane Dickens was an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist and guitarist. Her music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provocative pro-union, feminist songs. Cultural blogger John Pietaro noted that "Dickens didn’t just sing the anthems of labor, she lived them and her place on many a picket line, staring down gunfire and goon squads, embedded her into the cause." The New York Times extolled her as "a clarion-voiced advocate for coal miners and working people and a pioneer among women in bluegrass music." With Alice Gerrard, Dickens was one of the first women to record a bluegrass album.
Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Alison Krauss and Union Station, George Thorogood, Tony Rice, and Béla Fleck, in addition to re-releases of seminal albums by artists such as the Carter Family, Jelly Roll Morton, Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie. "Championing and preserving the music of artists whose music falls outside of the mainstream," Rounder releases have won 54 Grammy Awards representing diverse genres, from bluegrass, folk, reggae, and gospel to pop, rock, Americana, polka and world music. Acquired by Concord in 2010, Rounder is based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Old Crow Medicine Show is an Americana string band based in Nashville, Tennessee, that has been recording since 1998. They were inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on September 17, 2013. Their ninth album, Remedy, released in 2014, won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. The group's music has been called old-time, folk, and alternative country. Along with original songs, the band performs many pre-World War II blues and folk songs.
Delano Floyd McCoury is an American bluegrass musician. As leader of the Del McCoury Band, he plays guitar and sings lead vocals along with his two sons, Ronnie McCoury and Rob McCoury, who play mandolin and banjo respectively. In June 2010, he received a National Heritage Fellowship lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts and in 2011 he was elected into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.
Randall Franks is an American film and television actor, author, and bluegrass singer and musician who plays fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and mountain dulcimer. The singer is nominated for 2023 Vocalist of the Year at the 9th Annual Josie Music Awards at the Grand Ole Opry House. He was inducted into the Tri-State Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2022; and America's Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019; Independent Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013; recognized by the International Bluegrass Music Museum & Hall of Fame in 2010 as a Bluegrass Legend; the Carolinas Country, Bluegrass and Gospel Hall of Fame presented him it’s Legend Award and designated him as the “Appalachian Ambassador of the Fiddle” in 2010; inducted into the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004; and was designated by Catoosa County, Ga. as "Appalachian Ambassador of the Fiddle" in 2004; and was inducted into the Chamber Business Person Hall of Fame and honored as Patriotic Citizen of the Year in 2020. He was chosen as the first 2020 AirPlay Direct Evolution Grant Artist (www.AirPlayDirect.com).
Bobby Van Osborne was an American bluegrass musician. He was the co-founder of the Osborne Brothers, and a member of the Grand Ole Opry and the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. Osborne was a member of the United States Marine Corps who received a Purple Heart for his service and was honorably discharged in 1953.
The Del McCoury Band is a Grammy award-winning American bluegrass band.
Ronald Delano McCoury, known as Ronnie McCoury, is an American mandolin player, singer, and songwriter. He is the son of bluegrass musician Del McCoury, and is best known for his work with the Del McCoury Band and the Travelin' McCourys.
Americana is an amalgam of American music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the musical ethos of the United States, specifically those sounds that are emerged from the Southern United States such as folk, gospel, blues, country, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, bluegrass, and other external influences.
Sugar Hill Records is an American bluegrass and Americana record label.
Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. He is widely regarded as "perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music, and certainly the most celebrated and prolific." A fourteen-time Grammy winner, he has been called “dobro’s matchless contemporary master,” by The New York Times, and is among the most innovative recording artists in music, both as a solo artist and member of numerous bands, such as Alison Krauss and Union Station and The Earls of Leicester. He has been a co-director of the Transatlantic Sessions since 1998.
Highlandtown is a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
The Bluegrass Cardinals were a Bluegrass band from Los Angeles, California. The group is credited with being the first bluegrass band to record bluegrass gospel in a cappella. Founded in 1974, the Bluegrass Cardinals disbanded in 1997 when founding member Don Parmley announced his retirement from music.
The Charm City Bluegrass Festival is a bluegrass festival established in 2013 and taking place each April in Baltimore, MD. The festival features local, regional, and national musicians. The festival maintains strong ties with the local community and seeks to highlight the long, distinguished history of Bluegrass music in Baltimore.
Patuxent Music is an independent record label in Rockville, Maryland.
Patrick Coleman McAvinue is an American fiddler, combining in his music aspects of bluegrass, swing, and Celtic music. He is also a private music educator. He is the IBMA's 2017 Fiddle Player of the Year.
Leftover Salmon: Thirty Years of Festival! is a book written by Tim Newby and published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2019.
The city of Baltimore, Maryland includes a significant Appalachian population. The Appalachian community has historically been centered in the neighborhoods of Hampden, Pigtown, Remington, Woodberry, Lower Charles Village, Highlandtown, and Druid Hill Park, as well as the Baltimore inner suburbs of Dundalk, Essex, and Middle River. The culture of Baltimore has been profoundly influenced by Appalachian culture, dialect, folk traditions, and music. People of Appalachian heritage may be of any race or religion. Most Appalachian people in Baltimore are white or African-American, though some are Native American or from other ethnic backgrounds. White Appalachian people in Baltimore are typically descendants of early English, Irish, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh settlers. A migration of White Southerners from Appalachia occurred from the 1920s to the 1960s, alongside a large-scale migration of African-Americans from the Deep South and migration of Native Americans from the Southeast such as the Lumbee and the Cherokee. These out-migrations caused the heritage of Baltimore to be deeply influenced by Appalachian and Southern cultures.