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Oh, didn't they ramble : Rounder Records and the transformation of American roots music / David Menconi ; foreword by Robert Plant.

by Menconi, David, author.

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Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2023]

Rounder Records (Firm) -- History.

Sound recording industry -- United States -- History.

Folk music -- United States -- History and criticism.

Popular music -- United States -- History and criticism.

9781469674995 (cloth) :

1469674998 (cloth)

xx, 196 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Beginnings -- On the road -- Records and manifestos -- Back home in Sulphur Springs -- Ol' number 0044 -- Bad to the bone -- More money, more problems -- Quiet girls -- The final fourth Rounder -- O brother (and sister), where art thou? -- Raising sand, and the roof -- Will the circle be unbroken? -- Epilogue: September 29, 2016.

"What is American roots music? Any definition must account for a kaleidoscope of genres from bluegrass to blues, western swing to jazz, soul and gospel to rock and reggae, Cajun to Celtic. It must encompass the work of artists as diverse as Alice Gerrard and Alison Krauss, George Thorogood and Sun Ra, Bela Fleck and Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, the Blake Babies and Billy Strings. What do all these artists and music styles have in common? The answer is a record label born in the wake of the American folk revival and 1960s movement politics, formed around the eclectic tastes and audacious ideals of three recent college grads who lived, listened, and worked together. The answer is Rounder Records. For more than fifty years, Rounder has been the world's leading label for folk music of all kinds. David Menconi's book is the label's definitive history, drawing on previously untapped archives and extensive interviews with artists, Rounder staff, and founders Ken Irwin, Marian Leighton Levy, and Bill Nowlin. Rounder's founders blended ingenuity and independence with serendipity and an unfailing belief in the small-d democratic power of music to connect and inspire people, forging creative partnerships that resulted in one of the most eclectic and creative catalogs in the history of recorded music. Placing Rounder in the company of similarly influential labels like Stax, Motown, and Blue Note, this story is destined to delight anyone who cares about the place of music in American culture"-- Provided by publisher.

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