In American music, the notion of "roots" has been a powerful refrain, but just what constitutes our true musical traditions has often been a matter of debate. As Benjamin Filene reveals, a number of competing visions of America's musical past have vied for influence over the public imagination in this century. Filene builds his story around a fascinating group of characters -- folklorists, record company executives, producers, radio programmers, and publicists -- who acted as middlemen between folk and popular culture. These cultural brokers "discovered" folk musicians, recorded them, and promoted them. In the process, Filene argues, they shaped mainstream audiences' understanding of what was "authentic" roots music. Filene moves beyond the usual boundaries of folk music to consider a wide range of performers who drew on or were drawn into the canon of American roots music -- from Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie, to Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, to Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. Challenging traditional accounts that would confine folk music revivalism to the 1930s and 1960s, he argues instead that the desire to preserve and popularize America's musical heritage is a powerful current that has run throughout this century's culture and continues to flow today. For the first half of this country!s existence, our folk song heritage could be traced directly to British peasant culture. Early in the 20th century, musicologists began taking note of such distinctly American musical genres as the Negro spiritual and the cowboy song. When recording became popular in the 1920s, these two styles, now known as race and hillbilly music, established themselves as surprisingly profitable forms of musical expression. In the early 1930s John Lomax, whose 1910 Cowboy Songs and Other Ballads was a folklorist!s staple, traveled more than 30,000 miles with a 350 Dictaphone built into the backseat of his car to record our indigenous music. These recordings featured the likes of Lead Belly, Muddy Waters, and Woody Guthrie and laid the groundwork for each succeeding musical generation. Here, Filene tells the story of the musicologists who preserved our indigenous music and the producers, radio programmers, and publicists who made it available to mainstream audiences. A public historian at the Minnesota Historical Society, he has researched such sources as the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institute to produce a learned and lively look at the development of our national music. Much of the territory covered here is overlooked in books on folk music, making this a reasonable purchase despite the steep hardcover price."Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Federation, Curwensville, PA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. " Romancing the Folk explores a cultural phenomenon -- the discovery of the idea of an American folk music tradition and of the consequent attempts to redefine and canonize those musicians who seemed to best represent it -- that heretofore has been described in only bits and pieces. Filene is the first scholar who has discussed the whole broad field of American folk music from such a perspective. He argues convincingly, with a clear and direct writing style, that folk music has never come to us in an unmediated form." -- Bill Malone, author of Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers: Southern Culture and the Roots of Country Music "A fascinating history of the shifting notions of what constitutes American folk music. . . . The folklorists, academics, bureaucrats and entrepreneurs who dominate [this] story are colorful characters, and they are joined by artists who inspire Filene to critical heights few historians approach." -- New York Times Book Review "A learned and lively look at the development of our national music. Much of the territory covered here is overlooked in books on folk music." -- Library Journal "An engaging analysis of the varied interpretations of roots or vernacular music in the 20th century." -- CHOICE "An important work that accurately places the idea of 'folk' and 'roots' music into a realistic context. While copiously documented and thoroughly researched, this is no stuffy academic tract. Rather, Filene's engaging style makes this a book that will be eagerly devoured by anyone with an interest in the development of American popular music." -- Creative Loafing "Benjamin Filene's fascinating study of the emergence of the idea of an American 'roots music, ' and the canonization of its iconic performers, is a lively and engaging contribution to this literature. . . . Appalachian scholars will enjoy discussions that range from the pioneering ballad collecting of Francis James Child and Cecil Sharp to the recent role of Archie Green in the creation of the Smithsonian's American Folklife Center and the NEH's Folk Arts Program." -- Journal of Appalachian Studies "Filene's book is smart and careful and should gain a wide audience."-- Journal of American History American