Historian Stephen Wade sings — and writes — praises to unknown folk musicians of the past. In his 2012 book The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience, Wade digs into the tuneful traditions of the American South, using early Library of Congress field recordings as a jumping-off point for his research. Offering what the Boston Globe calls “a fascinating window into a bygone world,” Wade’s book follows the narratives of age-old airs, their players and communities of origin in a broad portrait of the country’s cultural landscape. The banjo-picking scholar presents his findings in a lecture accompanied by a musical performance.
