This program of The Beautiful Music All Around Us combines live music, projected images, and spoken narrative that traces Stephen Wade’s journey into musical traditions across the American South. Wade’s remarkable research that culminated recently in his book, The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience (University of Illinois Press, 2012), rediscovers the largely unknown players and singers whose performances of traditional songs were captured on early Library of Congress field recordings. The Beautiful Music All Around Us has been described by the Wall Street Journal as “a masterpiece of humane scholarship—but one that reads like a detective story.” For his work on the book, the Association for Recorded Sound Collections selected Stephen Wade as a 2013 ARSC Awards for Excellence recipient (Best History in the category of Best Research in Folk World, or Ethnic Music). Even more recently Wade’s book was honored with the Academy Award for music book writing: the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award.
Stephen Wade’s appearances are co-sponsored by the University of Illinois Press.
Saturday, November 2nd,12:15pm-1:30pm
Independent Media Center Stage
Free