Roots Punk
A Visual and Oral History
Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2023], ©2023.
Format: Book
Description: 206 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm.
"Punk rock evokes dissent and disruption, abrasive and anarchic musicality, and a host of countercultural aesthetics. Featuring original interviews and over one hundred images, Roots Punk: A Visual and Oral History by longtime music journalist and author David A. Ensminger focuses on how punk merged with roots music to create a rich style that incorporated honky-tonk, rockabilly, doo-wop, reggae, ska, jazz, folk, blues, and labor ballads. This engagement transformed the notion of punk to include a wide array of vintage source material that seems more aligned with bolo ties and Stetsons than Doc Martens and safety pins. Ensminger explores the music's aesthetics, traits, and themes. He contextualizes, clarifies, maps, and probes roots punk's hybrid nature as well as its diverse, queer-inclusive, and multicultural strains. By painting a broad, nuanced, and well-documented picture of the genre from its earliest incarnation, he forms a kind of people's history of the movement. Roots Punk features original interviews with members of Minutemen, MDC, the Dicks, the Plimsouls, Tex and the Horseheads, Dils/Rank and File, X, the Flesh Eaters, Beatnigs, Alejandro Escovedo, Robert "El Vez" Lopez, Blasters, and more. Whether covering sarcastic novelty forms or sincere embraces, Ensminger reveals and revels in a punk tradition lined with blues records, acoustic ballads, country, and hillbilly romp. In a time of growing conformity, replication, and commercialization, roots punk (sometimes dubbed cow-punk) offers a tantalizing revitalization and reimagination of the American songbook"-- Provided by publisher.
Series: American made music series.
Contents:
Roots punk, a reckoning -- The Blasters : They play American music -- Elvis vs. El Vez -- Gary Floyd : Heart and mind with the power of a freight train -- Dave Dictor : My story is a little weird -- Jeffrey Lee Pierce : Ghost on the highway -- Texacala Jones : Oh mother -- Chris Desjardins : A hard road to follow -- Rank and File : The conductor wore black -- Peter Case : Beyond the midnight broadcast -- Alejandro Escovedo : A man of certain influence -- Mike Watt : Portrait of the artist as a bass man -- The Hickoids : Harness the corn demon -- The Beatnigs : When you wake up in the morning -- X : Under the big black moon.
Subjects:
Punk rock music -- United States -- History and criticism.
Punk rock musicians -- United States -- Interviews.
Americana (Music) -- History and criticism.
Cowpunk music -- History and criticism.
Hardcore (Music) -- History and criticism.
Punk rock music -- United States -- History and criticism.
Punk rock musicians -- United States -- Interviews.
Americana (Music) -- History and criticism.
Cowpunk music -- History and criticism.
Hardcore (Music) -- History and criticism.
ISBN:
9781496848413
Availability | |||
---|---|---|---|
Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
PERFORMING ARTS Music Popular Ens | Main (Downtown) | Display - First Level, Nonfiction | In |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-202) and index.