|
|
|||
|
||||
OverviewCan you feel nostalgic for a life you've never known? Suffused with her much-loved warmth and wit, Emma John's memoir follows her moving and memorable journey to master one of the hardest musical styles on earth - and to find her place in an alien world. Emma had fallen out of love with her violin when a chance trip to the American South introduced her to bluegrass music. Classically trained, highly strung and wedded to London life, Emma was about as country as a gin martini. So why did it feel like a homecoming? Answering that question takes Emma deep into the Appalachian mountains, where she uncovers a hidden culture that confounds every expectation - and learns some emotional truths of her own. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Emma JohnPublisher: Orion Publishing Co Imprint: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Dimensions: Width: 12.80cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 19.60cm Weight: 0.260kg ISBN: 9781474606851ISBN 10: 1474606857 Pages: 336 Publication Date: 25 June 2020 Audience: General/trade , General Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsReviewsJohn chronicles in lively prose the setbacks, breakthroughs and devilish difficulties encountered ... More than a memoir, Wayfaring Stranger is a valuable contribution to musicology and an informative tribute to a musical culture ... an excellent Bluegrass primer -- Lou Glandfield * Times Literary Supplement * There is a touch of Bill Bryson to her escapades. She is the well-meaning outsider stumbling through unfamiliar surroundings. She knows how to tell a good joke, and how to laugh at herself ... Early on, when she nervously takes her fiddle from its case and tries to join in with seasoned musicians, you know things will not go well, but she makes you smile at every wrong note ... [T]here are slivers of bluegrass history scattered in short, playful chapters. We get a page of excellent banjo jokes too -- Clive Davis * The Times * Wayfaring Stranger goes beyond being an entertaining, informative book about a niche musical genre: it becomes the story of John's personal mission to shake off a kind of existential stiffness - an inhibiting perfectionism - to rediscover not just her passion for music, but also for life ... Books like this work best when they manage to pull in even the most casual reader, saturating them in the colours, emotions and sensations of hidden subcultures, and John more than delivers. If someone doesn't make a film out of this, they'll have missed a picking trick -- Barbara Ellen * The Observer * Author InformationEmma John is a writer and editor on the GUARDIAN and the OBSERVER. She is a former deputy editor of OBSERVER SPORT MONTHLY and THE WISDEN CRICKETER and in 2008 she was the first woman to win a Sports Journalism Award. She is also a classical violinist and bluegrass fiddler. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |