Romancing the Folk Public Memory and American Roots Music

"There is no reason to believe that the new vision is any more factual than those that preceded it. It is merely the richest and most recent story certain seekers after the real and the beautiful have devised for themselves. In an era when increasingly interconnected and information-laden media have rendered both reality and beauty harder to grasp, and to live for, such stories play the vital function of sparking new kinds of musical creation--the products of which, at their best, transcend their theoretical underpinnings as the best art always does. Filene has set himself the task of telling the stories' story. If he has failed to bring them into the present, no doubt that is because he too finds more comfort and inspiration in the past."Filene, Benjamin is the author of 'Romancing the Folk Public Memory and American Roots Music', published 2000 under ISBN 9780807848623 and ISBN 080784862X.