Polkabilly
Subtitle: how the Goose Island Ramblers redefined American folk music
By: James P. Leary.
Series: American musicspheres
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 259
ISBN-13: 9780195141061
Subjects: Goose Island Ramblers; Polkabilly music -- History and criticism
Description: "The Goose Island Ramblers played as a house band for a local tavern in Madison, Wisconsin, from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s. The groups epitomized the polka-billy sound with their wild mixture of Norwegian fiddle tunes, Irish jigs, Slovenian polkas, Swiss yodels, old-time hillbilly songs, "Sandihoovian" and "Dutchman" dialect ditties, frostbitten Hawaiian marches, and novelty number on the electric toilet plunger. In this original study, James P. Leary illustrates how the Ramblers' multi-ethnic music combined both local and popular traditions, and how their eclectic repertoire challenges prevailing definitions of American folk music. He thus offers the first comprehensive examination of the Upper Midwest's folk musical traditions within the larger context of American life and culture."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p.   ) and index.
Table of contents: title: Polkabilly : old time music in the Upper Midwest; title: "Uncle Windy" Whitford; title: "Smokey George" Gilbertsen; title: Bruce Bollerud : The Hollandale wldcat; title: Glen and Ann's; title: Cannons and cannonballs.