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Rating: 
Summary: a magnificent achievement
Review: This is one of those books that was a "life's work" for its principal author (Gus Meade), but we never would have seen the fruits of his labor without the help of two colleagues who completed this volume after his death--his son Douglas and leading folk scholar Dick Spottswood. It is the most valuable listing of traditional music I have ever seen, everything from British ballads to topical songs, cowboy songs, minstrel music, sentimental songs, blues and hornpipes! There is a wide range of 19th century music here, and some from the early 1900s. Pre-1942 recordings of the songs are listed (including LP/CD reissues), but the book is also valuable for its citations of early published versions (including songbooks), composer/author credits and commentary on the often-similar songs. For anyone interested in the field of traditional American music, this volume is a must.
Rating:
Summary: Unrivalled Scholarship
Review: To my knowledge the most ambitious discographical project ever attempted, 'Country Music Sources' is a massive encyclopedia that traces the origins of songs recorded commercially between 1921 and 1942. Guthrie Meade began work on this book nearly 40 years ago but sadly died in 1991 before he could complete it. After his death, Dick Spottswood and Meade's son Douglas took on the Herculean task of organizing, updating, and finishing this epic undertaking, which consumed an additional 10 years. The results are nothing short of astonishing. 'Country Music Sources' tips the scales at just over 1000 pages, with a hefty price tag to boot, but anyone interested in string band music of the 1920s and 1930s will have to have this. Music is divided into four major parts: Ballads; Songs; Religious Songs; and Instrumental Music. These broad groups are further subdivided into smaller subsections: "Songs," for example, has 29 categories (Transients, Marriage, Prison Songs, Intoxicants, etc.), while "Instrumental Music" is pared down to Reels, Jigs, Rags, Southern Breakdowns, etc. The authors have thoughtfully included separate indexes for song titles and performer. Also amazing is the 34 page bibliography, which encompasses seemingly every known 19th century "songster" (song book) and hymnal printed up to the early 1900s, as well as dozens of obscure books and texts. Clearly, countless hours were spent and no effort was spared attempting to trace the origins (or earliest known versions) of these songs. Just on a cursory glance through the pages, I was happy to discover earlier versions of songs that I suspected existed but had no way of tracing. A prime example of this would be The Tune Wranglers' "Born Too Soon" -- without this book, I would've had no idea that it was first recorded in 1925 under the title "Adam and Eve," though they probably learned it from Otto Gray's Oklahoma Cowboy Band's versions in 1928. It was also recorded as "History in a Few Words" by Dan Hornsby in 1930, and "The Story of Adam" by Pink Lindsey in '35. Printed sources of the song pre-date recorded versions. On the other hand, I was somewhat dismayed to notice that "Alla en el Rancho Grande" (catalogued under "Primtive and Ethinic Themes") lists versions by the Westerners, Milton Brown, the Light Crust Doughboys, the Nite Owls, Otis & Elanor, and Gene Autry, but inexplicably overlooks the Tune Wranglers' well-known version. The authors' research appears so exhaustive that I can only conclude that this is one of the few mistakes; indeed, even the authors themselves admit of "unavoidable mistakes and omissions." Alas, no book of this size and scope can be considered perfect. Despite a few small errors like this, 'Country Music Sources' is an extremely important and fascinating book, as close to definitive as we will see in our lifetimes.
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