Bluegrass, folk, blues, Cajun, Celtic, and country music-these traditional genres have recently fostered a popular explosion of music and dance festivals throughout the United States. From Every Stage: Images of America's Roots Music is a photo narrative, capturing the emotion, excitement, and energy of performances by greats and up-and-comers in the broad spectrum of roots-derived music in America.
Stephanie P. Ledgin brings thirty years of writing and photojournalism to this lavishly illustrated book. Two hundred color and black-and-white photographs depict singers, instrumentalists, and dancers in action and in unguarded, spontaneous backstage moments.
Folk icons Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, and Odetta grace the stage. Bluegrass and newgrass stars shine in photos of Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, David Grisman, Ricky Skaggs, and Béla Fleck. Scottish fiddle wizard Johnny Cunningham, fiery Irish fiddler Eileen Ivers, Piedmont blues guitarist John Jackson, and "zydeco" Queen Ida join such legendary artists as John Hartford, Doc Watson, and Jean Ritchie. Country greats Emmylou Harris, Marty Stuart, Wynonna Judd, Roy Clark, and comedienne Minnie Pearl perform at prestigious venues. Finally, several interviews with such pivotal personalities as Vassar Clements, Jimmie Skinner, and Beausoleil's Michael Doucet, all published here for the first time, lend voice and character to this trove of images.
An eloquent foreword by CBS News Sunday Morning anchor Charles Osgood, also host of The Osgood File, provides entrée to this vibrant panorama.
An exhilarating collection...
Publisher's Weekly online
If a picture is worth a thousand words, the 200 photographs in this collection tell a long and engaging story...
Bluegrass Music Profiles
Stephanie's photographs give her book a vibrant and immediate sense of the musical history of the period.
Jean Ritchie & George Pickow
What a delight to visit these music makers at work and play. Thanks, Stephanie.
Tom Chapin
There is really something here for everyone interested in American roots music...
There is much beauty in the photos of Stephanie P. Ledgin who has witnessed many great musical events...
You'll return to From Every Stage time and time again to share the photos of very special performers
caught doing what they love by a woman who also is doing what she loves.
Sing Out!
Ledgin’s photos really capture this down home, just folks approach to the music that is
part of the fabric of bluegrass. The book is also an important document,
capturing visual images of those who have gone from the scene.
The Journal of American Culture
This is a well-designed and well-presented book...For fans of bluegrass, country and folk music, this book will be a real treat...
On bright festival stages and in dimly lit club rooms she has managed to capture many magic moments of performance:
instances of intuitive empathy, the varied groupings of musicians, the multitude of angles of all the different shaped instruments,
and the infinite facial expressions that are all part of the visual experience of live music.
Folk Roots
Look especially at the faces in Ms. Ledgin's pictures.
See the concentration there, the joy and radiance as the musicians focus on the sound and feel the beat.
In life as in music, they say, timing is everything. That's also true in photography,
where you must sense precisely the instant to click that shutter, to capture the light at a moment of truth.
Turn these pages and you will not only see what I mean, you will feel and hear it too.
From the Foreword by Charles Osgood
All images are fully copyrighted by Stephanie P. Ledgin. All reproduction rights reserved.
You may not copy, print or use by any means any of the photos contained herein. Any infringements will be fully prosecuted. Please respect my work. Thanks.