Bound for Shady Grove

Bound For Shady Grove is Steven Harvey's celebration of the music arising from the southern Appalachian mountain communities. Harvey's essays derive from the four seasons of a life in music. The early pieces describe playing music in the log house of friends born and raised in the mountains, or entering a banjo contest and losing with style. Then there are his essays about fiddles and the devil, homemade instruments and homemade weapons, a trip to England to trace mountain songs back to their elusive sources. As Bound For Shady Grover progresses, the mood darkens, with essays exploring the connection between music and resentment, loss, and death. Harvey's explorations showcase descriptions of music, hills, and people, and take the reader just where the music and the mountains took him. Bound For Shady Grove is very highly recommended and rewarding reading for students of Appalachian history, culture, and music.

'Bound for Shady Grove' is a collection of personal insites into music and life. The music and words of some Appalachian ballads are woven with events in Steven Harvey's life, playing in a banjo competition, a trip to England, recovering from heart surgery. I found an instant kinship in his outlook.