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Acknowledgments F irst, thanks go to Mick Gusinde-Duffy at Temple University Press for his enthusiastic support and faith in the project and to Amanda Steele for her hard work. Thanks also go to Jane Barry and Lynne Frost for their highly professional editing, to Gary Kramer for his promotional efforts, and to the entire Temple University Press staff. I owe a large debt of gratitude to the American Musicological Society’s Ecocriticism Study Group (ESG) and to ESG Chair Aaron Allen in particular . Their pioneering work in ecomusicology made this book possible. I am also indebted to Tyler Kinnear, Andrew Mark, and Brooks Toliver for helpful suggestions and assistance. I greatly appreciate the efforts of the anonymous scholars who reviewed this manuscript for Temple University Press. Their thoughtful, careful, and helpful reviews significantly improved the finished product. Much appreciation goes to BMI, Nora Guthrie, Jorge Arevalo, and the entire staff of the Woody Guthrie Archives. They not only gave me access to Woody’s notes, diaries, lyrics books, drawings, and more, but also granted me the BMI Woody Guthrie Foundation Fellowship to fund that once-in-a-lifetime experience. A posthumous thank-you goes to Woody Guthrie for inspiring all of us to think more about the relationship between music, people, and place. This brings us to the incomparable Billy Bragg. I am grateful to Billy not only for tremendous music and tireless work on behalf of all that is good and green but also for contacting me in person to grant permission to use his lyrics. After I begged and paid music publishers for the rights to reprint the lyrics fragments peppered throughout this book, I found it refreshing—and emblematic of the man—that Billy sent me a kind note offering up his lyrics for free. x Acknowledgments To the same end, I thank Pete Seeger for a handwritten note, penned just days before his ninetieth birthday. While preparing to perform for tens of thousands, Pete took the time to respond in full to my request. Such acts of kindness mean so much to academic researchers and music fans alike. I am grateful to University of Minnesota colleagues who have informed this book through contacts ranging from hallway discussions to careful reads. The following are just a few of those who helped out: Bill Beeman, Annette Digre, Heather Dorsey, Teresa Gowan, Jay Hatch, Murray Jensen, Linda Keefe, Richard Leppert, Pat Nunnally, Laurie Ouellette, Desdamona Racheli, Gil Rodman, Ed Schiappa, Brian Southwell, Catherine Squires, Shayla Thiel-Stern, Melissa Thompson, Mary Vavrus, Tom Wolfe, and Marco Yzer. I thank Jon Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment (IonE) and Ann Waltner, director of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), as well as my fellow Fellows at both institutes. Their interdisciplinary input has helped me better understand the relationship between ecological systems, music, and soundscapes. I am also indebted to hundreds of University of Minnesota students who have informed the book through conversations, presentations, and creative example. Metro Blooms and Executive Director Becky Rice inspired not only the film discussed in Chapter 4 but also much of the rest of the book. It is a true pleasure and privilege partnering with a community group that makes such a difference in people’s lives. Their music resonates throughout the community, from roots to rain barrels. Arianna Winkle, a band’s best friend, created our logo, developed album art, and took pictures of individual band members. I am truly grateful to Ari—her contribution has meant a lot! I also owe a great debt of gratitude to Cindy Poch for her professional photography services. We’ll be back. Hearty thanks go to the Hypoxic Punks for letting me leech off their talent, knowledge, and hard work. That group includes current members Leon Hsu, Bryan Mosher, and Bob Poch; founding members Desdamona Racheli and Pete Noteboom; and Tim Bornholdt, Randy Jezierski, Jesse Mandell-McClinton, and Wally “Tubaman” Wallrath. They let an ethnographer and musician-in-training play along. They are even willing to perform my songs. Amazing—still not sure how I talked them into it. The same goes for the audience—I thank each member for showing up, listening , and indulging us. And I thank Steve and Juli Groath for listening, laughing, and playing along. I would like to thank my mother, Jane Pedelty. In addition to being an accomplished organist and pianist—as well as an excellent model Acknowledgments xi for community-oriented musicianship—her help with this project was...

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