"But I Happened to Like Those Sharp Edges Being Rounded Off": The Words, Wit, and Wisdom of Joe Wilson

The life of Joe Wilson (1938–2015) defied simple categorization. Wilson's long list of occupations included writer, critic, journalist, civil rights activist, and folk festival organizer. As a leader in the National Council of the Traditional Arts (NTCA), he expanded the National Folk Festival by diversifying the musical stage as well as moving the festival to new cities. He also started several national and international tours highlighting specific genres rooted in American rural culture. His influence on the appreciation of American folkways and the careers of hundreds of musicians is incalculable. Wilson dedicated his life to musical appreciation of traditional forms, especially the rich musical culture of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which he called home.

Before his passing in 2015, Joe Wilson left at least two projects incomplete: a book about the cultural impact of the music of the Crooked Road region of southwestern Virginia and another on the origins of well-known folk tunes and songs. For these posthumously published works, editor Fred Bartenstein collected the preliminary writings on the projects and exemplary writings from his illustrious career. The books, Roots Music in America: Collected Writings of Joe Wilson and Lucky Joe's Namesake: The Extraordinary Life and Observations of Joe Wilson were published together as companions that include writings spanning decades across a diverse range of sources such as popular press articles, album liner notes, and listserv e-mails. Roots Music in America is primarily focused on music history and appreciation of the country's vernacular musical traditions, while Lucky Joe's Namesake contains a short memoir and additional writings that showcase his personal experiences and his engaging writing voice.

Wilson adeptly demonstrates the sociability of Appalachian bluegrass as well as other genres of folk music, a style often described as "high and lonesome." He shows that the importance and power of American traditional music is that it brings together not only cultural ideas but individuals, bridging lines of race and creating lifelong bonds that strengthen local communities. Throughout both books, Wilson demonstrates that the social networks that connect musicians, listeners, and concert organizers is just as important to the development and vitality of traditional music in the United States. Many of the writings in these books provide Wilson's firsthand accounts of the traditional music scene as a vibrant community where bonds are forged across class, racial, and geographic boundaries.

Wilson observes how personal relationships as well as musicianship have transformed the discourse and culture of the traditional arts throughout the twentieth century. In Roots Music in America, Wilson addresses how Fries, Virginia, became home for multiple musical acts that defined the earliest recorded hillbilly records or how "a relatively small group of musicians and folklorists were responsible for country music being treated respectfully on urban campuses and thus in cities" in the 1970s (132). He further demonstrates the impact that social networks can have in creating or cementing legacies for musicians such as Doc Watson, whom Wilson praises for his musical ability but also his interdependent relationship with old-time musicians. The most entertaining and enlightening descriptions of the folk music community cover the interactions between rural musicians and urban revivalists. In Lucky Joe's Namesake, Wilson describes how a small network of allied musicians, organizers, and politicians worked together to create the National Folk Festival and analyzes how conflict can result in productive discourse and resolutions that benefit the livelihood of the traditional music community.

While the title and table of contents of Roots Music of America promise a diverse array of genres, the book has a focus on music and culture of the Blue Ridge Mountains of eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia, because Wilson knew the local culture, history, and...