Ralph Peer and the making of popular roots music

Barry Mazor's Ralph Peer and the making of popular roots music was published by Chicago Review Press in November last year. Peer's influence from the 1920s onwards on country music - through recording, publishing, the opening up of markets, and the development of artists' repertoires - is incalculable, and Mazor shows how he had much wider effects on popular culture.

A full review appeared yesterday on Ted Lehmann's Bluegrass, books, and brainstorms blog. Readers in Ireland may like to know that Ralph Peer's grandfather Benjamin came from Crookhaven, Co. Cork - though Benjamin's own father, Andrew, was from southern England, and Ralph's mother's parents also came from England.