A Florida Fiddler
The Life and Times of Richard Seaman
Format:Hardback
Publisher:The University of Alabama Press
Published:30th Jun '07
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This biography of 97-year old Richard Seaman, who grew up in Kissimmee Park, Florida, relies on oral history and folklore research to define the place of musicianship and storytelling in the state's history from one artist's perspective. Gregory Hansen presents Seaman's assessment of Florida's changing cultural landscape through his tall tales, personal experience narratives, legends, fiddle tune repertory, and descriptions of daily life. Seaman's childhood memories of fiddling performances and rural dances explain the role such gatherings played in building and maintaining social order within the community. As an adult, Seaman moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he worked as a machinist and performed with his family band. The evolution of his musical repertory from the early 1920s through the 1950s provides a resource for reconstructing social life in the rural south and for understanding how changes in musical style reflect the state's increasingly urban social structure. Hansen includes a set of Seaman's fiddle tunes, transcribed for the benefit of performer and researcher alike. The 30 tall tales included in the volume constitute a representative sample of Florida's oral tradition in the early years of the 20th century.
An engaging volume... The strategy of looking at regional history from the grass-roots out is an excellent approach, and both Richard Seaman as a fiddler-raconteur and Greg Hansen as a scholar make the approach sparkle in its execution. - Alan Jabbour, Founding Director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress ""All of the great concerns of the scholar come profoundly to the ground in the study of artists like Richard Seaman. In presenting his repertory of tales and tunes, in combining interviews and observations into his biography, Gregory Hansen has made a superb contribution to folkloristic studies of individual performers. Gracefully written, richly detailed, Hansen's book is a treasure, and Seaman will now become one of the key figures in our understanding of the American tradition."" - Henry Glassie, Indiana University ""Mr. Seaman's stories are wonderful..... The book deepens our knowledge of Florida's history and culture by examining part of its folklore."" - Joyce Cauthen, author of With Fiddle and Well-Rosined Bow: Old-Time Fiddling in Alabama
ISBN: 9780817315535
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 560g
296 pages