Ira Gitlin
Writing Samples
Since 1990 I’ve written about bluegrass music in the pages of Bluegrass Unlimited, Banjo NewsLetter, and Bluegrass Now. (On the Web, you can read my articles for Mel Bay’s Banjo Sessions here and here , and banjo-playing comedian-actor Steve Martin has posted my Banjo NewsLetter interview with him on his own web site. ) I’ve also contributed liner notes to several commercial recordings. I gave a talk on the history of bluegrass for the Smithsonian Associates’ “Roots of Rock and Roll” lecture series in 1998, and my chapter on the history of the banjo in bluegrass is scheduled to appear soon in a volume published by Rounder Books. Below are some samples of my writing.
