As a fan of music history I was eager to read this book. Ok it had been on my shelf for a long time but I was waiting for the right time to dip into it. I kind of wish I hadn’t now. It is not that the writers don’t know their stuff – they clearly do but Roots of the Revival which should have been a fascinating read about the history of folk music was just plain boring. I will tell you why – there seemed to be an over-emphasis on getting everything right. It felt like the writers were determined to make sure that every person who was at every event or moment in folk history was named. I felt like I was cycling through hummus trying to get through the tiresome lists that seemed to appear every chapter. A lot of these could have been added as footnotes. It made the reading experience boring.

Roots of the Revival by Rachel Donaldson and Ronald Cohen is available now.