Wayfaring Stranger

Wayfaring Stranger goes beyond being an entertaining, informative book about a niche musical genre: it becomes the story of John's personal mission to shake off a kind of existential stiffness - an inhibiting perfectionism - to rediscover not just her passion for music, but also for life ... Books like this work best when they manage to pull in even the most casual reader, saturating them in the colours, emotions and sensations of hidden subcultures, and John more than delivers. If someone doesn't make a film out of this, they'll have missed a ""picking"" trick - The Observer There is a touch of Bill Bryson to her escapades. She is the well-meaning outsider stumbling through unfamiliar surroundings. She knows how to tell a good joke, and how to laugh at herself ... Early on, when she nervously takes her fiddle from its case and tries to join in with seasoned musicians, you know things will not go well, but she makes you smile at every wrong note ... [T]here are slivers of bluegrass history scattered in short, playful chapters. We get a page of excellent banjo jokes too - The Times John chronicles in lively prose the setbacks, breakthroughs and devilish difficulties encountered ... More than a memoir, Wayfaring Stranger is a valuable contribution to musicology and an informative tribute to a musical culture ... an excellent Bluegrass primer - Times Literary Supplement