The story of a hidden New Deal program that tried to change America and end the Great Depression using folk music, laying the groundwork for the folk revival and having a lasting impact on American culture.
A Chance to Harmonize, as well as giving a picaresque account of a remarkable archival project, offers a corrective to the male-dominated narratives of the folk-song field ... So much of what we know of American grassroots music, now a cherished part of our national heritage, comes from the efforts of these unheralded pioneers, who worked in the field and on the fly. A Chance to Harmonize, at last, gives them their due.
Fascinating ... Kaskowitz shows us that the music unit was a direct precursor to Lomax and a missing link in the birth of the American folk music revival.
