McCrumb weaves a tale of journeys--from the historic journey of Katie Wyler, kidnapped by the Shawnee in 1789, to the pilgrimage of Hiram Sorley, an escapee from Mountain City's prison.

"Songbooks, a critical guide to American popular music writing, unfolds chronologically, with entries on authors, artists, and topics beginning with William Billings's 1770 New-England Psalm-Singer. Outsiders proliferate in these pages: women and/or writers of color, authors displaced by sexuality, self-educated scholars, elites deviating from norms. Their work routinely took non-academic shapes: compilations of songs, memoirs and biographies, fiction...