Art Rosenbaum

Art Rosenbaum (b. 1938 - ) -- Banjoist, art historian, painter, and tune collector. Born in upstate New York, Art Rosenbaum moved frequently as a child because his father worked for the Army Medical Corps. In 1947, the family moved to Indianapolis, where Art grew up and attended Shortridge High School. In the early 1960s, he produced several albums of local blues musicians on the Bluesville label; the artists include Scrapper Blackwell (whom Rosenbaum rediscovered), Pete Franklin, Shirley Griffith, J.T. Adams and Brooks Berry. Rosenbaum had even a greater interest in Anglo- American folk songs and was strongly influenced by Pete Seeger. As an art student at Columbia University, he made lots of friends who shared his interest in American folk music. From 1976 to 2006, Rosenbaum was a Professor of Art at the University of Georgia. Nonetheless, he made numerous contributions to the world of folk music before, during and after his tenure there. As a tune collector and annotator, he made his mark with the Art Of Field Recording Volume I: Fifty Years Of Traditional American Music, for which he won a Grammy in 2008 in the category "Best Historical Album." He first garnered attention in the folk world by recording Hoosier fiddler John "Dick" Summers on Folkways, and he is also an expert on folk music in Georgia. As a banjoist, he is well-recorded and has authored instructional books on playing the five-string banjo. His work as a painter crosses over into his interest in folk music, as many of his works depict traditional music making in a Regionalist style (see above).