Amanda Petrusich recounts her experience of searching for the true meaning of Americana music in It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music. She is a woman from Brooklyn, New York that decides to road trip down South to explore the origins of this rare music. A very detailed description of her trip is included, and the reader feels as if they are with her every step of the way. While on her search for Americana music she finds herself understanding in a way that a simple definition cannot convey.
The attention to details is what connects a reader to her experience. While describing The South as “That particular chunk of rock and water and dirt and kudzu, where people speak in warbles-voices stuck in perpetual song, all slow consonants and giggly cadences, singing, always-and eat too much pie and drink Mountain Dew with spoonfuls of sugar stirred in, bears wild and ridiculous fruit” a feeling of simplicity and happiness comes over a person. This feeling is what makes the South the way it is, and influences the music of the South greatly.
Petrusich does a good job of being open to the lifestyles and opinions of others. She speaks of many different people and things that they do without judgment. While her opinions are stated sometimes, she leaves room for others to make their own opinions as well. She wants to educate readers of what Americana music is actually about and she creates an unbiased story.
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