Last Cavalier

Nolan Porterfield is the author of Jimmie Rodgers: The Life and Times of America's Blue Yodeler, winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award; A Way of Knowing, a novel that won the Best Texas Novel Award of the Texas Institute of Letters; and "Jimmie Rodgers on Record," a monograph and discography that accompanied a Smithsonian reissue of the music of Jimmie Rodgers and was nominated for a Grammy Award.

"A stunningly fair and objective portrait. Analytical, without being judgmental, Porterfield allows the 'facts' of Lomax's story to unfold themselves with narrative eloquence and perceptive grace." -- Ron Pen, College Music Symposium "One of the most brilliant yet overlooked American culture volumes of recent vintage." -- San Francisco Examiner "Here's something to sing about! ... Nolan Porterfield has written an admirable study of one of America's earliest and greatest cultural heroes. Last Cavalier reveals the real man to whom we owe a lasting debt." -- Dan Rather "More than anyone else, John Lomax was responsible for introducing on a national scale America's folk voices. He collected songs from school children and saloon keepers, buffalo hunters and ranch hands. He introduced 'Home on the Range' in a Louisiana prison to the legendary songster Leadbelly. Historian Nolan Porterfield masterfully explores Lomax's long life: his complexity, industriousness, and temperament. Last Cavalier, a work of great understanding, chronicles America's folksong pioneer." -- Stephen Wade, creator of Banjo Dancing and On the Way Home "As long as we remember songs like 'Home on the Range' and 'Whoopee Ti Yi Yo,' the spirit of the West will live on in our hearts. Porterfield's illuminating and entertaining biography is a three-dimensional, warts-and-all look at the man we have to thank for it." -- Jesse Sublett, Southwestern Historical Quarterly "Portrays a man ... who contributed almost incredibly to American cultural history and lived a life enviable in its zeal for discovery." -- Booklist