"An excellent addition to . . . ethnomusicological studies of nontraditional music in America." -- Choice "A well-deserved look at the musical world of immigrant Jews, who, in finding and creating an expressive medium for self-identity, helped shape and give life to American popular culture." -- Ethnomusicology "Employing the tools of the ethnomusicologist and the social historian, Slobin has produced an important and highly readable account of the formation and function of a little-studied aspect of American popular culture." -- Journal of American Studies