The focus in ethnomusicological writing and teaching has traditionally centered around analyses and ethnographic representations of musical cultures, rather than on the personal world of understanding, experiencing, and doing fieldwork. Shadows in the Field shifts the focus of ethnography from representation (text) to experience (fieldwork) and proposes a "new fieldwork" that moves beyond data collection to engage scholars in more meaningful human contexts.

Timothy J. Cooley is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is the author of Making Music in the Polish Tatras: Tourists, Ethnographers, and Mountain Musicians. He serves as the editor of Ethnomusicology, the journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, and is the president of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Southern California Chapter.
Gregory Barz is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Anthropology at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbuilt University, and the general editor of the African Soundscapes book series. He serves as African Music editor for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and is the author of Singing for Life: HIV/AIDS and Music in Uganda, which has been nominated for a Grammy Award and Music in East Africa: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture.