THE READING ROOM: More Memorable Music Books You Don’t Want to Miss

Several memorable music books were published in 2023, and I highlighted several in my previous column. We’re already looking forward to some more very promising books in 2024, but first I wanted to offer a look at a few 2023 music books that stand out for their contributions to the conversations about various artists, bands, or topics.

Tim Ghianni, Pilgrims, Pickers and Honky-Tonk Heroes: My Personal Time with Music City Friends and Legends in Rock ‘N’ Roll, R&B, and a Whole Lot of Country (Backbeat)

Nashville journalist Ghianni warmly invites readers to pull up a chair as he regales them with lively stories of his 50 years of covering music and the arts in Nashville. Through in-depth interviews with musicians including Bobby Bare, Shel Silverstein, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson, he recounts his friendships with them and reflects on the positive and negative ways that he’s seen Nashville change during his time there. Ghianni’s rich repast is one to savor and repays many return visits to its pages.

Ray Padgett, Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members (EWP Press)

Padgett collects interviews with more than 40 artists and others who’ve worked with Bob Dylan in clubs and allows them to share in their own words their experiences of standing close to Dylan and following him during their sets. Pledging My Time brings Dylan to life in a fresh way, through the words that describe him doing what he does best. (ND review)

Howard Fishman, To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse (Dutton)

Connie Corso moved to New York City in the 1940s, earning a reputation there as a folk singer-songwriter. Although she never gained the large following that some of her peers did, her songs, as Fishman points out in this outstanding biography, drew not only upon her personal life but also responded to the social events around her, such as the Vietnam War and the women’s liberation movement. However, Corso disappeared mysteriously in 1974. Drawing on extensive interviews with her family and friends as well as on Corso’s correspondence, musician and New Yorker contributor Fishman examines in ample detail her songwriting, her life, and her many contributions to music, reviving interest in Corso for fans of folk and Americana music.

Kenneth Womack, Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans (Dey Street)

From their Shea Stadium appearance to their Let It Be rooftop concert, the Beatles were accompanied by Mal Evans, who played the role of roadie, sometime lyricist, confidant, and protector. Evans threw himself into these roles with such unbridled enthusiasm that his longtime marriage fell apart and he lost connections with his children. He died in 1976 in a standoff with the LAPD. Beatles scholar Womack gained access to Evans’ unpublished archives — including unseen photos and ephemera — and conducted hundreds of interviews for this definitive biography of a man who could easily have been the fifth Beatle.

John Brackett, Live Dead: The Grateful Dead, Live Recordings, and the Ideology of Liveness (Duke)

By the late 1960s, The Grateful Dead’s live performances had become events with a life of their own, and the band tried to capture the feeling of their improvisation and jamming on 1969’s Live/Dead. Around the same time fans started taping the Dead’s shows, leading to a thriving culture of taping that tried to hold onto the essence of the band in their performances. In his eloquent analysis of this aspect of the Dead’s music and history, Brackett examines how “live recordings came to dominate the discourse of the Grateful Dead.” Deadheads are bound to love Brackett’s book.

Ray Robertson, All the Years Combine: The Grateful Dead in Fifty Shows (Biblioasis)

Robertson declares that he believes “a Grateful Dead concert is life.” Since most of the group’s 2,350 concerts are on tape, the majority in the band’s vault, it’s now possible to listen to the shows in an uninterrupted fashion and to get lost in the music itself. Robertson does just that and chooses 50 shows — from the July 29, 1966, show at the PNE Garden Auditorium in Vancouver, British Columbia, to the July 9, 1995, show at Chicago’s Soldier Field — charting the evolution of the band through these performances. While other Deadheads are bound to quibble with Robertson’s selections, they likely won’t argue with his conclusion: “I believe listening to the Grateful Dead will make you a better person.”

Melissa Etheridge, Talking to My Angels (HarperCollins)

Twenty years ago, Etheridge shared her inner life with fans and other readers in her first memoir, The Truth Is… . In her new memoir, she discloses the joys and pains she’s experienced in the intervening years. As in her music and lyrics, Etheridge writes with searing honesty and piercing insights into searching questions about loss, grief, gratitude, joy, and love.

Willie Nelson, with David Ritz and Mickey Raphael, Energy Follows Thought: The Stories Behind My Songs (William Morrow)

With his characteristic sly grin and twinkle in his eyes, Willie Nelson is at it again. This time he’s drawing from his deep well of anecdotes and personal stories to tell the tales behind 160 of his favorite songs. For the past few years, Nelson has been telling his stories in various books —including Me and Paul: Untold Stories of a Fabled Friendship and Me and Sister Bobbie: True Tales of the Family Band — but this is first book in which he tells his life through his songs, such as “Crazy” and “Whiskey River.” Nelson’s fans will pore over every page of this lavishly illustrated book and return to it over and over as they listen to Nelson’s music.