Over the past two years, we have endured the ravages of a pandemic, the miasma of political and social chaos, and the devastation of loss, often obscuring hope in a dark hopelessness that endures even into this season of light. […]
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Well, I suppose this book had to be published. Two years ago, we got the lowdown on the religious life and times, so to speak, of Johnny Cash when Richard Beck examined 15 of Cash’s songs in Trains, Jesus, and […]
This is the season for book awards and prizes, as well as the season that various newspapers and magazines offer their lists of best books. The year in music books has been especially rich, so this year’s list at No […]
As lists of best books of 2021 start to dot the pages of various magazines and book review sections, just in time for the start of the Christmas shopping season, I’m going to list three books for which I […]
One spring night in 1972, six of us piled into a van and headed to the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium to see our first big rock concert. The auditorium even then was creaky and had seen better days. It still featured […]
Anyone who’s seen Amazing Grace, the film of Aretha Franklin’s performance of her 1972 album of the same name, knows James Cleveland. He’s the tireless master of ceremonies and pianist and singer. More than that, he lifted Franklin up, encouraging […]
Reading Bobby Rush’s memoir I Ain’t Studdin’ Ya: My American Blues Story is a bit like watching him leave it all the stage at one of his shows. On stage, he works the crowd, rolling from one song into another […]
Very few rock memoirs feel like sitting in the room with an old friend who’s telling tales about growing up and discovering how deeply music is etched in his heart and dreams, but this is exactly how Dave Grohl’s new […]
John Hiatt has been working at the troubadour trade steadily for over 40 years — well, more if you count his boyhood bands — and he’s produced a catalog of gems that sparkle with wry insight, candor, and introspection. As […]
As music journalist Stephen Deusner points out in his captivating and insightful new book, Where the Devil Don’t Stay: Traveling the South with the Drive-By Truckers (Texas), “in crucial ways the Truckers have provided a rip-roaring soundtrack for a very […]
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