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SINGING IN A STRANGE LAND by Nick Salvatore ● BOOK $27.95 $15.98
Hardbound, 419 pages, counts as six CDs for shipping
Biography of Reverend C.L. Franklin - one of the most famous influential African American preachers whose recordings on JVB and Chess sold millions of copies. He was also an important figure in the civil rights movement and worked with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King to end racial discrimination in downtown Detroit in 1963. He was also the father of Aretha Franklin. This book is based on eight years of research and interviews and traces Franklin's life from his birth in Mississippi, his early years as a preacher, his move to Tennessee and ultimately Detroit where he became a legend

 
THE COUNTRY READER 25 Years Of The Journal Of Country Music Edited by Paul Kingsbury ● BOOK $24.98 $8.98
Paperback, 334 pages, highly recommended, counts as seven CDs for shipping
We've managed to turn up a few more copies of this invaluable book. This is simply a wonderful collection of music writing. As the title suggests, this covers a quarter century of some of the best writing done on Country Music. This was released in 1996, but we are offering it up to you now at a bargain rate. So, if you missed this the first time around (as I did), you should definitely grab a copy now. The big names are covered here, from The Carter Family and Hank Williams, to Alan Jackson and Reba McEntire, but this is so much more than big features on big names, with some of the smallest of articles being the best. The book is broken down into three main parts, plus a a few extra features at the end that don't fit into the big categories. First off, you get "Essays" which takes up the first two-thirds of the book, with fine pieces like "The Legend That Peer Built," by Charles Wolfe about the historic Bristol recording sessions, "Elvis Emerging" by Peter Guralnick, and "George Jones: The Grand Tour," by Nick Tosches, to name a few. After that there's "The JCM Gallery" with about 40 pages of fantastic photography covering the history of Country music. Whether a portrait photo of fiddler Homer Ryan in 1926, or Johnny Cash in 1975 wearing some of the most fantastic boots on that you will ever see, or Roger Miller in 1963 surveying the wreckage of Patsy Cline's plane, the images are simply fantastic. The third section, "Reviews," is pretty much what you expect: solid, but probably the weakest part of the book. That doesn't count for much of the book though and you also get notes and a complete Subject Index from all 25 years of the Journal. This is an essential tome for my music library and I think any that pick it up will agree. (JM)

 
OUR OWN SWEET SOUNDS A Celebration Of Popular Music In Arkansas by Robert Cochran ● BOOK $34.95 $9.98
Hardbound, 140 pages, counts as four CDs for shipping. A rich portrait of the community that is Arkansas, "Our Own Sweet Sounds" celebrates the diversity of musical forms and music makers that have graced the state since territorial times. Beginning with the earliest references to Quapaw and Caddo music as first reported by seventeenth-century European explorers and continuing forward to the "bizarrely named grunge bands" who will be stars tomorrow, Robert Cochran traces the music and voices that have enriched the life of the "natural state." With over seventy important photographs accompanying the text, "Our Own Sweet Sounds" is the culmination of a 1995 Old State House Museum exhibition--that also included artifacts, music, and video--which serves as a comprehensive history of Arkansas' vernacular music since 1820. Includes profiles of Arkansas artists like Jimmy Driftwood, "Big Bill" Broonzy, Johnny Cash, Ronnie Hawkins, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and others and includes an extensive bibliography and selected discography.

 
CHILDREN OF THE BLUES 40 Musicians Shaping A New Blues Tradition by Art Tipaldi ● BOOK $19.95 $9.98
Paper, 325 pages, counts as five CDs for shipping
A survey of the newer generation of blues artists building on the legendary musicians of the 50s and 60s - Bernard Allison, Kenny Brown, Kenny Neal, Marcia Ball, JImmie Vaughan, Taj Mahal, Robert Cray, Joe Louis Walker and many more.

 
BREAKOUT Profiles In African Rhythm by Gary Stewart ● BOOK $14.98 $6.98
Paper,157 pages, counts as three CDs for shipping A look at some of Africa's most important and influential musicians as of the early 90s - Sonny Okosuns, Docteur Nico, Fela, etc.

 
BLOWING THE BLUES Fifty Years Playing The British Blues by Dick Heckstall Smith & Pete Grant ● BOOK $24.95 $9.98
Paperback, 256 pages, counts as four CDs for shipping
A book on British Blues written by two men who have intimate insight into the subject: saxophonist Heckstall-Smith (famous for playing with Alexis Korner's seminal Blues Incorporated and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers) and his manager Grant (not the Peter Grant who managed Led Zeppelin), who also played in blues bands and started a web site for blues guitar player Peter Green. Uniquely, the first section of the book is devoted to Heckstall-Smith's autobiography-which provides first hand accounts of life in on the British Blues scene frontlines-while in the second half, Grant discusses Heckstall-Smith's career in relation to the Blues in general, while wondering why someone as talented as he is never quite got the recognition he deserves. While there have other books on British Blues, to have one of the genre's key sidemen telling his own story offers a fascinating slant on an oft told subject.

 
JOURNEYMAN'S ROAD Modern Blues Lives From Faulkner's Misssippi To Post 9/11 New York by Adam Gussow ● BOOK $29.95 $10.98
Hardbound, 188 pages, counts as four CDs for shipping Journeyman's Blues offers a bold new vision of where the blues have been in the course of the 20th century and what they have become at the dawn of the new millennium: a world music rippling with postmodern contradictions. Author Adam Gussow brings a unique perspective to this exploration; in addition to being an award-winning scholar and memoirist, he is also an accomplished blues harmonica player, a Handy Award nominee, and a touring musician. With this depth of experience, Gussow skillfully places blues literature in dialogue with the music that provokes it, vital American tradition. At the heart of Gussow's story is his own musical partnership with Harlem bluesman Sterling "Mr. Satan" Magee, a collaboration marked not just by a series of polarities-black and white, Mississippi and Princeton, hard-won mastery and youthful apprenticeship-but by creative energies that pushed beyond apparent differences to forge new dialogues and new sounds. Undercutting familiar myths about the down-home sources of blues authenticity, Gussow celebrates New York's mongrel blues scene: the artists, the jam sessions, the venues, the street performers, and the eccentrics. At once elegiac and forward-looking, "Journeyman's Road" offers a collective portrait of the New York subculture struggling with the legacy of 9/11 and healing itself with the blues.

 
BLOWIN' HOT AND COOL Jazz And Its Critics by John Gennari ● BOOK $34.95 $16.98
Hardback, 480 pages, counts as 8 CDs for shipping.
A history and analysis of the role of the jazz critic in the development of the music

 
CAN'T BE SATISFIED The Life & Times Of Muddy Waters by Robert Gordon ● BOOK $15.95 $6.98
Paper, 408 pages, counts as four CDs for shipping Acclaimed in depth and extensively researched biography of the father of Chicago blues - his life and music and the many people he worked with and gave a start to over the years. Includes photographs, rare and familiar and several detailed appendices but no complete discography.

 
CHASIN' THE BIRD The Life And Legacy Of Charlie Parker by Brian Priestly ● BOOK $15.95 $8.98
Paper, 242 pages, counts as four CDs for shipping
Charlie Parker has been idolized by generations of Jazz musicians and fans. Now, in Chasin' the Bird, Brian Priestley offers a marvelous biography of this Jazz icon, ranging from his childhood in Kansas City to his final harrowing days in New York City. Priestley offers new insight into Parker's career, shedding light on his collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell, Mary Lou Williams, and Thelonious Monk, and illuminating such classic recordings as "Salt Peanuts" and "A Night in Tunisia" and his own compositions "Shaw 'Nuff" and "Yardbird Suite". Priestley also gives us an unflinching look at Parker's dark side-the drug abuse, heavy drinking, and tangled relations with women and the law. With an invaluable 58 page discography that lists every recording of Charlie Parker that has ever been made publicly available, here is a must-have biography of a true Jazz giant.

 
BROTHER RAY Ray Charles' Own Story by Ray Charles & David Ritz ● BOOK $16.95 $6.98
Paper, 364 pages, counts as four CDs for shipping
Ray Charles led one of the most extraordinary lives of any popular music, and in "Brother Ray," he tells his story in an inimitable and unsparing voice, from the chronicle of his musical development to his heroin addiction to his tangled romantic life. Overcoming poverty, blindness, the loss of his parents, and the pervasive racism of the era, Ray Charles was acclaimed worldwide as a genius by the age of thirty-two. By combining the influences of gospel, jazz, blues, and country music, he became one of the most important figures in the birth of the music known as soul. And throughout a career spanning more than a half century, Ray Charles remained in complete control of his life and his music, allowing nobody to tell him what he could and couldn't do. First published in 1978, this is an updated version of the original text, which includes David Ritz's moving account of "the last days of Brother Ray" and an updated discography.

 
SHOUT, SISTER SHOUT The Untold Story Of Rock & Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe by Gayle F. Wald ● BOOK $24.95 $13.98
Hardbound, 252 pages, counts as 5 CDs for shipping
Long awaited biography of the superb and influential gospel singer and guitarist singer and guitarist. Rosetta started her career as a blues singer and blues sensibilities infused her gospel music and her rocking music with it's dynamic guitar playing was at the roots of rock 'n' roll and an influence on artists like Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Isaac Hayes, Etta James and many others. Gayle Wald has extensively interviewed people who knew and worked with Rosetta for this biography.

 
STEEL GUITARS, OPRY STARS AND HONKY TONK BARS Reading Country Music edited by Cecilia Tichi ● BOOK $24.95 $8.98
Paperback, 408 pages, counts as six CDs for shipping
"Reading Country Music" acknowledges the significance of the genre as part of authentic American heritage and turns a loving, critical eye toward understanding the sweep of this peculiarly American phenomenon. Bringing together a wide range of scholars and critics from literature, communications, history, sociology, art, and music, this anthology looks at everything from the inner workings of the country music industry to the iconography of certain stars to the development of distinctive styles within the country music genre. Essays include a look at the shift from "hard-core' to "soft-shell" country music; visions and revisions of Hank Williams in country music; Johnny Cash as lesbian icon; the money in country music; gender, class, and religion in Dolly Parton's star image; and bluegrass's gothic tradition among many others. Originally published as a special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly, this expanded book edition includes new articles on the spirituality of Willie Nelson, the legacy and tradition of stringed music, and the revival of Stephen Foster's blackface musical, among others.

 
THE LAST OF THE GOOD ROCKING MEN by Todd R. Baptista ● BOOK $12.95 $5.98
Softbound, 48 pages, counts as two CDs for shipping
This slim book chronicles the career of bass singer Ellison White's who performed with gospel groups Wings Over Jordan and Wingman Quartet as well as doo-wop groups The Four Jacks and The Bombers and also did solo recordings. Based on personal interviews and illsutarted with numerous photos it includes anecdotes about the Los Angeles music scene of the 1950s. A percentage of the profits of this book go directly to White.

 
THE WORLD OF JAZZ IN Printed Ephemera & Collectables by Jim Godbolt ● BOOK $12.95 $6.98
Nice 160 page coffee-table book that tells the story of jazz, with particular attention to the early years, swing and the British jazz scene. Most of the ephemera (newspaper articles, posters, record jackets, programs, cartoons, as well as many photographs) is British, and often very rare, which will be of interest to collectors. The visual appeal is balanced with informative text. Counts as 8 CDs for shipping.

 

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