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BARGAIN
BASEMENT
Books
| 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
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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)
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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.
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| 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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| 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
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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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.
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| 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.
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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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