$23.95
ISBN: 9781477324646
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Published: University of Texas Press - May 9th, 2023
It could be argued that no one injected more of her personal life into her art than Tammy Wynette. She spent much of her career defending the implications in her signature song, "Stand By Your Man," against a growing tide of feminist indignation and a discouraging number of her own failed marriages. Wynette could take songs like "I Don't Wanna Play House" and "My Elusive Dreams" and invest them with a genuine pathos that never lapsed into sloppy sentimentality. This is a meticulous examination of the difficult life of a woman who was able to convey both her pain and her disappointments to an audience without once hitting a false note. ~ Reviewed by Alden Graves
$27.99
ISBN: 9781681123110
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Published: NBM Publishing - May 3rd, 2023
Different artists/authors, with unique styles of illustrations, hit on the highlights of the journey of Queen. Focusing on the band overall, a realistic timeline is created. In between the chapters there is a factual recap, more information and even photographs of what was happening, people and places mentioned. ~ Reviewed by Jeanette
$28.99
ISBN: 9780593136492
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Published: Crown - April 25th, 2023
Singer songwriter Lucinda Williams (don’t call her style Alt-Country or Americana) pens this evocative memoir of a difficult childhood, her musical education, and career. With an abusive mother who had terrible mental health problems and an itinerant poet-professor father, Williams reflects in her 70s on finally making it in the business as a woman in her 40s with 1998’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and how she was labeled "difficult" in the media for being a perfectionist when innumerable male musicians who were exacting were never so judged. ~ Reviewed by Dafydd Wood
$28.00
ISBN: 9780358244301
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Published: Dey Street Books - October 26th, 2021
In the wake of the cultural tsunami of Nirvana, and their eventual tragic end, major music labels sought the Next Big Thing after the "Seattle sound" of grunge. They didn't have to wait long, as the release of Green Day's "Dookie" in 1994 set off a feeding frenzy of A&R men sent out to sign any punk-rock band that could write a decent melody. Using nearly a dozen major label debut albums as a framing device, Ozzi takes a look at what bands like Jimmy Eat World, Thursday, and others were up against in the battle to retain their artistic integrity in the rapidly-changing industry of the early 2000s. ~ Reviewed by Chris Linendoll
$29.99
ISBN: 9780063076099
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Published: Dey Street Books - October 5th, 2021
Dave Grohl seems to have been born to be a rock star. Here he weaves together the many stories that tell the tale of how he became one. More importantly, he tells the story of a person who is willing to follow his dream to make a life doing what makes him happy. From dropping out of high school to tour with a punk band, to somehow always finding himself in the right place at the right time (imagine being an unknown drummer in an unknown band and being asked to sit in with Iggy Pop for a gig), to joining Nirvana, and then fronting the Foo Fighters. He seems to always be at the crossroads of some great musical event. Grohl's stories about his life and music are filled with humor and emotion. ~ Reviewed by Allen Boulet
$27.99
ISBN: 9781335425720
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Published: Hanover Square Press - March 8th, 2022
In lieu of a memoir and on the occasion of his 85th birthday, "[the country's] greatest living composer" Steve Reich crafted a collection of conversations inspired by Stravinsky's books of conversations with his amanuensis Robert Craft. During the pandemic Reich spoke with musicians from his ensemble, conductors like Michael Tilson Thomas and Brad Lubman, old friends like Stephen Sondheim and Richard Serra, younger composers (like the Bang on a Can collective--David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Michael Gordon-- Brian Eno, and younger like Nico Muhly), and later generations of performers (like Radiohead's guitarist Jonny Greenwood, David Harrington the first violin in the Kronos Quartet, and others) about his career, each conversation loosely centering on a particular work. There is a charming back and forth that always gives a sense of both conversationalists, and it still hits the major beats expected in a memoir of his 50 year career. Recommended for readers who already have an interest in contemporary classical music. ~ Reviewed by Dafydd Wood
