Books
Linda Ronstadt / Downes,Lawrence / Steen,Bill
Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands
Summary
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Linda Ronstadt takes readers on a journey to the place her soul calls home, the Sonoran Desert, in this candid new memoir
In Feels Like Home, Grammy award-winning singer Linda Ronstadt effortlessly evokes the magical panorama of the high desert, a landscape etched by sunlight and carved by wind, offering a personal tour built around meals and memories of the place where she came of age. Growing up the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and a descendant of Spanish settlers near northern Sonora, Ronstadt's intimate new memoir celebrates the marvelous flavors and indomitable people on both sides of what was once a porous border whose denizens were happy to exchange recipes and gather around campfires to sing the ballads that shaped Ronstadt's musical heritage.
Following her bestselling musical memoir, Simple Dreams, this book seamlessly braids together Ronstadt's recollections of people and their passions in a region little understood in the rest of the United States. This road trip through the desert, written in collaboration with former New York Times writer Lawrence Downes and illustrated throughout with beautiful photographs by Bill Steen, features recipes for traditional Sonoran dishes and a bevy of revelations for Ronstadt's admirers. If this book were a radio signal, you might first pick it up on an Arizona highway, well south of Phoenix, coming into the glow of Ronstadt's hometown of Tucson. It would be playing something old and Mexican, from a time when the border was a place not of peril but of possibility.
About the Author
Linda Ronstadt, one of the most versatile singers of the past fifty years, is the author of Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir (2013). Her four-decade recording career encompassed country, rock 'n' roll, the Great American Songbook, jazz, opera, Broadway standards, Mexican and Tropical music and Americana. Her worldwide album sales totaled more than 100 million records, with more than 30 gold and platinum records. She has won 11 Grammy Awards and is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She serves on the advisory board of Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy, which has taught Mexican folk music, dance and art to children in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than three decades. She lives in San Francisco.
Lawrence Downes is a writer and editor in New York. For more than thirty years, he worked in newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times, Newsday, and the New York Times where he was an editor and member of the editorial board, specializing in issues about immigration, New York City and state politics and government, disability rights, veterans affairs, and the environment.
Bill Steen is a professional photographer, specializing in the beauty and bounty of the Sonoran borderlands for more than three decades. Along with his wife, Athena Swentzell Steen, he is a founder of the Canelo Project, near Elgin, Arizona, a family-based community and an applied educational center that gives people hands-on experience with a lifestyle that aims to be sustainable. The Steens are the authors, with David Bainbridge, of The Straw Bale House, among other books.
Product Details
- With images throughout
- Hardcover: 248 pages
- Publisher: Heyday
- Biography & Autobiography / Music
Summary
The epic biography of one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands of all time, the Replacements.
Based on a decade of research, hundreds of interviews, and written with the participation of the group's key members-including reclusive singer-songwriter Paul Westerberg, bassist Tommy Stinson, and the family of late guitarist Bob Stinson-Trouble Boys was hailed as an instant classic rock biography, a deeply intimate and nuanced portrait exposing the primal factors and forces that shaped one of the most brilliant and notoriously self-destructive groups of all time.
A roaring rock 'n' roll adventure, a heartrending family drama, and a cautionary showbiz tale, Trouble Boys is a penetrating work and a major addition to the canon.
About the Author
Bob Mehr is an award-winning music critic for the Gannett-owned newspaper The Commercial Appeal and a longtime contributor to MOJO magazine. He's also served as an editor, writer, and columnist for Village Voice Media, New Times Inc., and Chicago Reader. He contributed liner notes to the Grammy-winning Big Star box set Keep an Eye on the Sky and has written essays for reissues of the Replacements, Kinks, Warren Zevon, Dixie Chicks, Al Green, and many others. A native of Los Angeles, he lives in Memphis, Tennessee.
Product Details
- Paperback: 520 pages
- Publisher: Da Capo Press
- Music \ Individual Composer & Musician
Summary:
The Go-Go's were the first all-female rock group in history to write their own songs, play their own instruments, and reach the top of the Billboard charts with their #1 album, Beauty and the Beat. Made In Hollywood is drummer Gina Schock's personal account of the band, which includes a treasure trove of photographs and memorabilia collected over the course of her 40-year career.
The Go-Go's debut album, Beauty and the Beat, rose to the top of the charts in 1981 and their hit songs "We Got the Beat", "Our Lips Are Sealed", "Vacation", and "Head Over Heels" (to name a few) served as a soundtrack to our lives in the `80s.
Now, after the release of their Critics Choice Award-winning Showtime documentary, and in anticipation of their forthcoming induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and their 2021 West Coast shows, Gina takes fans behind the scenes for a rare look at her personal images documenting the band's wild journey to the heights of fame and stardom. Featuring posters, photographs, Polaroids, and other memorabilia from her archives, Made In Hollywood also includes stories from each member of the Go-Go's, along with other cultural luminaries like Kate Pierson, Jodie Foster, Dave Stewart, Martha Quinn, and Paul Reubens.
With a style as bold and distinctive as any Go-Go's album, Made In Hollywood is the perfect tribute to one of the world's most iconic groups.
About the Author:
Gina Schock has been playing in rock bands since the age of thirteen, and she's been the drummer of the Go-Go's for over four decades. In addition to her work as a drummer, guitarist, and producer, Gina has co-written songs for Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez. She has also co-written songs with Alanis Morissette and Carnie and Wendy Wilson of Wilson Phillips.
- Hardcover Paper over boards: 240 pages
- Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
- 125 full-color and black-and-white photographs
- Music / Genres & Styles / Pop Vocal
Summary:
**Instant International Bestseller, New York Times Bestseller, USA Today Bestseller, Wall Street Journal Bestseller, Los Angeles Times Bestseller, Publishers Weekly Bestseller**
Uncover never-before-told stories in this epic tale of self-discovery by a Rock n Roll disciple and member of the E Street Band.
What story begins in a bedroom in suburban New Jersey in the early '60s, unfolds on some of the country's largest stages, and then ranges across the globe, demonstrating over and over again how Rock and Roll has the power to change the world for the better? This story.
The first true heartbeat of Unrequited Infatuations is the moment when Stevie Van Zandt trades in his devotion to the Baptist religion for an obsession with Rock and Roll. Groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones created new ideas of community, creative risk, and principled rebellion. They changed him forever. While still a teenager, he met Bruce Springsteen, a like-minded outcast/true believer who became one of his most important friends and bandmates. As Miami Steve, Van Zandt anchored the E Street Band as they conquered the Rock and Roll world.
And then, in the early '80s, Van Zandt stepped away from E Street to embark on his own odyssey. He refashioned himself as Little Steven, a political songwriter and performer, fell in love with Maureen Santoro who greatly expanded his artistic palette, and visited the world's hot spots as an artist/journalist to not just better understand them, but to help change them. Most famously, he masterminded the recording of "Sun City," an anti-apartheid anthem that sped the demise of South Africa's institutionalized racism and helped get Nelson Mandela out of prison.
By the '90s, Van Zandt had lived at least two lives-one as a mainstream rocker, one as a hardcore activist. It was time for a third. David Chase invited Van Zandt to be a part of his new television show, the Sopranos-as Silvio Dante, he was the unconditionally loyal consiglieri who sat at the right hand of Tony Soprano (a relationship that oddly mirrored his real-life relationship with Bruce Springsteen).
Underlying all of Van Zandt's various incarnations was a devotion to preserving the centrality of the arts, especially the endangered species of Rock. In the twenty-first century, Van Zandt founded a groundbreaking radio show (Little Steven's Underground Garage), created the first two 24/7 branded music channels on SiriusXM (Underground Garage and Outlaw Country), started a fiercely independent record label (Wicked Cool), and developed a curriculum to teach students of all ages through the medium of music history. He also rejoined the E Street Band for what has now been a twenty-year victory lap.
?Unrequited Infatuations chronicles the twists and turns of Stevie Van Zandt's always surprising life. It is more than just the testimony of a globe-trotting nomad, more than the story of a groundbreaking activist, more than the odyssey of a spiritual seeker, and more than a master class in rock and roll (not to mention a dozen other crafts). It's the best book of its kind because it's the only book of its kind.
About the Author:
Stevie Van Zandt is a beloved musician, songwriter, actor, radio host, and activist. He is best known as the guitarist of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and the lead member of Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. He is also known for his acting work, most notably in The Sopranos (Silvio Dante) and Lilyhammer (Frank Tagliano); his radio work as the host of Little Steven's Underground Garage; and his devotion to music education (the TeachRock.org music history curriculum). In 2014, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band.
He lives in Greenwich Village with his wife Maureen and Edie the dog.
- Hardcover: 416 pages
- 2 16-page b&w inserts
- Biography & Autobiography / Music
- Music / Genres & Styles / Rock
Rodney Crowell is releasing a self-curated book of lyrics, Word For Word on BMG Books.
In the new book, the path behind Crowell’s legacy is revealed with the stories that brought his most iconic songs to life, including fifteen No. 1 hits. The collection features 150 of Crowell’s most impactful songs in a collector-sized compilation of lyrical poetry and artwork.
Word For Word includes selections such as “Til I Gain Control Again,” “Leaving Louisiana In the Broad Daylight,” “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” and “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,” as well as songs covered by Emmylou Harris, the Grateful Dead, Johnny Cash, Etta James and Norah Jones, and hits for Tim McGraw, Keith Urban and Bob Seger.
The book describes his early days in Nashville and distills Crowell’s legendary life’s work down to its essence. The book features additional commentary from Rosanne Cash and a foreword by best-selling author Daniel Levitin, as well as original art, previously unseen photography, personal artifacts such as first drafts of songs, and much more.
A multi-chart topper and Grammy award winner, Crowell is known foremost as a songwriter’s songwriter, and his talents translate to numerous forms of storytelling, as seen in his acclaimed memoir Chinaberry Sidewalks.
As a co-founder of The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, Chris Hillman is arguably the primary architect of what’s come to be known as country rock. He went on to record and perform in various configurations, including as a member of Stephen Stills’s Manassas and as a co-founder of The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band. In the 1980s he formed The Desert Rose Band, scoring eight Top 10 Billboard country hits. He’s released a number of solo efforts, including 2017’s highly acclaimed Bidin’ My Time—the final album produced by the late Tom Petty. In Time Between, Hillman shares his quintessentially Southern Californian experience, from an idyllic, rural 1950s childhood; to achieving worldwide fame thanks to hits such as “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and “Eight Miles High”; to becoming the first musician to move to Laurel Canyon. Featuring behind-the-scenes insights on his time in The Byrds, his productive but sometimes complicated relationship with Gram Parsons, his role in launching the careers of Buffalo Springfield and Emmylou Harris, and the ups and downs of life in various bands, music is only part of his story. Within the pages of Time Between, Hillman reveals the details of his personal life with candor and vulnerability, writing honestly about the shocking tragedy that struck his family when he was a teenager, his subsequent struggles with anger, and how his spiritual journey led him to a place of deep faith that allowed him to extend forgiveness and experience wholeness. Chris Hillman is much more than a rock star. He is truly a founding father of American music and a man who has faced down the challenges of life to discover what really matters.
Summary
The intimate portrayal of one of the most famous men in music, more than half of which is in McCartney's own words
For over thirty-five years, noted music writer Paul Du Noyer had unprecedented access to Paul McCartney and has spent more hours in formal, recorded conversation with McCartney than any other writer. Conversations with McCartney is the result of Du Noyer's long association with McCartney and his music. In the most comprehensive firsthand account of McCartney ever published, Du Noyer presents an honest, humorous, and unique perspective of the former Beatle: "Until Paul McCartney writes his own memoir . . . Paul Du Noyer has set the bar and you won't need any other volume on your shelf" (London Weekly News).
Coupling McCartney's candid thoughts with Du Noyer's observations and analysis, Conversations with McCartney is beautifully written-the sensitive, shrewd depiction of one of the most accomplished artists of our time.
About the Author
Paul Du Noyer is a top music journalist with more than 30 years' experience writing about the subject. His interviewees range from Madonna to Pavarotti, David Bowie to Mick Jagger and nearly everyone with a strong connection to The Beatles, not least Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. He began his career on the staff of Britain's legendary music weekly paper NME, and later joined Q magazine and became its editor. Du Noyer also launched MOJO as its founding editor, for which the British Society of Magazine Editors awarded him the title "Editor of the Year."
Product Details
- With both black & white and color images
- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: The Overlook Press
- Biography & Autobiography / Composers & Musicians
Summary
George Plasketes provides a comprehensive chronicle of Warren Zevon's 40-year, 20-record career and his enduring cultural significance. Throughout, Plasketes explores the musical, cinematic, and literary influences that shaped Zevon's distinctive style and songwriting themes.
Warren Zevon was one of the most original songwriters to emerge from the prolific 1970s Los Angeles music scene. Beyond his most familiar song-the rollicking 1978 hit, "Werewolves of London"-Zevon's smart, often satirical songbook is rich with cinematic, literary, and comic qualities, dark narratives, complex characters, popular culture references, and tender, romantic ballads of parting and longing. Warren Zevon: West Coast Desperado is the first book-length, critical exploration of one of popular music's most talented and tormented antiheroes. George Plasketes provides a comprehensive chronicle of Zevon's 40-year, 20-record career and his enduring cultural significance. Beginning with Zevon's classical training and encounters as a youth with composers Robert Craft and Igor Stravinsky, Plasketes surveys Zevon's initiation into the 1960s through the Everly Brothers, the Turtles and the film Midnight Cowboy. Plasketes then follows Zevon from his debut album with Asylum Records in 1976, produced by mentor Jackson Browne, through his successes and struggles, from Top Ten album to record label limbo during the 1980s. Despite his reckless lifestyle and personal demons, Zevon made friends and alliances with talk show host David Letterman and such literary figures as Hunter S. Thompson and Carl Hiassen. It was only after his death in 2003, that Zevon received Grammy recognition for his work. Throughout the book, Plasketes explores the musical, cinematic, and literary influences that shaped Zevon's distinctive style and songwriting themes and continue to make Zevon's work a telling portrait of Los Angeles and American culture.
About the Author
George Plasketes is professor of media studies and popular culture in the School of Communication and Journalism at Auburn University in Alabama. He has written on a variety of music, media and popular culture subjects
Product Details
- Hardcover: 260 pages
- Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
- Music / Individual Composer & Musician
The extraordinary life and career of music legend Stewart, in his own words for the first time. With his soulful and singular voice, narrative songwriting, and passionate live performances, Stewart has paved one of the most iconic and successful music careers of all time.
The extraordinary life and career of music legend Stewart, in his own words for the first time. With his soulful and singular voice, narrative songwriting, and passionate live performances, Stewart has paved one of the most iconic and successful music careers of all time.
Summary
Page, Plant and Jones have collaborated with Reel Art Press to publish the first illustrated book celebrating 50 years since Led Zeppelin formed
Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin is the first and only official illustrated book ever to be produced in full collaboration with the members of the band. Celebrating 50 years since their formation, this definitive 400-page volume charts the group's unparalleled musical career from the very first performance in a tiny club, to their performance at London's O2 Arena, when 20 million fans broke the world record for highest demand for tickets for a single concert.
The book features over 300 photographs?many seen here for the first time?of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham from photographers around the world, and photographs from the band members' personal collections. The band are seen on and off stage, in candid moments and in the recording studio. Accompanying the photographs is rare and unseen artwork from the Led Zeppelin archives, and fascinating documents and images from the Atlantic Records vaults.
About the Author
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham
Product Details
- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Reel Art Press
- Arts & Photography / Music
Summary
From the author of the definitive New York Times bestselling history of the Beatles comes the authoritative account of the group many call the greatest rock band of all time, arguably the most successful, and certainly one of the most notorious
Rock star. Whatever that term means to you, chances are it owes a debt to Led Zeppelin. No one before or since has lived the dream quite like Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham. In Led Zeppelin, Bob Spitz takes their full measure, separating the myth from the reality with his trademark connoisseurship and storytelling flair.
From the opening notes of their first album, the band announced itself as something different, a collision of grand artistic ambition and brute primal force, of English folk music and African American blues. That record sold over 10 million copies, and it was just the beginning; Led Zeppelin's albums have sold over 300 million certified copies worldwide, and the dust has never settled.
The band is notoriously guarded, and previous books provided more heat than light. But Spitz's authority is undeniable and irresistible. His feel for the atmosphere, the context-the music, the business, the recording studios, the touring life, the whole ecosystem of popular music-is unparalleled. His account of the melding of Page and Jones, the virtuosic London sophisticates, with Plant and Bonham, the wild men from the Midlands, in a scene dominated by the Beatles and the Stones but changing fast, is in itself a revelation. Spitz takes the music seriously and brings the band's artistic journey to full and vivid life.
The music, however, is only part of the legend: Led Zeppelin is also the story of how the sixties became the seventies, of how playing clubs became playing stadiums, of how innocence became decadence. Led Zeppelin wasn't the first rock band to let loose on the road, but as with everything else, they took it to an entirely new level. Not all the legends are true, but in Spitz's careful accounting, what is true is astonishing and sometimes disturbing.
Led Zeppelin gave no quarter, and neither has Bob Spitz. Led Zeppelin is the full and honest reckoning the band has long awaited, and richly deserves.
About the Author
Bob Spitz is the award-winning author of the biographies The Beatles and Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child, both New York Times bestsellers, as well as six other nonfiction books and a screenplay. He helped manage Bruce Springsteen and Elton John at crucial points in their careers. He's written hundreds of major profiles of figures, ranging from Keith Richards to Jane Fonda, from Paul McCartney to Paul Bowles.
Product Details
- With images
- Hardcover: 688 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Press
- Biography & Autobiography / Music
Summary
T Bone Burnett is a unique, astonishingly prolific music producer, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and soundtrack visionary. Renowned as a studio maven with a Midas touch, Burnett is known for lifting artists to their greatest heights, as he did with Raising Sand, the multiple Grammy Award-winning album by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, as well as acclaimed albums by Los Lobos, the Wallflowers, B. B. King, and Elvis Costello. Burnett virtually invented "Americana" with his hugely successful roots-based soundtrack for the Coen Brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Outspoken in his contempt for the entertainment industry, Burnett has nevertheless received many of its highest honors, including Grammy Awards and an Academy Award.
T Bone Burnett offers the first critical appreciation of Burnett's wide-ranging contributions to American music, his passionate advocacy for analog sound, and the striking contradictions that define his maverick artistry. Lloyd Sachs highlights all the important aspects of Burnett's musical pursuits, from his early days as a member of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and his collaboration with the playwright Sam Shepard to the music he recently composed for the TV shows Nashville and True Detective and his production of the all-star album Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes. Sachs also underscores Burnett's brilliance as a singer-songwriter in his own right. Going well beyond the labels "legendary" or "visionary" that usually accompany his name, T Bone Burnett reveals how this consummate music maker has exerted a powerful influence on American music and culture across four decades.
About the Author
A nationally known voice on popular culture, Lloyd Sachs has written about pop music and jazz for many publications, including Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, DownBeat, the Village Voice, USA Today, and JazzTimes. He was a longtime music columnist and award-winning editorial writer at the Chicago Sun-Times and a senior editor at No Depression, the prized "alt-country" magazine.
Product Details
- Hardcover: 278 pages
- Publisher: University of Texas Press
- Music \ Individual Composer & Musician
Summary
Behind Beatlemania
Privileged access to the Fab Four
In early 1964, photographer Harry Benson received a call from the photo editor of London's Daily Express, who asked him to cover The Beatles' trip to Paris. It was the beginning of a career-defining relationship, which would both make Benson's name and produce some of the most intimate photographs ever taken of The Beatles.
In Paris, Benson captured the Fab Four in the midst of a pillow fight at the George V Hotel, an icnoic image which came to epitomize the spirit of the Mancunian quartet-Benson himself has called it the best shot of his career. Later that year, he followed the group on the road for their debut US tour, documenting their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, their surprising encounter with Cassius Clay, and the hysteria of New York Beatlemania. Benson also received privileged access to photograph George Harrison's honeymoon in Barbados.
This book collects the best of Benson's luminous black and white Beatles portfolio, alongside quotes and newspaper clippings from the period, and an introduction by the photographer himself, adding personal testimony to these era-defining images.
About the Author
Glasgow-born Harry Benson has photographed every US President since Eisenhower, the Civil Rights movement, and was next to Robert Kennedy when he was assassinated. As well as The Beatles, he has shot some of the biggest personalities of the last 50 years, including Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Her Majesty The Queen. In 2009, he was made Commander of the British Empire (CBE).
Product Details
- Photographs throughout
- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: TASCHEN
- Photography / Individual Photographers
Widely acknowledged as one of the best Beatles books, Some Fun Tonight! covers in astonishing detail the group's three North American tours (1964-1966). Written by Chuck Gunderson, the country's leading authority on the subject, this comprehensive LIMITED-EDITION two-volume set will give the reader a city-by-city synopsis of the Beatles' activities as they traveled the United States and Canada for their groundbreaking series of concerts. From San Francisco's Cow Palace show on August 19, 1964 through their last-ever live performance at the city's famed Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966, these books will cover the music and the madness that characterized their North American tours. Supported by hundreds of photographs and images of rare memorabilia, it will truly be THE definitive reference for what is arguably the most important period in the Beatles' long and winding career.
Philippe Margotin / Guesdon,Jean-Michel
Rolling Stones All The Songs Expanded Edition
Summary
Comprehensive visual history of the "World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band" as told through the recording of their monumental catalog, including 29 studio and 24 compilation albums, and more than a hundred singles.
Since 1963, The Rolling Stones have been recording and touring, selling more than 200 million records worldwide. While much is known about this iconic group, few books provide a comprehensive history of their time in the studio. In The Rolling Stones All the Songs, authors Margotin and Guesdon describe the origin of their 340 released songs, details from the recording studio, what instruments were used, and behind-the-scenes stories of the great artists who contributed to their tracks.
Organized chronologically by album, this massive, 704-page hardcover begins with their 1963 eponymous debut album recorded over five days at the Regent Studio in London; through their collaboration with legendary producer Jimmy Miller in the ground-breaking albums from 1968 to 1973; to their later work with Don Was, who has produced every album since Voodoo Lounge. Packed with more than 500 photos, All the Songs is also filled with stories fans treasure, such as how the mobile studio they pioneered was featured in Deep Purple's classic song "Smoke on the Water" or how Keith Richards used a cassette recording of an acoustic guitar to get the unique riff on "Street Fighting Man."
About the Author
Jean-Michel Guesdon, a musician, composer, and sound engineer, who has written withe Philippe Margotin All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release and Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. He lives in Paris.
Philippe Margotin has written numerous books on music, including biographies of U2 and Radiohead, as well as All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release and Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. He lives in Paris.
Prodcut Details
- With images throughout
- Series: All the Songs
- Hardcover: 760 pages
- Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
- Music / Genres & Styles / Rock
Summary:
The definitive biography of country legend Merle Haggard by the New York Times bestselling biographer of Clint Eastwood, Cary Grant, The Eagles, and more.
Merle Haggard was one of the most important country music musicians who ever lived. His astonishing musical career stretched across the second half of the 20th Century and into the first two decades of the next, during which he released an extraordinary 63 albums, 38 that made it on to Billboard's Country Top Ten, 13 that went to #1, and 37 #1 hit singles. With his ample songbook, unique singing voice and brilliant phrasing that illuminated his uncompromising commitment to individual freedom, cut with the monkey of personal despair on his back and a chip the size of Monument Valley on his shoulder, Merle's music and his extraordinary charisma helped change the look, the sound, and the fury of American music.
The Hag tells, without compromise, the extraordinary life of Merle Haggard, augmented by deep secondary research, sharp detail and ample anecdotal material that biographer Marc Eliot is known for, and enriched and deepened by over 100 new and far-ranging interviews. It explores the uniquely American life of an angry rebellious boy from the wrong side of the tracks bound for a life of crime and a permanent home in a penitentiary, who found redemption through the music of "the common man."
Merle Haggard's story is a great American saga of a man who lifted himself out of poverty, oppression, loss and wanderlust, to catapult himself into the pantheon of American artists admired around the world. Eliot has interviewed more than 100 people who knew Haggard, worked with him, were influenced by him, loved him or hated him. The book celebrates the accomplishments and explore the singer's infamous dark side: the self-created turmoil that expressed itself through drugs, women, booze, and betrayal. The Hag offers a richly anecdotal narrative that will elevate the life and work of Merle Haggard to where both properly belong, in the pantheon of American music and letters.
The Hag is the definitive account of this unique American original, and will speak to readers of country music and rock biographies alike.
About the Author:
Marc Eliot is the New York Times bestselling author of more than two dozen books on popular culture, including the highly acclaimed Cary Grant; the award-winning Hollywood's Dark Prince; American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood; The Eagles: The Untold Story. His books have been published in more than 25 countries. He is a frequent contributor to documentary films, TV shows, and podcasts, is the Resident Curator of film at the Riverfront Museum in Peoria, Illinois, and a Visiting Professor at UFM - The University of Guatemala, where he teaches graduate seminars in film. He received his MFA in non-fiction and film history from Columbia University, where he was mentored by Andrew Sarris. He attended the "Fame" school, the High School of Performing Arts. He currently lives in New York City, and upstate near Woodstock, New York.
- Hardcover: 464 pages
- 16-page b&w insert
- Music / Genres & Styles / Country & Bluegrass
- Biography & Autobiography / Music / Individual Composer & Musician
Summary
Part of the best-selling Little People, BIG DREAMS series, David Bowie tells the inspiring story of this famous singer-songwriter and musician.
New in the critically acclaimed Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the life of David Bowie, the starman who dazzled audiences with his music.
As a child, young David had a head full of songs and ideas. He was inspired by the pop and mod scenes in Britain to pick up the saxophone. After earning his stripes in some of the coolest bands in London, David splashed onto the solo scene. His songwriting talent and musical skill made him one of rock and roll's all-time greatest artists. This moving book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the musician's life.
Little People, BIG DREAMS is a best-selling series of books and educational games that explore the lives of outstanding people, from designers and artists to scientists and activists. All of them achieved incredible things, yet each began life as a child with a dream.
This empowering series offers inspiring messages to children of all ages, in a range of formats. The board books are told in simple sentences, perfect for reading aloud to babies and toddlers. The hardcover versions present expanded stories for beginning readers. Boxed gift sets allow you to collect a selection of the books by theme. Paper dolls, learning cards, matching games, and other fun learning tools provide even more ways to make the lives of these role models accessible to children.
Inspire the next generation of outstanding people who will change the world with Little People, BIG DREAMS!
About the Author
Mª Isabel Sánchez Vergara, born in Barcelona, Spain, is a writer and creative director in constant search of new concepts for children's books. Working for more than fifteen years for clients in top advertising agencies, her books combine creativity with learning, aiming to establish a new and fresh relationship between children and pop culture.
Ana Albero was born in Alicante, Spain. She studied Visual Communication at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, and illustration at the University of the Arts Berlin. She is now based in Berlin, where she works primarily in graphite and colored pencil creating vibrant textured images inspired by old pictures and movies. She is the illustrator of The People Awards and Little People Big Dreams: Coco Chanel.
Product Details
- Series: Little People, BIG DREAMS
- Format Hardcover: 32 pages
- Publisher: Lincoln Children's Books
- Juvenile Nonfiction / Boys & Men