2 comments about A Guitar and a Pen: Stories by Country Music's Greatest Songwriters.

1. 
   Reviewed by Gina Holland for RebeccasReads (6/08)
   
   
   "A Guitar And A Pen" is very unique; it's a collection of short stories that were written by some of country music's most talented songwriters. I have always enjoyed country music, and I really enjoyed reading these stories. The collection proved that these artists' abilities swell beyond their songwriting talents. Each story was written well, and I found them all a joy to read. In contrast to listening to the artists' hit songs, I was able to actually sit down, read and absorb what I was being told.
   
   Many of the stories really relate to the world around us today. There is joy, sadness, happiness, death, life, and a lot about family! Some of the writers are well known today in the world of Country Music. Among the writers are Kris Kristofferson, Charlie Daniels, John Hadley, and Marshall Chapman, and many, many more.
   
   "A Guitar And A Pen" is a very good blend of fiction and non-fiction. Some of the stories written are so poignant that they feel as though they are real. That songwriters wrote this book makes it even more worth the while of reading it. Anticipation is one thing that keeps us going in this life. I suggest you read this book. Once you read it, you might want to read it again and again. It is definitely a collectible. Thanks to all the songwriters for taking time out of their busy lives to put together such a wonderful collection.



2. This is definitely a book for Country Western fans.
   
   If you are familiar with this genre of music, then the stories will surely reach every corner of your heart. There is a time for laughter and a time for pain, a time of sadness and a time to yell "Yahoo!"
   
   Each story has its own unique style and theme. Some are easy reads that you can follow with no trouble while others take a little getting into. It was hard, at times, to decipher if the tale was truth or fiction, but each story left you with something to ponder.
   
   You will have the opportunity to see a different side of the songwriters you have enjoyed. With some, you look back into their past and relive important and maybe life-altering experiences, challenging encounters and family struggles. Others may be fiction, but they are written in such an expressive and clear way, they could have been real events.
   
   You could set down and read just one story at a time or one after another. But your journey is sure to be filled with unique experiences and surprise endings.
   
   Each entry is followed with the author's mini biographical sketch and a list of accomplishments. You will likely find tidbits of information that could amaze you.
   
   I did enjoy the book even though I didn't recognize all the authors.
   
   To put in simply, "They make music with their words instead of words into music!"
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Wonderful short stories of special interest to fans of CW music.

4 comments about Bonfire of Roadmaps (Brad and Michele Moore Roots Music Series).

1. Joe Ely is a first class musician. Once you start listening to him, you can't stop, and now he gives us a poetic glimpse at life on the road. Bonfire of Roadmaps delves into the hard life, triumphs, and trials of life as a modern day troubadour, and it is a great read. The chapters flow rhythmically along, bursting with memorable characters, stories, lyrics, and a first hand account of what its like to crisscoss the map playing in dingy bars, auditoriums, hotel rooms, and foreign countries. Joe just keeps going. Do yourself a favor: buy this book, listen to the spoken word cd that comes with it, and then start collecting Joe Ely's albums. He's the best. It's as simple as that.



2. This excellent road journal by Texas Rock and Roll icon Joe Ely is an enjoyable, refreshing read. It would make a great gift for anyone interested in music. This year Ely was selected for a lifetime acheivement award by Americana. You can go to NPR.com and key word Joe Ely to hear an interview with the author about this book. There are also songs, of course. I absolutely promise you that you will love this book!
   
   Johnny Hughes, author of the Lubbock novel Texas Poker Wisdom.
   Texas Poker Wisdom



3. Joe Ely has written an epic poem of life on the road, full of wisdom and insanity, that careens from Austin to Denmark, youth to age, and the bright noise of backstage to the profound silence of the stars. Ely has seen it all, done it all, and lived to sing the story in this fine feast of a book. Nibble it or gulp it down, but read it and let it feed your soul. "When a man knows not his next destination, any road he takes will get him there on time," Ely says. With this book, the veteran singer/songwriter arrives in fine style.



4. I am very pleased with "Bonfire Of Roadmaps" by Joe Ely. It is a book to savor over the years ahead and to take on long road trips when I travel. And, if I stay home, then it is a book that can take me on Joe Ely's road trips.
   I feel blessed that I was able to sit in the front row at Joe Ely's multimedia presentation of Bonfire Of Roadmaps at the Texas Book Festival held in Austin on November 3rd and 4th, 2007. The audience was packed and enthusiastic. A line formed at the book signing following Joe's readings and songs and video. I was very pleased to have Joe sign my book for me. Later, Joe Ely and Joel Guzman and Joe's band filled the space around the Texas Capitol steps with their magical music and lyrics. Joe was deep into his songs and making every effort to fill each listener with the unique blend of country, roots, wisdom, adventure, personal challenge, disappointments and triumphs of which his music is composed. Much of the time he sang with eyes closed as he drew from deep down the well of his own life experience. I will always remember this concert and I have the book to bring back the feelings of the road, feelings that Joe Ely was kind enough to share with us all.

1 comments about Nashville Country Lead Guitar.

1. I'm glad I found this book. I used to have one of the earlier printings a few years ago and I really enjoyed it. For the last several months I've been trying to hunt down a copy of it, so I was very happy to see it available again here recently. This book is good and solid in that it covers a wide variety of country "flavors" such as fast single-note soloing, double-stops, pedal-steel type licks, bluesy sounds and string snapping. It's a great collection of classic and contemporary sounds. The price was great and it came with a cd that also includes rhythm parts to play along with.

No comments about Mel Bay presents The American Fiddle Method, Volume 2 - Fiddle Intermediate Fiddle Tunes and Techniques.

No comments about Country Music: The Masters With Audio CD.

5 comments about Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison: The Making of a Masterpiece.

1. A new biography of an American legend based on interviews with Tennesseans and the archives of Cash's manager proves why this man is so beloved by so many



2. Overall a very good book on the legend plus June Carter, Carl Perkins and the rest of Johnnys' band making their famous concert recording at Folsom in 1968. Many, many great pictures that you probably won't find anywhere else!!



3. Johnny Cash: at Folsom Prison the Making of a Masterpiece
   
   BY: Michael Stressguth
   On January 13, 1968, Johnny R. Cash stepped on stage at Folsom Prison, California to do a concert that was going to be recorded by Columbia Records. The album Johnny Cash: At Folsom Prison not only became one of the best selling live albums ever, it would launch Cash into superstardom for life. The concert was great because it was meant just for prisoners and Cash sang songs that cheered the prisoners up and he had songs the prisoners could relate to like "Folsom Prison Blues", "Busted", "I Still Miss Someone", "25 Minutes to go", and "Cocaine Blues". Before Johnny Cash, no one ever did a performance at a maximum security prison.
   
   Cash's struggle that led him to do this concert was a difficult struggle. Johnny Cash was a serious Drug addict who had to quit in order to continue his dream and get the woman he loved (June Carter). It reminds me of the struggle that Ms. Dubose faced in To Kill A Mockingbird. Ms Dubose was a former Morphine addict who also, struggled quitting and coming back off quitting. I liked this book because not only am I huge Johnny Cash fan, but it was just a good read. I didn't like the book because it took to long to get to Johnny Cash's performance. If you wanted to read the book just for Cash, You really don't care about Bob Dylan and other people (unless you are interested in it). But, Overall it was a good book.



4. For Johnny Cash fans, this book tells the back-story for the making of his Folsom Prison album in 1968, complete with a large selection of photos taken during rehearsals and performance. Cash, Carl Perkins, and the Statler Brothers made up the entire program that day (there were two performances), along with June Carter. An unusual recording for any time in the history of music, "Folsom Prison" came about almost entirely through the persistent efforts of Cash and his producer Bob Johnston, who fought Columbia Records every step of the way to make the project happen.
   
   Author Streissguth's book is written in Rolling Stone style prose, with enthusiasm for the music and the performer and a degree of high drama. His argument is that the album not only helped Cash back onto the charts, after a long fallow period, but made of him a legend. The year being 1968 and the spirit of the times revolutionary, his drawing attention to the men in American prisons converged with the growth of social protest against any form of oppression and the recurrent American fascination with the outlaw.
   
   Altogether, the book is long on personality and short on the music itself. We learn the history of Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," largely stolen from another songwriter, and "Greystone Chapel," written by a current Folsom inmate, and we are told of how the characteristic style of his back-up musicians evolved in the early years. But beyond this there is little exploration of the songs that make up the album and how they were performed, and very little is disclosed about the creative decisions that went into post-production, though it is revealed that the audience response to "I shot a man in Reno" was added after the fact. A fine companion piece for the film "Walk the Line," the book is definitely for fans, a time capsule for a moment of music history in the late 1960s.



5. Hello.......I'm Johnny Cash...the famous words that opened his acts on almost all of his shows. The making of Johnny Cash at Folsom prison is really great reading, I would really recommend this book to everybody, even if you are not a Cash fan

4 comments about When a Man Loves a Walnut.

1. I am wondering just how long it took the author to create these 'misheard' lyrics. Most have no similarity to the lyrics. This is a sophomoric attempt at being funny, and it fails miserably.



2. Have you ever heard a song where one of the lines just didn't seem to fit? This book chronicles the loony mishearings of various songs, from Frank Sinatra to Tori Amos, that various people have sent in!

   Real Line: See the thorn twist in your side. Misheard Line: See the phone twist in your side.

   Real Line: We're never going to survive unless we get a little crazy. Misheard Line: We're never going to survive homelessness, we get a little crazy.

   This is a riot of a humor book, revealing to me that I am not alone after the many, many... lyrics that I have mangled over the years. For proof that this is done by many, many people....




3. This book is almost as funny as the original. And the illustrations are so funny they make me cry. I still hear "Those dirty witch clothes even fit me" on the radio all the time.



4. Gavin Edwards has done it again! I laughed until I cried. There are now some songs I cannot sing with the correct lyrics! hahaha!

5 comments about Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music.

1. This is an amazing book for anyone who is interested in music from the 50s - 70s.
   While reading I suggest you listen to the music discussed to truly appreciate the details and evolution of Gram's contribution to American music. enjoy!



2. A superb book on Gram Parsons. It probes the genius and vulnerability of this great talent. I, for one appreciate the authors in-depth telling of this man's life. One can only imagine the even greater impact he would have had on the music world had his life not been cut so drastically short. It is a true loss for everyone.



3. This book starts REALLY slowly!!! It digs really deeply into Gram's family ..... generations before he's born. I'm sure the stories about his well-to-do family was meant to add background to his own messed-up personality. But it was really boring. The book picks up when Gram finally gets out and starts making music.



4. I've already read the Ben Fong-Torres bio, as well as the Sid Griffin bio.....now, while I am not a Gram-o-phile, I am most definitely a Nez-head. And based on the countless errors I am reading about Mike Nesmith, I wonder just how much research went into this book?
   
   1) "Nesmith...the iconic Monkee, the one who could actually play his instrument." Never mind that Peter Tork was a clasically trained pianist, French horn player and FAR better guitarist than Nesmith...
   
   2) Red Rhodes was "a regular contributor to ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith's country-rock First National Band." Hmmm...seems he ought to have been *in* the band with all of those contributions....oh wait....he was.
   
   3) David Barry "played piano on Michael Nesmith's Country Time Records recordings." They served a lot of lemonade during those sessions, apparently. It was Countryside Records.
   
   4) Red Rhodes "played on Elvis Presley's records." Let's name them:
   
   5)Red Rhodes was the CMA's "Steel Guitar Player of the Year from 1965 through 1968." Close...but Red did not win in 1966. Ralph Mooney and Tom Brumley shared the award that year.
   
   That many omissions on some sidebars to the main story make me wonder how many omissions are in the main story itself.



5. I've read many biographies of rock personalities and other famous people. This one is better than most. It provides a balanced viewpoint with input from varying sources. A good read for Gram Parsons fans.

5 comments about How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life.

1. The recently deceased guitar master takes you on a tour of his childhood and young adulthood... basically this book is about as highly recommended as they come for a fan of his music- it will provide musical, emotional and even philosophical insight (with several references to hegel, heidegger, and other great german philosophers) into his life. there are moments of fiction, but it doesnt overwhelm the autobiographical nature of the work. you really do get a feeling for the personalities of bukka white, skip james, roosevelt sykes, and antonioni, which is the real reason may of fahey's most loyal fans would want to read the book. some moments are harrowing, from tales of childhood abuse to stories of social alienation. other moments are endearing, there are stories of first friendships, loves, and comfort (mostly on the part of white and sykes). Fahey led a very interesting life, and this book has a good deal of serious instrospection. he's actually a pretty good writer, so i give it the highest recommendation. someone new to fahey or not interested in 20s blues figures be warned, a lot of it will be confusing, leading to reviews like the one up top by that poor bitter guy who completely missed the point.



2. The recently deceased guitar master takes you on a tour of his childhood and young adulthood... basically this book is about as highly recommended as they come for a fan of his music- it will provide musical, emotional and even philosophical insight (with several references to hegel, heidegger, and other great german philosophers) into his life. there are moments of fiction, but it doesnt overwhelm the autobiographical nature of the work. you really do get a feeling for the personalities of bukka white, skip james, roosevelt sykes, and antonioni, which is the real reason may of fahey's most loyal fans would want to read the book. some moments are harrowing, from tales of childhood abuse to stories of social alienation. other moments are endearing, there are stories of first friendships, loves, and comfort (mostly on the part of white and sykes). Fahey led a very interesting life, and this book has a good deal of serious instrospection. he's actually a pretty good writer, so i give it the highest recommendation. someone new to fahey or not interested in 20s blues figures be warned, a lot of it will be confusing, leading to reviews like the one up top by that poor bitter guy who completely missed the point.



3. ...stimulating and entertaining too. Yes, it will have a major appeal to blues fans, particularly guitar fans. How much of this hypnotic, sometimes shocking book is true? The chapter "Honey" should be included in all sellf-help books. I read most of it twice and enjoyed the evocations of Americana. As a fingerpicker myself, I found John's mental states more illuminating than an explanation of his guitar technique would have been.



4. ...so any debates about the possible "fictional" aspects of this remarkable book are really moot. I was there. Then. John lived about four blocks from us, he was six years older than me, and he was a major influence on me, not only musically but also philosophically. The fact that I turned down an offer of one of the 95 surviving copies of the initial (and only) pressing of the original "John Fahey/Blind Joe Death" LP and also refused to sell John my 78 RPM copy of Vernon Dalhart's "The Prisoner's Song" proves I was crazy enough, at least in hindsight, to have belonged right there, right then. Reading this book brought back summer nights across from the field where "April in the Orange" was largely played out in "real" time, and he and the other, older guys played poker, tormented the beat cop and John picked out ethereal, otherwordly melodies which floated through the window on the mimosa-scented summer air and would eventually become the backbone of his cannon of recorded work.
   
   This book is absolutely essential for anyone with an interest in blues, bluegrass or really any form of American music or just America, as well as the workings of a genius mind in constant search of the Lost Chord. Or anyone who's ever been in love. With anything. An emotional roller coaster of seemingly insane vignettes (which are, I assure you, not really insane at all, just peculiar to the place and time where we all lived and loved and moved around in the midst of time) juxtaposed with horrifyingly lucid and stunningly loving moments - more like William Burroughs and Mark Twain speaking with one voice than anything remotely Vonnegut - and transformative in its power. John never really left "Azalea City" (the actual official nickname of Takoma Park), not in his mind nor his heart, and he never really recovered from the trainwreck that was his childhood. We are all richer for his having shared those experiences and that mind-too-big-for-his head, let alone the countless recordings that fill the space where words utterly fail.
   
   By the way, the real Swami rode a Harley. No lie, b'wana.



5. My only real complaint about this book is that I wish 'Jawn' would've fleshed out some of the real standouts in this collection (in my opinion the opening story about the renegade kids, and the Hank Williams story) into much longer pieces, and do away with some of the other chaff. The two stories mentioned above would make great books if expanded into such - maybe John or even another writer should take them up the challenge and do that. Nevertheless a fun read, if not terribly cohesive as a collection.

5 comments about America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley.

1. A delightful journey in melodic nostalgia. Philip Furia and Michael Lasser use their long experience with American popular music to tell us with insight and humor how more than 600 songs dating from 1910 to 1977 came to be written, how they were received, how they touched American culture. The surprise for the reader is the discovery of how many of the songs linger in one's memory, how many of the words one can recall, how many of the tunes one can still sing. Then the message of the place of the songs in American life comes home, how much they say about the way we lived.
   
   Not a book to be read from cover to cover but rather one to be browsed for favorite parts, one to be returned to time and again.



2. America's Songs is a wonderful source of fascinating information on the lyricists and composers of the great standards. Anyone who loves those songs will find this book invaluable. Writers Furia and Lasser have produced a tour de force.



3. You really can read this book cover to cover...or the information on each song's background can stand alone. If you're interested in modern musical history, you won't want to miss this.



4. There was a lot of great info in this book, especially covering songs from the first half of the 20th century. But there were also some annoying errors and omissions. Among the errors: a photo of the original star of Cabaret (Jill Haworth) is labeled as Jan Clayton (who was the original star of Carousel several decades earlier). The authors write that Comden and Green only had three standards, and yet they include four in this book (New York New York, The Party's Over, Just in Time and Make Someone Happy). There are some odd choices, such as "It's Not Where You Start" (from Seesaw) that is not remotely a standard, but they omit "If He Walked Into My Life" (from Mame) and "The Way We Were." And much as we all love the musical Chicago, I don't think it merits a page-and-a-half (I'm not even sure "All That Jazz" qualifies as a standard) but there's no coverage of "Tomorrow" (from Annie) or "What I Did For Love" (A Chorus Line). The authors probably would have been smarter to just stop coverage in the 1950s or 1960s.



5. I only learned of "America's Songs" from a mention on co-author Michael Lasser's weekly program "Fascinating Rhythm" which is carried by too few NPR stations. A friend much better versed in the "American Songbook" than I had never heard of it either, though the it was originally published in 2006. My 17-year-old granddaughter, an amateur actress-singer-dancer was entranced by it.