A chronicle of Adams's rise from alt-country to rock stardom, featuring stories about the making of the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker.Before he achieved his dream of being an internationally known rock personality, Ryan Adams had a band in Raleigh, North Carolina. Whiskeytown led the wave of insurgent-country bands that came of age with No Depression magazine in the mid-1990s, and for many people it defined the era. Adams was ...

"Full of humor and humility . . . Since Benson started Asleep at the Wheel as a working-class country band, it's one helluva ride worth telling." — The Austin ChronicleA six-foot-seven-inch Jewish hippie from Philadelphia starts a Western swing band in 1970. It sounds like a joke but—more than forty years, twenty-five albums, and nine Grammy Awards later—Asleep at the Wheel is still drawing crowds around the world. The roster of musicians...

What is American roots music? Any definition must account for a kaleidoscope of genres from bluegrass to blues, western swing to jazz, soul and gospel to rock and reggae, Cajun to Celtic. It must encompass the work of artists as diverse as Alice Gerard and Alison Krauss, George Thorogood and Sun Ra, Béla Fleck and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, the Blake Babies and Billy Strings. What do all these artists and music styles have in common? The answer is a record label born in the wake of the Am...

This book is a love letter to the artists, scenes, and sounds defining North Carolina’s extraordinary contributions to American popular music. David Menconi spent three decades immersed in the state’s music, where traditions run deep but the energy expands in countless directions. Menconi shows how working-class roots and rebellion tie North Carolina’s Piedmont blues, jazz, and bluegrass to beach music, rock, hip-hop, and more. From mill towns and mountain coves to college-town clubs and t...

Take a volatile rock band, a kingmaking concert promoter, a downtrodden clubowner and a rock critic with questionable journalistic ethics, add one hit record, a drug problem, a couple of riots and shake well. There you have the essence of this book, the very unauthorized account of the rise and fall of the Tommy Aguilar Band. Off The Record will confirm your worst suspicions about the music business, an industry in which musicians are like the infantry -- the first to die, and the last to ...

From a legendary music journalist with four decades of unprecedented access, an insider's behind-the-scenes look at the major personalities of rock and roll.Lisa Robinson has interviewed the biggest names in music--including Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Patti Smith, U2, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Jay Z and Kanye West. She visited the teenage Michael Jackson many times at his Encino home. She spent hours talking to John Lennon at his Dakota apartment--and ...

The revealing, wildly entertaining, and bestselling memoir from the legendary Bruce Springsteen, one of the greatest songwriters and performers of any era. Born to Run is the greatest rock ‘n’ roll story ever told.Essential reading for the 50th anniversary of Springsteen’s seminal album Born to Run, the long-awaited release of Nebraska ’82, and a companion to the acclaimed film Deliver Me from Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White...

Newly updated to include his critically acclaimed post-millennial work, this look at Tom Waits - both the reality and the myriad myths - reveals the man behind the curtain. A tale of how a self-taught, drunken hipster in roach-killers and a dirty beret has influenced a generation of musicians with his sound, warmth, and willingness to take chances, this biography shows how he has moved between sideshow barker and evocative troubadour with ease, recording almost 20 albums that range from ca...

Rolling Stone magazine called Butch Walker one of "America's best singer-songwriters" and voted him a "Producer of the Year." An American music industry giant, Walker has worked with some of today's hottest talent, including Weezer, Katy Perry, Dashboard Confessional, Pink, Tommy Lee, Fall Out Boy, and The Donnas to name but a few. In his riveting memoir, Drinking with Strangers, Walker tells the fascinating story of his life and remarkable career, taking readers on a bre...

" Nelson's unmistakable voice shines through . . . funny, inspirational and bawdy, with a well-honed sense of humor." — Kirkus ReviewsIn Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die, Willie Nelson muses about his greatest influences and the things that are most important to him, and celebrates the family, friends, and colleagues who have blessed his remarkable journey. Willie riffs on everything, from music to poker, Texas to Nashville, and more. He shares t...

The New York Times bestselling epic tale of the last great rock bandFrom the bestselling author of Hammer of the Gods comes the complete story of Guns N? Roses ? from their drug-fueled blastoff in the 80s to the turbulent life of legendary singer Axl Rose, and his fifteen-year, multimillion dollar quest to make the perfect hard rock album.Riotous world tours. Drug-induced rampages. One hundred millions albums sold. In his sixth major rock ...

"In a grizzled, laconic drawl, Allman provides a rambling backstage account. . . . and he doesn't seem to hold anything back." — New York Times Book ReviewRock icon Gregg Allman tells the full, unflinching tale of his life on stage and off, from becoming rock royalty, to his string of failed marriages including his marriage to Cher, to his decades-long struggle with drugs and alcohol. In his unforgettable voice, Allman offers a vivid portr...