Accidentally Like a Martyr: The Tortured Art of Warren Zevon (Backbeat Books), by James Campion
James Campion’s Accidentally Like a Martyr isn’t a biography, but the life of his subject shines through the 10 songs and albums on which he focuses. Campion is a Warren Zevon fan with a literary-musical-analytical mind and his perspective on the man behind “Lawyers, Guns and Money” is informed and persuasive. Campion locates Zevon less with the ‘70s Los Angeles scene, where he was always an outlier with the likes of Jackson Brown and The Eagles, than with the ethical cynicism of LA novelists such as Nathaniel West and Raymond Chandler. Most of Zevon’s colleagues were content to bask in the warmth of their illusions. Zevon, whom Campion describes as “the consummate gentleman and a raging monster,” was too smart and well-read to fall for it. Accidentally Like a Martyr is one of the best recent rock biographies for its profound insights.
Country Music USA 50th Anniversary Edition (University of Texas Press), by Bill C. Malone
Country music scholarship scarcely existed 50 years ago when Bill C. Malone published his academic history dissertation as Country Music USA. Like the music about which he writes, Malone’s prose speaks clearly, plainly, on its subject. He is firmly grounded in the history of the various strands woven around the legacy of British folk traditions, reinvented in the New World as country music, which became one of America’s several musical gifts to the world in the 20th century. The latest edition brings the story into the 21st century. “My personal preferences lean toward hard-core country, and to singers with individuality whose sounds and styles reflect their rural or working-class origins,” Malone writes. He has lived in Madison since 1997 where he hosts a show on WORT. Malone has been tapped as consulting historian for Ken Burns’ upcoming series on country music.
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Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings From the Upper Midwest (University of Wisconsin Press), by James P. Leary
In a 1950s photograph published in Folk Songs of Another America, Otto Rindlisbacher of Rice Lake, WI, is seen playing a cigar-box fiddle. Likewise, many other Wisconsinites and Midwesterners are shown with the sort of homemade instruments often associated with the Mississippi Delta. James P. Leary’s Folksongs is a reminder that Library of Congress folklorists came to the Midwest, just like John and Alan Lomax in the South, hunting for old songs. Leary followed the trail of those early song-catchers—through the archives and the places they visited. The new edition is a slimmed down paperback version of the 2015 first edition, which was hardbound and included five CDs and a DVD.
Fare Thee Well: The Final Chapter of The Grateful Dead’s Long, Strange Trip (Da Capo), by Joel Selvin
Jerry Garcia’s bandmates should have suspected that his death was likely, but like a family in denial, they made no plans for the inevitable. Fare Thee Well chronicles the survivors as they decided how to keep the million-dollar enterprise known as Grateful Dead Productions alive and wrestled with the band’s legacy. “Nobody thought the idea of continuing as the Grateful dead sounded right.” They were tired of the “hamster wheel,” as veteran San Francisco journalist Joel Selvin calls their life on tour. An astute critic, Selvin describes boundaries of the Dead’s music as “far enough apart to support and encourage everyone from Dave Matthews to Leftover Salmon.” He notes that as Garcia’s health and ability declined, his audience grew. Of course, the temptation to regroup without Garcia eventually became too strong for surviving members to resist.
Right to the Juke Joint: A Personal History of American Music (University of Illinois Press), by Patrick B. Mullen
One may wonder whether we should care about the personal musical journey of Patrick B. Mullen—until you begin reading it, and you realize he’s an engaging tour guide through the second half of the last (and very eventful) century. Mullen, a folklorist at Ohio State University, begins with the Hank Williams records he heard as a child and threads his way through the songs, artists and genres that inspired him—more or less in chronological order. Mullen explores the meaning of “folk” and “authenticity,” finding them subjective and relative yet essential for understanding the context from which much of the music emerged. Blues and country in their many manifestations weave through many of Mullen’s digressions, often triggered by interesting memories of discovery. The importance of his life of listening is summed up in one line: “Vernacular music can tell us something about what it means to be American.”
