Music : Rock

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Price: $10.95

Rock 'n' roll music in all of its forms has had as profound an effect on American culture as any art form ever. Its impact on the 1960s helped to end the war in Vietnam, and assuage the guilt of that war on the American psyche. In this highly original and engaging book, respected music journalist Mark Kemp shows how rock music helped a generation of Southerners finally come to grips with its past. He masterfully blends his own background growing up in the South with the stories of the Allman Brothers, REM, and many other musicians into a seamless narrative. As kids Kemp and his friends listened to rock from England, from LA, from New York, not realizing until later that these white musicians in Europe and the United States were incorporating into their own music the rhythms and styles of black blues masters from Kemp's part of the world, men such as Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, and Chuck Berry. The musical influence came full circle when white Southerners like the Allman Brothers, the Charlie Daniels Band, and Lynyrd Skynyrd started playing rock 'n' roll. Kemp argues that the music and the sense of community derived from these bands (and many others, like R.E.M., the B-52s, and the Dave Matthews Band) have helped heal the racial guilt experienced by many white people who came of age in the 1970s and 80s in the South. Kemp describes his youthful ambivalence about his home: "I loved the land that surrounded me but hated the history that haunted that land." Southern rock from the 1960s through the present has offered a different identity than the pervasive shame that many white Southerners grew up with. Mark Kemp has written a book that will get major attention for both its strong writing and fascinating thesis, a book of enduring power that could rank among the best music books of all time. more...

Price: $17.99

Examines the life and times of Jerry Garcia, capturing the psychedelic world of the musician and songwriter, his relationship with members of the Grateful Dead, his battle with drug addiction, and his lasting influence on popular music. more...

Price: $15.95

The inside story can finally be revealed. The Eagles are the bestselling, and arguably the tightest-lipped, American group ever, and Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 is the bestselling album of all time in the United States. Through bre more...

Price: $25.95

It's been said that Jann Arden can bring an audience to tears through song only to have them rolling in the aisles moments later with her off-the-cuff comedy. It's this juxtaposition, the poet's gift for poignant love songs paired with a comedian's timing and self-deprecating wit, that has earned Jann a legion of loyal fans on the stage as well as the page. more...

Price: $16.95