Rock and Roll Book Club: 'Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll' February 18, 2021 Maureen Mahon's essential new book chronicles decades of Black women making key contributions to a genre that's systematically erased their presence.
Rock and Roll Book Club: 'The Big Life of Little Richard' February 11, 2021 Mark Ribowsky's new biography offers a concise summary of the life and career of a man who will forever resist being summarized.
Rock and Roll Book Club: 'The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience Since the 1960s' February 4, 2021 'Soul is Black,' said Aretha Franklin, connecting two words that encompass vast worlds of meaning and experience. In her new book 'The Meaning of Soul,' scholar Emily J. Lordi explores the ways in which soul music has expressed Black resilience since the Civil Rights era.
Rock and Roll Book Club: 'Me and Sister Bobbie' chronicles Willie Nelson's closest bond January 28, 2021 In a joint memoir, Willie Nelson and his sister Bobbie celebrate a familial, personal, and musical relationship that's sustained them.
'This Thing Called Life' author Neal Karlen on Prince: The man and the myths January 21, 2021 Minnesota journalist Neal Karlen, who interviewed and spoke with Prince many times over the decades, is the author of a new memoir: 'This Thing Called Life: Prince's Odyssey On and Off the Record.'
Rock and Roll Book Club: 'Sweet Dreams: The Story of the New Romantics' January 21, 2021 In a sprawling oral history, Dylan Jones traces all the roads of '80s pop back to Britain's New Romantic subculture: a movement that retained the energy, but not the nihilism, of punk.
Rock and Roll Book Club: 'Let Love Rule' is Lenny Kravitz's origin story January 14, 2021 As extraordinary as Lenny Kravitz's career has been, the quarter-century leading up to his 1989 breakout may have been even more extraordinary. In 'Let Love Rule,' the rock star tells the first part of his life story.
Rock and Roll Book Club: Music stars pick 'One Last Song' they'd want to hear on earth January 7, 2021 The prompt might seem morbid, but Mike Ayers got some fascinating responses when he asked famous musicians to pick 'One Last Song' they'd want to hear before they die.
Rock and Roll Book Club: Best music books of 2020 December 31, 2020 From penetrating biographies to fascinating time capsules to icons' memoirs, 2020 had no shortage of fantastic books about music. Jay Gabler picks the top ten.
Rock and Roll Book Club: Darlene Love, 'an official voice of the day of the Lord's birth,' tells her story December 24, 2020 There's never a bad time to learn more about legendary singer Darlene Love, but Christmas might be the most apt time. This week, Jay revisits the 1998 memoir by the artist who performed the most critically-acclaimed holiday song of all time - and many, many more hits, both as lead and as a backing vocalist.