| The
Oxford American Book
of Great Music Writing
Edited by Marc Smirnoff
Foreword by Van Dyke Parks
The best music writing from “what may be liveliest magazine
in America”
—New York Times
Winner—Gold Award, Music Category, ForeWord
Magazine’s Book of the Year Award Winners
“God Bless America and God bless The Oxford American
Book of Great Music Writing.”
—Dolly Parton
“All public and academic libraries catering to serious
music fans should purchase this gem of an anthology.”
—Library Journal “Starred Review”
“If something calls itself ‘Great’ in a
title, you have to wonder. But in this anthology from a decade
of annual Southern Music issues of the
Arkansas-based literary quarterly, it’s no exaggeration.”
—New York Post
“Aside from the consistently high quality of the writing,
the essays in this collection all manage the nifty trick of
seamlessly incorporating the intensely personal experience
of listening to music into the larger social and cultural
context. . . . a must-have for any music loving reader.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Smirnoff has accomplished something great with this
book. Stubbornly against the interests of an industry preoccupied
by facts, he’s putting the spotlight on good writing
and good music instead.”
—Creative Loafing
“Snatch a copy of this superb anthology.”
—Bibliobuffet
To celebrate ten years of Southern Music Issues, most of which
are sold out or very hard to find, the fifty-five essays collected
in this dynamic, wide-ranging, and vast anthology appeal to
both music fans and fans of great writing. Here you’ll
find writers like Peter Guralnick, Nick Tosches, Susan Straight,
William Gay, Tom Piazza, Roy Blount Jr., R. Crumb, Rosanne
Cash, Lucinda Williams, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Jerry Wexler, and
Steve Martin probing the lives and legacies of southern musicians
you may or may not yet be familiar with. In one creative,
fresh way or another, these writers also uncover the essence
of music—and why music has such power over us. From
blues to rock ’n’ roll to jazz to country to bluegrass,
from interviews, reviews, analysis, reflections, and biographical
portraits, The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing
has “something that will inform and excite you”—Nashville
City Paper.
Marc Smirnoff
is the editor and founder of The Oxford American.
Van Dyke Parks
is an arranger, musician, producer, lyricist, and composer.
September
6 x 9, 448 pages
$19.95 paper
ISBN 978-1-55728-950-6
original
cloth edition
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