RaveThe Wall Street JournalFor readers it’s an opportunity to appreciate Mr. Guralnick’s career, the music that has excited him, and the progress of his style ... this isolation and these limitations are the true sources of individuality, of vision, of the roots of American music, as Mr. Guralnick has spent his life illuminating. Probably the most compelling burst of writing about music arrives in the portrait of Howlin’ Wolf ... How has Peter Guralnick done it? It’s nothing terribly fancy: He approaches artists thoughtfully and connects with them—rather than their fame, beauty, or choice of handbag—and, through their voices, to their art ... Mr. Guralnick may fold a performer’s private difficulties into his writing about their career but the mistakes never obscure the artist. Mr. Guralnick forgives artists their eccentricities, because, I think, without eccentricity there is no art ... richly detailed ... The author does not focus on himself—and I think he would rather not—yet by the end of it, we appreciate all the more who he is.
Booker T. Jones
RaveThe Wall Street JournalRather than a linear, chronological account, Mr. Jones has organized his memoir thematically, pushing the story ahead with time-hopping anecdotes. The absence of straightforward narrative costs the reader an understanding of Mr. Jones’s growth as a multi-instrumentalist. He jumps from a satisfying sequence on his development as an organ and piano player to a scene in which he plays bass, without addressing the change. Perhaps his humility guided this direction ... [Jones] astutely avoids basking in his own virtuosity ... Ultimately, the atypical flow of the writing works with the story. Mr. Jones’s riffs on romantic life and fatherhood benefit from thematic focus, showing his ups and downs and maturation in these circumstances, without having to shift elsewhere and lose momentum. The style proves equally effective with what it doesn’t do—give us another exhaustive history of Stax Records, the Memphis outfit that gave Mr. Jones his start as a professional musician and produced hits by Carla Thomas, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and Isaac Hayes, as well as Booker T. & the MGs ... Mr. Jones and Redding had a close though minimally verbal friendship that’s satisfyingly elucidated here without overdoing it ... Aside from these fresh perspectives on the players, Mr. Jones makes two major contributions to Stax history. First, he elevates the language surrounding the music ... proves wise and insightful ... He’s pretty funny ... Finally, he’s gifted with a long historical vision expressed in elegant grandeur ... In an era of reckoning with racial division, Mr. Jones sounds a distinctively beautiful chord ... Though he has the experience to back up an ax-grinder of a story, he has instead written a book with a big heart and a quick wit. Booker T. Jones composed some of the finest music of the last century, and now he’s given us one of the finest music books of this one.
Robert Gordon
PositiveThe Wall Street JournalThe author of books on Muddy Waters and Stax Records, Robert Gordon has reported on the grass-roots weirdness of Memphis, Tenn., for more than 30 years. While the Bluff City is known globally as the home of Elvis, Mr. Gordon is more enamored of his town’s glorious undercard of James Carr, Charlie Feathers and Phineas Newborn Jr., to name a few of the characters ... Pairing features, reviews and profiles with after-the-fact explanation and commentary, the collection includes Mr. Gordon’s biggest hits and some previously unreleased bonus tracks ... What I enjoyed most was the sense of humility and hard work that pervade Mr. Gordon’s stories. In a writing world that often feels self-celebratory to the point of delusion, Mr. Gordon reminds us that, as an early colleague told him, 'it’s just words.' When friends in stable careers project their Bohemian fantasies on him, he stares back, longing for a dental plan. His choice, however, is not without rewards. Looking back at 'all these heroic individuals who followed the muse and cut paths of their own,' Mr. Gordon sees 'the fleeting shimmer of the treasure I’ve witnessed.'
Peter Guralnick
RaveThe Wall Street JournalMr. Guralnick, the historian, writer and fan, has captured what was different, real and raw about a great artist. His Sam Phillips comes out perfectly imperfect.
