Hank By Mark Ribowsky

Hank

By Mark Ribowsky

Live right

Hank Williams is known for being a one of the sacred pillars of country music and the patriarch of a musical dynasty that has seen his son and grandson follow into the family business.Yet this is so much more to him than that.

Although the tragedy of Williams hard drinkin’ ands rough and tumble lifestyle has been well documented, Mark Ribowsky’s new biography “Hank: The Short Life and Long Country Road of Hank Williams” is the first really comprehensive account of the singer and his career.

He astutely goes through the motions of pointing out how Williams was an artist who initially tapped into the vein of rural America with themes of heartache, love, sorrow and the struggle of everyday life.  As noted, as his success grew more into the mainstream Williams’ flaws were amplified, causing irreparable damage to his family life and career.

Despite his ascension to fame, Williams could not handle his temper, his temptations or his alcohol. This deadly cocktail, combined with his genius as a songwriter makes him a fascinating character study.

The really sad part is that Williams went off the rails at a time when he was at his artistic peak when he had his formative years ahead of him.

Using new sources and archived material, Ribowsky digs in, moving beyond the basics of Williams’ ascent as a picker from the impoverished Deep South into his rise as an American music pioneer.  Not shying away from the ugly truth, Ribowsky delves into his relationships with those around him, including his friends, wife and family, leading the readers to more than his music, while unearthing his highs, lows and rambunctious hell raising.

“Hank” is a tragedy of self-destruction and creative genius at conflict. It gives the reader a complex portrait of an artist who rose abject poverty to the stage of Nashville's sacred Grand ‘Ole Opry, catapulting him to a fame before his untimely death at the age of 29 in1953.

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America By Nancy Isenberg

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America

Nancy Isenberg

Viking

Americans take great pride in thinking we are a land of equal opportunity for all peoples. However, after 240 years of freedom she notes that a definite class system exists amongst our nation's lower and middle classes.

This is the crux of “White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America,” which examines how over the last few hundred years the plight of the white poor has moved into the center of our cultural identity.

As Nancy Isenberg points out in her painstakingly researched new nonfiction, the landless poor (classified as ‘hillbillies’ or ‘rednecks') have shaped the American landscape since the nation’s colonization, inception and through the American Revolution, Great Depression and postwar world.

Using history and sociology as her template she goes on to suggests that our modern system of class and elitism has led to the rise of a white trash populous who have impacted our mainstream popular culture. From “Duck Dynasty” to “The Dukes of Hazzard” she surmises that this group has proliferated our American psyche to such an extent that it is a danger to our democracy.

Tracing the origins of ‘white trash’ and its negative connotations, she builds her case that this class of working poor is part of an ever-evolving social struggle to achieve the American Dream amidst economic inequality and lack of education.

Isenberg also explores the eugenics movement and its influence into American politics where the notion of sterilizing the poorer masses was championed by one Roosevelt (Theodore) and firmly rejected by another (FDR).

She also notes that although poor whites have regularly been stereotyped by middle and upper classes as inefficient. This same poverty and into-elitism was a core theme in the rise of Andrew Jackson to the presidency.

  

Smartly written and perfectly paced, “White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America” chronicles an endless social struggle that has been entwined in our national heritage and shaped our present cultural divisions.

Jackson 1964 And Other Dispatches From Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America By Calvin Trillin

Jackson 1964:  And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America

Calvin Trillin

Random House

Calvin Trillin, a vetted writer for The New Yorker, has spent the last half century exposing the ugly side of America’s racial struggles. 

His latest book compiles his work, extending civil rights issues beyond the Deep South and spreads it out across the country, oftentimes holding a mirror to the ugly and battered soul of America's racial tensions.

Brimming with tension and tenacity his reports span the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s to the voter suppression and race riots of the last few decades they read as a stoic reminder of how the headlines of today are steeped in the issues of the last half-century.

   

Culled from articles, essays, poems and commentaries and collected here in one volume, his work illustrates just how far we’ve come, while simultaneously showing us that there is so much more to do.

“Jackson 1964” is steeped in history and teaches readers valuable lessons about journalism under pressure and how any one person can make a difference in fighting for freedom.

Billy Bragg-A Lover Sings: Selcted Lyrics By Billy Bragg

A Lover Sings

Billy Bragg

Faber and Faber

The Bard of Braking Essex, Billy Bragg has been spent the last three carving a niche for himself as a voice for the common man. A staunch democratic socialist, Bragg’s keen ability to create music that is both political and tender has allowed him to remain consistently relevant.

Known for his wit, wisdom and and eloquent conversation, Bragg has cut a wide swathe lyrically,writing songs about girls, England, gender roles and broken hearts. he also has resurrected the unrecorded songs of Woody Guthrie with Wilco, met the Queen and given hope to generations of miners, marchers and misanthropes.

 “A Lover Sings” collects a selection of Bragg’s lyrics and rests them gently under one roof, giving them a uniquely fresh context. Being read as prose gives his work (“Levi Stubbs Tears,” “You Woke Up My Neighborhood, “A New England” or more overlooked gems like “NPWA,”“Warmest Room” and “Tank Park Salute”) a fresh timbre.

Although it is not a complete anthology of his songs “A Lover Speaks” masterfully reminds us of just how special and charming Bragg is as a performer,  giving us a complete picture of Bragg as a lyricist who unabashedly speaks his mind in the name of fairness, justice and love. 

On Bowie By Rob Sheffield

On Bowie

Rob Sheffield

Harper Collins

Although David Bowie has only been gone for just over six months, for his die-hard fans and critics his passing is still a crushingly sorrowful event. Included with those is Rob Sheffield, a writer for Rolling Stone and author of of “Love Is A Mix Tape.”

Sheffield is a master of meshing music and relationships. In his novels he relies on these connections to emotionally resonate with his readers. Therefore, it is this invaluable ability to affix his prose with emotional pangs that makes “On Bowie” such a tenderhearted meditation on Bowie’s lasting impact on our popular culture.

A brisk, yet poignant read Sheffield dispenses with the shenanigans of a full on biography in favor of going with his gut for a book that is loaded with passion, emotion and melancholy to deliver a compelling examination of why Bowie matters as a pioneering artist.

Written from the perspective of a fan more than a music critic, the book, which also features accompanying photographs, not only defines Bowie’s innovation and evolution but also explains how Bowie’s connection to his fans is just as significant as the body of work he left behind.

The View From The Cheap Seats

By Neil Gaiman

William Morrow

Whether writing awarding winning comics, fantasy, children’s books or Doctor Who, Neil Gaiman remains one of today’s most prolific writers. In his new book, the English born writer (who now resides in the USA) takes a respite from creating magical characters to compile his first compendium of nonfiction, The View From The Cheap Seats.

A frequent essayist, reviewer, critic and social commentator, Gaiman has (finally) assembled a broad pastiche of his nonfiction into a one-volume collection that solidifies his stature as a genre-breaking writer whose impressive body of work never fails to be scintillating.

The book covers a gamut of topics from the importance of libraries to the plight of Syrian refugees. But don't let the serious tone fool you, Gaiman's selections include a lot of geeky fun too as Gaiman writes enthusiastically about comic books, television and films. 

There’s a lot here to digest but it is well worth it. There are speeches, columns, essays and reviews of films, books, music, movies, comics and so much more. Most importantly he delves deeply into about the importance of writing while paying tribute to his influences and collaborators, which include everyone from Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury to Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. 

Like any good writer Gaiman is a master of taking the world around him and bringing it to his audience in a fresh and invigorating way. As a result, The View From The Cheap Seats uses spot on commentaries on our society and its popular culture to reveal a more complete portrait of the author as a person.