Making Music

Ed Ward is the author of The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 1 and Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero. He was the rock-and-roll historian on NPR’s Fresh Air for more than thirty years, and is currently the cohost of the Let It Roll podcast. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and countless music magazines. Ward’s The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2 (Flatiron Books) kicks off with The Beatles landing in New York City on February 1964. Swarms of fans, and a crowd of two hundred journalists await their first American press conference—which begins with the question on everyone's mind: "Are you going to get a haircut in America?" and ends with a reporter tugging Paul McCartney's hair in an attempt to remove his nonexistent wig. To chronicle rock’s history from that inauspicious point through the mid-70s, Ward weaves a narrative constructed of colorful anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories by and about megastars, trailblazers, DJs, record executives, concert promoters, and producers, revealing in the process how it all came together to create the music we all know and love. In a starred review for Volume 1: 1920 – 1963 Kirkus Reviews,  called it “the first volume of a magnum opus on a subject that never ceases to fascinate...turning up plenty of surprises and fresh insights. A spry study that should inspire listening with new, and newly informed, ears to old tunes.”

Evelyn McDonnell is associate professor of journalism at Loyola Marymount University. She has been writing about popular culture and society for more than 20 years. She is the author of four books: Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways, Mamarama: A Memoir of Sex, Kids and Rock 'n' Roll, Army of She: Icelandic, Iconoclastic, Irrepressible Bjork and Rent by Jonathan Larson. She coedited the anthologies Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop and Rap and Stars Don't Stand Still in the Sky: Music and Myth. Her latest book, Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyonce. Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl (Black Dog & Leventhal), is an unprecedented celebration of 104 musical artists, and the most complete, up-to-date history of the evolution, influence, and importance of women in music. From Bessie Smith and The Supremes to Joan Baez, Madonna, Beyonce, Amy Winehouse, Dolly Parton, Sleater-Kinney, Taylor Swift, and scores more, women have played an essential and undeniable role in the evolution of popular music including blues, rock and roll, country, folk, glam rock, punk, and hip hop. In Women Who Rock, McDonnell leads a team of women rock writers and pundits in an all-out celebration of 104 of the greatest female musicians. Organized chronologically, the book profiles each artist and places her in the context of both her genre and the musical world at large. Sidebars throughout recall key moments that shaped both the trajectory of music and how those moments influenced or were influenced by women artists.

Jim Daniels is the author of six fiction collections, seventeen poetry collections, and four produced screenplays, and has edited five anthologies. A native of Detroit, he is the Thomas Stockham Baker University Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In The Perp Walk (Michigan State University Press), his latest collection of linked stories, Daniels maps out the emotional capitals and potholes of coming of age in a blue-collar town in the Great Lakes State, though it could be any state where people work hard, play hard, and aren’t paid nearly enough for their efforts. He is also the editor of RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music (Michigan State University Press). While there have been countless books written about Detroit, none have captured its incredible musical history like this one. This collection of poems and lyrics covers numerous genres including jazz, blues, doo-wop, Motown, classic rock, punk, hip-hop, and techno.