I was so pleased to get the opportunity to interview musician and author Adele Bertei for Please Kill Me about her excellent new book Why Labelle Matters. You can read the interview here.
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“Song Book” now available as an e-book
My book Song Book has just been released in e-book format.
You can buy the Kindle version on Amazon. There is also a preview of the book that you don’t need Kindle to view – just click on “Look Inside” at the top of the image of the book cover.
You can buy the Nook version at Barnes and Noble, and the Kobo version at Indigo. Both of those sites also have free previews.
You can buy Song Book in all other e-book formats (e.g. Apple Books, Google Play, PDF) at Smashwords.
‘Song Book’ Reviews
“Song Book” Reviews
My book Song Book: 21 Songs From 10 Years (1964-74) received a very positive review from the online Ormsby Review. You can read the book review here.
The book also got a very positive review in the most recent issue of Ugly Things magazine, which you can buy online or at the retailers listed here.
Award Nomination
My book Song Book has been nominated for the 2019 ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) Awards for Excellence in Research into the History of Recorded Sound. The award finalists will be announced in the fall.
Kate Bush’s ‘Lily’
Photographer Gitte Morten has started a blog titled One Kiss In Apple Blossom. It features women who are Kate Bush fans describing their favourite Kate song, and Gitte’s photographic response to them and the song.
Being a major Kate Bush fan, as soon as I heard this idea, I was all over it. However, Gitte lives in Somerset, England, and I am in British Columbia, Canada. Being about 4500 miles away made a photo session a bit of a challenge. But thanks to FaceTime and Gitte’s willingness to experiment with photographing a computer screen, she made it happen – and it was a great deal of fun. Here are the results, and my thoughts on Kate’s song “Lily”.
After the Dark: Teddy Vann & Akim’s ‘Santa Claus Is A Black Man’
[originally appeared in Shindig! issue #86]
The late ‘60s and early ‘70s were a time of social unrest in the United States, and black Americans were a major part of the uprisings against systemic discrimination and inequality. While many black activists were challenging the societal norms that perpetuated racial oppression, they were also reclaiming pride in their own heritage – and producer and songwriter Teddy Vann was one of those activists. His ’73 single ‘Santa Claus Is A Black Man’, featuring his five-year-old daughter Akim, has been rightly described as “merging African-American empowerment with the spirit of the holiday”.
Vann was astoundingly prolific and multi-talented; although largely self-educated, he was Continue reading
