Issue #62 (summer 2023) of Ugly Things magazine includes a very positive review of my book Mixtape. Thanks to editor Mike Stax for supporting independent authors & publishers!
books
Interviews about MIXTAPE
Since my new book MIXTAPE was released, I’ve done several interviews about it, which I’d like to share.
Eric Senich and I talked about the book for his podcast Booked On Rock.
John Ackermann at CityNews1130 radio in Vancouver interviewed me about MIXTAPE for his weekly BookShelf segment. The video of the interview is here, and the website story is here.
Ben O’Hara-Byrne did a long interview with me on his nightly national radio show A Little More Conversation. The audio of the interview is on the show’s website, in the playlist on the lower part of the page. The segment is titled “ALMC hits rewind” and the interview starts about 14 minutes in.
It’s a crowded market out there for music-related books. I’m very grateful to all these interviewers for giving MIXTAPE some extra attention.
MIXTAPE Now Available
My new book MIXTAPE: 21 SONGS FROM 10 YEARS (1975-1985) is now on sale. You can buy it at any of the retailers listed here. It was a lot of fun to write, and I hope you have fun reading it!
“Her Country”: An Interview with Author Marissa Moss
Women have always been an integral part of country music, starting with pioneers such as the Carter Family and Patsy Montana. Yet country music has also marginalized women musicians – even more so in the last decade. In 2015, a country radio consultant publicly stated that songs by women were “not the lettuce in our salad…[they are] the tomatoes“. In 2019, women artists represented only 10 percent of the music played on US country radio stations that year.
Music journalist Marissa Moss, who’s based in Nashville, saw women in country music making great music at the same time that the industry was focusing on “bro country“, and saw women trying to be successful their own way in an industry that wanted them to conform to very narrow stereotypes. Her new book Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be tells the stories of three female country musicians – Maren Morris, Mickey Guyton, and Kasey Musgraves. Through unpacking their experiences, it touches on racism, sexism, corporatization, politics, and oppression, and how all of those shape performers’ careers and the music we listen to. The book is ultimately hopeful, but it also pulls no punches in describing how badly the country music industry can treat women.
I found Her Country to be an extremely thought-provoking and rewarding read, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview Marissa about it.
Fiona McQuarrie (FM): What motivated you to write the book?
Marissa Moss (MM): I had been covering this beat in Nashville, at the time I started writing the book, for about eight years, and it just felt Continue reading
Adele Bertei’s “Why Labelle Matters”
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.
‘Small Hours: The Long Night of John Martyn’
I had the great pleasure of interviewing author Graeme Thomson for Please Kill Me about his biography of Scottish singer-songwriter John Martyn. You can read the interview here.
Podcast Interview with All Music Books’ “Deep Dive”
I was interviewed about my book Song Book for the All Music Books website’s “Deep Dive” podcast. Steve J and I had a great chat about the book and some of the stories in it. The interview is posted here.
“Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer’s Life In Music”
Producer Ted Templeman, who has worked with dozens of artists – including Captain Beefheart, Van Morrison, the Doobie Brothers, and Van Halen – has finally written an autobiography. As you might guess, it’s wide-ranging and very interesting. I reviewed it for PopMatters; you can read the review here.
Announcing My New Book
I’m very pleased to announce that my new book, Song Book: 21 Songs from 10 Years (1964-74), has been released by New Haven Publishing. You can order it from any of the sites listed here.
The book includes extended and updated versions of some of the Shindig! magazine articles posted on this site, along with previously unpublished material.
I’ll be posting updates and news about the book on Facebook and on the “Song Book – the book” page on this site. There’s also a YouTube channel for the book, featuring playlists of the songs that are discussed in the book, as well as a promotional video.
I hope you’ll check it out!