Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Books and Bites
JCPL librarians bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them.
9_23 BB first edit
===
Carrie: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Books and Bites podcast. Each month we bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them. I'm Carrie Green and I'm here with my co-hosts Michael Cunningham and Jacqueline Cooper.
Michael: Hello.
Jacqueline: Hello.
Carrie: Today we're talking about books about music or musicians. One of the prompts in the Books and Bites Bingo Reading Challenge, and this is another prompt where your choices could be either fiction or nonfiction titles.
Do you have thoughts about fiction versus non-fiction with music and musicians?
Michael: I went the non-fiction route this time to read about one of my favorite musicians. But I did, I was considering a few fiction books. One of them was a Grady Hendrix title about a, death metal band.
Carrie: That seems fitting.
Michael: Yeah.
Jacqueline: Yeah . Sounds good. I like to read biographies about, musicians and I'm always interested in their, their lives and you know, what brought them to this, to the fame 'cause it's really [00:01:00] a hard way to make a living, I mean
Carrie: mm-hmm. Especially now.
Jacqueline: Yeah. I bet. I was listening to a podcast and they were talking about how they get like maybe 1 cent for every download or,
Carrie: yeah.
Yeah. I mean, they used to get royalties from sales, you know?
Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.
Carrie: CD and tape and record sales. And now those sales are much, much more limited and it's just digital plays, and they don't, they don't get anything really from that.
Michael: Geez,
Jacqueline: think this guy said he made like maybe $300 for like a famous song that.
I wish I could think of the artist's name, but you know, it's like a really well known song and he only made like $300 or something.
Carrie: Yeah. And, and that goes for, you know, songwriters like mm-hmm. They're making even less money because there's less money to go around and, you know, record companies forget about record companies actually supporting [00:02:00] artists.
Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.
Carrie: Especially if it's like a new artist or artist that doesn't have a, an audience already built in.
Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.
Carrie: Yeah. I mean, having someone who has been a part of both a music fan and someone who makes music. You know, I've learned a lot about that from him, and it's, it's pretty, pretty bleak.
Michael: Geez. Yeah. So you gotta do it for the love
of music.
Carrie: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, unless you're, those big names.
Michael: Yeah.
Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.
Carrie: And even, like I've been hearing about how AI is writing music now. So, you know, AI is writing music, then they're using drum beats instead of an actual drummer.
And you know, there's all these ways that music is becoming computerized. And that also it takes some of the humanity outta music.
Jacqueline: My husband actually had me listen to, an electronic, [00:03:00] the guy was using like this electronic sound through the mic for his songs. And I, I personally didn't, I didn't care that much for it.
Carrie: Mm-hmm.
Jacqueline: I mean, it didn't really invoke anything in me that made me want to sing along or dance or anything.
Carrie: Right. Yeah. I read a blog post about this recently. Well, it was, it was on Open Culture and they were talking about Brian Eno. He, he writes a lot of ambient music talks about that, that it takes, you know, some of those little imperfections out of the process of performing and it just,
yeah. It takes some of the enjoyment and some of the humanness out as well.
Michael: Yeah.
Jacqueline: Yeah. Do you care for that electronic sound?
Michael: No,
Jacqueline: I think it was really big in the, in the nineties,
Michael: what is it called? I forget the name of that. The autotune?
Carrie: Yeah. Autotune.
Michael: Oh yeah. Yeah. No, like I feel like music like, like it's for expression, you know, for expressing, you know, human [00:04:00] emotions.
But if you're gonna take out
Jacqueline: the human,
Michael: Yeah I mean, what do you got left?
Carrie: Yeah. And I think that's why like going to concerts, going to shows, can be such a more powerful experience than sitting at home and listening to to
Michael: Oh yeah.
Carrie: A record as well.
Michael: I, I remember. It's been probably about 10 years now or more.
I went to an Arcade Fire show in St. Louis, but like, I was like, wow, that was like a really cathartic experience. Like I, I mean, it was super powerful.
Jacqueline: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And the moment, well, yeah, the concerts you just kept. So caught up. Yeah. Just swept up in the moment and, and everyone's like pushing to get closer and closer to the musician and Yeah.
In these big venues, I mean, and in the smaller venues it's a little more laid back and depending on who, depending on the musician I'm sure. But when, mm-hmm. When you're going to see. Like John Cougar or something, you know, they're, they're all, [00:05:00] everyone's like pressing forward and mm-hmm. And it's just, I don't know.
The music drives them maybe. Yeah. To do that.
Michael: Or mosh pits, you know,
Jacqueline: mosh pit, they mentioned mosh pits in the book. I read.
Carrie: Oh yeah.
Jacqueline: Yeah.
Carrie: So we've talked about nonfiction books. One of the fiction books that I wanted to mention is one that I've talked about before on Books and Bites. And that was Daisy Jones and the Six, and since I talked about it on the podcast, there's been that Netflix series, , Daisy Jones and the Six. So if you watched the Netflix series and didn't read the book, of course the book is better. I definitely recommend listening to it on audio because it has a full cast experience. And we were talking about the days of old with music.
This is kind of, you know, it takes place in the seventies. It's loosely based on Fleetwood Mac. So it's kind of the glory days of rock and roll. So it's a good, [00:06:00] a good chance to see, what it, what maybe it used to be like a little bit. I also a book that I haven't read yet, but has been on my list for a while.
If you've read Daisy Jones and the Six and are looking for something like it, you might try The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton. And it's often listed as a read alike for Daisy Jones and the Six, it's about an interracial rock duo in the seventies, and it's also written in an oral history format like Daisy Jones and the Six.
And then Michael, you, you had a recent read that was featured a lot of music, right?
Michael: Yeah, there was a, a couple of books, Velvet Was The Night by Sylvia Moreno Garcia, and that featured a lot of covers, Mexican covers of, of American songs, and I think, you know, Beatles and Stone songs, Rolling Stone songs as well.
And there was a Spotify playlist included with that in the [00:07:00] back of the book. And then, The read an author prompt we had a couple months ago, that book was heavily influenced by the Blues, and he also created like a Spotify radio station based on that. Mm-hmm. Author's a huge blues fan and so, and I went down a rabbit hole a little bit with that and it was very fascinating, the history of blues.
Carrie: Yeah, definitely. Always good when you can go down a rabbit hole. Yeah. Well, hopefully we have some more good selections for you this month.
Michael: This month I read The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl. Dave is probably my favorite musician. The Foo Fighters and Nirvana were the soundtrack to my high school years, and I have followed him ever since. Before drumming for Nirvana or founding the Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl taught himself drums [00:08:00] by ear on pillows in his room while listening to punk music.
He had a musical awakening when he was first introduced to structured music when his mother started taking him to a jazz club on Sunday afternoons where he learned that his drumming style was, as he put it, feral and resembled Animal from the Muppet Show. He describes everything with that wide-eyed enthusiasm that fans have, especially when he crosses path with other famous musicians.
Like the time when his band Scream was touring and he got the chance to play for Iggy Pop during a record release party, or the time he was walking down the street in London and Elton John recognized him outta nowhere. There's even the time while on tour in Japan with the Foo Fighters, he was able to convince Huey Lewis to play harmonica for a song during a concert.
He imbues a lot of the book with humor, but there's a lot of heartfelt sincerity too, especially after the death of Kurt Cobain. He describes a time after Kurt died and Nirvana broke up, how he was floundering, and he was close to giving up music, but outta the blue, he got an invitation to play with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers during an episode of Saturday Night [00:09:00] Live and how afterward he came this close to becoming a Heartbreaker himself and that experience gave him the inspiration he needed to eventually start the Foo Fighters.
This book describes the passion that Dave has had for music since he was a kid growing up in the suburbs of DC and goes into his punk rock roots. He tells stories that are hilarious and heartfelt from his musical journey, from his days, and Scream to the rise and fall of Nirvana and the formation of Foo Fighters and everything in between.
His ability to capture his enthusiasm and the way he's still awestruck whenever his journey crosses path with icons of music like Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Iggy Pop, and Tom Petty is nothing short of infectious. I listened to this audio book, which is read by Dave himself and highly recommend it. So I pair this with a Foo Fighter staple
they take part in after special occasions, K F C, and champagne. It was born after a Foo Fighter show. When Dave immediately tore into a bucket of K F C and being parched from the show, there was nothing else [00:10:00] around to drink except for a bottle of champagne. "That night, it became an artery clogging tradition, one that we still indulge to, to this day, laugh all you want.
I could go into a detailed culinary lecture about the juxtaposition of taste and mouth feel that comes with K F C and bubbly. But take it from me. It's expletive delicious." I have yet to try this pairing, but I'm very much looking forward to it.
Carrie: That does sound really good. I, I can see how that would be a good pairing 'cause the salty, crunchy and the,
Michael: the effervescence of the champagne.
Carrie: Yeah.
Jacqueline: Yeah.
Carrie: A little high low action.
Michael: Yeah.
Carrie: Going on there. It's interesting that you talked about his awe for other musicians. 'cause that was something-- I don't wanna give away too much before I get to my book. Well, I'll keep you in suspense for a few more seconds since I'm up next. But that was something that the [00:11:00] artist whose memoir I read, I think shared.
So I think, I guess that's an important way to stay grounded maybe.
Michael: Yeah. He's like, oh my gosh, that's Elton John, Paul McCartney, Iggy Pop?
Jacqueline: Yeah.
Michael: Tom Petty? Like when he's reading the book, like he really gets that through.
Carrie: Yeah. I think that makes it sound maybe a little less, like sometimes it can feel like name dropping.
Michael: Yeah. Yeah.
Carrie: Which is something I mentioned, but. Yeah. If they're that excited, then it's just like, oh my gosh, you can't believe this.
Jacqueline: Yeah.
Michael: Dave's kinda like just one of us.
Carrie: Yeah. That's for sure. Like Nirvana never really expected to be one of the biggest bands of all time.
Michael: So yeah. He goes into that sharing this little dinky apartment and how they kind of blew up and, and I mean, how do you get from being an iconic.
Two iconic bands, a drummer from Nirvana, and then founding the Foo Fighters who's been going, you know, still going strong today.[00:12:00] Even though they lost their drummer last year. Poor Dave.
Carrie: Well, I guess you have to read that book and find out.
Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.
Michael: Yeah.
Carrie: My book is, don't Tell Anybody The Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams. I first started listening to Grammy Award-winning singer songwriter Lucinda Williams in 1998 when Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, her fifth album, and first major commercial success came out. At the time, I was a creative writing graduate student at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the city where she was born, and one of the many universities where her father poet Miller Williams taught when she was a child.
There's even a song called Lake Charles on the album. I moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana two years later to teach at Louisiana [00:13:00] State University, another school where Miller Williams taught when Lucinda's Song Bus to Baton Rouge came out in 2001 it felt a little like she was following me. All of which is to say that Lucinda Williams' music has been profoundly important to me, not only because of her focus on places I know well, but also because of a sound, which especially at the time, felt completely fresh.
And then there were her poetic spare lyrics. In her memoir. Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told you, Williams writes about her journey to becoming an artist from her chaotic childhood to her eventual success. As mentioned earlier, William's father moved his family frequently in search of a stable teaching job.
By the time she was 18, she had lived in 12 different places, including New Orleans, Fayetteville, Arkansas, and even Mexico City. Her mother a pianist, had a mental illness and for [00:14:00] much of Williams' life was in and out of hospitals. Despite these difficulties, Williams credits her parents for instilling in her a passion for music, literature, and social justice.
Williams describes her early years of writing songs and learning to play guitar, as well as the many years of working in book and record stores to support herself. While she recorded demos and played gigs. She struggled to get signed by record companies who told her she was either two country or two rock and roll.
By the time of her success with Car Wheels, she was in her forties and considered a late bloomer. She also discusses the challenges she faced as a woman in a male dominated business where she was frequently labeled difficult and worse for behaviors her male counterparts were admired for. Williams dishes about what she calls the troubled poet motorcyclists.
She tended to fall for before her second marriage, some of whom appear in her [00:15:00] songs. Though she also talks about other people in the music industry, it never feels like name dropping. She seems like Dave Grohl just as awed as you or I would be to meet Bob Dylan or end up invited to dinner by Bruce Springsteen. For instance, one of the other guests at the Springsteen dinner was U2's the Edge and she wonders what to call him:
the Edge or just Edge?
Jacqueline: That's funny.
Carrie: The book reads like Williams is sitting down to talk with you for an interview. I found it to be a fun, quick read, if not quite as finely crafted as her songs. If you're a fan of her music, you'll appreciate hearing about her writing process for her most famous songs.
And if you've ever aspired to make art, whether music, literature, or something else, you'll find her persistence inspiring. Pair Don't Tell Anybody the secrets I told You with Monday's Red Beans from Melissa M Martin's [00:16:00] cookbook, Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou. The ingredients for red beans and rice are a little easier to find here in Kentucky than some of the other recipes in the book, so it's a good one to start with.
This version calls for both salt pork and pork shank. But Martin notes that you can substitute a ham hock, smoked sausage or other pork products, or you can make it a meatless Monday by adding bell pepper and celery or using vegetarian sausage. However you cook it, I recommend using plenty of hot sauce and cayenne pepper.
And Jacqueline, you may wanna skip it.
Jacqueline: Yeah, I'm not too good. I'm good. Cajun food does not agree with me.
Ah, I know y'all really like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The struggle, I think it's interesting that, that, and we were kind of talking [00:17:00] about that earlier, the struggle and how long it takes to, to make it, you know, unless you're already connected in that, in that music world, to even, you know, to even get. Uh, very far at all.
You have to like really give all your money and all your time and
Carrie: Yeah. To the, yeah. And be willing to, you know, she worked years in, health food stores, bookstores, record stores that kind of thing. Yeah. There's lots of musicians that, and actors,
Jacqueline: mm-hmm.
Carrie: Lots of people in the arts have to do that.
And may never make it.
Jacqueline: Mm-hmm. In the book I read they were talking about how one of the characters asked the other one, like, are you just playing around or are you doing this for real? And he's like, no, I'm just putting all my money and all my time and effort, but I'm just playing around.
And I also feel like people just think, musicians should just do it because they're for [00:18:00] free.
Carrie: That's true. Yeah.
Jacqueline: You hear that like a lot. Mm-hmm. Like, oh, they want you to come and sing, but they don't wanna pay you. Yeah. Anything to do it. So, yeah.
Carrie: Yeah. That, that is definitely true. And that's, that's not fair.
Jacqueline: No, it's really not. And, and just think of like, like some of these are like the. Not even the rock and roll, but like performers who do choral music and things like that or I mean, look at the struggles. It takes years and years to even get to make any kind of money.
Carrie: Yeah. So the moral is
Michael: don't give up.
Jacqueline: Don't give up. Yes. You can make it, I think. I think that is a good, I think you can make it, but it's not. It may not be an easy path if you don't have a lot of connections, I guess.
Carrie: Mm-hmm. And I, and I think you do have to be prepared that you may not be able [00:19:00] to earn your living doing what you love, you know?
Mm-hmm. I mean, as I'm a poet, poet, there are no poets, you know, who just make their living off of their books of poetry, you know, even, even poets like Ada Limon, who is an amazing poet and primarily earns her money off of, speaking engagements and teaching mm-hmm. And things like that, so,
Jacqueline: right. A lot of traveling too.
Like, you know, even the, the big people like Taylor Swift and Elton John, they do concerts. They have to go
Carrie: Right.
Jacqueline: They could travel all around the world to, you know, to, to get their music, to promote their music, to get fans.
Michael: That can't be easy, especially with a family.
Carrie: Mm-hmm.
Jacqueline: True.
Michael: I mean, you're constantly on tour.
Like Dave Matthews being like, I don't know, I don't think he's ever off tour. He's got a, he's got a summer tour. A spring tour. A fall tour.
Jacqueline: That's true.
Michael: Every year. He's been doing [00:20:00] this since the eighties.
Jacqueline: Yeah. That's, that's the, that's the life for
Michael: Yeah. Some people, just
Jacqueline: for so many,
Michael: you gotta love it. You gotta love what you do.
Jacqueline: For this month's podcast, I chose the young adult novel, Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist by David Leviathan and Rachel Cone. Although J C P L doesn't own a physical copy of the book, you can read or listen to the book through the Libby app. I chose to listen to the audio book since. For me, listening helps me determine the pitch and rhythm of music and poetry.
Referring to this book as a playlist is spot on. The characters bond to their shared love of musicians and genres of music. The novel takes us through a catalog of music from rock and roll to mainstream punk. As the characters navigate New York's indie rock scene, the novel explores many [00:21:00] aspects of music through the lens of a romance.
The authors write alternating chapters for each character's point of view. Cohen's voicing Nora's point of view, and Leviathan doing the same for Nick. The use of this literary device gives the reader a unique insight into what each character thinks in any given situation. For example, when Nick is suffering from a recent breakup, He attempts to avoid his ex Tris.
He asked Nora quote, I know this is gonna sound strange, but would you mind being my girlfriend for the next five minutes? I. End quote, the reader notes, he just doesn't want to face his ex and her replacement. Boyfriend because we know Nora's point of view. We learned that Nora doesn't want to see Tris any more than Nick.
In fact, Tris is her arch enemy and she also wants to avoid her. So she accepts his proposal to be his five minute girlfriend with an answering kiss, hoping the kiss will block Triss view [00:22:00] of her after the kiss. Nora learns that Nick is the ex-boyfriend that wrote amazing poetry and songs for Triss.
Nora remembers hearing the lyrics when she looks into his kind, but lost looking face. "The way you're singing in your sleep, the way you look before you leap, the strange illusions that you keep. You don't know, but I'm noticing." And it's on page 27. Although Nora felt she already knew Nick, after hearing his poetry and music, she realizes she wants to learn more about the boy who captivated her with his writings.
So she offers to be Nick's girlfriend for more than five minutes. This book was very entertaining, funny, and a quick read since it's less than 250 pages. The novel does an amazing job of showing us how much music influences our culture and how so many moments in our lives are embedded in music. The way the characters communicate through music is my favorite aspect of this novel.
The author's scene where Nick and Nora dance demonstrates one of the ways [00:23:00] music is a form of communication, and when Nick leads Laura on the dance floor, he doesn't need to say anything. The music says everything. I also like the way that characters sing parts of their favorite works when a particular artist is mentioned.
For anyone wanting to learn more about talented artists in the indie rock scene, this book is an entertaining way to learn more about various musicians and their bands' contribution to different musical genres. I would recommend this book to mature teen or college students due to the strong language and sexual content.
For my pairing, I chose a Mai Tai cocktail recipe from Liz on Call. This is a refreshing drink, is a mixture of orange juice, pineapple juice, lime juice, almond syrup, and grenadine and sparkling water. Last but not least, don't forget the tiny umbrella.
Carrie: Mai Tais can also be very deadly because they taste so yummy. [00:24:00]
Jacqueline: Yeah. Well this is a mocktail 'cause they're, they're underage.
So what do you all think about music and, and do you, does it when you hear songs, do you remember special moments?
Michael: Oh yeah. Well, you know, you'd be driving along in the car and a song comes on, you're immediately transported back to, you know, middle school, high school.
Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.
Michael: Kid, I mean, you know, and not just to a spec, you know, usually to a specific moment in time.
Jacqueline: Yeah.
Michael: I mean, it's very powerful.
Jacqueline: It really is. And even memories you don't wanna remember. Sometimes you remember them when you hear, when you hear a song.
Carrie: And they say that, you know, people with dementia will often remember lyrics from songs that they knew as children. You know, they might not
remember other things, but that's how powerful, powerful it is.
Michael: Yeah.
Carrie: Like
Jacqueline: mm-hmm.
Carrie: They can [00:25:00] still remember it even though they've lost so much of their memory.
Jacqueline: Yeah. I actually talked to a doctor at UK and they, they were doing a study on Alzheimer's patients . Using music
and art as well, so. They said that, Sometimes doing different things like doing art in itself or, or writing music. You're using different parts of your brain that you might not use all the time and that helps stimulate your, your brain. So listening to different forms of music could probably maybe do that as well.
I don't know.
Carrie: Mm-hmm. One of the books that you put, I think on the list of books that we post on, on the Books and Bites Bingo page was about like neuroscience and,
Michael: yeah.
Carrie: And how music, I can't remember exactly, but something about how music affects
Michael: Yeah.
Carrie: Affects people. I, that looked really interesting to me.
Jacqueline: And just communicating through music. I think that's, for me, that's just, you know, like when you're dancing with someone, you're communicating.
Carrie: Mm-hmm. And, you know, back [00:26:00] in, my high school and college and even early graduate school days, making somebody a mixtape was like,
Michael: oh, oh yeah.
Carrie: That was really a way to communicate.
Michael: Yeah.
Jacqueline: Yeah. That's the mix tape that Yeah.
Michael: When you really like somebody.
Jacqueline: Yeah. Nora actually, listens to the ex's, mixtape and she feels like she knows him because she heard that. She heard his music, like, that he actually wrote too, not just other people's music, but.
Carrie: Mm-hmm. And you had like your favorite mix tapes that you listened to all the time because they got it
Jacqueline: Oh yeah,
Michael: I just found a huge bag of CDs that probably that date back to my high school days of mix tapes.
And even if they, you know, I don't even know if they're gonna work, but I am pretty excited to go through 'em and see.
Jacqueline: Oh yeah. You want, wanna [00:27:00] relive all those days?
Michael: Yeah. Yes.
Carrie: Alright, well we hope you,
Michael: rock on.
Jacqueline: There you go.
Carrie: Thanks for listening to the Books and Bites podcast. To learn more about Books and Bites Bingo, visit us at jesspublib.org/books-bites . Our theme music is The Breakers from the album in Close Quarters with the Enemy by Scott Whiddon. You can learn more about Scott and his music at his website, adoorforadesk.com.