You should, too., Gordon has spent his life closely chronicling the lives of his hometown's most famous and obscure sons and daughters. I've already picked up some from several of the artists profiled in this captivating book. In piece after piece in Memphis Rent Party, the author does what only the best music journalists can do: motivate readers to run out and find the wonderful music they've just read about. has the rare ability to convey the power, emotion, and depth of feeling that music can produce. Robert Gordon finds mystery in the mundane, inspiration in the bleakness, and revels in the individualism that connects these diverse encounters.A personal, affecting collection. A rent party is when friends come together to hear music, dance, and help a pal through hard times it's a celebration in the face of looming tragedy, an optimism when the wolf is at the door. Gordon's Memphis inspires Cat Power, attracts Townes Van Zandt, and finds James Carr always singing at the dark end of the street.

He beholds the beauty of mistakes with producer Jim Dickinson (Replacements, Rolling Stones), charts the stars with Alex Chilton (Box Tops, Big Star), and mulls the tragedy of Jeff Buckley's fatal swim. Like mint seeping into bourbon, Gordon gets into the wider world.

The interconnected profiles and stories in Memphis Rent Party convey more than a region. A passionate listener, he hears modern times deep in the grooves of old records by Lead Belly and Robert Johnson. A Memphis native, he whiles away time in a crumbling duplex with blues legend Furry Lewis, stays up late with barrelhouse piano player Mose Vinson, and sips homemade whiskey at Junior Kimbrough's churning house parties. We know the greatest hits, but celebrated author Robert Gordon takes us to the people and places history has yet to record.

The fabled city of Memphis has been essential to American music-home of the blues, the birthplace of rock and roll, a soul music capital. If you don't know these characters, let Robert Gordon introduce you.' -Elvis Costello 'Robert Gordon's book is proof that Southern heritage is American heritage, and all sorts of people-black and white, familiar and strange, dead and alive-are what it is.' -Greil Marcus Profiles and stories of Southern music from the acclaimed author of Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion. Robert does it right.' -Keith Richards 'An emotional map of musical Memphis. 'Blues, being the wellspring of all American music for over a century, is always worth studying.

Memphis rent party by robert gordon