Nonfiction Book Club
Third Monday of the Month
1:30 - 3:20pm
Laurel Manor Recreation Center - Washington Room
Third Monday of the Month
1:30 - 3:20pm
Laurel Manor Recreation Center - Washington Room
This group is for nonfiction readers who enjoy thought-provoking discussions. We vote on a book every month across a wide variety of genres from among recommendations from our group. For more information or to get monthly emails with details about upcoming meetings, contact DianeCosner@gmail.com or 352-259-9168
The book chosen for June 16, recommended by Ken Knetsch, will be Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King by Preston Lauterbach.
Description from Amazon:
In this thought-provoking book, the Black musicians who influenced Elvis Presley's music finally receive recognition and praise.
After Baz Luhrmann’s movie, Elvis, hit theaters, audiences and critics alike couldn't help but question the Black origins of Elvis Presley’s music and style, reigniting a debate that has been circling for decades. In Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King, author Preston Lauterbach answers these questions definitively, based on new research and extensive, previously unpublished interviews with the artists who blazed the way and the people who knew them.
Within these pages, Lauterbach examines the lives, music, legacies, and interactions with Elvis Presley of the four innovative Black artists who created a style that would come to be known as Rock ’n’ Roll: Little Junior Parker, Big Mama Thornton, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, and mostly-unknown eccentric Beale Street guitarist Calvin Newborn. Along the way, he delves into the injustices of copyright theft and media segregation that resulted in Black artists living in poverty as white performers, managers, and producers reaped the lucrative rewards.
In the wake of continuing conversations about American music and appropriation, Before Elvis is indispensable.
Jim Dees, the host of Thacker Mountain Radio hour interviews the author at the Power House in Oxford, Mississippi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhmuUToS6GE
Upcoming titles:
Jul 21 The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
Aug 18 & Sept 15 TBD - We will vote on these titles in June
Have you read a great nonfiction book recently that would be a good choice to discuss among friends who will take the time and consideration to read it thoroughly? Hope to see you at the next meeting!