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In Mavericks of Sound: Conversations with the Artists Who Shaped Indie and Roots Music, music scholar David Ensminger offers a collection of vivid and compelling interviews with legendary roots rock and indie artists who bucked mainstream trends and have remained resilient in the face of enormous shifts in the music world. As the success of the concerts at Austin City Limits have revealed, the fan bases and crowds for indie and roots music often blur and overlap. In Mavericks of Sound, Ensminger brings to light the highways and byways trod by these music icons over the course of their careers and the ways in which their music-making has been affected by, and influenced, the burgeoning indie and roots music movements.
Ranging from seminal modern singer-songwriters to rockabilly renegades and indie rockers, Mavericks of Sound features a set of broad, penetrating, and insightful conversations imbued with a sense of musical history and heritage. Ensminger captures firsthand accounts from singer songwriters like Texas Country musician Tom Russell and first wave indie artist and folk rocker Peter Case; rockabilly artists Junior Brown and the Reverend Horton Heat; American indie rock icons such as 11th Dream Day's Janet Bean, Pere Ubu's Dave Thomas, Apples in Stereo's Robert Schneider, and Swans members Michael Gira and Jarboe; English and New Zealand figures such as folk legend Richard Thompson, The Clean's David Kilgour and The Waterboys' Mike Scott; and folk, country and rock legends such as Merle Haggard, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Ralph Stanley, Neko Case, and Yo La Tengo.
Mavericks of Sound is the perfect work for contemporary indie, roots, Americana, country, and folk music fans who want to understand the unique artistry and unbound passion behind America's musical innovators that readily broke and remolded rules.
List of contents
Chapter 1: The Song is the Territory: Singer Songwriters
Tom Russell
Peter Case
Dave Alvin
Billy Joe and Eddy Shaver
Jason Ringenberg
Robert Earl Keen
Chapter 2: Rockabilly and Honky Tonker Renegades
Junior Brown
Deke Dickerson
Reverend Horton Heat
Chapter 3: Indelible Indie Rock Icons
Janet Bean, member of 11th Dream Day
Dave Thomas, member of Pere Ubu
Robert Schneider, member of Apples in Stereo
Michael Gira, members of The Swans and Angels of Light
Jarboe, members of The Swans
Richard Buckner and Alejandro Escovedo
Chapter 4: The Other Side of the Pond: Voices from Britain and New Zealand
James Stevenson, member of Chelsea, Gen X, Gene Loves Jezebel)
Mike Scott, member of Waterboys
Richard Thompson
David Gedge, member of Wedding Present and Cinerama
David Kilgour, member of The Clean
Chapter 5: Short Cuts: Concise Interview with Icons
Merle Haggard
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Wayne Kramer, member of MC5
The Mekons
Ralph Stanley
Yo La Tengo
Neko Case
Rob Younger, member of Radio Birdman and New Christs
Index
About the Author
About the author
David Ensminger is Humanities, Folklore, and English Instructor at Lee College in Baytown, Texas. He has written about music, art, and contemporary issues and is author of Visual Vitriol: The Street Art and Subcultures of the Punk and Hardcore Generations, co-author of Mojo Hand, a biographer of bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins, and Left of the Dial: Conversations with Punk Icons. He has contributed to Popmatters, Maximum Rocknroll, Houston Press, Trust, Postmodern Culture, Art in Print, M/C Journal, Journal of Popular Music Studies, Liminalities, Artcore, and various other journals.
Summary
In this book, music scholar David Ensminger offers a collection of compelling interviews with legendary roots rock and indie artists who bucked mainstream trends and have remained resilient in the face of enormous shifts in the music world. Ensminger brings to light the highways and byways trod by these music icons over the course of their careers.
