Exploring the Roots of Rock n Roll

 Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock 'n' Roll by Nick Tosches

Nick Tosches reading at the NYPL by Night-thing CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Not too long ago, I read Tosches’ book Where Dead Voices Gather, a really odd, but compelling book about minstrels and minstrel music, specifically examining Emmett Miller, someone who may or may not have been one of the last minstrel singers. Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock n’ Roll touches on that odd territory, but also explores many other areas, especially looking at hillbilly and rockabilly music, as well as other antecedents to rock that are not always equally explored. This was such a great book. Tosches not only does amazing research into the history of country music and exploring many of the subgenres from country, but he also has some amazing stories. I think the ones about Jerry Lee Lewis were some of the most entertaining (this might also be because he wrote a book about Jerry Lee). However, more importantly, as one of the most underrated American music writers, Toches excavates the lost history of rock n roll by exploring the influence of country and many of the wild personalities that were a part of country music’s popularity in the 1930s and 40s. Beyond the singers and musicians both known and unknown, Tosches examines the lyrical and musical content of some singles and semi-popular songs to explore themes, symbols and characters that were also influential in shaping popular ideas in Rock music. Prior to this year, I had only read one other book by Tosches, In the Hand of Dante, which was interesting, somewhat historical, but not really that musical. These music books were incredible and explored Tosches’ obsession with some of these long forgotten contributors to American music. Hoping to read Tosches’ biography of Jerry Lee Lewis at some point.