num_pages: 288
description: Profiles and stories of Southern music from the acclaimed author of Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion.The fabled city of Memphis has been essential to American musichome of the blues birthplace of rock and roll and a soul music capital. When Robert Gordon started covering Memphis music the golden ages of his hometown had passed. But the links were there if you looked for them. Starting as a teenager Gordon sought out old legends Furry Lewis and Mose Vinson spent time at Jr. Kimbroughs house parties went into the grooves of records by Leadbelly and Robert Johnson and picked up the threads in the new sounds that were developing around him becoming the official chronicler of the Memphis scene. Memphis Rent Party compiles the best of these short pieces from the first three decades of Gordons career many previously unpublished. The focus is on Memphis but like mint seeping into bourbon Gordon gets into the wider world. In addition to homegrown renegades Alex Chilton (Box Tops Big Star) and producer Jim Dickinson (Replacements Rolling Stones) he spends time with those whom Memphis has inspired like Cat Power Jeff Buckley and Townes Van Zandt. A rent party is when friends come together to hear music dance and help a pal through hard times. With this stellar collection Gordona deep listener passionate cultural commentator and unparelleled scribe of Southern soundthrows a rent party that will keep readers reading music lovers listening and culture hounds howling for more.
language: English
title: Memphis Rent Party: The Blues, Rock & Soul in Music's Hometown
publisher: Bloomsbury USA