Mavericks of Sound

David A. Ensminger

doi:10.5771/9781442235915

Summary

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.

Search publication

Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2014
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4422-3590-8
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4422-3591-5
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 231
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Preface No access
1. Tom Russell: Chronicling History’s Heartbreaks No access
2. Peter Case: The Man with the Fragmented Guitar No access
3. Dave Alvin: California Soul No access
4. Billy Joe and Eddy Shaver: Miles and Miles of Honky-Tonk Soul No access
5. Jason Ringenberg: Jason and the Scorchers No access
6. Robert Earl Keen: This Ain’t No Picnic No access
7. John Doe: Not an Everyman No access
1. Junior Brown: Honky-Tonk Savior No access
2. Deke Dickerson: Look Back and Wink No access
3. Reverend Horton Heat: Anti-Hero ofHot Rod Culture No access
1. Janet Bean: Eleventh Dream Day and Freakwater No access
2. David Thomas: The Uber-Art of Pere Ubu No access
3. Robert Schneider: Tasting the Forbidden Pop Fruit No access
4. Michael Gira: The Sentinel Sounds of the Swans and Angels of Light No access
5. Jarboe: The Artful Lady Awakes No access
6. Richard Buckner and Alejandro Escovedo No access
1. James Stevenson: Chelsea, Gen X, and Gene Loves Jezebel No access
2. Mike Scott: The Waterboys No access
3. Richard Thompson: The Wit and the Wisdom No access
4. David Gedge: Cinerama and Wedding Present No access
5. David Kilgour: A Bit Dirty after All No access
1. Merle Haggard: The Roots of His Raising No access
2. Ramblin’ Jack Elliott: In the Deep Grain of Music No access
3. Gordon Gano: Violent Femmes No access
4. Wayne Kramer: MC5 No access
5. The Mekons: The Politics of Pop No access
6. Ralph Stanley: The Original Man of Constant Sorrow No access
7. James McNew: Yo La Tengo No access
8. Neko Case: I Am the Boss of My Destiny No access
9. Rob Younger: Radio Birdman and New Christs No access
10. Eugene Robinson: The Oracle Behind Oxbow No access
Index No access Pages 227 - 230
About the Author No access Pages 231 - 231