Ticket Stubs & Liner Notes: Reflections on American Music

Available now from Main Street Rag

First, this is a no cover charge, no drinks minimum sort of joint, and if the burgers and fries tend to be a little greasy, the jukebox is, I assure you, eclectic (and will be more so as entries are added).  So, soda shop for after school teens? Blues club (rural or urban)? Crossroads honkytonk where the farm folk gather?  Up to you.  Imagine it as you will.

Second, the occasion for these entries is in part Ticket Stubs & Liner Notes, a collection of poems that draws on American music of the 1950s and 1960s.  These website entries (along with recordings of the poems) provide context for those who haven’t heard of Chuck Berry, Sun Ra, Bill Monroe, and other figures from those years who figure in the poems.  (For the book’s blurbs, which further characterize the work, click here.  If you think you might want to order your very own copy, the link above will beam you over to the publisher’s order page.)

Third, these entries (combining commentaries, reflections, and media links) are framed for those who are simply curious about the music and figures of this era, who are possibly interested in how the music was heard then, and how “then” might offer ways to re-hear the music now.

If you’d like to be notified as pages are added, you can subscribe through the pop up box that should greet you the first time you stop by. If you miss the popup, you can subscribe through the MailChimp website, or you can follow on Facebook.

Here’s a listing of the initial posting of entries (an interim navigation that will give way to something else as the number of entries grows):

Ticket Stubs & Liner Notes is available from Main Street Rag