Financial instability threatens the global economy. The volatility of capital movements across national borders has led many observers to argue for a reformed "global financial architecture," a body of consistent rules and institutions to prevent financial crises. Yet regulators have a decidedly mixed record in their attempts to create global standards for the financial system. David Andrew Singer seeks to explain the varying pressures on regulatory agencies to negotiate internationally acceptable rules and suggests that the variation is largely traceable to the different domestic political pressures faced by regulators. In Regulating Capital, Singer provides both a theory of the effects of domestic pressures on international regulation and a detailed analysis of regulators' attempts at international rulemaking in banking, securities, and insurance. Singer addresses the complexities of global finance in an accessible style, and he does not turn away from the more dramatic aspects of globalization; he makes clear the international implications of bank failures and stock-market crashes, the rise of derivatives, and the catastrophic financial losses caused by Hurricane Katrina and the events of September 11.
This innovative analysis investigates a complex issue of tremendous economic and political importance: what makes some countries vulnerable to banking crises, while others emerge unscathed? Banks on the Brink explains why some countries are more vulnerable to banking crises than others. Copelovitch and Singer highlight the effects of two variables in combination: foreign capital inflows and the relative prominence of securities markets in the domestic financial system. Foreign capital is the fuel for banks' potentially dangerous behavior, and banks are more likely to take on excessive risks when operating in a financial system with large securities markets. The book analyzes over thirty years of data and provides historical case studies of two key countries, Canada and Germany, each of which explores how political decisions in the 19th and early-20th centuries continue to affect financial stability today. The analyses in this book have crucial policy implications, identifying potential regulations and policies that can work to protect banking systems against future crises.
The New York Times bestseller-the inspiring personal story of American Idol's David Archuleta. In the New York Times bestseller Chords of Strength, American Idol favorite David Archuleta shares his unexpected and inspiring journey, including how he overcame vocal cord paralysis to achieve his dream of being a successful singer. David also opens up about the strength he draws from his unshakable faith and family. He pays tribute to those who continue to inspire him and, through their example, help him believe in himself, his talent, and his abilities. Intimate and uplifting, Chords of Strength allows a unique glimpse at the man behind the music and offers hope to anyone with a passion and a dream.
There are many things in life that move you, but there are some things you are born with in which you have the power to move others. This is called being anointed by God. We all have a gift to do something, and it is up to us to find out what that gift is and use it for the right reasons to glorify God. Singing came to me. I did not choose it. I just opened my mouth, and I could sing, and it came easy. I just needed to hone my gift by understanding how it worked so I could use it to its fullest potential as well as maintain it by understanding how to take care of it. My love for music is who I am. I was not told I had to do it. I just did it because I loved it just that much. I knew whenever I would sing, I would find myself closer to a place of peacefulness and harmony with my higher self. As I grew stronger in what moved me to do what I loved. I learned that I could do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I did not let fear deter my calling. Even though I was very much afraid, I knew I had to do it because it was God's will. Some people are born with many gifts, and some are born with one, but it is not because one gift is greater than the other because your calling is different. I have learned that if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. This means you can do anything you feel is calling out to you. Through my journey, I have learned I am able to move mountains in my life. One is called fear because it is fear that keeps us from being our best self. We have been told, "Don't do this," "Don't do that," because it will hurt you, so we learn fear, but we don't learn how to conquer it until we become adults, and for some not even then because we choose to stay comfortable and complacent with the effects of what fear does to us. We are always evolving into our better self, but we must forget about what we can't do and focus more so on what we can do when we have the faith the size of a mustard seed. This pain is not meant to last, but we have to keep moving on, move on, move on. There's no storm that can stop you. There's no wind that can move you. There's no cloud that can stop the sun from shining through. Just move on. 2
Born in Cleveland in 1925, "Little" Jimmy Scott lost his mother at age thirteen, the same year he was diagnosed with Kallman's syndrome. The disease stunted his growth and earned him his nickname, but it also left him with a haunting voice, a mesmerizing voice. He soon built a following as a singer touring with Lionel Hampton's great orchestra in the '40s, then performed with many of the stars of the '50s, from Lester Young to Charlie Parker to Dinah Washington, and was signed by Savoy Records. He thought he had his big break when, in 1962, Ray Charles produced what was by all accounts Jimmy's best work, Falling in Love Is Wonderful. But when it was forced off the shelves by contract disputes, Scott worked as an orderly and clerk in Cleveland for almost two decades. Fans thought he was dead-until songwriter Doc Pomus's funeral in March of 1991.As Pomus had instructed in his will, Jimmy sang over his friend's coffin. High-pitched and androgynous, his voice seemed to come out of thin air, transcending gender and age, evoking pure heartbreak. No one knew who he was-heads turned, celebrities conferred, record executives were reduced to tears-until finally Lou Reed turned around and whispered, "He's Jimmy Scott, the greatest jazz singer in the world." And so he was. By the next morning, he had a record deal with Sire that relaunched his career with the masterpiece All the Way, and he has been performing to packed clubs ever since. With full cooperation from Jimmy, his siblings, spouses, and colleagues from Ray Charles to Ruth Brown, Faith in Time is at once an intimate biography, an invaluable history of a life that spanned big band to bebop to pop, and the poignant story of a man whose voice will live forever.
A performer who rivaled Sinatra, Bobby Darin rose from dire poverty to become one of the biggest stars of his generation. Dogged by chronic illness, he knew that time was not on his side, and so, in a career full of dizzying twists and turns, he did it all, moving from teen idol to Vegas song-and-dance man, from hipster to folkie and back. In Roman Candle, David Evanier offers a multilayered portrait of this brash, gifted artist, including the dark side of his celebrated marriage to America's sweetheart, Sandra Dee, and the incredible family secret that tore him apart at the end. "Compelling and revealing ... Roman Candle gives us the many lives of one of the great entertainers of all time, whose flame was extinguished way too soon." — Kevin Spacey "Informed by scores of interviews with Darin's friends and associates and written in no-nonsense, just-the-facts prose, Evanier's book paints a picture of a ruthlessly ambitious musician.... Sinatra may have had the bragging rights to 'My Way,' but Darin lived out the lyrics." — Publishers Weekly "This biography percolates with cool.... [Evanier has] written a book so charged with intimacy, so heartbreakingly ebullient with life, that you feel that any moment the pages are about to snap their fingers and break into song." — Caroline Leavitt, The Boston Globe "Darin has been the subject of several books; most notable is this new examination of the singer's life and work by David Evanier.... Evanier's portrait, true to its title, is one of a bright talent that soared quickly and erupted in a flash of glory." — David Hajdu, The Atlantic Monthly "Music fans are liable to be surprised by the Bobby Darin mania sparked by Kevin Spacey's sunny new film biography. For the slightly darker look at Darin, hole up for the holidays with Roman Candle, the latest book about Darin's rollercoaster life." — Janet Maslin, "Top Ten list of Books for Gifts" (2004), The New York Times
Paul Robeson, born 1898, was a two-time All-American football player and a law-school graduate in an era that offered few opportunities for African-Americans. He went on to win international acclaim as a singer and actor, breaking through barriers both on stage and in his life. Author David K. Wright tells the story of an exceptional entertainer who devoted his life to the causes of civil rights and equality. Robeson refused to compromise his integrity or to be told what African-Americans could or could not do. Robeson's career as a singer and actor suffered when the U.S. government accused him of being a communist.
David Morrell isn’t only an acclaimed thriller author and the creator of Rambo in his novel First Blood. He’s also a former professor of American Studies who writes in-depth profiles about film and music legends. Frank Sinatra’s dramatic life sometimes upstaged his genius. Although he was the greatest interpretive singer of the recording era, some commentators emphasize his boozing, brawling, and womanizing rather than his brilliance as a performer, or else they take his brilliance for granted rather than attempt to explain it. In FRANK SINATRA: THE ARTIST AND HIS MUSIC, award-winning author David Morrell discusses the talent and determination that led Sinatra to progress from being a singing waiter to becoming the Chairman of the Board. Many Sinatra fans might be surprised to learn that this intensely autobiographical singer had a face that was permanently scarred from birth. They might also be surprised that, despite the legend that he was a “natural” singer, Sinatra took vocal lessons from a Metropolitan Opera singer. In his formative years, he invented a new way for singers to breathe and used this amazing technique to channel his self-described manic-depression into interpreting songs as they had never been done before. These are only some of the topics that David Morrell analyzes in his rare approach to this powerful singer’s craft. Based on more than forty years of listening and reading, Morrell provides an in-depth analysis of Sinatra’s musical career. After you read it, you might never listen to Sinatra or any other singer the same way again.
A chronicle of Adams’s rise from alt-country to rock stardom, featuring stories about the making of the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. Before he achieved his dream of being an internationally known rock personality, Ryan Adams had a band in Raleigh, North Carolina. Whiskeytown led the wave of insurgent-country bands that came of age with No Depression magazine in the mid-1990s, and for many people it defined the era. Adams was an irrepressible character, one of the signature personalities of his generation, and as a singer-songwriter he blew people away with a mature talent that belied his youth. David Menconi witnessed most of Whiskeytown’s rocket ride to fame as the music critic for the Raleigh News & Observer, and in Ryan Adams, he tells the inside story of the singer’s remarkable rise from hardscrabble origins to success with Whiskeytown, as well as Adams’s post-Whiskeytown self-reinvention as a solo act. Menconi draws on early interviews with Adams, conversations with people close to him, and Adams’s extensive online postings to capture the creative ferment that produced some of Adams’s best music, including the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. He reveals that, from the start, Ryan Adams had a determined sense of purpose and unshakable confidence in his own worth. At the same time, his inability to hold anything back, whether emotions or torrents of songs, often made Adams his own worst enemy, and Menconi recalls the excesses that almost, but never quite, derailed his career. Ryan Adams is a fascinating, multifaceted portrait of the artist as a young man, almost famous and still inventing himself, writing songs in a blaze of passion. “Menconi, a veteran music critic based in Raleigh, North Carolina, had a front row seat for alt-country wunderkind Ryan Adams’ rise to prominence—from an array of local bands, to Whiskeytown, and on to a successful and prolific solo career. Here, Menconi enthusiastically revisits those heady days when the mercurial Adams’ performances were either transcendent or tantrum-filled—the author was there for most of them, and he packs his book with tales of magical performances and utterly desperate train wrecks. . . . This interview- and anecdote-laden exposé of the artist's early career will doubtless find a happy home with Adams fans.” —Publishers Weekly
“A terrific biography of a rock innovator that hums with juicy detail and wincing truth. . . . Page after page groans with the folly of the ’60s drug culture, the tragedy of talent toasted before its time, the curse of wealth and the madness of wasted opportunity.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE LOS ANGELES TIMES • NAMED ONE OF THE FIVE BEST ROCK BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ROLLING STONE As a singer and songwriter, Gram Parsons stood at the nexus of countless musical crossroads, and he sold his soul to the devil at every one. His intimates and collaborators included Keith Richards, William Burroughs, Marianne Faithfull, Peter Fonda, Roger McGuinn, and Clarence White. Parsons led the Byrds to create the seminal country rock masterpiece Sweetheart of the Rodeo, helped to guide the Rolling Stones beyond the blues in their appreciation of American roots music, and found his musical soul mate in Emmylou Harris. Parsons’ solo albums, GP and Grievous Angel, are now recognized as visionary masterpieces of the transcendental jambalaya of rock, soul, country, gospel, and blues Parsons named “Cosmic American Music.” Parsons had everything—looks, charisma, money, style, the best drugs, the most heartbreaking voice—and threw it all away with both hands, dying of a drug and alcohol overdose at age twenty-six. In this beautifully written, raucous, meticulously researched biography, David N. Meyer gives Parsons’ mythic life its due. From interviews with hundreds of the famous and obscure who knew and worked closely with Parsons–many who have never spoken publicly about him before–Meyer conjures a dazzling panorama of the artist and his era. Praise for Twenty Thousand Roads “Far and away the most thorough biography of Parsons . . . skewers any number of myths surrounding this endlessly mythologized performer.”—Los Angeles Times “The definitive account of Gram Parsons’ life–and early death. From the country-rock pioneer’s wealthy, wildly dysfunctional family through his symbiotic friendship with Keith Richards, Meyer deftly illuminates one of rock’s most elusive figures.”—Rolling Stone “Meticulously researched . . . Though Meyer answers a lot of long-burning questions, he preserves Parsons’ legend as a man of mystery.”—Entertainment Weekly “Meyer gives Parsons a thorough, Peter Guralnick-like treatment.”—New York Post
This ebook edition contains the full text version as per the book. Doesn't include original photographic and illustrated material. In the seventies, when he was just 20 years old, David Cassidy achieved the sort of teen idol fame that is rarely seen. He was mobbed everywhere he went. His clothes were regularly ripped off by adoring fans. He sold records the world over. He was bigger than Elvis. And all thanks to a hit TV show called The Partridge Family. Now, in his own words, this is a brutally frank account of those mindblowing days of stardom in which being David Cassidy played second fiddle to being Keith Partridge. Including stories of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll that explode the myth of Cassidy as squeaky clean, it's also the story of how to keep on living life and loving yourself when the fickle fans fall away.
Before he achieved his dream of being an internationally known rock personality, Ryan Adams had a band in Raleigh, North Carolina. Whiskeytown led the wave of insurgent-country bands that came of age with No Depression magazine in the mid-1990s, and for many people it defined the era. Adams was an irrepressible character, one of the signature personalities of his generation, and as a singer-songwriter he blew people away with a mature talent that belied his youth. David Menconi witnessed most of Whiskeytown's rocket ride to fame as the music critic for the Raleigh News & Observer, and in Ryan Adams, he tells the inside story of the singer's remarkable rise from hardscrabble origins to success with Whiskeytown, as well as Adams's post-Whiskeytown self-reinvention as a solo act. Menconi draws on early interviews with Adams, conversations with people close to him, and Adams's extensive online postings to capture the creative ferment that produced some of Adams's best music, including the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. He reveals that, from the start, Ryan Adams had an absolutely determined sense of purpose and unshakable confidence in his own worth. At the same time, his inability to hold anything back, whether emotions or torrents of songs, often made Adams his own worst enemy, and Menconi recalls the excesses that almost, but never quite, derailed his career. Ryan Adams is a fascinating, multifaceted portrait of the artist as a young man, almost famous and still inventing himself, writing songs in a blaze of passion.
I Love You a Thousand Ways is the story of one of the most loved, respected, and imitated singer/songwriters in the history of country music, a man whose songs touched the lives of millions of people. Lefty Frizzell’s relaxed style of singing proved to be a huge influence on a wide variety of country and pop music stars such as Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, George Jones, John Fogerty, George Strait, and Tim McGraw. In addition to his incredible vocal talents, Lefty was widely recognized for his songwriting skills. He had four songs in the country top ten at the same time in 1951—a feat that would only be repeated one more time on any chart, when The Beatles had five songs on the pop chart in 1964. Among Lefty’s many hits are: “If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time,” “Mom and Dad’s Waltz,” “The Long Black Veil,” and “Saginaw, Michigan.” Willie Nelson’s 1977 album, To Lefty From Willie, was a tribute to Frizzell and consisted entirely of cover versions of Frizzell songs. Fellow Texan Roy Orbison was also a devout fan of Frizzell’s sound. In 1988, as a part of the Traveling Wilburys, Orbison chose the name “Lefty Wilbury” in honor of his musical hero. Lefty was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. I Love You a Thousand Ways is a long overdue, beautiful tribute to one of the most underrated musicians of all time, a man whose music continues to influence new generations of musicians and music fans.
A chronicle of Adams’s rise from alt-country to rock stardom, featuring stories about the making of the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. Before he achieved his dream of being an internationally known rock personality, Ryan Adams had a band in Raleigh, North Carolina. Whiskeytown led the wave of insurgent-country bands that came of age with No Depression magazine in the mid-1990s, and for many people it defined the era. Adams was an irrepressible character, one of the signature personalities of his generation, and as a singer-songwriter he blew people away with a mature talent that belied his youth. David Menconi witnessed most of Whiskeytown’s rocket ride to fame as the music critic for the Raleigh News & Observer, and in Ryan Adams, he tells the inside story of the singer’s remarkable rise from hardscrabble origins to success with Whiskeytown, as well as Adams’s post-Whiskeytown self-reinvention as a solo act. Menconi draws on early interviews with Adams, conversations with people close to him, and Adams’s extensive online postings to capture the creative ferment that produced some of Adams’s best music, including the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. He reveals that, from the start, Ryan Adams had a determined sense of purpose and unshakable confidence in his own worth. At the same time, his inability to hold anything back, whether emotions or torrents of songs, often made Adams his own worst enemy, and Menconi recalls the excesses that almost, but never quite, derailed his career. Ryan Adams is a fascinating, multifaceted portrait of the artist as a young man, almost famous and still inventing himself, writing songs in a blaze of passion. “Menconi, a veteran music critic based in Raleigh, North Carolina, had a front row seat for alt-country wunderkind Ryan Adams’ rise to prominence—from an array of local bands, to Whiskeytown, and on to a successful and prolific solo career. Here, Menconi enthusiastically revisits those heady days when the mercurial Adams’ performances were either transcendent or tantrum-filled—the author was there for most of them, and he packs his book with tales of magical performances and utterly desperate train wrecks. . . . This interview- and anecdote-laden exposé of the artist's early career will doubtless find a happy home with Adams fans.” —Publishers Weekly
A biography as dramatic as any to come out of the pop field . . . told with sympathy and unflinching candor."--San Francisco Chronicle In this intimate biography of the Prince of Soul, David Ritz provides a candid look at a star and a friend. Ritz had been collaborating with Gaye on his story for several years before the singer's tragic death, and had conducted a series of extraordinary interviews in which Gaye discussed his deepest secrets. Drawing from these interviews, Gaye's life is recounted in his own words and the words of those who knew him best: his family, friends, and colleagues. What emerges is a full-scale portrait of a charming but tortured artist, a brilliant singer with a divided soul. Here is Marvin's story from his early years in the slums of Washington, D.C., to is rise to the top of the Motown industry, his fall from grace, his comeback, and finally his sudden, shocking end at the hands of his own father. But it is also the story of his glorious music, and the music of black America over the past fifty years, from gospel to doo-wop to soul to funk. The result is an epic tale whose cast of characters includes Diana Ross, Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder, among others. The definitive biography of an enormously gifted and sensitive man, Divided Soul takes us deep into the life and music of one of America's most passionate--and most troubled--composers and singers.
Here's the powerful story of a woman's life--a lonesome sojourn through a labyrinth in pursuit of love and strength. The path twists and turns through time, and upon encountering David Ruffin, lead singer of The Temptations, her destiny is met.
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.
At one time a star in her own right as a singer, Anna Magdalena (1701–60) would go on to become, through her marriage to the older Johann Sebastian Bach, history’s most famous musical wife and mother. The two musical notebooks belonging to her continue to live on, beloved by millions of pianists young and old. Yet the pedagogical utility of this music—long associated with the sound of children practicing and mothers listening—has encouraged a rosy and one-sided view of Anna Magdalena as a model of German feminine domesticity. Sex, Death, and Minuets offers the first in-depth study of these notebooks and their owner, reanimating Anna Magdalena as a multifaceted historical subject—at once pious and bawdy, spirited and tragic. In these pages, we follow Magdalena from young and flamboyant performer to bereft and impoverished widow—and visit along the way the coffee house, the raucous wedding feast, and the family home. David Yearsley explores the notebooks’ more idiosyncratic entries—like its charming ditties on illicit love and searching ruminations on mortality—against the backdrop of the social practices and concerns that women shared in eighteenth-century Lutheran Germany, from status in marriage and widowhood, to fulfilling professional and domestic roles, money, fashion, intimacy and sex, and the ever-present sickness and death of children and spouses. What emerges is a humane portrait of a musician who embraced the sensuality of song and the uplift of the keyboard, a sometimes ribald wife and oft-bereaved mother who used her cherished musical notebooks for piety and play, humor and devotion—for living and for dying.
Six Simple Rules for a Better Life is not another self-help manual touting all kinds of grand changes that are meant to impress you but that instead serve to oppress you, making you feel so guilty that you avert your eyes as you walk past the shelf where it sits next to a bunch of other impulsively bought, unread books, each accusingly calling out to you, Why aren't you following my instructions? What it is: Six Simple Rules for a Better Life is a book filled with practical, achievable suggestions for all kinds of ways you can improve your life, along with a game plan for doing so. In Six Simple Rules for a Better Life, you'll learn that Life is Long and that you can achieve your goals when you slow down to make the changes and stop to celebrate the progress.
Offers a historical look at the life and career of Bob Dylan from four perspectives: his relationship to blackness, the influence of his singing style, his image on film, and his songwriting.
Merv Griffin will always be remembered as one of America's most beloved show business figures. With his trademark charm and business savvy, Merv built a life that defined success. From his start as a band singer, to his twenty-three years on television as host of the Emmy Award-winning Merv Griffin Show, and through his entrepreneurial years, Merv lived the American Dream. Perhaps his most enduring legacy, though, is his creation of the two most successful syndicated game shows in television history, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Merv: Making the Good Life Last is the quintessential Horatio Alger story of a young man born into modest circumstances who, through hard work, unshakable self-confidence, and an unfailingly positive attitude, dreams his way to the top. Only to retire and do it again. In this brilliant, funny, and revealing memoir, full of great stories and even better advice, one of America's most beloved and popular show business figures tells the story of his "retirement" years, in which he made billions and became a bigger celebrity than ever. Merv: Making the Good Life Last is a great American success story, a tribute to a wonderful life, and great entertainment for Griffin's many generations of fans, who will never forget him or his legacy.
Cabaret performances are often known for bringing alive the Great American Songbook from the 1920s through the 1950s for contemporary audiences. But modern-day cabaret does much more than preserve the past—it also promotes and fosters the new generation of American composers and creates a uniquely vibrant musical and theatrical experience for its audiences. So You Want to Sing Cabaret is the first book of its kind to examine in detail the unique vocal and nonvocal requirements for professional performance within the exciting genre of cabaret. With a foreword by cabaret legend Lorna Luft, So You Want to Sing Cabaret includes interviews from the top professionals in the cabaret industry, including Michael Feinstein, Ann Hampton Callaway, Roy Sander, Sidney Myer, Jeff Harner and many others. There are also chapters devoted to crafting your show, lyric connection, “do-it-yourself” production and promotion, and working with your musical team. David Sabella and Sue Matsuki have crafted the perfect one-volume resource for both the aspiring cabaret singer and the singing teacher who seeks to learn more about this unique art form. The So You Want to Sing series is produced in partnership with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Like all books in the series, So You Want to Sing Cabaret features online supplemental material on the NATS website. Please visit www.nats.org to access style-specific exercises, audio and video files, and additional resources.
Punk rock has long been equated with the ever-shifting concepts of dissent, disruption, and counter-cultural activities. As a result, since its 1970s and 1980s incarnations, when bands in Britain—from The Clash and Sex Pistols to Angelic Upstarts, U.K. Subs, and Crass—offered alternative political convictions and subversive lifestyle choices, the media has often deemed punk a threat. Bands like Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion, and Millions of Dead Cops followed suit in America, pushing similar boundaries as the music mutated into a harsher “hardcore” style that branched deep into suburban enclaves. Those antagonisms and ideals were, in turn, translated by another wave of bands—from Fugazi to Anti-Flag—whose commitment to community building was as pronounced as their taut, explosive tunes. In The Politics of Punk, David Ensminger probes the conscience of punk by going beyond the lyrics and slogans of the pithy culture war. He paints a broad, nuanced, and well-documented picture of the ongoing activism and outreach inherent in punk. Creating a people’s history of punk’s social, cultural, aesthetic, and political features, the book features original interviews with members of Dead Kennedys, Dead Boys, MDC, Channel 3, Snap-Her, Scream, Minutemen, TSOL, the Avengers, Blowdryers, and many more. Ensminger highlights punk money’s influence on philanthropy and community involvement and paints a contextualized picture of how punk critiqued dominant culture by channeling support and media coverage for a wide array of humanitarian programs for gays and lesbians, the homeless, the disabled, environmental and health research, and other causes.
One of the most respected poets of the Beat and San Francisco Renaissance periods, David Meltzer has kept alive interest in the interface between jazz and poetry that exploded in the 1950s. This new edition of selected poems includes previously unpublished material and serves as a map to this very prolific and interesting poet.
A poetic meditation on the last year of tenor saxophonist Lester Young's life, of joyful playing and self-willed dying. In 1959, at the age of fifty, jazz greaet Lester Young--a lyrical player, his airy tone haunted by a breathy melancholy--died alone in the Arvin Hotel in Manhattan. As Meltzer explains, "No Eyes is a book about death, and Young sits in for a metaphor for the artist living and dying for and with his art." An "inside" biography, No Eyes is a brilliant jazz-world evocation, composed in free verse whose flow is arrested to capture significant moments, Meltzer creates a layered narrative of vivid colors and textures, the material facts of Young's story dissolving into internalized, projected truths of erotic understanding and spiritual sympathy with the "sweet and isolate lovely other.
Now in its second edition, A Handbook of Diction for Singers is a complete guide to achieving professional levels of diction in Italian, German, and French, the three major languages of the classical vocal repertory. Written for English-speaking singers and offering thorough, consistent explanations, it is an ideal tool for students and an invaluable reference for voice teachers, vocal coaches, and conductors. The book combines traditional approaches proven successful in the teaching of diction with important new material not readily available elsewhere, presenting the sounds of each language in logical order, along with essential information on matters such as diacritical marks, syllabification, word stress, and effective use of the variety of foreign-language dictionaries. Presented in an attractively concise format, the book goes into greater detail than comparable texts, providing specific information to clarify concepts typically difficult for English-speaking singers. Particular emphasis is placed on the characteristics of vowel length, the sequencing of sounds between words, as well as the differences between spoken and sung sounds in all three languages. Featuring significantly expanded coverage of each of the three languages and illustrated with numerous examples, this second edition of A Handbook of Diction for Singers is an exceptional text for courses in diction and a valuable reference source for all vocalists.
A perfect Christmas gift for music lovers, Pretty Paper is Willie Nelson’s inspiring Christmas fable, based on his holiday classic “Pretty Paper.” More than fifty years ago, Willie Nelson’s beloved Christmas song “Pretty Paper” first hit the airwaves. And for all these years, Willie has wondered about the real-life Texas street vendor, selling wrappings and ribbons, who inspired his song. Who was this poor soul? What did his painful trials say about our loves, our hopes, our dreams in this holiday season—and in the rest of our lives? It’s the early sixties and Willie Nelson is down and out, barely eking out a living as a singer-songwriter. The week before Christmas, he spots a legless man on a cart, selling wares in front of Leonard’s Department Store in Fort Worth, Texas. The humble figure, by the name of Vernon Clay, piques Willie’s curiosity, but Vernon is stubbornly private and—despite Willie’s charming queries—has no interest in telling his story. Willie is tenacious, though, and he eventually learns that Vernon is a fellow musician, a fine guitarist and singer. When Vernon disappears, he leaves behind only a diary, which tells an epic tale of life-altering tragedies, broken hearts, and crooked record men, not to mention backroad honky-tonks, down-home cooking, and country songwriting genius. Deeply moved and spurred on by Vernon’s pages, Willie aims to give the man one last shot at redemption and a chance to embody the holiday spirit.
Paul Robeson, born 1898, was a two-time All-American football player and a law-school graduate in an era that offered few opportunities for African-Americans. He went on to win international acclaim as a singer and actor, breaking through barriers both on stage and in life itself. Robeson refused to compromise his integrity or to be told what African-Americans could or could not do. Robeson's career as a singer and actor suffered when the U.S. government accused him of being a communist. Author David K. Wright tells the story of this exceptional entertainer who devoted his life to the causes of civil rights and equality.
Of the four sons of J.S. Bach who became composers, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-88) was the most prolific, the most original, and the most influential both during and after his lifetime. This first full-length English-language study critically surveys his output, examining not only the famous keyboard sonatas and concertos but also the songs, chamber music, and sacred works, many of which resurfaced in 1999 and have not previously been evaluated. The bookalso outlines the composer's career from his student days at Leipzig and Frankfurt (Oder) to his nearly three decades as court musician to Prussian King Frederick "the Great" and his last twenty years as cantor at Hamburg. Focusing on the composer's choices within his social and historical context, the book shows how C.P.E. Bach deliberately avoided his father's style while adopting the manner of his Berlin colleagues, derived from Italian opera. Anew perspective on the composer emerges from the demonstration that C.P.E. Bach, best known for his virtuoso keyboard works, refashioned himself as a writer of vocal music and popular chamber compositions in response to changingcultural and aesthetic trends. Supplementary texts and musical examples are included on a companion website. David Schulenberg is professor of music at Wagner College and teaches historical performance at the JuilliardSchool. He is the author of The Music of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (University of Rochester Press, 2010).
The essays in this volume are concerned with song repertories and performance practice in 15th-century Europe. The first group of studies arises from the author's long-term fascination with the widely dispersed traces of English song and , in particular, with the most successful song by any English composer, O rosa bella. This leads to a set of enquiries into the distribution and international currents of the song repertory in Italy and Spain. The essays in the final section, taken together, represent an extended discussion of the problems of performance, both of voice and instrument, what they performed and how.
The new eighth edition of the Music Business Handbook And Career Guide maintains the tradition of this classic text as the most comprehensive, up-to-date guide to the $100 billion music industry. More than 100,000 students and professionals have turned to earlier editions of the Baskerville Handbook to understand the art, profession, and business of music. Thoroughly revised, the eighth edition includes complete coverage of all aspects of the music industry, including songwriting, publishing, copyright, licensing, artist management, promotion, retailing, media, and much more. There is a complete section on careers in music, including specific advice on getting started in the music business. Generously illustrated with tables and photographs, the Guide also contains a complete appendix with sample copyright forms, writing and publishing agreements, directories of professional organizations, and a comprehensive glossary and index. The eighth edition has been completely updated, with particular emphasis on online music and its impact on the rest of the industry.
This book constitutes the author's effort to provide a biblical foundation for answers to questions regarding congregational singing. The present work is broader in scope than the author's smaller book, Volumes of Praise for a Vanishing God, and unlike the earlier volume, contains full documentation and end-notes, many of which pursue topics of interest that are mentioned only briefly in the text proper. Each chapter of this book ends with a brief list of questions to spur further study and discussion. It is hoped that this book may be useful as a text for a seminary course on congregational singing, a course that the author believes to be great need for the church of the twenty-first century. Special attention is given to the issues raised in the "music wars" of the past fifty years.
How Can I Keep from Singing? is the compelling story of how the son of a respectable Puritan family became a consummate performer and American rebel. Updated with new research and interviews, unpublished photographs, and thoughtful comments from Pete Seeger himself, this is an inside history of the man Carl Sandburg called “America’s Tuning Fork.” In the only biography on Seeger, David Dunaway parts the curtains on his life. Who is this rail-thin, eighty-eight-year-old with the five-string banjo, whose performances have touched millions of people for more than seven decades? Bob Dylan called him a saint. Joan Baez said, “We all owe our careers to him.” But Seeger’s considerable musical achievements were overshadowed by political controversy when he became perhaps the most blacklisted performer in American history. He was investigated for sedition, harassed by the FBI and the CIA, picketed, and literally stoned by conservative groups. Still, he sang. Today, Seeger remains an icon of conscience and culture, and his classic antiwar songs, sung by Bruce Springsteen and millions of others, live again in the movement against foreign wars. His life holds lessons for surviving repressive times and for turning to music to change the world. “This biography is a beauty. It captures not only the life of the bard but the world of which he sings.” –Studs Terkel “A fine and meticulous biography . . . Dunaway has taken [Seeger’s] materials and woven them into a detailed, interesting, and well-written narrative of a most fascinating life.” –American Music “An extraordinary tale of an extraordinary man [that] will intrigue not only his legions of followers but everyone interested in one man’s battles and victories.” –Chicago Sun-Times
(Applause Acting Series). A terrific take on theatre singing by a master teacher. "David Craig knows more about singing in the musical theatre than anyone in this country which probably means the world. Time and time again his advice and training have resulted in actors moving from non-musical theatre into musicals with ease and expertise. SHORT OF TAKING CLASSES, THIS BOOK IS A MUST." Harold Prince
The Hard Bargain describes in vivid detail and elegant prose the clash of wills between a famous father and his hard-driving middle son. Richard Tucker, the American superstar tenor from the golden age of the Metropolitan Opera, demanded that his son become a surgeon. Rejecting his father’s wishes, David wanted to follow his father onto the opera stage. Their struggle over David’s future—by turns hilarious and humiliating, wise and loving—is played out in medical and musical venues around the world. The father and son strike a bargain, the hard bargain of the title, which permitted both dreams to flicker for a decade until one (the right one, it turns out) bursts into sustaining flame. This heartfelt memoir about a son’s struggle against the looming power of a magnetic father is conveyed in a moving narrative that one reviewer has called “the most dramatic exploration of the private life of a legendary singer in the annals of opera literature.”
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