Autobiography by Eric OxendineIf you read this book carefully, you'll have a vivid, deeply personal understanding of its main character, Eric Oxendine. Eric's story begins with his family roots in east-central North Carolina. A Lumbee Native American, Eric had a childhood with sweet and sour ingredients: A good family; childhood memories of carefree summers in an area known, essentially, for tobacco farming; an early encounter with southern racism. Racism at that early stage in a child's life might have created entrenched counter-racism in its victim. But Eric's innate strength, even as a youngster, brushed aside the episode as, "... odd, but probably just because he - the racist - didn't grow up around here." Moving with his mom to "the big city," Wilmington, Eric found New Hanover High School to be interesting, appealing for its ROTC military opportunities, and attractive for the attentions of young girls who loved guitar players. Wilmington in the 60's was known for its beach scene, a place where young Eric, by then a gifted and growing guitarist, found music lovers in abundance. A highly fluid, semi-pro career developed as Eric learned and performed surf music, calypso, folk tunes and jazz - each inspirational stream contributing to the professional musician Eric would become.But New Hanover High School in 1962, for all of its appeal, was not enough to keep Eric Oxendine in Wilmington. He had topped the list of local musicians. His eye was on a horizon to the north, New York City. Eric and a guitarist friend hitch-hiked to New York, arriving just as an early winter snow was beginning to fall in... The Village. Eric, still a teenager, alighting on the wet and freezing sidewalks of New York, at the doorway entrance to a music store, knew - almost prophetically - that he'd found his musical destiny. This book chronicles, in 1st person, eye-witness details, Eric's ascent as his talents become recognized in the night club scene, NYC's trendiest venues. After a few years, wherein he earned the hard credits he deserved as a largely free-lance guitarist in New York, Eric had a fateful introduction to the great, Jimi Hendrix. Eric recalls: I remember the first time I met Jimi Hendrix was on Valentine's Day in 1966. I was performing at the Cheetah Club in Manhattan on 53rd Street and Broadway in New York City. A relationship was formed instantly when Jimi said his mother was Cherokee, and I told him I was from the Lumbee Tribe. That friendship would endure through many late-night jams, soul-searching personal disclosures, musical collaboration on stage and in the studio, before audiences and in the darkest corners of New York's most exclusive night clubs. Eric's career would take him across the U.S., and around the world many times with The Richie Havens Band, The Van Morrison Band, and with countless musical ensembles performing on stage, so many name acts, this introduction would be swamped with the mention of each. But, most importantly, Eric's path was inter-twined, in literal and spiritual ways, with the great, Jimi Hendrix. Perhaps no living guitarist, one who survived the music scene of Woodstock, the "West Coast Jam, "and all that followed, is present, and able to report that era like Eric Oxendine. And this book, "His Story," "Jammin' with Jimi," is not just the life story of a guitarist who shared the stage with the greatest names in show business. It is the story of a young Native American, possessed of great talent, and insurmountable drive, who created a career as a successful performing artist, against all odds. In doing so, Eric Oxendine has secured his place in musical history, an and now he shares it ........................... with the world.

It didn't take long after Jimi Hendrix's death for the artist to become a myth of music. He has been surrounded by a shroud of intrigue since he first came into the public eye, and the mystery has only grown with time. Much has been written and said about him by experts and fans and critics, some of it true and some of it not; Starting at Zero will set the record straight. This is Hendrix in his own words. The lyricism and rhythm of Jimi Hendrix's writing will be of no surprise to his fans. Hendrix wrote prolifically throughout his life and he left behind a trove of scribbled-on hotel stationary, napkins and cigarette cartons. Starting at Zero weaves the scraps and bits together fluidly with interviews and lyrics revealing for the first time a continuous narrative of the artist's life, from birth through to the final four years of his life. The result is a beautifully poetic, charming and passionate memoir as smooth and memorable as Hendrix's finest songs. The pieces of Starting at Zero came together in large part because of the inspiration of Alan Douglas. Douglas first met Jimi Hendrix backstage at Woodstock, and soon after became Hendrix's producer and close friend. In creating the book he joined forces with Peter Neal, who edited Hendrix's writing with the reverence and light touch it deserved.

More than forty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix-recently named the greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine-continues to inspire fans of rock music. Many have written about Hendrix's life and music, but Jimi Hendrix: A Brother's Story provides a revealing and unprecedented look at this visionary icon: an intimate biography written by Jimi's younger brother, Leon. Leon Hendrix takes us back to the days before Jimi's amazing rise to fame in the 1960s, beginning with their tough childhood in Seattle, when their fascination with science fiction and UFOs helped them escape a difficult family life. (Jimi insisted his family call him "Buster," after Flash Gordon actor Buster Crabbe.) The author reveals Jimi's early fascination with sound, from his experiments with plucking wires attached to bedposts to the time when he got in trouble for taking apart the family radio ("I was looking for the music," he explained) to Jimi's purchasing his first guitar-a Sears, Roebuck and Co. acoustic, from a neighbor. Leon recounts Jimi's early days performing on the "Chitlin' Circuit," when Jimi would call from the road to play early versions of tracks for the classic album Are You Experienced, and illuminates the biographical roots of Jimi's most well-known rock & roll songs. Readers learn about the heady days of sex and drugs that came with Jimi's skyrocketing fame in the sixties and how Leon felt Jimi's management isolated him from the rest of the family. The author speaks of his own heartbreak, learning of his brother's sudden death while incarcerated in Washington State's Monroe Reformatory. Commemorating what would have been Jimi's seventieth birthday, Leon Hendrix's poignant and captivating account sheds new light on a music legend.

Biography of the rock musician's life from his boyhood to his tragic life.

There has never been a band like Pearl Jam. The Seattle quintet has recorded eleven studio albums; sold some 85 million records; played over a thousand shows, in fifty countries; and had five different albums reach number one. But Pearl Jam's story is about much more than music. Through resilience, integrity, and sheer force of will, they transcended several eras, and shaped the way a whole generation thought about art, entertainment, and commerce. Not for You: Pearl Jam and the Present Tense is the first full-length biography of America's preeminent band, from Ten to Gigaton. A study of their role in history – from Operation Desert Storm to the Dixie Chicks; "Jeremy" to Columbine; Kurt Cobain to Chris Cornell; Ticketmaster to Trump – Not for You explores the band's origins and evolution over thirty years of American culture. It starts with their founding, and the eruption of grunge, in 1991; continues through their golden age (Vs., Vitalogy, No Code, and Yield); their middle period (Binaural, Riot Act); and the more divisive recent catalog. Along the way, it considers the band's activism, idealism, and impact, from “W.M.A.” to the Battle of Seattle and Body of War. More than the first critical study, Not for You is a tribute to a famously obsessive fan base, in the spirit of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch. It's an old-fashioned – if, at times, ambivalent – appreciation; a reflection on pleasure, fandom, and guilt; and an essay on the nature of adolescence, nostalgia, and adulthood. Partly social history, partly autobiography, and entirely outspoken, discursive, and droll, Not for You is the first full-length treatment of Pearl Jam's odyssey and importance in the culture, from the '90s to the present.

Though many books have chronicled Jimi Hendrix's brilliant but tragically brief musical career, this is the first to use his own words to paint a detailed portrait of the man behind the guitar.