From the beloved host and creator of NPR’s All Songs Considered and Tiny Desk Concerts comes an essential oral history of modern music, told in the voices of iconic and up-and-coming musicians, including Dave Grohl, Jimmy Page, Michael Stipe, Carrie Brownstein, Smokey Robinson, and Jeff Tweedy, among others—published in association with NPR Music. Is there a unforgettable song that changed your life? NPR’s renowned music authority Bob Boilen posed this question to some of today’s best-loved musical legends and rising stars. In Your Song Changed My Life, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), St. Vincent, Jónsi (Sigur Rós), Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Cat Power, David Byrne (Talking Heads), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), Jenny Lewis, Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia, Sleater-Kinney), Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), Trey Anastasio (Phish), Jackson Browne, Valerie June, Philip Glass, James Blake, and other artists reflect on pivotal moments that inspired their work. For Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, it was discovering his sister’s 45 of The Byrds’ “Turn, Turn, Turn.” A young St. Vincent’s life changed the day a box of CDs literally fell off a delivery truck in front of her house. Cat Stevens was transformed when he heard John Lennon cover “Twist and Shout.” These are the momentous yet unmarked events that have shaped these and many other musical talents, and ultimately the sound of modern music. A diverse collection of personal experiences, both ordinary and extraordinary, Your Song Changed My Life illustrates the ways in which music is revived, restored, and revolutionized. It is also a testament to the power of music in our lives, and an inspiration for future artists and music lovers. Amazing contributors include: Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney, Portlandia, Wild Flag), Smokey Robinson, David Byrne (Talking Heads), St. Vincent, Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), James Blake, Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), Trey Anastasio (Phish), Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Sturgill Simpson, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Cat Power, Jackson Browne, Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Philip Glass, Jónsi (Sigur Rós), Hozier, Regina Carter, Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes, and others), Courtney Barnett, Chris Thile (Nickel Creek, Punch Brothers), Leon Bridges, Sharon Van Etten, and many more.

Life's Song - A journey from childhood to adulthood and beyond Whether it's just a refreshing reminder of everyday peoples thoughts, or something to provoke and internalise your thoughts this poetry does just that. You feel your body tingle with every word read, anticipating the next line. Written to show the thoughts of a young mind, developing through childhood and into adulthood Life's song take you on a journey of the minds ever changing emotion. Inspired by life, full of passion it's the comfort within the words that drives you to read it again and again.

Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski's strong suit. All throughout her life, she's been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band who accepts her; Char, a cute, yet mysterious disc jockey; Pippa, a carefree spirit from England; and most importantly, a love for DJing. Told in a refreshingly genuine and laugh-out-loud funny voice, Leila Sales' THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE is an exuberant novel about identity, friendship, and the power of music to bring people together.

She can’t look back. He won’t let go. Will they find the path to forgiveness, restoration, and each other? 1978 Navigating through the rolling wheat fields of her father’s rural Kansas farm, fifteen year old Kristina Kelly longs for a life far away from her troubled home. Numbed by the silence of her parents, and haunted by memories of happier times, she dreams of the day she will be rescued from the emptiness contained within the walls of the old, tired farmhouse. The following year, she believes salvation has come in the form of her older brother, Stephen. He offers her a fresh beginning in Southern California where the lights, the movements, and the sounds open her eyes to the beauty held within each and every day. Filled with the hope of a future, she embraces her new home and turns her back on the past. An aspiring musician, Damon Thorpe is driven forward by the ghost who dwells in his memories. Having traveled halfway around the world in the pursuit of his dreams, he is finally close to achieving everything his heart desires--success, fame and fortune. Yet, he is always searching for something else, something he cannot name, and it is just beyond his reach. ~Chasing Life’s Song

Who knew that Paul McCartney originally referred to Yesterday as 'Scrambled Eggs' because he couldn't think of any lyrics for his heart-breaking tune? Or that Patti LaBelle didn't know what 'Voulez-vous couches avec moi ce soir?' actually meant? These and countless other fascinating back stories of some of our best-known and best-loved songs fill this book, a collection of the highly successful weekly The Life of a Song columns that appear in the FT Weekend every Saturday. Each 600-word piece gives a mini-biography of a single song, from its earliest form (often a spiritual, or a jazz number), through the various covers and changes, often morphing from one genre to another, always focusing on the 'biography' of the song itself while including the many famous artists who have performed or recorded it. The selection covers a wide spectrum of the songs we all know and love - rock, pop, folk, jazz and more. Each piece is pithy, sparkily written, knowledgeable, entertaining, full of anecdotes and surprises. They combine deep musical knowledge with the vivid background of the performers and musicians, and of course the often intriguing social and political background against which the songs were created.

Kathleen Galvin Grimaldi's new volume of poetry asks us to Trust in the nothingness, but remain seated at life's table. This is a fitting invitation to a collection that asks the big questions and resolves time and again into moments of clarity, acceptance, comfort and inspiration. Every poem is a gem, written by a poet at the top of her gamea tried and true woman who trusts in the music of a deeper dream to inform these meditations on love, loss, time passing and the temple of the natural world. Master of form, master at life, this is a poet at home with herself, attuned to the precision and beauty of language, with lots to say about how to be human in our lovely and troubled world. Mary Olmsted Greene, founder and director, Upper Delaware Writers Collective, author of Permission and Women Outside: A Conversation about Nature, Art & Spirit