Midnight Train from Georgia chronicles the incredible rise of Gladys Knight and the Pips from their origins singing in a small Atlanta church to their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. When two families’ destinies intertwine at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, they discover the extraordinary musical talents of their children. Young cousins William Guest, Eleanor Guest, Gladys Knight, Brenda Knight, and Bubba Knight unite their heavenly vocals to form The Pips gospel choir. We follow William Guest from his formative years in Atlanta, where his love of music is kindled by evenings listening to his family perform rhythmic gospel songs on their porch. The Pips’ journey takes them from these humble back-porch jam sessions to struggle and sacrifice on the road to stardom. With faith, fortitude and William’s grandmother’s lessons to guide them, the group overcomes adversity through the transcendent power of their music. Midnight Train from Georgia is an inspiring tale about the bonds of family, church and music. It’s a story of poverty to fortune, innocence to experience, and childhood friendship growing into Hall of Fame synergy. Their sweet harmonies touched millions over decades, but it all started with kids finding their voices in a small Georgia choir.

THE WRONG BED The Right Train When Erica O'Leary learns that her grandmother needs her, she immediately boards a train to Baltimore. She never expects to find herself surrounded by a rowdy group of Irish-American attorneys, continuing their St. Patrick's Day Party. In Erica's opinion, attorneys are bad enough when they're sober. Thank goodness she'd been able to reserve a sleeping car! The Wrong Bunk Lawyer Erick Sean O'Leary has done enough partying in the last few days to last a lifetime. Securing a sleeper had definitely been one of his better ideas! Only, he gets the surprise of his life when he finds a beautiful, half-naked woman sleeping in his bunk. But his surprise quickly turns to fascination when he discovers that she has no intention of getting out of his bed…. Midnight Train from Georgia—Destination: Desire

Listen to Soul! Exploring a Musical Genre provides an overview of soul music for fans of the genre, with a focus on 50 must-hear singers, songs, and albums that define it. Listen to Soul! Exploring a Musical Genre provides both an overview and a critical analysis of what makes soul music in the United States. A list of 50 songs, albums, and musicians includes many of the best-known hits of the past and present as well as several important popular successes that are not necessarily on the "best-of" lists in other books. Like the other books in this series, this volume includes a background chapter followed by a chapter that contains 50 critical essays on must-hear albums, songs, and singers, approximately 1,500 words each. Chapters on the impact of soul music on popular culture and the legacy of the genre further explain the impact of these seminal compositions and musicians. This volume additionally includes a greater focus on soul music as a genre, making it a stand-out title on the topic for high school and college readers.

Twentieth-century America has witnessed the most widespread and sustained movement of African-Americans from the South to urban centers in the North. Who Set You Flowin'? examines the impact of this dislocation and urbanization, identifying the resulting Migration Narratives as a major genre in African-American cultural production. Griffin takes an interdisciplinary approach with readings of several literary texts, migrant correspondence, painting, photography, rap music, blues, and rhythm and blues. From these various sources Griffin isolates the tropes of Ancestor, Stranger, and Safe Space, which, though common to all Migration Narratives, vary in their portrayal. She argues that the emergence of a dominant portrayal of these tropes is the product of the historical and political moment, often challenged by alternative portrayals in other texts or artistic forms, as well as intra-textually. Richard Wright's bleak, yet cosmopolitan portraits were countered by Dorothy West's longing for Black Southern communities. Ralph Ellison, while continuing Wright's vision, reexamined the significance of Black Southern culture. Griffin concludes with Toni Morrison embracing the South "as a site of African-American history and culture," "a place to be redeemed."

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.

“Tender, jarring and deeply human, Live For A Living is a book of poetry that is pulsing with the same electricity and honesty found in Buddy’s live performances.” - Andrea Gibson; International Poet-Activist

People relate to popular music, and this book helps you use popular music to draw readers into the Gospel. The material in this book will provide insight that ties popular song lyrics to Scripture in such a way that non-believers will be drawn to the relevance and power of God's Word. The author, Tony Rufo, is a communications/ministry executive, marketing consultant, writer, and broadcaster who has over 20 years of experience working in the Christian and general markets. His published works include media and music articles, book reviews, radio and television commercials and scripts, and evangelistic essays. True Tunes Newsfeatured his article, "The Gospel According to John, Paul, George, and Ringo—Good Time Rock 'n Roll or Religion for the Undiscerning?" which was the inspiration for this book. He also authored the "Media Mix" column for the semimonthly Horizon Internationalmagazine, which included installments on popular music and the Beatles. Tony lives in the suburbs of Chicago with his family. Features: Alphabetically arranged topic guide Excerpts from 200 songs from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s to today Profiles of the artists and the culture during the time-period of the song's release A great resource for relevant cultural anecdotes!