Songs of Joshua Tree explores music over the course of history in the area that now comprises Joshua Tree National Park and its gateway towns. This book is the result of the author's work as artist-in-residence at the park in 2014. It provides a folk-life ethnohistorical look, in an accessible story form, at music of the Native Americans who inhabited the park starting in the 1600s; the songs of the homesteaders, miners and cattlemen of the 1800s and 1900s; and the contemporary music scene of the last 50 years.The geographic area covered by the book is Joshua Tree National Park itself, and the towns of Twentynine Palms, Joshua Tree, Yucca Valley, Pioneertown, and Landers - towns whose history is intertwined with that of the park property. The musical genres covered include sacred and leisure music of the Indian tribes, folk music, rock and roll, jazz, classical, and non-traditional forms of music such as therapeutic sound baths, and the natural sounds of the park wilderness. The focus of the book is primarily on music of the people who made the area their home, but also touches on famous musicians who have come to Joshua Tree, to perform, to reflect, to create.

Join me on my musical journey on the road with U2 to the 75 shows I have seen since the Zoo TV tour in 1992. Meeting Bono in Jersey, hugging Larry in Baltimore, having a drink with Larry in Providence, talking with Bono in Seattle, hugging Larry again in Pittsburgh - just to name a few.

This second edition of the Rough Guide Book of Playlistscontains more than 500 lists of which 50 are new to this edition. The lists are recommendations of ten songs (sometimes a couple more, sometimes a couple less), covering artists (Rufus Wainwright to Thelonius Monk, Al Green to Manu Chao, Glenn Gould to Julie Andrews), genres (Bebop Classics to Reggae Toasters to Punk Originals to Hot Club jazz), songs (10 best Dylan covers; 8 classic versions of Summertime; 10 love songs that don't cloy), quirks and silliness (Songs about Chickens and Insects; Who let the frogs out?; Big Pizza Pie crooners; Take this Job and Shove it!). There's even a literary edge with playlists like '10 songs raved about in Murakami novels'. Each of the Playlists has a nugget about the song (why you want it on your iPod), and a listings of where it's from (remember CDs?).

Births, deaths and marriages, No1 singles, drug busts and arrests, famous gigs and awards... all these and much more appear in this fascinating 50 year almanac.Using a page for every day of the calendar year, the author records a variety of rock and pop events that took place on a given day of the month across the years.This Day in Music is fully illustrated with hundreds of pictures, cuttings and album covers, making this the must-have book for any pop music fan.

“A music-snob’s dream come true . . . One of the best multi-subject music books to come down the pike in years . . . a fresh and deeply informed approach.” —Variety A great cover only makes a song stronger. Jimi Hendrix’s version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” The Beatles rocking out with “Twist and Shout.” Aretha Franklin demanding “Respect.” Without covers, the world would have lost many unforgettable performances. This is the first book to explore the most iconic covers ever, from Elvis’s “Hound Dog” and Joe Cocker’s “With a Little Help from My Friends” to the Talking Heads’ “Take Me to the River” and Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love.” Written by the founder of the website covermesongs.com, each of the nineteen chapters investigates the origins of a classic cover—and uses it as a framework to tell the larger story of how cover songs have evolved over the decades. Cover Me is packed with insight, photography, and music history. “Delves into the complicated legacy of artists performing other people’s music . . . his research adds fresh context and intriguing background to many of these songs . . . Astute ruminations on evolving cultural perceptions of the cover’s place in the music canon.” —AV Club “This engaging nostalgia trip is sure to appeal to discophiles and cultural historians.” —Library Journal

The cult-y pocket-size field guide to the strange and intriguing secrets of the Mojave—its myths and legends, outcasts and oddballs, flora, fauna, and UFOs—becomes the definitive, oracular book of the desert For the past five years, Desert Oracle has existed as a quasi-mythical, quarterly periodical available to the very determined only by subscription or at the odd desert-town gas station or the occasional hipster boutique, its canary-yellow-covered, forty-four-page issues handed from one curious desert zealot to the next, word spreading faster than the printers could keep up with. It became a radio show, a podcast, a live performance. Now, for the first time—and including both classic and new, never-before-seen revelations—Desert Oracle has been bound between two hard covers and is available to you. Straight out of Joshua Tree, California, Desert Oracle is “The Voice of the Desert”: a field guide to the strange tales, singing sand dunes, sagebrush trails, artists and aliens, authors and oddballs, ghost towns and modern legends, musicians and mystics, scorpions and saguaros, out there in the sand. Desert Oracle is your companion at a roadside diner, around a campfire, in your tent or cabin (or high-rise apartment or suburban living room) as the wind and the coyotes howl outside at night. From journal entries of long-deceased adventurers to stray railroad ad copy, and musings on everything from desert flora, rumored cryptid sightings, and other paranormal phenomena, Ken Layne's Desert Oracle collects the weird and the wonderful of the American Southwest into a single, essential volume.

In the late ’90s, third-wave ska broke across the American alternative music scene like a tsunami. In sweaty clubs across the nation, kids danced themselves dehydrated to the peppy rhythms and punchy horns of bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Reel Big Fish. As ska caught fire, a swing revival brought even more sharp-dressed, brass-packing bands to national attention. Hell of a Hat dives deep into this unique musical moment. Prior to invading the Billboard charts and MTV, ska thrived from Orange County, California, to NYC, where Moon Ska Records had eager rude girls and boys snapping up every release. On the swing tip, retro pioneers like Royal Crown Revue had fans doing the jump, jive, and wail long before The Brian Setzer Orchestra resurrected the Louis Prima joint. Drawing on interviews with heavyweights like the Bosstones, Sublime, Less Than Jake, and Cherry Poppin' Daddies—as well as underground heroes like Mustard Plug, The Slackers, Hepcat, and The New Morty Show—Kenneth Partridge argues that the relative economic prosperity and general optimism of the late ’90s created the perfect environment for fast, danceable music that—with some notable exceptions—tended to avoid political commentary. An homage to a time when plaids and skankin’ were king and doing the jitterbug in your best suit was so money, Hell of a Hat is an inside look at ’90s ska, swing, and the loud noises of an era when America was dreaming and didn’t even know it.