I Put a Spell On You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone

Simone, Nina.
I Put a Spell On You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone
New York: Da Capo Press. 1991
While there have been countless celebrated and extroadinary divas, something about the style, sound, and mere presence of Nina Simone remains unique. Perhaps a result of her turbulent life, her uncompromising personality, her distinctive voice and musical genius, or [...]

Baddest of the Bad

Jackson, Buzzy
A Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them
New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2005.
It was Ma Rainey’s piano player, Thomas Dorsey, who said, “The blues is a good woman feeling bad” (xiii). Author Buzzy Jackson, however, explores the blues through an entirely different lens, one which sheds light [...]

The Road Trip Remix

Corcoran, Michael
All Over the Map: True Heroes of Texas Music
Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2005
Did you know that Lubbock’s own Buddy Holly and the Crickets was the first self-contained and independent rock combo to write, produce, perform, and arrange their own records? Were you aware that The Beatles’s name was created in homage to [...]