Review: Tom Piazza 'Devil Sent the Rain..'

Subject: Review: Tom Piazza 'Devil Sent the Rain..'
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 12:29 PM

Tom Piazza, "Devil Sent the Rain: Music and Writing in Desperate America"

Looks/sounds interesting:

Published by Harper Collins, this is a collection of previously published essays:

"...Piazza selects the best of his writings on American roots music and musicians, including his Grammy-winning album notes for Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues; his classic profile of bluegrass legend Jimmy Martin; essays on Jimmie Rodgers, Charley Patton, and Bob Dylan; and much more.

"In the book's second section, Piazza turns his attention to literature, politics, and post-Katrina America in articles and essays on subjects ranging from Charlie Chan movies to the life and work of Norman Mailer, from the New Orleans housing crisis to the BP oil spill, from Jelly Roll Morton's Library of Congress recordings to the future of books. The third and final section delivers a startlingly original meditation on fiction, sentimentality, and cynicism—a major new essay from this brilliant, unpredictable, and absolutely necessary writer."

"Tom Piazza's writing is filled with energy, and with tender, insightful words for the brilliant and irascible, from Jimmy Martin to Norman Mailer. Time and time again, Piazza identifies the unlikely, precious connections between recent events, art, letters, and music; through his words, these byways of popular culture provide an unexpected measure of the times." —Elvis Costello

Among other writing he does, Tom Piazza is one of the screenwriters for "Treme".

Dealing With Hard Times The American Way: In Song - NPR Weekend Edition interview (8 minutes -- more content than the text given, and see link to "The Mix", which gives audio of music referred to in the book - some 3 dozen tracks)

'Treme' screenwriter Tom Piazza gets personal in deft essay collection - NOLA.com interview (text-only)

The Reading Life - WWNO interview (10 minutes, audio-only)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Review: Tom Piazza 'Devil Sent the Rain..'
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 23 Aug 11 - 11:46 AM

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