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BOOKS


Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock and Roll by Peter Guralnick (Little, Brown and Com- pany) Let’s just be clear here.


Peter Guralnick is one of our generations very finest music historians, and his gift for chroni- cling everything from


Sweet Soul Music to Hank Williams to the King himself, Elvis Presley, is unparalleled. Guralnick is so good that he even inspires the rest of us music journalists in his wake. In Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented


Rock and Roll, Guralnick delivers the goods again in this massive biography of the man who founded the legendary SUN Studios in Memphis and discovered a crop of the true legends of early rock and roll, including Elvis, and recorded the early sides on folks like Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Ike Turner, and Howlin’ Wolf. And those are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. The story of Sam Phillips is the story of rock and roll music. Phillips de- veloped a brand new sound unlike anything else at the time, blending black and white voices and instrumentalists into a funky, soul- ful, sometimes bluesy, often gospel tinged “Memphis Sound.” The author digs deep, and it truly pays off


for all of us. Incorporating information culled from years of one on one interviews with the man himself, Sam Phillips, as well as the mu- sicians and others associated with SUN Stu- dios, Guralnick paints a crystal clear picture of the times, the studio and especially Phillips, a driven and passionate creator of music, an ec- centric, a visionary, a loving but flawed family man,and a perfectionist. Even before you reach the passage toward the end of the book


where the author states outright that he “loved Sam,” we already know that, because by that point I loved Sam too. What an innovater. What a genius. What a read. Long live rock and roll! Thank you Sam.


- Michael Buffalo Smith


In His Own Words: Houston Hartsfield Holloway's Slavery, Emancipa- tion, and Ministry in Georgia by Houston Hartsfield Holloway Edited by: David E. Paterson (Mercer University Press) Houston Hartsfield


Holloway, born ino slavery in Georgia in 1844, fought hard, taught himself to read and write, and made his own way into the blacksmith trade, all before his emancipation following the Union victory in 1865. In this autobiogra- phy, Holloway details his journey to great ef- fect, including his time as an ordained traveling preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He writes lovingly about his faith, his


church, his family and his work as a black- smith. Holloway's autobiography serves as a true snapshot of American History in the mid to late 1800’s. The book is filled with interest- ing characters, including his friends and fam- ily members. Adding to the joy of this book are the many great historical photographs, as well as detailed maps of Holloway's home neigh- borhoods. Rev. Holloway passed away in 1917 at the age of 73, but this fine volume will serve as a reminder of a life lived well. - Michael Buffalo Smith


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