Lives of the Poets (With Guitars)

"What nature means to Jim Harrison's books," Ray Robertson writes in the preface to the present volume, "music means to mine." Lives of the Poets With Guitars picks up where Samuel Johnson left off nearly 250 years ago, collecting biographical and critical portraits of rock roll, blues, folk, and alt-country's most inimitable artists. These often-irreverent essays offer a riotous, toe-tapping, and original take on how each musician shaped their genre, while exploring how their often tumultuous lives helped shape their art.

Includes essays on Gene Clark, Ronnie Lane, The Ramones, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Townes Van Zandt, Little Richard, Alan Wilson, Willie P. Bennett, Gram Parsons, Hound Dog Taylor, Paul Siebel, Willis Alan Ramsey, and John Hartford.