Ron Read is 58 and is in serious trouble. Scans and tests reveal he has had a heart attack and his heart is in very bad shape. His Doctor, Doctor Deschanel sends him to a major Brisbane hospital for tests. This results in him having a quadruple bypass operation. The novel traces his story from diagnosis, through open heart surgery to his recovery and his meeting with someone who didn't win a prize at the local agricultural show because his chokos had their little tongues hanging out.
The first time Chris Wild sees an electric guitar, it is as if he has found a long-lost friend. As soon as he touches the smooth surface of the guitar and his fingers wrap around its neck, his life changes forever. It is the mid-1950s in Australia when Chris realizes he possesses a musical gift and joins the teenage band, the Offenders never realizing he has just embarked on a life-spanning career. Forced to leave the Offenders behind when his family emigrates to Canada, Chris never hears that their first single has become an Australian chart-topping hit. In Canada, Chris receives no support for his musical talents and reluctantly studies to become an architectural technician. While assisting with the design of a recording studio, his innate musical gift is revealed during a solo midnight session overheard by the studio executives. Suddenly, Chris is launched back into the musical world and into a life of stardom. As he inspires thousands all over the world with his new album, Chris's old girlfriend from Australia resurfaces and he must determine how to reconcile his original muse, April, with his new lover, Sarah. Fate can be capricious, especially when someone lives in two different worlds.
The story of Ireland—its graces and shortcomings, triumphs and sorrows—is told by ballads, dirges, and humorous songs of its common people. Music is a direct and powerful expression of Irish folk culture and an aspect of Irish life beloved throughout the rest of the world. Incredibly, the largest single gathering of Irish folk songs had been almost inaccessible because, originally newspaper based, it was available in only three libraries, in Belfast, Dublin, and Washington D.C. Sam Henry's “Songs of the People” makes the music available to a wider audience than the collector ever imagined. Comprising nearly 690 selections, this thoroughly annotated and indexed collection is a treasure for anyone who performs, composes, studies, collects, or simply enjoys folk music. It is valuable as an outstanding record of Irish folk songs before World War II, demonstrating the historical ties between Irish and Southern folk culture and the tremendous Irish influence on American folk music. In addition to the songs themselves and their original commentary, Sam Henry's “Songs of the People” includes a glossary, bibliography, discography, index of titles and first lines, melodic index, index of the original sources of the songs and information about them, geographical index of sources, and three appendixes related to the original song series in the Northern Constitution.
