A typical family—husband, wife and two children—were thrust into a life of uncertainty when their youngest son, Jack, was diagnosed with autism. Together, the family navigated a new reality they could not perceive while guiding Jack through a world his mind struggled to comprehend. Their hardest trial, however, came when Jack was diagnosed with brain cancer as a teen. MY NAME IS JACK JOHNSON, BUT I’M NOT THE SINGER is the story of a family’s love, perseverance, and determination in the face of unpredictable difficulties. Through Jill Johnson’s journal writings and memories, we get an insightful view into autism, childhood cancer, and the strength of a unique young man. Often touching, sometimes funny, and occasionally heartbreaking, this memoir is Jack’s walk through a life well-lived, not because of adversity, but in spite of it.
Interviews with 27 country stars reveal the range of personalities and viewpoints that make up today's country music scene. Journalist Alanna Nash speaks in candid interviews with performers about Nashville's music industry, changes in the country audience over the past thirty years, and their own releationships to their music. Nash's interviews showcase the diversity of the performers (from college-educated professionals to ex-convicts) and their audiences. Interviewees include Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard, Brenda Lee, Reba McEntire, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Conway Twitty, Naomi and Wynonna Judd, Bill Monroe, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Hank Williams Jr., Chet Atkins, and Willie Nelson.
One last summer to escape, to find herself, to figure out what comes next. Fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han will love this contemporary, coming-of-age romance. Graduation was supposed to be a relief. Except Quinn can't avoid the rumors that plagued her throughout high school or the barrage of well-intentioned questions about her college plans. How is she supposed to know what she wants to do for the next four years, let alone the rest of her life? And why does no one understand that it's hard for her to think about the future—or feel as if she even deserves one—when her best friend is dead? Spending the summer with her aunt on the Jersey shore may just be the fresh start Quinn so desperately needs. And when she meets Malcolm, a musician with his own haunted past, she starts to believe in second chances. Can Quinn find love while finding herself?
In its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.
A chronicle of Adams’s rise from alt-country to rock stardom, featuring stories about the making of the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. Before he achieved his dream of being an internationally known rock personality, Ryan Adams had a band in Raleigh, North Carolina. Whiskeytown led the wave of insurgent-country bands that came of age with No Depression magazine in the mid-1990s, and for many people it defined the era. Adams was an irrepressible character, one of the signature personalities of his generation, and as a singer-songwriter he blew people away with a mature talent that belied his youth. David Menconi witnessed most of Whiskeytown’s rocket ride to fame as the music critic for the Raleigh News & Observer, and in Ryan Adams, he tells the inside story of the singer’s remarkable rise from hardscrabble origins to success with Whiskeytown, as well as Adams’s post-Whiskeytown self-reinvention as a solo act. Menconi draws on early interviews with Adams, conversations with people close to him, and Adams’s extensive online postings to capture the creative ferment that produced some of Adams’s best music, including the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. He reveals that, from the start, Ryan Adams had a determined sense of purpose and unshakable confidence in his own worth. At the same time, his inability to hold anything back, whether emotions or torrents of songs, often made Adams his own worst enemy, and Menconi recalls the excesses that almost, but never quite, derailed his career. Ryan Adams is a fascinating, multifaceted portrait of the artist as a young man, almost famous and still inventing himself, writing songs in a blaze of passion. “Menconi, a veteran music critic based in Raleigh, North Carolina, had a front row seat for alt-country wunderkind Ryan Adams’ rise to prominence—from an array of local bands, to Whiskeytown, and on to a successful and prolific solo career. Here, Menconi enthusiastically revisits those heady days when the mercurial Adams’ performances were either transcendent or tantrum-filled—the author was there for most of them, and he packs his book with tales of magical performances and utterly desperate train wrecks. . . . This interview- and anecdote-laden exposé of the artist's early career will doubtless find a happy home with Adams fans.” —Publishers Weekly
A look at race relations in theUS during the first half of the 20th century, through the first two African-American heavyweight boxing champions, Jack Johnson and Joe Louis. Using the Black press of the time, the author explores how their public careers and private lives define and explain national issues from the early 1900s to the late 1940s.
