Popular Performer: Mercer

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Author :
Publisher : Alfred Music
ISBN 13 : 9781457428388
Total Pages : 48 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (283 download)

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Book Synopsis Popular Performer: Mercer by : Johnny Mercer

Download or read book Popular Performer: Mercer written by Johnny Mercer and published by Alfred Music. This book was released on 2007-10-29 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Johnny Mercer is one of the most prolific lyricists in history, having written the words for more than 1,000 songs. He collaborated with many composers, including Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael and Henry Mancini, to name a few. These beautiful arrangements by Melody Bober are perfect piano solos for lessons, recitals, or social gatherings. To show the clever brilliance of Mercer’s craft, the lyrics have been included. Titles: * Blues in the Night * Come Rain or Come Shine * Days of Wine and Roses * The Glow Worm * Hooray for Hollywood * Jeepers Creepers * On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe * Skylark * Summer Wind * You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.

Johnny Mercer

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Author :
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
ISBN 13 : 0820333301
Total Pages : 568 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis Johnny Mercer by : Glenn T. Eskew

Download or read book Johnny Mercer written by Glenn T. Eskew and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2013-11-15 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Herndon “Johnny” Mercer (1909–76) remained in the forefront of American popular music from the 1930s through the 1960s, writing over a thousand songs, collaborating with all the great popular composers and jazz musicians of his day, working in Hollywood and on Broadway, and as cofounder of Capitol Records, helping to promote the careers of Nat “King” Cole, Margaret Whiting, Peggy Lee, and many other singers. Mercer’s songs—sung by Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, and scores of other performers—are canonical parts of the great American songbook. Four of his songs received Academy Awards: “Moon River,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe,” and “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening.” Mercer standards such as “Hooray for Hollywood” and “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” remain in the popular imagination. Exhaustively researched, Glenn T. Eskew’s biography improves upon earlier popular treatments of the Savannah, Georgia–born songwriter to produce a sophisticated, insightful, evenhanded examination of one of America’s most popular and successful chart-toppers. Johnny Mercer: Southern Songwriter for the World provides a compelling chronological narrative that places Mercer within a larger framework of diaspora entertainers who spread a southern multiracial culture across the nation and around the world. Eskew contends that Mercer and much of his music remained rooted in his native South, being deeply influenced by the folk music of coastal Georgia and the blues and jazz recordings made by black and white musicians. At Capitol Records, Mercer helped redirect American popular music by commodifying these formerly distinctive regional sounds into popular music. When rock ’n’ roll diminished opportunities at home, Mercer looked abroad, collaborating with international composers to create transnational songs. At heart, Eskew says, Mercer was a jazz musician rather than a Tin Pan Alley lyricist, and the interpenetration of jazz and popular song that he created expressed elements of his southern heritage that made his work distinctive and consistently kept his music before an approving audience.

Skylark

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Author :
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1466819235
Total Pages : 625 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis Skylark by : Philip Furia

Download or read book Skylark written by Philip Furia and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2004-12-09 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Skylark is the story of the tormented but glorious life and career of Johnny Mercer, and the first biography of this enormously popular and influential lyricist. Raised in Savannah, Mercer brought a quintessentially southern style to both his life in New York and to his lyrics, which often evoked the landscapes and mood of his youth ("Moon River", "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening"). Mercer also absorbed the music of southern blacks--the lullabies his nurse sang to him as a baby and the spirituals that poured out of Savannah's churches-and that cool smooth lyrical style informed some of his greatest songs, such as "That Old Black Magic". Part of a golden guild whose members included Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, Mercer took Hollywood by storm in the midst of the Great Depression. Putting words to some of the most famous tunes of the time, he wrote one hit after another, from "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" to "Jeepers Creepers" and "Hooray for Hollywood." But it was also in Hollywood that Mercer's dark underside emerged. Sober, he was a kind, generous and at times even noble southern gentleman; when he drank, Mercer tore into friends and strangers alike with vicious abuse. Mercer's wife Ginger, whom he'd bested Bing Crosby to win, suffered the cruelest attacks; Mercer would even improvise cutting lyrics about her at parties. During World War II, Mercer served as Americas's troubadour, turning out such uplifting songs as "My Shining Hour" and "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive." He also helped create Capitol Records, the first major West Coast recording company, where he discovered many talented singers, including Peggy Lee and Nat King Cole. During this period, he also began an intense affair with Judy Garland, which rekindled time and again for the rest of their lives. Although they never found happiness together, Garland became Mercer's muse and inspired some of his most sensuous and heartbreaking lyrics: "Blues in the Night," "One for My Baby," and "Come Rain or Come Shine." Mercer amassed a catalog of over a thousand songs and during some years had a song in the Top Ten every week of the year--the songwriting equivalent of Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak--but was plagued by a sense of failure and bitterness over the big Broadway hit that seemed forever out of reach. Based on scores of interviews with friends, family and colleagues, and drawing extensively on Johnny Mercer's letters, papers and his unpublished autobiography, Skylark is an important book about one of the great and dramatic characters in 20th century popular music.

Porter

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Author :
Publisher : Alfred Music Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780739049778
Total Pages : 44 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (497 download)

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Book Synopsis Porter by : Cole Porter

Download or read book Porter written by Cole Porter and published by Alfred Music Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rich textures, sophisticated harmonies and inventive rhythms make these arrangements ideal for hobbyists, advancing students, professional musicians or any Popular Performer. Titles: Another Op'nin', Another Show * Anything Goes * I Get a Kick Out of You * In the Still of the Night * I've Got You Under My Skin * My Heart Belongs to Daddy * Night and Day * So In Love * You're the Top.

A Haven For Songs

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Author :
Publisher : epubli
ISBN 13 : 3754157043
Total Pages : 117 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (541 download)

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Book Synopsis A Haven For Songs by : Martin Wimmer

Download or read book A Haven For Songs written by Martin Wimmer and published by epubli. This book was released on 2021-08-27 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With A Haven For Songs: Connecting The Dots About Americana Music, selected works of novelist, lyricist and music critic Martin Wimmer are available in the USA for the first time. Martin Wimmer explains his personal relationship with the art of magicians such as Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Blaze Foley, Woody Guthrie, John Prine, Bob Dylan, and Johnny Mercer. These artists, among many others mentioned in the book, are the glue that holds together time, love, history, space, and identity. Join Wimmer on a trip down musical-memory lane as he recounts his adventures at the 30A Songwriter Festival in Florida, the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, and New York City. Finally, experience Wimmer's perspective on the Cajun music of Louisiana, Hawaiian Slack Key, the Paisley Underground scene in California, Americana in Europe, and how each of these music scenes are tied to the "Country & Folk" music we know and love today.

The Johnny Mercer Centennial Sheet Music Collection

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Author :
Publisher : Alfred Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 9780739074770
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis The Johnny Mercer Centennial Sheet Music Collection by : Johnny Mercer

Download or read book The Johnny Mercer Centennial Sheet Music Collection written by Johnny Mercer and published by Alfred Publishing Company. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Standards Piano/Vocal/Guitar

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

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Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0679429220
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (794 download)

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Book Synopsis Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by : John Berendt

Download or read book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil written by John Berendt and published by Random House. This book was released on 1994-01-13 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic of true crime, set in a most beguiling Southern city—now in a 30th anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author “Elegant and wicked . . . might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime.”—The New York Times Book Review Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. In this sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative, John Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young people dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience.

Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings

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Author :
Publisher : Scarecrow Press
ISBN 13 : 0810882965
Total Pages : 1027 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings by : Steve Sullivan

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings written by Steve Sullivan and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2013-10-04 with total page 1027 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volumes 1 and 2 covers the full range of popular music recordings with virtually unprecedented breadth and depth. In this 2-volume encyclopedia, Sullivan explores approximately 1,000 song recordings from 1889 to the present, telling the stories behind the songs, recordings, performers, and songwriters. From the Victorian parlor ballad and ragtime hit at the end of the 19th century to today’s rock classics, the Encyclopedia progresses through a parade popular music styles, from jazz to blues to country Western, as well as the important but too often neglected genres of ethnic and world music, gospel, and traditional folk. This book is the ideal research tool for lovers of popular music in all its glorious variety.

Will You Take Me As I Am

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416566554
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Will You Take Me As I Am by : Michelle Mercer

Download or read book Will You Take Me As I Am written by Michelle Mercer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-04-07 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joni Mitchell is one of the most celebrated artists of the last half century, and her landmark 1971 album, Blue, is one of her most beloved and revered works. Generations of people have come of age listening to the album, inspired by the way it clarified their own difficult emotions. Critics and musicians admire the idiosyncratic virtuosity of its compositions. Will You Take Me As I Am -- the first book about Joni Mitchell to include original interviews with her -- looks at Blue to explore the development of an extraordinary artist, the history of songwriting, and much more. In extensive conversations with Mitchell, Michelle Mercer heard firsthand about Joni's internal and external journeys as she composed the largely autobiographical albums of what Mercer calls her Blue Period, which lasted through the mid-1970s. Incorporating biography, memoir, reportage, criticism, and interviews into an illuminating narrative, Mercer moves beyond the "making of an album" genre to arrive at a new form of music writing. In 1970, Mitchell was living with Graham Nash in Laurel Canyon and had made a name for herself as a so-called folk singer notable for her soaring voice and skillful compositions. Soon, though, feeling hemmed in, she fled to the hippie cave community of Matala, Greece. Here and on further travels, her compositions were freshly inspired by the lands and people she encountered as well as by her own radically changing interior landscape. After returning home to record Blue, Mitchell retreated to British Columbia, eventually reemerging as the leader of a successful jazz-rock group and turning outward in her songwriting toward social commentary. Finally, a stint with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and a pivotal meeting with the Tibetan lama ChÖgyam Trungpa prompted Mitchell's return to personal songwriting, which resulted in her 1976 masterpiece album, Hejira. Mercer interlaces this fascinating account of Mitchell's Blue Period with meditations on topics related to her work, including the impact of landscape on music, the value of autobiographical songwriting for artist and listener, and the literary history of confessionalism. Mercer also provides rich analyses of Mitchell's creative achievements: her innovative manner of marrying lyrics to melody; her inventive, highly expressive chords that achieve her signature blend of wonder and melancholy; how she pioneered personal songwriting and, along with Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, brought a new literacy to the popular song. Fans will appreciate the previously unpublished photos and a coda of Mitchell's unedited commentary on the places, books, music, pastimes, and philosophies she holds dear. This utterly original book offers a unique portrait of a great musician and her remarkable work, as well as new perspectives on the art of songwriting itself.

Popular Performer -- Great American Songbook, Bk 1

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Author :
Publisher : Alfred Music Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780739052273
Total Pages : 44 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (522 download)

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Book Synopsis Popular Performer -- Great American Songbook, Bk 1 by :

Download or read book Popular Performer -- Great American Songbook, Bk 1 written by and published by Alfred Music Publishing. This book was released on 2008-06 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some of the most famous selections from the Great American Songbook are included in this collection. These classic favorites, masterfully arranged by Dan Coates for advanced piano, sound rich and full and will delight audiences as well as provide hours of enjoyment for hobbyists, advancing students, professional musicians or any Popular Performer. Titles: Anything Goes * Embraceable You * Falling in Love with Love * I Got Rhythm * In the Still of the Night * My Funny Valentine * So in Love * Someone to Watch Over Me * When I Fall in Love * With a Song in My Heart.

Grand Duets for Piano, Book 3

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Author :
Publisher : Alfred Music
ISBN 13 : 1457437244
Total Pages : 32 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (574 download)

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Book Synopsis Grand Duets for Piano, Book 3 by : Melody Bober

Download or read book Grand Duets for Piano, Book 3 written by Melody Bober and published by Alfred Music. This book was released on 2010-04-28 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thrill of making music with a friend or teacher is captured in this new series of duets. Written for pianists at the late-elementary level, the pieces in this collection require hands-together coordination and move around the keyboard. Both primo and secondo parts are equal in difficulty. A variety of keys, styles, meters, and tempos are featured. Titles: * A Bell Carol * Icicle Waltz * Jalapeño Hop * Recital Rag * Rockin' Good Times * A Suspenseful Situation

Did They Mention the Music?

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Author :
Publisher : Cooper Square Press
ISBN 13 : 1461732115
Total Pages : 311 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (617 download)

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Book Synopsis Did They Mention the Music? by : Henry Mancini

Download or read book Did They Mention the Music? written by Henry Mancini and published by Cooper Square Press. This book was released on 2001-12-17 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best known for the "dead-ant" theme to the Pink Panther films, Henry Mancini also composed the music to Peter Gunn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Orson Welles' Touch of Evil, and the Academy Award winning soundtracks to Victor/Victoria and The Days of Wine and Roses. In a career that lasted over thirty years, Mancini amassed twenty Grammy awards and more nominations than any other composer. In his memoir, written with jazz expert Lees, Mancini discusses his close friendships with Blake Edwards, Julie Andrews, and Paul Newman, his professional collaborations with Johnny Mercer, Luciano Pavarotti, and James Galway, and his achievements as a husband, father, and grandfather. A great memoir loaded with equal parts Hollywood glitz and Italian gusto.

Popular Performer, Standards - The Best Selections from the Great American Songbook

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Author :
Publisher : Alfred Music
ISBN 13 : 1457424894
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (574 download)

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Book Synopsis Popular Performer, Standards - The Best Selections from the Great American Songbook by : Jan Sanborn

Download or read book Popular Performer, Standards - The Best Selections from the Great American Songbook written by Jan Sanborn and published by Alfred Music. This book was released on 2006-12-05 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rich textures, sophisticated harmonies and inventive rhythms make these arrangements ideal for hobbyists, advancing students, professional musicians or any Popular Performer. Titles: *Ain't She Sweet * As Time Goes By * Bidin' My Time * Dancing in the Dark * The Days of Wine and Roses * Embraceable You * Over the Rainbow * Theme from New York, New York * When I Fall In Love * You Make Me Feel So Young

Grand Solos for Piano, Book 5

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Author :
Publisher : Alfred Music
ISBN 13 : 9781457429828
Total Pages : 28 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (298 download)

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Book Synopsis Grand Solos for Piano, Book 5 by : Melody Bober

Download or read book Grand Solos for Piano, Book 5 written by Melody Bober and published by Alfred Music. This book was released on 2008-02-12 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grand Solos for Piano is Melody Boberäó»s first complete series of solo collections since she became an exclusive Alfred Music author. The music in this six-book series is written in a variety of keys, styles, meters and tempos to appeal to both children and adults. The pieces have the distinctive Bober sound and are fun to play, in addition to helping pianists progress technically and musically. Whether performed on a concert grand, a digital piano or the family upright, these solos will truly sound "grand." Book 5 contains 9 pieces for intermediate pianists. Titles: * CarefreeŒæ * Carnival RagŒæ * Lakeside MorningŒæ * Music Box MemoryŒæ * Night ShadowsŒæ * Rush Hour BoogieŒæ * Too CoolŒæ * A Visit to ViennaŒæ * Winter in Whitman County

Grand Solos for Piano, Bk 4

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Author :
Publisher : Alfred Music Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780739052013
Total Pages : 28 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis Grand Solos for Piano, Bk 4 by :

Download or read book Grand Solos for Piano, Bk 4 written by and published by Alfred Music Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grand Solos for Piano is Melody Bobers first complete series of solo collections since she became an exclusive Alfred author. The music in this six-book series is written in a variety of keys, styles, meters and tempos to appeal to both children and adults. The pieces have the distinctive Bober sound and are fun to play, in addition to helping pianists progress technically and musically. Whether performed on a concert grand, a digital piano or the family upright, these solos will truly sound grand. Book 4 contains 10 pieces for early intermediate pianists. Titles: Antique Music Box * Boogie Shoes * El Matador * I Spy * Pine Tree Rag * Prelude in F Major * Scary Movie * Stormy Night * Whirling Tarantella * Wild Appaloosa. 24 pages.

The Music and Mythocracy of Col. Bruce Hampton

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Author :
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
ISBN 13 : 0820358495
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis The Music and Mythocracy of Col. Bruce Hampton by : Jerry Grillo

Download or read book The Music and Mythocracy of Col. Bruce Hampton written by Jerry Grillo and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Col. Bruce Hampton was a charismatic musical figure who launched and continued to influence the jam band genre over his fifty-plus years performing. Part bandleader, soul singer, storyteller, conjuror, poet, preacher, comedian, philosopher, and trickster, Col. Bruce actively sought out and dealt in the weird, wild underbelly of the American South. The Music and Mythocracy of Col. Bruce Hampton is neither a true biography in the Boswellian sense nor a work of cultural studies, although it combines elements of both. Even as biographer Jerry Grillo has investigated and pursued the facts, this life history of Col. Bruce reads like a novel—one full of amazing tales of a musical life lived on and off the road. Grillo’s interviews with Hampton and his bandmates, family, friends, and fans paint a fascinating portrait of an artist who fostered some of the best music ever played in America. Grillo aims not so much to document and demystify the self-mythologizing performer as to explain why his fans and friends loved him so dearly. Hampton’s family history, his place in Atlanta and southeastern musical history, his significant friendships and musical relationships, and the controversies over personnel in his Hampton Grease Band over the years are all discussed. What emerges is a portrait of a P. T. Barnum of the musical world, but one who included his audience and invited them through the tent door to share his inside joke, with plenty of joy to go around.

Talking to Canadians

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Author :
Publisher : Doubleday Canada
ISBN 13 : 038569623X
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (856 download)

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Book Synopsis Talking to Canadians by : Rick Mercer

Download or read book Talking to Canadians written by Rick Mercer and published by Doubleday Canada. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER Canada's beloved comic genius tells his own story for the first time. What is Rick Mercer going to do now? That was the question on everyone's lips when the beloved comedian retired his hugely successful TV show after 15 seasons—and at the peak of its popularity. The answer came not long after, when he roared back in a new role as stand-up-comedian, playing to sold-out houses wherever he appeared. And then Covid-19 struck. And his legions of fans began asking again: What is Rick Mercer going to do now? Well, for one thing, he's been writing a comic masterpiece. For the first time, this most private of public figures has turned the spotlight on himself, in a memoir that's as revealing as it is hilarious. In riveting anecdotal style, Rick charts his rise from highly unpromising schoolboy (in his reports "the word 'disappointment' appeared a fair bit") to the heights of TV fame. Along the way came an amazing break when, not long out of his teens, his one-man show Show Me the Button, I'll Push It. Or, Charles Lynch Must Die, became an overnight sensation—thanks in part to a bizarre ambush by its target, Charles Lynch himself. That's one story you won’t soon forget, and this book is full of them. There's a tale of how little Rick helped himself to a tree from the neighbours' garden that's set to become a new Christmas classic. There's Rick the aspiring actor, braving "the scariest thing I have ever done in my life" by performing with the Newfoundland Shakespeare Company; unforgettable scenes with politicians of every variety, from Jean Chretien to George W. Bush to Stockwell Day; and a wealth of behind-the-scenes revelations about the origins and making of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Made in Canada, and Talking to Americans. All leading of course to the greenlighting of that mega-hit, Rick Mercer Report . . . It's a life so packed with incident (did we mention Bosnia and Kabul?) and laughter we can only hope that a future answer to "What is Rick Mercer going to do now?" is: "Write volume two."