Overview: Down On The Corner is the story of music performed on the streets, in subways, in parks, in schoolyards, on the back of flatbed trucks, and beyond, from the 1920s to the present day.

Verdict: Drawing on years of interviews and eyewitness accounts, Down On The Corner: Adventures In Busking & Street Music introduces readers to a wide range of locations and a myriad of musical genres, from folk to rock’n’roll, the blues to bluegrass, doo-wop to indie rock.

Some of the performers he features — Lucinda Williams, Billy Bragg, The Violent Femmes — went on to become international stars; others settled into the curbs, sidewalks, and Tube stations as their workplace for the duration of their careers.

Anyone who has lived in or traveled through a city will have encountered street musicians of one kind or another. For the first time, veteran journalist and music-industry publicist Cary Baker tells the complete history of these musicians and the music they play, from tin cups and toonies to QR codes and PayPal.

In what is an engrossing read from start to finish, and one that not only lovingly educates the reader, but also strives to direct mental traffic towards investigating more out about each musician and organization named within its most gloriously sculpted, impassioned and diligently culled pages, sure, author Cary Baker might well be someone I have known professionally for a few decades, but nonetheless, I want to strive to say that his new book more than just allows us a small glimpse into the lives of the buskers who have enriched those that have already heard it’s daily existence with music and performance art, but moreover compels the reader to willingly immerse themselves with this street worn, street crafted culture.

Busking, as Cary himself notes, has been common in cities ‘as far back as ancient Rome,’ and goes on to highlight a wide variety of musicians such as Lawrence Wayne Wild Man Fischer (known for offering erratic, a cappella performances of new kinds of songs for a dime on the beaches of Los Angeles county and the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood), indie folk musician Mary Lou Lord (who started out performing as a busker in Boston), and even the legend Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (one of the country’s great storytellers, whose own story is itself a beautifully meandering tale of winding roads, chance encounters, and more), along with notable locations such as Chicago’s blues nexus, Maxwell Street (which in the mid-90’s, was home to street vendors and blues men, who often played outside the market on the weekends while shoppers went about their business).

One day around 1970, my father announced to me that he’d like to take me to Maxwell Street Market, an open-air flea market adjacent to Downtown Chicago. He wanted to show me where his parents used to take him shopping as a child. When he parked his car in the University Of Illinois lot, the first thing I heard, long before I could see where it was coming from, was the sound of a slide guitar—not just any guitar but a National steel resonator guitar. We followed the music and found ourselves standing on the west side of Halsted Street, midway between Roosevelt and Maxwell, where Blind Arvella Gray was playing the folk/blues song ‘John Henry’—a song that seemed to have no beginning and no end. Sensing that his audience was generally passing by rather than gathering around, Gray kept playing that one song for his entire shift. He’d even altered the lyrics to refer to the local streets. In that moment, I developed a lifelong affinity for the informality, spontaneity, and audience participation of busking. - Cary Baker.

In closing, and complete with a foreword by Dom Flemons, an American old-time music, Piedmont blues, and neotraditional country multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter, also proficient on the banjo, fife, guitar, harmonica, percussion, quills, and rhythm bones, Down On The Corner: Adventures In Busking & Street Music is a most wondrous read, it’s just as easy as that.

A highly informative, and enjoyable journey back in time, for the most part, although the here and now is explored also, and perhaps even, from some perspectives, a fly on the wall prose, where when expertly broken down into a series vignettes, unveils an ongoing coast-to-coast look at origin stories from Old Crow Medicine Show, Poi Dog Pondering and amongst others, the late rowdy raconteur Mojo Nixon, it also at the same time pays homage to now mainstream musicians, such as Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, Madeleine Peyroux and more.

About the Author - Born on Chicago’s South Side, Cary Baker began his writing career at sixteen with an on-spec feature about Chicago street singer Blind Arvella Gray for the Chicago Reader. His return to writing follows a forty-two-year hiatus during which time he directed publicity for six record labels (including Capitol and IRS) and two of his own companies, working with acclaimed artists such as R.E.M., Bonnie Raitt, The Smithereens, James McMurtry, The Mavericks, Bobby Rush, Willie Nile, and more.

Prior to his PR years, Baker wrote for the Chicago Reader, Creem, Trouser Press, Bomp!, Goldmine, Billboard, Mix, Illinois Entertainer, and Record magazine. He has also written liner notes for historical reissues from Universal, Capitol/EMI, Numero Group, and Omnivore. He has been a voting member of the Recording Academy since 1979. He lives in Southern California.

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Overview: For those unaware, Major Is Harmonic (and Other Essays) is a book for all instrumentalists that explores the highly underrated Harmonic Major Scale and its applications for jazz improvisation.

Verdict: Having been in the company of a talented musician for many years now, this is how the Harmonic Major Scale was explained to me: The harmonic major and melodic major scales can be viewed as the major key counterparts to the harmonic minor and melodic minor scales.

Harmonic minor comes about by raising the 7th degree of the natural minor scale, resulting in a major V chord and creating a leading tone in the minor key. Melodic minor comes about by raising the 6th degree of the scale to smooth out the augmented 2nd interval between b6 and 7.

In similar fashion, the harmonic major scale comes about by lowering the 6th degree of the major scale resulting in a minor iv chord and creating an upper leading tone to the 5th of the I chord (minor plagal cadence). The melodic major (1 2 3 4 5 b6 b7) comes about by lowering the 7th degree to smooth out the augmented 2nd interval between the b6 and 7.

In essence, any piece of music written in the major key that uses a minor iv chord or a dim7 viii chord or dim7 ii chord could be looked at as drawing from harmonic major.

Here within the excellent new book Major is Harmonic (and Other Essays) by Randy Vincent, the stupendous guitarist brings forth chapters such as Introduction to Jazz · Building Solo Lines from Cells · Jazz Guitar Soloing: The Cellular Approach, and many more.

Introduction: The “Loneliest” and “Forgotten” Scale
Chapter 1 : Defending the Harmonic Major
Chapter 2 : Some Basic Applications
Chapter 3 : “Hidden Chords” and the Relationship to “Bebop” Scales
Chapter 4 : Some Practice Suggestions
Chapter 5 : Some Thoughts About Bebop Scales
Chapter 6 : A Different Approach to Improvising Using Cells
Appendix A : Harmonic Major Scale Revisited
Appendix B : Bebop Scales Revisited
Appendix C : Cellular Improvisation Revisited
Appendix D : Some Interesting Ways to Think About Scales

The book examines where the scale and its harmonies show up, such as in the so-called Bebop scales and in cellular improvisation. Jazz musicians from Charlie Parker to the present have used the Harmonic Major scale for such cases as the Eb7#9 in Donna Lee and the Abdim7b13 in Corcovado.

It gives you a way to discover hidden chords outside of the basic diatonic chords in a scale and provides examples from well-known jazz recordings that are written out to show Harmonic Major’s usefulness in real life playing.

The book also contains extensive exercises to develop fluency on this forgotten scale, as well as fresh ways to practice bebop scales, quartal triads and tetrads, ten-note bebop scales, ways to use target notes during cellular improvising, and much more.

Harmonic major is especially useful if you wish to write tunes where you restrict yourself to only using scale tones, because of the chords which it makes available and where they are in relation to each other. For example, it offers both augmented and diminished options, and minor triads just a semitone apart.

Simply put, “Randy Vincent is an extraordinary musician. With this book, he gives a clear way to illuminate harmonies in the most sensible and transparent way,” says 20-time Grammy Winning Guitarist/Composer Pat Metheny.

“This book is good for ALL instruments. The patterns and exercises are excellent! There is much food for thought in here.” - Jamey Aebersold

“Randy Vincent is a master player and teacher.” - Bruce Forman

“Randy’s deep musical and theoretical understanding of the guitar have been invaluable to me.” - Julian Lage

About the Author - Randy Vincent began his career in Florida and moved to the San Francisco Area in 1980. Since then, he has divided his time between performing and teaching. Among the many musicians with whom he has performed and recorded are: Joe Henderson, Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Hutcherson, Jim Rothermel, Mel Martin, Benny Barth, Mel Graves, Bennett Friedman, Larry Baskett, Peter Welker, Chris Amberger, George Marsh, Smith Dobson, Bill Watrous, George Cables, Tony Dumas, Akira Tana, Billy Childs, Bob Sheppard, and amongst a whole host of others, both Steve Smith and Herb Pomeroy.

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www.shermusic.com

Overview: What would our country be today if Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy had survived their assassinations?

Would this country, and the world we live in today, be better or worse?

What if Lincoln and McKinley had lived through their second terms?

What if Garfield and Kennedy had completed their four years in office, and gone on to get reelected?

Verdict: The Four Guns has three purposes: First, to explain the circumstances surrounding the four assassinations and examine any evidence for possible conspiracy.

The second is to trace the history of the four assassination weapons - readers will learn the types of firearms used, how the assassins acquired them, and where they are now - most of this information has never been written about or made public.

The third purpose is to examine how American history would have changed if the presidents had survived their assassinations - and to show just how much these four weapons deprived us of a better future.

As the author himself states from the off, The Four Guns: The Stolen History of the Assassinated Presidents begins by explaining the circumstances surrounding the four assassinations, inclusive of drawing parity from one another of his authored books, Why the CIA Killed JFK and Malcolm X: The Secret Drug Trade in Laos (the Kennedy assassination therein), and for some other pointers he tracks back within the past of Lee Harvey Oswald for inclusive relevance.

For the McKinley assassination, he partly draws parity from another book he authored, The Secret Plot to Kill McKinley, and what is unique here is that his approach to all four assassinations is that he examines credible evidence of a conspiracy.

However, and even with that said, he does fully admit that he does this reluctantly, for the word conspiracy has a negative connotation, even though many political assassinations in history are often the words of more than the one person.

They typically take extensive planning, preparation and organization and although the four people in these noted assassinations are long since dead, there is no reason to hide from the truth.

In conclusion, The Four Guns: The Stolen History of the Assassinated Presidents is a meticulously well-researched and dutifully written book, entertaining and informational in equal measures.

Author Koerner uses his astutely logical brain to bring forth cohesive analysis of what could (and lest we forget that word) have happened if each president had survived their assassinations, which makes this a highly intriguing, suggestive and yet at times methodically logical prose.

About the Author - John Koerner is an author of several historical books which focus on conspiracies and the paranormal. He is a professor of American History, and is also the founder of Paranormal Walks, a ghost tour company which explores the paranormal history of Western New York. Koerner has appeared on America’s Book of Secrets on the History Channel, and William Shatner’s Weird or What on the Discovery Channel. He lives in Buffalo, New York, with his wife and family.

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Overview: Pagan Portals - Circe is a brand new book where we learn about the feared goddess Circe, and how she transformed her enemies into animals and monsters.

Verdict: Meet Circe, feared goddess of Homer’s Odyssey, who used her knowledge of nature and sorcery to transform those who displeased her into animals and monsters.

Author Irisanya Moon reveals the Goddess in her ancient Greek context, and offers unique insight to and explanations of her relationships, deeds, and desires while offering practical advice on how to meet with this engaging Goddess today.

I actually grew up with the spelling as Kirke, here known as Circe, and learnt from an early age that this goddess of sorcery (pharmakeia) was also very much skilled in the magic of transmutation, illusion, and necromancy. Furthermore, she lived on the mythical island of Aiaia (Aeaea) with her nymph companions, if memory serves me well.

When Odysseus came to her island she transformed his men into beasts but, with the help of the god Hermes, he overcame her and forced her to end the spell. Circe’s name is actually derived from the Greek verb kirkoô meaning to secure with rings or more fundamentally hoop around - a reference to the binding power of magic, of course.

One more little tidbit of information, is that Circe’s island of Aiaia (Aeaea) was located in the far west, near the earth-encircling River Okeanos (Oceanus). Whereas her brother Aeetes’ realm in the far east was similarly named Aia (Aea).

As for this brand new prose from prolific author Irisanya Moon, Pagan Portals - Circe does more than simply give pockets of historical information on the entity, moreover it provides critical insight into one of the most fascinating characters in Greek mythology, if truth be told.

As we get deeper into the eight chapters, we learn more and more about Circe, sometimes being scared of her, other times standing in awe of her, maybe even at times siding with her decisions and acts, but what Irisanya expertly does is never take a bias stand on her actions.

Culling from various translations of texts, mythological insights, and even thoughts on the subject matter from women classicists, what we have here is the tale of a strongly independent sorceress born of a Sun God and a Nymph; Fire and Water.

Simply put, if you are even the slightest bit interested, or just a little curious about this powerful entity known as Circe and her spellwork, you can do no better than to purchase this book, settle into a cozy chair with a hot beverage, and allow yourself to be swallowed whole by Irisanya’s magnificent sense of historical spellbound prose.

About the Author - Irisanya Moon (she/they) is an author, witch, international teacher, poet, and Reclaiming initiate who has practiced magick for 20+ years. She has taught in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia, bringing her blend of grounded, graceful, and radically authentic facilitation to inspire transformation and liberation at the personal and collective levels.

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Overview: Pagan Portals - Maman Brigitte: Dark Goddess of Africa and Ireland is a brand new book where we take a close look at the unique persona of Brigitte, who is a blend of the goddesses Brigid of Ireland and Oya of Western Africa.

Verdict: For those unaware, and as we are dutifully informed as we make our way through the three plentifully stuffed chapters, for practitioners of Haitian Vodoun and the New Orleans Voodoo religion, Maman Brigitte is one of the most important loa. Associated with death and cemeteries, she is also a spirit of fertility and motherhood and strangely enough, is also the only loa who is portrayed as being white.

She is often depicted in bright, overtly sexual costumes; she is feminine, sensual, and dangerous at the same time and much like her Celtic counterpart, Maman Brigitte is a powerful healer. If she can’t heal or cure them, she helps her followers travel towards the afterlife.

Maman Brigitte is also a protectress and will watch over women who ask for her assistance, particularly in cases of domestic violence, unfaithful lovers, or childbirth. The consort of Baron Samedi, Brigitte is associated with death and cemeteries.

OK, so that is the overview of an entity that has been in and around my own life for several decades now. This brand new book from author Pauline Breenon engages with Vodou as a religion and outlines the circumstances surrounding Brigitte’s emergence in Haiti during the slave trade, tracing her development into a prominent figure for both Haitian and Irish immigrants who experienced similar social and economic circumstances in the US state of Louisiana.

Through research, fieldwork, and personal experience, the author uncovers the story of Brigitte in Haiti, Brigitte in Louisiana, and Brigitte today, a dark goddess in the contemporary world.

So, can Brigid of Ireland be considered a dark goddess? Find out the answer to this, along with a whole host of other enthralling facts about the woman known to be one tough cookie, and who has no qualms about unleashing a profanity-laced tirade against those who displease her, here in this fascinating new book.

About the Author - For Pauline, Brigid is an expression of the Great Mother Goddess. Pauline is passionate about showing the various faces of Brigid that are often overlooked. Pauline is the author of three books on Brigid.

In her first book This is Brigid - Goddess & Saint of Ireland Pauline introduces Brigid in her original, pagan form as mother goddess and then as Christian saint. She considers both versions and shows the interplay between both cults. She suggests many ways to connect to Brigid through her symbols, numbers, animals and practices on her feast day of February the 1st associated with the goddess and the Saint.

In her second book Maman Brigitte - Dark Goddess of Africa and Ireland Pauline shows another lesser known face of Brigid, a vodou deity that came forth into being during the hardship of slavery. Maman Brigitte is also a blended deity from indigenous African deities and Brigid of Ireland.

In her third book Brigantia - Warrior Goddess, Pauline questions whether the migrating Brigantes tribes of northern England brought Brigid into Ireland, as we know her today. Pauline hopes that showcasing all sides of Brigid that includes her side as dark goddess and warrior goddess, from historical, archaeological and linguistic sources will enable even more people to connect to Brigid.

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Overview: Pagan Portals - Venezuelan Folklore is a collection of articles from the author’s regular column in The Wild Hunt. In concert with an increasing interest in Latin American spirituality, this book is a welcome addition both for those interested in the oral tradition of Venezuela and for those who enjoy folklore and mythology in general.

Verdict: Taking it from the top, Alan U. Dalul is a journalist from Venezuela who now lives in the United States. After exploring various folkloric figures, myths, and legends of Venezuela, he is now interested in incorporating his experiences as an immigrant and multicultural sorcerer.

He has been a freelance journalist for over a decade, loves fantasy books, metal music, and can be found in local bookstores and cafes. Amazingly, this brand new book from Alan, Pagan Portals - Venezuelan Folklore: Spirits and Legends of the Dead is his very first book on Witchcraft.

I say that, because as you read this book, turning each page in a way that you feel the need to indulge in the next chapter each time one has just finished, Alan takes his readers on a most wondrous journey into the story time realm of Venezuelan folklore.

Inclusive of over 20 informative, and descriptive entries within the folklore genre, along with additional chapters such as Honoring My Ancestors Without Visiting Their Tombs, Spontaneous Prayers and Incantations, Prayers for Walking Late at Night and The Tears of Llorona A Tarot Spread for Mental Health, through an all-embracing style of storytelling, what we get are some of the most amazing stories told by a master of the craft.

What we get here are stories told about such legends as El Silbón, which itself translates into whistler and is a tale primarily from the Los Llanos region of Venezuela, but can also be heard in Colombia, and which dates back to the middle of the 19th century; La Sayona, who is represented by the vengeful spirit of a woman that shows up only to men that have love affairs out of their marriages; the bitter lessons of El Encadenado de Michelena; La Llorona, or the Weeping Woman, is a vengeful ghost in Mexican folklore who is said to wander near bodies of water and mourn her drowned children; and amongst others, Momoyes, who can actually be much understood as a type of gnome originated in Venezuelan folklore, although they also have characteristics of other types of magical beings such as water spirits.

About the Author - Alan U. Dalul is an independent author, journalist, and blogger from Venezuela, recently based in Millcreek, Utah. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication, with a concentration in Social Development, and a Master’s in Communications and Development, with a concentration in Information and Communication Technologies for Human Development.

He has published several independent novels, published academic articles on Gothic Studies and folklore for different postgraduate portals, and become a book reviewer for the University of Wales Press. While studying, he kept a monthly bilingual column for The Wild Hunt.

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Overview: Today, nonprofit arts organizations are rushing into an elitist whirlpool of irrelevance. They’re the only companies in the whole nonprofit sector where the beneficiary is also the donor. Donors donate so that donors may attend.

In SCENE CHANGE, the first book in the series, they dived into the reasons that the arts have become simultaneously elitist and irrelevant in this Pre-Post-Pandemic Era in America.

In SCENE CHANGE 2, they offer specific board responsibilities in order to create the space for the kind of charity for which communities are clamoring.

Verdict: Scene Change 2: The Five REAL Responsibilities of Nonprofit Arts Boards is a targeted list of the ways in which today’s nonprofit arts organizations (theaters, symphonies, ballets, museums, operas, and all the rest) will have to significantly change their whole structure and the prism in which they do work.

Companies that make these changes will be giving themselves the best chance to succeed in 2024 and beyond. Those that don’t, won’t, of course.

And so what author Alan Harrison does, and through bouts of prose littered with directness, humor, acidity for the truth, compassion for things left unsaid, and amongst others proffers solutions to overcome the challenges in the Nonprofit and arts sectors in his very own, and highly distinctive tone.

Just a chapter or two in and it is clear that Alan understands that the model in question is broken and that, in order to survive (and thrive), arts organizations need to understand that the art itself can’t be the only purpose. Donors, patrons and all our constituents nowadays care for so much causes and the art is simply not enough.

Simply put, Alan’s voice is unmissable, unpretentious, and his resounding, at times, comical demeanor bring clarity of thought and a fearless commitment to issues like elitism, diversity, equity, and inclusion within arts organizations.

Through a concise and clear appeal, Alan brings the reader to an understanding of what is important in the world of Nonprofit arts organizations. He makes us fully aware that serious and deliberate action must come into play TODAY if we really want to improve the quality of life for all people in all of our communities.

About the Author - Based in Kirkland, Washington, Alan Harrison is a writer and speaker specializing in nonprofit arts organizations, strategy, and life politics. His blog posts appear regularly in major publications, including ArtsJournal. For 30 years, Alan Harrison has explored the relationships between the arts and the community on behalf of nonprofit arts organizations across the United States.

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Overview: This book traces the development of the first hospital and academic medicinal plant garden in Florence, under the guidance of the great Cosimo I de Medici, and looks at the plants he and his sons used in their alchemical laboratories to create herbal medicines.

Verdict: A selection of these plants are investigated in detail here in author Angela Paine’s new book Healing Plants of Renaissance Florence: The Development of Herbal Medicine in Florence, in which looks at how they can be used today, including their chemistry and healing properties, as well as research that has been carried out on them.

The Renaissance was a period of unparalleled beauty, excitement, and interest in Florence, despite frequent plagues and wars, thanks in large part to the presence of the Medici family, who virtually invented modern banking and accountancy.

They were outstanding as enlightened and successful patrons of art, architecture, science, philosophy, and above all, every aspect of plant medicine. They collected medicinal and rare plants and created large botanic gardens, which are still there today.

The Medici patronage of the University of Pisa, Cosimo I’s creation of the chair of simples (medicinal plants), and his employment of Luca Ghini revolutionized how herbal medicine was taught.

I actually grew up with a green-finger Italian auntie who mentioned the Botanical Garden of Florence any times growing up, also referencing it as Giardino dei Semplici, which was itself founded on December 1st, 1545 when the aforementioned Grand Duke Cosimo dei Medici purchased the land from the Dominican sisters.

As we grow to learn, historical documents confirm that this garden was the first botanical garden in Europe for the cultivation and harvesting of simple, medicinal plants for therapeutic purposes. The particular type of design and use of vegetation was then also taken up in the successive botanical gardens of Padua, Pisa, Florence, Pavia and Bologna.

Broken up into four parts - Introduction, Plants of Renaissance, Exotic Healing Plants Used in Renaissance Florence - three of those chock full of a plethora of inner chapters, we all get to learn more about such plants and what they can do, as: Aloe, Aniseed, Dill, Fenil, Iris, Juniper, Lemon, Mustard, Rhubarb, Sorrell, Lemon Grass, Liquorice, and amongst others both Cinnamon and Senna.

About the Author - Angela Paine has a BSc in Human Physiology and PhD from the School of Pharmacy, London University, in medicinal plant chemistry. Immersed in the Celtic tradition, she runs workshops on medicinal plants and is the author of Healing Power of Celtic Plants; Healing Plants of the Celtic Druids; and Healing Plants of Greek Myth. Angela lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire, and splits her time between the UK and India.

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Overview: This book deals with alchemy’s rich, multifaceted tradition from three perspectives - history, psychology, and nomothetic science - something rarely seen in other books on the same subject.

Verdict: Taking it from the beginning, quite literally, the word Alchemy comes from old French alquemie, alkimie, used in Medieval Latin as alchymia. Indeed, this name was itself adopted from the Arabic word al-kīmiyā.

Growing up I was privy to Tria Prima, the Three Alchemy Primes, which were Sulfur – the fluid connecting the High and the Low, sulfur was used to denote the expansive force, evaporation, and dissolution; Mercury — the omnipresent spirit of life, mercury was believed to transcend the liquid and solid states; and Salt — simply put, the base matter.

It is said that the very first Alchemist was Mary or Maria the Jewess, also known as Mary the Prophetess or Maria the Copt, and who was, if not the very first, definitely an early alchemist known from the works of Zosimos of Panopolis and other authors in the Greek alchemical tradition.

It is a fascinating subject matter to dive into and here in The Riddle of Alchemy, author Paul Kiritsis brings forth a quite breathtakingly engrossing, historically revealing prose on various cults, ancient practices and curious locales, and so much more.

Part I - Alchemy: Histories concerns the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural intercourse that occasioned the rich tapestry of alchemical tropes, themes, narratives, and pursuits, addressing the harmonious fusion of Hellenistic nature philosophy, Gnostic mythology, and Egyptian crafts and metallurgical practices in late antiquity - and much more, including the alchemy’s role during the Renaissance, its influence on Jacob Boehme’s theosophy, and its medieval imagery’s integral role in Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious.

Part 2 - Alchemy: Processes of the Mind looks at the alchemical opus and its stages in the context of analytical, developmental, and clinical psychology, offering psychological interpretations of the Splendor Solis plates and integrated alchemical interpretations of personality, personal growth, and the human condition.

Part 3 - Alchemy: The Noetic Science examines the empirical validity of alchemical theory and pursuit, addressing the viability of metallic transmutation, the theory of esoteric correspondences - the planet-metal connections - and how its animistic paradigm and principles of transformation might connect to more innovative, radical ideas emergent within the nomothetic disciplines.

About the Author - Paul Kiritsis, PsyD, MScMed, is a licensed medical psychologist living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has authored seven other books, including the creative compendium Confessions of a Split Mind (2017), the award-winning titles The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia (2019) and A Critical Investigation into Precognitive Dreams (2020), and the collection of short stories Tales of a Spiritual Sun (2023).

He is an avid reader of books in neuropsychology, neurology, philosophy of mind, history, esotericism, and mythology. He lives in Redwood City, CA.

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Overview: Introducing different ways to cooperate with the spiritual world, including exercises for self-healing and case stories from clients and students, Your soul, Your Life will guide you through transforming and healing these survival mechanisms so that you can have better access to yourself, to your resources, and to your spiritual strengths and qualities - not only so that you get the most out of your life now, but also because it will benefit your loved ones and the community you’re a part of.

Because when you live in accordance with your soul’s essence, you have the energy to affect your surroundings positively.

Verdict: Introducing the author before we dive into her new book, Marzcia Techau’s background as a Master of Science in Biology combined with her strong abilities to collaborate with the spiritual world, really come to the fore here within this understandable instructive, insightful and all-embracing new prose.

She started getting warnings of coming deaths when she was 18 years old and began to sense the spiritual world very strongly in her late 20s, when she met her spouse. At that time, she was sure that she would die of fright if she experienced a ghost!

As she fell in love with her spouse, her sensitivity opened and she began to sense the spiritual world very, very clearly. Her spouse recognized the deceased she described as real persons, and this was the first time she experienced that the spiritual world was real and not just a part of her imagination.

The experience meant that she chose to take an education as a clairvoyant counselor instead of going to a psychiatrist with the mysterious experiences she had. She found that she had a new possibility to thrive in her life by collaborating with the spiritual world. Thereby she learned that she had the ability to teach others how they can connect to the spiritual world and use their spirituality and sensitivity to start thriving in their lives instead of just surviving.

Human life is full of challenges that can make it difficult to live in accordance with your true self, your inner core, your soul. Sometimes your surroundings react negatively to you, and survival mechanisms stemming either from experiences in this life or from the soul’s experiences in previous ones, can cause you to shut off particular sides of yourself.

Marzcia’s wish is that her book supports you in gaining more access to yourself, your life, your resources, and your inner spiritual strengths and qualities, not just so that you, as a human being, can get the most out of your life now, for the benefit of yourself, but also because it is of benefit to your loved ones and the community of which you are a part of.

Mission accomplished, Marzcia. Mission accomplished.

About the Author - Marzcia Techau (born 1971] is a Master of Science in Biology, Speaker, Author, Spiritual teacher, Clairvoyant Counsellor, Healer, Reiki Master and Somatic Experience Practitioner working with Peter Levine’s Somatic Experience Method®. For the past 20 years, Marzcia has worked with a blend of scientific and spiritual understandings of life. She lives in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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Overview: A vigilante ghost stalks the East End of London. Before the lightning, he was just a boy, now he’s ready for revenge. The Book of Thunder and Lightning is a Gothic mashup of Oliver Twist and Top Boy, a love letter to London, wrapped up in a mind-bending ghost story.

Verdict: In 1888, unlucky Tom Baxter is thrown into a world of toxic masculinity, where his only weapon is his imagination. But at least he’s got his crew, a gang of misfits just like him, to back him up. As lightning stretches across time and space to a gritty 21st-century London, history is repeating itself.

Tom has the chance to save his modern-day twin, with help from a reluctant hero, a posh girl from Chelsea, and a donkey called Dorris. His luck has to change sometime, right?

In what has fast become my favorite novel of the year, this uniquely intriguing, enrapturing and beguiling new take on what is a witty Victorian/Dickensian tale, is pure dynamite prose from the very first few pages onwards.

Told through the eyes of Tom, a ghost from 1888, we read along as he soon befriends, and subsequently teams up with a gang of misfits just like himself, such as an English teacher and, believe it or not a donkey called Dorris, to drive the storyline forward along its spooky path into a world left far behind in history, and yet in which, once we are embedded, we, the reader instantly find hard to let go of.

But aside from all that, as it is the core of what drives the plot, sure, this book has a building narrative from the very off that engages your curiosity and strives only to fuel your vicarious imagination with a storytelling that is as intriguing propellant as it is infectiously gripping.

About the Author - Seb Duncan holds a PGCert in Teaching Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge and a Masters in Creative Writing and Education from Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a regular writing contributor to GoldDust.

His research paper on writing process, Google Street View meets Wandering Rocks appears in the 2022 edition of Creative Power, the anthology of students on the Creative Writing and Education MA programme at Goldsmiths, University of London. He lives in London, UK.

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Overview: This collection of essays within Altered Perspectives: Critical Essays on Psychedelic Consciousness delves into some of the strangest and most profound aspects of the psychedelic experience, such as seeing the self as an illusion, feelings of deep insight, the sublime (fear mixed with wonder), encounters with DMT entities, déjà vu, and existential joy.

Verdict: Drawing on research and theories from a variety of disciplines, author Sam Woolfe reflects on the ways that altered states may inform our understanding of consciousness, the self, and reality.

Particular attention is paid to the philosophy of psychedelics, with the aim of clarifying altered states through the lenses of metaphysics, philosophy of mind, epistemology, aesthetics, existentialism, and Buddhism.

In these essays, Woolfe balances open-mindedness with a critical and skeptical perspective - he believes that this approach is necessary when examining psychedelic consciousness.

Having now read this new book cover-to-cover twice in the past couple of weeks, I can honestly attest to the fact that it is a fascinatingly thoughtful, dutifully insightful, and wholly enlightened prose that is as beguiling as it is all-encompassing.

Broken down into ten chapters, the philosophy of psychedelics is a growing field, and for good reason. The psychedelic experience, much like philosophy, can instill in us radical shifts in perspective, related to everything that matters to us, and to many things we rarely (if ever) question or consider.

The mind-altering, belief-changing nature of philosophy aligns well with the psychedelic experience, in which these effects are felt more dramatically and viscerally. In a flash of illumination and insight, a particular idea one expected was true can feel confirmed; a cherished perspective may, alternatively, be discarded; or perhaps a belief previously rejected or overlooked is adopted. These changes of mind may occur swiftly or slowly.

Simply put, the author’s aim is that in these essays the reader investigates certain psychedelic phenomena with a critical and skeptical outlook, as there are many experiences one can have on psychedelics that may lead to strong and certain conclusions and consciousness or reality but which nonetheless deserve scrutiny.

About the Author - Sam Woolfe is a writer and blogger who is interested in the intersection between psychedelic experiences and philosophical views. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including IAI News, Philosophy Now, and the Psychedelic Press journal. You can read more of his work at www.samwoolfe.com. He lives in London, UK.

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Overview: Here within author Janine Lowe’s new book Feng Shui Your Way to Abundance, you will learn how to unlock the power of your very own space to attract abundance.

So if that sounds like something that you have desired all your life, or perhaps you are only now realizing something like this could happen within you, this brilliant new book is most definitely for you.

Verdict: So, and taking it from the top, What is Feng Shui? Well, we are told that Feng Shui, which translates to “wind and water,” was historically used to select favorable places and times for building homes, growing crops, and other life-sustaining activities.

The philosophy is based on the elements of earth, metal, water, wood, and fire, which can all be represented through various shapes, colors, and materials throughout a home. The right balance cultivates happy, organized spaces that support our well-being and daily lives.

With that in mind, this book holds the key to unlocking within you more Wealth, Love, Good Fortune and so much more. In Feng Shui Your Way to Abundance, author and renowned Feng Shui Consultant, Eastern Astrologer and Energy Coach Janine Lowe reveals how you can transform your environment into a powerful tool for manifesting abundance in every area of your life.

For over 20 years, Janine has worked with clients around the world, guiding them to tap into their personal, profession space and the energies around them. She brings you an easy hands-on guide to help you harness the energy of Feng Shui, showing you how to take control of the energy in your surrounding and manifest your dreams and goals by taking action using Feng Shui.

From the off here, it is very obvious that Janine’s knowledge of Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology are significance, especially since she consults with individuals and businesses on both on a weekly basis, and so the way she peacefully, and with subtle ease, uses Chinese geomancy to help herself and others achieve harmony by using these energy forces is breathtakingly inspiring.

Broken down into 11 chapters plus a Conclusion, Janine opens the book with a chapter on Abundance and what the word, its context, means to her and those that wish to Feng Shui their collective way to it.

As she notes, the book is about using Feng Shui along with the positive energy in your house to attract the abundant life we want, but before she brings the reader into her world, she makes it clear that she wants us all on the same page as to just what exactly what Abundance means.

Abundance means a large quantity of something important to us. Most of us seek an abundant life, but it means different things to all of us.

For some, it is about having more time to spend with family and friends. For others it’s about experiences, travel and knowledge. Many of us think about it in terms of prosperity - which can mean thriving and being successful financially, spiritually, emotionally, or in terms of well-being. Many consider it to be about wealth, financial assets, and material possessions.

A straightforward way of thinking about it is having plenty of what you most desire, whether that is experiences, contentment, money, or something else entirely.

For this book to work, take some time to consider what it means to you. Don’t think about it in terms of what other people want you to have or to be: it’s about what YOU value and want more of in your life.

Achieving an abundant life only works if it’s about what YOU want.

In closing, Feng Shui Your Way to Abundance breaks free from the norm or scarcity that pervades our world, Janine teaches you in simple ways how to bring abundance, better relationships, and financial flow into your life. With her easy-to-follow advice, actionable insights, and the wisdom of thousands of years of Feng Shui, Janine walks you through the process of transforming your space and your life – step by step.

About the Author - It was obvious to Janine Lowe that she wasn’t designed for a 9-5 job and she wanted to use what she was good at as a career. She trained with various masters and became a Feng Shui consultant. Meeting people and being able to transform their lives in such a positive way has brought her immense joy and fulfillment.

Her business in Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology has grown significantly and she consults with individuals and businesses on both. She lives in West Sussex, UK.

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Overview: This excellent new novel entitled The Taking, from author Dona Masi, tells a very suspenseful story of a girl besieged by strange events, the beguiling story line exploring what it means to confront the unknown.

Verdict: An unnatural silence and a feeling that you are all alone in the world. John and his daughter, Vera, grieve the loss of Vera’s mother, who mysteriously disappeared when Vera was a baby. As John struggles to raise his troubled daughter, he dismisses connections between his wife’s disappearance and Vera’s bizarre dreams of otherworldly creatures.

But when he finds Vera unconscious, lying in a ring of scorched trees, he begins to believe that a mysterious outside force is controlling her fate and his.

The Taking is a suspenseful story depicting a loving but difficult relationship between a father and daughter, amid the strange events that underlie their everyday life in a small New England town.

Tucked, seemingly at first, inconspicuously into this book as you begin reading it, is a most astutely told story that not only builds upon its tension in a layered manner, but one that becomes dutifully impassioned in such a way that the authors masterful creation of suspense and unexpectedness for the characters and the plot, is as impressive a feat as I have personally encountered in the past decade or so.

That character development blended with a genuine bringing of an angst-ridden, butterflies-affecting stance to those that read it, means what we get here in The Taking: A Novel is a story told, on the emotionally grounded surface, that heads in one direction, whilst the undercurrent silently, and yet with stealth, aches to reveal itself to be a rather compelling psychological thriller of the highest order.

About the Author - Dona Masi is a writer and editor whose short fiction and articles have been used in reading and writing assessments throughout the country. As a playwright, she has written plays that have been performed at the Provincetown Theater Company and on the Bon Mot radio program. When writing fiction or plays, she loves bringing characters to life and depicting them in all their humanity and heroism. She lives in Dover, NH.

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Overview: Christian Thinking through the Ages by author David Arnold, is an account of Christian thinking that starts with Jesus of Nazareth’s teaching and then describes how its reception has changed over the last 2,000 years.

Verdict: As noted, Christian Thinking through the Ages takes its reader on a journey through 2,000 years of ideas. It starts with Jesus of Nazareth’s teaching, looks at speculation about Jesus himself and his significance, and describes the attempts to establish uniformity of belief both in the Roman Empire and in the late Middle Ages.

It describes the thinking of medieval monks, schoolmen and friars, of the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment, and goes on to show how the twentieth century’s political horrors led to new theological ideas, most of which have yet to trickle down to the mass of Christians.

I grew up in a very religious household, thus the teachings of Jesus during this time were always freely available to me. These teachings, many delivered in parables, focused on a repentance that would redirect a life to God, a life absolutely obedient to the will of God and following the commandment to love one’s neighbor expressed in Mark 12:28–31.

But sometimes it is hard to find the truth of a historical figure and the truth of what they brought to the world, I get that. I mean, it can be so shrouded in other people’s reactions and what they thought of them that you can hardly see past all that to appreciate the person themselves.

So what author David Arnold does here in his dutifully-constructed new book Christian Thinking through the Ages, is bring forth a profound, yet immaculately balanced, and straightforward learning essay on the subject matter to hand.

One that both allows you to acquire knowledge along the way, perhaps enlightening the reader to aspects they themselves were previously unaware of, whilst at the same time allowing everything to be told in a genuinely cohesive and instructionally lucid manner.

Thus, and as much as this thoroughly beguiling new prose concludes with an explanation of the various ways Christian churches disagree with each other, the book, as a whole, nonetheless ends with the hopeful thought that what Christians have in common and can share with others are the words of Jesus and his sacrifice.

About the Author - David Arnold was born in Hackney in 1933. He was educated at an elementary school and at Christ’s Hospital, was a history scholar of Pembroke College, Oxford, and a fellow commoner of Jesus College, Cambridge. His working life was spent as a schoolmaster, ten years in grammar schools, twelve in independent schools, and twenty in sixth form colleges. He lives in West Sussex, UK.

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Overview: Nursing Our Healer’s Heart is a gentle exploration of nurse-specific traumatization, which affects 96% of nurses, along with an actionable recovery plan for nurses to heal together as they begin to thrive instead of just survive in their practices.

Verdict: As I think we all know now, and have done for quite a few years/decades, nurses in hospitals are frequently under pressure due to a combination of factors including heavy workloads, staffing shortages, complex patient needs, time constraints, and the demanding nature of their job, often leading to burnout and stress, particularly during situations like a pandemic where patient volume may surge significantly.

So yeah, the nursing profession is, in general, in crisis. Within a decade, the world will have just over half the number of nurses it needs. The global nursing workforce has experienced mass, complex trauma secondary to healthcare system inadequacies and a global pandemic. Traumatized and burned out nurses are leaving their roles or the profession in unprecedented numbers. Those who remain are stretched to or beyond their capacity.

As noted, the fact that the healthcare organizations are still grappling with a nursing shortage crisis is nothing new. While some health systems have had success in rebuilding their nursing workforces in recent months, estimates still suggest a potential shortage of 200,000 to 450,000 nurses in the United States, with acute-care settings likely to be most affected, according to a recent article.

And as of March 2023, 45 percent of inpatient nurses reported they are likely to leave their role in the next six months, citing feeling undervalued by their organization and not having a manageable workload as their top two reasons. Healthcare leaders cannot build an effective staffing strategy without understanding how nurses are spending their time, how they would like to spend their time, and how their needs are evolving.

While system-level strategies aim to address this crisis, none of them consider nurse traumatization and its impact upon patient safety, outcomes, and quality of care. We cannot wait for health systems to prioritize nurse safety. Nurses can and must come together as a global community to heal through avoidable and unavoidable nurse-specific traumatization while partnering with healthcare leaders to usher in a new era of nursing.

However, this book, and through an actionable framework, guides nurses in healing the traumas and hardships they’ve endured as individuals and nursing communities. Grounded in the sciences of unitary caring, integrative nursing, neurophysiology, and transpersonal neurobiology, this book supports nurses in restoring their healers’ heart as they come together to address the deep trauma, burnout, attrition, and presenteeism that are central to the nursing crisis.

Thus Dr. Lorre Laws’ book (which is broken down into three sections - Healing Is Possible, Healing Is Happening, and Thriving in Practice & in Life - each with varying chapters within them) diligently explores these entangled, seemingly ever more complex as the years go by layers of trauma, most all too often ignored or overlooked, and strives to bring forth here a dutifully written, expertly cultured, and definitely vitally informative prose of a resource for anyone treating, or even themselves recovering from chronic illness, or a severe sense of burnout or traumatization.

For it is here within these pages that Nurses will learn the language of their nervous system and how to navigate it as a foundational practice to support professional wellbeing. Each nurse will discover their unique innate care plan, which will guide their healing and co-healing with other nurses.

As the author herself admits, This book was written for you, and it is about you, my most respected colleague, nurse and healer. I, too, am a nurse. I wrote this book for nurses who have experienced or are experiencing trauma or burnout, or who do not feel safe, seen, or heard, supported in practice.

And so by embracing the healing and practices offered in this book, nurses will learn how to support their nervous system regulation so they can thrive instead of survive in practice. Working from their healed scars instead of their open wounds, nurses can effectively lead sustainable organizational change and health care reforms that prioritize nurse safety and professional wellbeing.

About the Author - Dr. Lorre Laws is an author, healer, teacher, and integrative nursing professor who helps nurses who are experiencing burnout or traumatization -- often secondary to system inadequacies. Dr. Lorre guides nurses as they heal and recover together; moving from surviving to thriving in practice.

She founded The Haelan Academy, a nonprofit organization to support nurses throughout their career. As an engaging, informative, and entertaining speaker, Dr. Lorre is a beacon of way showing light for nurses and health professions as they usher in Nursing 2.0, a new paradigm that prioritizes nurse safety and professional wellbeing. She lives in Tucson, AZ.

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Overview: Hearken back to the call of Cerridwen, mistress of initiation and keeper of the cauldron of inspiration. Follow the footsteps of the bards and dive into her mysterious depths in search of the radiant brow of inner vision.

Drink of her Awen, her divine brew, and sit with Taliesin, keeper of the bright knowledge of spirit. Cerridwen has been honored by the Welsh bards for centuries and is known most famously as the mother and initiator of the bardic poet and divine child Taliesin, whose works are the greatest treasures of Welsh medieval literature, unlocking a spiritual tradition whose roots go far back to Britain’s most ancient past.

Verdict: For those not fully aware, this brand new book Pagan Portals - Cerridwen: Keeper of the Cauldron stylishly traces Cerridwen’s roots through layers of history and myth, whilst also providing hands-on exercises and visionary rites to help you realize her immeasurable power in your own magical practice.

For I honestly think that it is rather important that we learn as much as possible about a mother figure who loved her child so ferociously, with such dedication, even though she was very often a misunderstood figure. But author Danu Forest is a Celtic scholar, and her exquisite use of words makes Cerridwen so much more interesting, relatable, and human than the way history, at times, has drawn here.

A Celtic Goddess of the cauldron, Cerridwen was the embodiment of the great transformative power of the cauldron itself — the alchemical vessel through which the ordinary becomes the magical.

While known by many as a shapeshifting Goddess, Cerridwen most popularly represented the darker aspects of Goddess energy—symbolizing the crone, the wise one, the dark one who sees all and knows all.

This is why Cerridwen is most well-known for her ties to the Underworld as keeper of the cauldron (the ultimate inspiratrix and creatrix) — embedding herself at the center of that fateful cycle between death and rebirth. For Cerridwen knows, just like any wise crone would, that to create and to inspire as one does with such power means to invoke the intimate death and rebirth that all of creation requires.

What this book strives to do is bring an engaging, and dutifully balanced overview of just who Cerridwen was, along with her generous ability to teach, and love. Not only is the mythology interesting and symbolic, but the book itself is so beautifully written that the words are inspiring and relevant today.

As for why Cerridwen is so important to the author Forest, well, her interest in Taliesin and Cerridwen first took root within her while she was at school over thirty years ago, and she admits she can recall that even then how they deeply stirred her.

Thus the central work of this book has been to honor Cerridwen as best she could, but no book or journey of study ever takes place in a vacuum, and so she takes this opportunity to thank and honor all those who have supported her path and learning, and who have provided insight and inspiration along the way.

She also acknowledges and honors the rich and vibrant culture and developments taking place with regard to this subject in modern Wales at this time, and so encourages the reader to engage with these as much as possible.

About the Author - Danu Forest is a traditional Celtic wisewoman, of half British and half Irish heritage. She is a writer, teacher and Celtic Scholar with an MA in Celtic studies, her thesis was on Celtic folk magic practitioners and the fairy faith. Danu lives in a cottage near Glastonbury Tor in the midst of the Avalon lakes, in the South West of England.

Exploring the Celtic mysteries for over 30 years, and noted for her quality research, practical experience, as well as her deep visionary love of the land, Danu writes for numerous national and international magazines and is the author of several books.

She is a respected magical teacher, healer and seer offering readings and consultations, workshops and ceremonies, as well as online courses. www.danuforest.co.uk.

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Overview: Dharma Moon Press is pleased to announce the publication of Jazz in the New Millennium: Live and Well, Revised Edition, by Rick Mitchell.

The 8 ½ by 11 book contains interviews with 84 prominent jazz musicians active in the 21st Century, including such living masters as Charles Lloyd and Pat Metheny, prime time players Jason Moran and Christian McBride and rising stars Esperanza Spalding and Cecile McLorin Salvant.

As Mitchell says in the introduction, “I am shaping the narrative with the questions I ask, and my analysis of the music is never too far from the surface. But as an interviewer, my primary objective is to let the musicians speak for themselves.”

The first edition was published in 2014 by Dharma Moon Press and DaCamera of Houston. At a hefty 275 pages, Jazz in the New Millennium: Live and Well, Revised Edition includes 40 new chapters, and dozens of new photos.

The book is easy to read and full of useful information for those who want to educate themselves about jazz and/or stay current with the latest trends and new artists. The book offers the most comprehensive overview of what is happening in jazz today that exists in print.

Verdict: For those not fully aware, in Jazz in the New Millennium: Live and Well, Revised Edition, author Rick Mitchell argues that the greatest music of the first 25 years of the 21st Century holds its own with any previous era of jazz, as the most talented musicians from around the world continue to find their way to this music and bring their unique cultural perspectives to the tradition of Duke, Monk and Trane.

“Will young listeners 50 years from now discover the recordings of Cecile McLorin Salvant and Joshua Redman and approach them with the same reverence we now have for Billie Holiday and Lester Young?” he asks. “I don’t know,” he answers, “but I am here to make the case that they should.”

OK, so let us be clear about this first fact, and that is this revised edition, now complete with an amazing 40 new chapters, is a big, and noted hefty book, and yet one that once started is so very hard to close until chapters have been completed.

In what is a most highly insightful, dutifully informative, and remarkably diligent with regard not just its content, but the author’s very own heartfelt observations, the prose sets about uncovering the movers and shakers active in jazz, then and now.

Often described as having developed into many different styles, including traditional jazz, swing, bebop, cool jazz, and jazz-rock, this American music genre can also be broken down into such sub-sections as: Improvisational, Rhythmic, Swinging, Polyphonic, Blue notes and complex chords, Call and response vocals, and Pitch and timbre distortions, et al.

Jazz originated in African-American communities in New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was influenced by many musical styles, including blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythms, spirituals, hymns, marches, vaudeville song, and dance music.

Being a music journalist myself, I cover any and all musical art forms, but one that has itself always been accessible to me at times when things needed to slow down around me, when I needed to bring a little calm to my life, was jazz. Sure, I understand there is more to jazz than just the slow, low slung blues-jazz aspects (and no, I am not referring to smooth jazz, moreover cool jazz), but for me I have always personally enjoyed those albums over the faster paced entries within the genre (such as Count Basie, Buddy Rich, Stan Kenton, et al).

I also understand, and have witnessed during many a conversation on the subject, that many people think of jazz as an art form of music from the last century and beyond, a genre that has seen its day, played a good game, and has since been long retired, but that is far from the truth.

For many years now, decades even, jazz has seen a resurgence in popularity, which is in no small part due to jazz records being sampled so widely in hip-hop production. Yet in just the last decade, musicians from all across the jazz spectrum have tried to deconstruct some of the outdated tropes of jazz standards; instead opting to create a more open-ended sonic palette that incorporates the musical innovations of the later half of the 20th century.

What Rick does here is make sure that jazz is still very much a living form of music within the general consciousness, showcase that it has been growing all along via a steady undercurrent that has never let its foot off the pedal, and continues to be as well loved today as it ever was back then.

Furthermore, the book actually makes you want to go out and find the music and hear it yourself for all the artists mentioned, which if you do that, please make sure to hunt down the vinyl records of the titles, as CD/digital is just not gonna cut it through your speakers for such an intimate listening experience, trust me.

About the Author - Rick Mitchell is a radio programmer, journalist and teacher living in Portland, Oregon. He has been writing about all forms of music for national and regional newspapers and magazines for 50 years. From 1989 to 1999, he was the jazz and popular music critic for The Houston Chronicle.

His previous books include Garth Brooks: One of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House (Simon and Schuster, 1993) and Whiskey River (Take My Mind): The True Story of Texas Honky Tonk (University of Texas Press, 2007). Since 2015, he has produced a weekly one-hour radio program, also called Jazz in the New Millennium, syndicated nationally by the African American Public Radio Consortium.

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