A solipsistic quest for authenticity, conducted with road map and
library card - and without a clue.Music journalist Petrusich (Nick
Drake's Pink Moon, 2007) purportedly set out to define "Americana,"
an umbrella term for tradition-oriented strains of country, blues
and folk music. Neglecting to clearly delineate the boundaries of
this non-genre for either herself or the reader, she hit the road
through the South and Appalachia. The book's subtitle is an
infuriating con. Far from being "lost," the highways through
Memphis, Nashville and Clarksdale, Miss., to name a few of her
destinations, have been driven so often that they require repaving
- or at least more energetic and keen-eyed travelers than
Petrusich. The music she writes about is neither obscure nor new;
tiresomely familiar stories about Elvis Presley, Sun Records,
Robert Johnson, the Carter Family and Woody Guthrie abound. Relying
heavily on the work of earlier journalists and scholars, this
maddeningly underreported volume often reads like a book report.
Only two dozen new interviews are cited, most of those with
performers who have been active for at least a decade; Petrusich is
more comfortable talking with academics, other writers and the
occasional publicist than with musicians. She devotes an irritating
amount of space to descriptions of museums, archives, tourist
traps, motel rooms and her roadside meals, as well as the scenery
along the interstate. In the thousands of miles she covers, the
author makes exactly one stop to check out the local music action,
and that's at an upscale Clarksdale juke joint. In this
navel-gazing context, it makes perfect sense that Petrusich would
lamely dub the members of indie rock's neo-hippy-dippy "freak-folk"
scene (many of whom derive their sound as much from British sources
as American ones) as the truest exponents of contemporary
Americana. You won't find "the next American music" here. (Kirkus
Reviews)
Part travelogue, part musical history, Amanda Petrusich's "It
Still Moves "outlines the sounds of the new, weird
America--honoring the rich traditions of gospel, blues, country,
folk, and rock that feed it while simultaneously exploring the
American character as personified by its songs and landscapes.
Through interviews, road stories, and rich music criticism,
Petrusich traces the rise of Americana music from its early origins
to its new and compelling incarnations--from Elvis to Iron and
Wine, the Carter Family to Animal Collective, Charley Patton to
Wilco. Ultimately, "It Still Moves "is a fervent attempt to
reconcile the American past with the American present, using only
dusty records and highway maps as guides.
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