Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters,1880-1930 is a classic work on a little-studied subject in American music history: the contribution of African-American songwriters to the world of popular song. Hailed by Publishers Weekly as "thoroughly researched and entertainingly written," this work documents the careers of songwriters like James A. Bland ("Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny"), Bert Williams ("Nobody"), W. C. Handy ("St. Louis Blues"), Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake ("I'm Just Wild About Harry"), and many more. Richly illustrated with rare photographs from sheet music, newspapers, and other unique sources, the book documents an entire era of performance when black singers, dancers, and actors were active on the New York stage. In sheer depth of research, new information, and full coverage, Spreadin' Rhythm Around offers a comprehensive picture of the contributions of black musicians to American popular song. For anyone interested in the history of jazz, pop song, or Broadway, this book will be a revelation.

Black Bottom Stomp tells the compelling stories of nine seminal figures in American music history, including Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong, and Jelly Roll Morton. Through them it shows how ragtime and popular dance music fed into and changed the development of early jazz. The stories range from the frustrations Scott Joplin faced trying to be taken "seriously" as a composer to the changes that Jelly Roll Morton made to adapt to musical times and tastes. Richly illustrated with rare photographs, sheet music, and other hard-to-find sources, the work will appeal to the reader interested in popular music, ragtime, and early jazz.

Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters,1880-1930 is a classic work on a little-studied subject in American music history: the contribution of African-American songwriters to the world of popular song. Hailed by Publishers Weekly as "thoroughly researched and entertainingly written," this work documents the careers of songwriters like James A. Bland ("Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny"), Bert Williams ("Nobody"), W. C. Handy ("St. Louis Blues"), Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake ("I'm Just Wild About Harry"), and many more. Richly illustrated with rare photographs from sheet music, newspapers, and other unique sources, the book documents an entire era of performance when black singers, dancers, and actors were active on the New York stage. In sheer depth of research, new information, and full coverage, Spreadin' Rhythm Around offers a comprehensive picture of the contributions of black musicians to American popular song. For anyone interested in the history of jazz, pop song, or Broadway, this book will be a revelation.

In this realistic novel about the Civil War in Florida, the reader will experience actual events, but more importantly, will feel the tumult of the time through the eyes of historical personalities and fictional characters. A beautiful, mulatto slave escapes from her abusive owner and falls in love with a runaway who is captured by the Union navy and recruited as a scout. A Unionist farmer enlists in the Florida militia to avoid Confederate conscription. He must leave behind his wife, children and slaves to fend for themselves against marauders, soldiers and deserters. Shortly before Lee's surrender at Appomattox, black Union soldiers under the command of a white, glory-seeking general make a final assault on Tallahassee. Desperate Florida troops repulse the Federal invasion at the Battle of Natural Bridge to save the capital from destruction. Author Gene Jones, a fifth generation Floridian, sets out this little known history from a gripping human perspective. Before readers realize it, they have absorbed more history than set out in learned nonfiction while experiencing a touching tale with memorable characters. Suwannee Divide relates how war tears apart the lives of friends, lovers and families. Above all, it conveys how the will to survive prevails.