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Due Sept. 17

Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir

by Linda Ronstadt

In this memoir, iconic singer Linda Ronstadt weaves together a captivating story of her origins in Tucson, Arizona, and her rise to stardom in the Southern California music scene of the 1960s and ’70s.

Born into a musical family, Linda’s childhood was filled with everything from Hank Williams to Gilbert and Sullivan, Mexican folk music to jazz and opera. Her artistic curiosity blossomed early, and she and her siblings began performing their own music for anyone who would listen. Now, twelve Grammy Awards later, Ronstadt tells the story of her wide-ranging and utterly unique musical journey.

Ronstadt arrived in Los Angeles just as the folk-rock movement was beginning to bloom, setting the stage for the development of country-rock. After the dissolution of her first band, the Stone Poneys, Linda went out on her own and quickly found success. As part of the coterie of like-minded artists who played at the Troubadour club in West Hollywood, she helped define the musical style that dominated American music in the 1970s. One of her early back-up bands went on to become the Eagles, and Linda would become the most successful female artist of the decade. She has sold more than 100 million records, won numerous awards, and toured all over the world. Linda has collaborated with legends such as Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Aaron Neville, J.D. Souther, Randy Newman, Neil Young, Bette Midler, and Frank Sinatra, as well as Homer Simpson and Kermit the Frog. By the time she retired in 2009, Ronstadt had spent four decades as one of the most popular singers in the world, becoming the first female artist in popular music to release four consecutive platinum albums.

In Simple Dreams, Ronstadt reveals the eclectic and fascinating journey that led to her long-lasting success. And she describes it all in a voice as beautiful as the one that sang “Heart Like a Wheel”—longing, graceful, and authentic.

[Edited 7/27/13 9:27am]

Please delete this thread Mickey Dolenz already has one, which I thought was closed. My apologies.

Country music has always been the thread that ties America's musical styles together. The roots of blues, rock, folk, and jazz run deep in the soaring fiddles, jangling guitars, dashing dobros, fretful mandolins, string-bending banjos, and haunting steel guitars of musicians from the Carter Family and Uncle Dave Macon to Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, and Alan Jackson. This beautiful anecdotal history of American country music features long essays by some of the best U.S. country music scholars (e.g., Bill Malone, Nolan Porterfield, and Chet Flippo); profiles of country artists; time lines of different eras in country music history; snapshots of classic country albums; and gorgeous photos of country stars like Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Shania Twain, the Dixie Chicks, and Garth Brooks. Published in cooperation with the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville which provided images and other materials from its archives this book is chock-a-block with luscious color graphics and brilliant writing.