Next Week in Music | April 20 -26 • 8 New Books

Do we really need another Rolling Stones biography? Apparently we do. And yeah, even though I’m skeptical, I’ll probably check it out. But first, I’m going to try to get ahold of new tomes on The Beta Band, Will Johnson and Michael Stanley. Don’t know who they are? You’ve come to the right place. Read all about ’em:

The Rolling Stones: The Biography
By Bob Spitz

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “What left is there to say about The Rolling Stones? A hell of a lot, it turns out. Bob Spitz has brought his indefatigable energy and five decades of experiences in the fields and hollows of rock ‘n’ roll to bear on his five-year journey to reexamine one of popular music’s greatest stories. There are myriad revisions to the conventional narrative which underscore just how in control of that narrative the band has been up to now — small example: no, Muddy Waters was not mopping the floors at Chess Records when the Stones showed up. But in a larger sense, as with The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, Spitz’s greatest gift is for the big picture. He knows where the magic is, and why it is. He is as clear-eyed a connoisseur of the show business, the spectacle and the collateral damage of this whirlwind as anyone alive, and that lucid gaze pierces a lot of incrusted bullshit, but the ultimate goal is to connect with a creative force whose power shows no signs of fading, over 60 years on. At its heart the story is about two boys, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and their unique, fraught, alchemical bond, often tested, never sundered. The bandmates, like Charlie Watts, who found their groove in relation to this double star made the trip intact, while those who struggled, like Brian Jones and Mick Taylor, were chewed up and spit out. This is a story with many dark corners, including a surprising number of deaths. But whether Jagger and Richards sold their souls to the devil is at the crossroads for blues greatness or just squeezed their heroes for every drop of inspiration, in the end their connection to their music and to each other put them in a category of one, where they very much remain.”

Failure Is Always An Option: Glorious Adventures On The Beta Band Front Line and Other Tales
By Steve Mason

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Steve Mason is a Scottish singer-songwriter and founding member of The Beta Band. Formed in 1996 the band were quickly embraced in the media as The Next Big Thing and hailed by famous fans from Radiohead to Noel Gallagher. They were an idiosyncratic, self-contained, Dadaist counterpoint to the bloated Britpop corpse as it metastasized in the late ’90s. The band split in 2004, owing their record label £1.2m. Since 2004, frontman and songwriter Mason has forged a singular, highly lauded solo career, releasing five albums under his own name and in April this year The Beta Band reformed to announce their first shows and the U.K. and U.S in over 20 years. “I see this book as a picture of someone who was lost, with zero confidence and had no idea what he was supposed to do to with his life. But through music, he found something approaching belief in himself which carried him over the next 30 years into all manner of success, failure and adventure. All the while battling the demons on constant patrol in his mind until, after they nearly finished him off, he focused his full attention on purging them from of aspect of his life. It’s a story of youth culture, failure, success, sadness and redemption.”

Patience For The Ride: The Art & Life Of Will Johnson
By John Krajicek

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Jason Isbell describes Will Johnson’s songs as a poetic manipulation of language that employs multi-syllable words used almost as musical instruments and detailed images flying at the listener with no time to fully decipher meaning before the next image appears.’ Similar sentiments are echoed in many engaging essays shared here by John Krajicek in Patience For The Ride: The Art And Life Of Will Johnson. Recollections from fellow musicians and artists show unwavering appreciation for Johnson, not only for his considerable artistic abilities but also for his admirable qualities as a human being. He is consistently described as extraordinary, funny, and “the nicest guy in the world.” Born in Kennett, Missouri, but hailing from Texas since the age of 11, Johnson fronted the prominent indie bands Centro-matic and South San Gabriel and is a member of Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit. His music is lauded by esteemed artists including Isbell, Jim James, Bonnie Whitmore, Jon Dee Graham, Craig Finn and New York Times bestselling novelist Ron Rash. In addition to his music, Johnson — a St. Louis Cardinals fan since childhood — is an avid painter of folk-art style baseball paintings, eagerly sought by collectors nationwide. And in 2021, he published a novel, If Or When I Call. The contributions compiled by Krajicek paint the story of someone “both completely sincere and a kind of court jester. Both genius and an unassuming, regular guy.” Complete with entertaining and heartfelt stories, Patience for the Ride invites readers to know Johnson the way his closest friends do, paying tribute to a consummate musician, wordsmith, and a singular Texan artist.”

Michael Stanley: A Cleveland Life In Music
By Greg Smrdel

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Michael Stanley never chased the spotlight. He didn’t have to. For more than five decades, he built something most artists spend a lifetime trying to find — a deep, lasting connection with an audience that didn’t come and go. It stayed In Cleveland — and across the Midwest — that connection became something rare. Not hype. Not nostalgia. Something steadier. A presence. This book tells the story of how that happened. From the early days of Silk and the formation of the Michael Stanley Band through the landmark albums Stage Pass, Heartland, North Coast and beyond, to a career that moved seamlessly into television and radio without ever losing its center — this is not a story about almost making it. It’s a story about choosing something else. Drawing on new interviews with drummer Tommy Dobeck and vocalist Jennifer Lee, along with decades of music, performances, and lived experience, Greg Smrdel traces the arc of an artist who defined success on his own terms — and stayed there. At its core, this is a story about what happens when an artist stops chasing the industry — and starts building something that lasts without it. Stanley stayed. And because he did, something different became possible.”

Taste The Pain: The Making Of The Red Hot Chili Peppersʼ Mother’s Milk
By Michael Beinhorn

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This is a story about the making of a record. The record is the fourth release by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, called Mother’s Milk. Mother’s Milk is especially important because it marks the turning point from what the Chili Peppers originally were, and what they have become and continue to be. This is a story about my involvement in the creation of Mother’s Milk as its producer, and my recollection of how it was made. It’s about the choices I made to keep the project stabilized, on track, and to avoid the multiple near-disasters it faced throughout the process of making it. This is a story of metaphorical minefields, determined strategy and occasionally smashing straight through barriers both real and perceived, head first. It is a story about the band themselves, who they were and how they evolved drastically through extremity, loss and inevitably, immeasurable triumph.”

Span: Not Like The Others
By Mike Hayes

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Span were a Norwegian rock band that emerged in the early 2000s, quickly gaining attention for their original sound and dynamic live performances. Formed in Oslo, the band’s music was characterised by a blend of hard rock riffs, catchy melodies and imaginative lyrics, drawing influences from both classic rock, punk and contemporary alternative bands. Span’s debut album Mass Distraction was released in 2004 and featured several singles that received airplay across Europe, helping establish the band’s reputation beyond Norway’s borders. In some quarters they were heralded as ‘the next big thing’. Following the positive reaction to their debut, Span continued to tour extensively throughout Europe, building a dedicated fanbase with their high-octane live shows. In 2005, they released their second album, Vs. Time. Despite critical acclaim in Norway and U.K., Span struggled to maintain momentum in a rapidly changing music industry, and frontman Jarle Bernhoft ultimately decided to leave. They disbanded in 2005, with members going on to pursue other musical projects. Then, out of the blue, the band reunited for a fantastic Final Farewell Tour in 2024, finally cementing their legacy as one of Norway’s greatest musical exports. This is the story of Span, much of it in their own words, including many previously unpublished photographs and featuring extensive original interviews.”

Prison Song: Music & Incarceration In The United States
By David Metzer

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “From Johnny Cash to Jay-Z, musicians have long used their voices to challenge the injustices of the prison system. Prison Song: Music And Incarceration In The United States reveals how musicians have confronted the prison system by telling the life stories of imprisoned individuals, creating empathetic bonds between listeners and those individuals, and critiquing the racial and social inequalities that incarceration preys upon. Prison Song takes a broad, interdisciplinary approach to explore how artists across genres — hip-hop, country, blues, folk, rock, jazz, and classical — have protested the prison system. David Metzer examines the works of incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and non-incarcerated musicians from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including prison records, government reports, legislation, court decisions, and scholarship from carceral studies, each chapter reveals how musicians responded to developments in the prison system at particular historical moments and how their works have shaped public understanding of the prison system in the United States.”

Defending The Music: Michael Steinberg At The Boston Globe, 1964 To 1976
Edited by Susan Feder, Jacob Jahiel, Marc Mandel

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Defending The Music: Michael Steinberg At The Boston Globe, 1964-1976 brings together, for the first time, some 300 selections from the more than 2,000 reviews, essays, and features written by the eminent critic and musicologist Michael Steinberg during his dozen years — from 1964 to 1976 — as music critic of The Boston Globe. Steinberg possessed a special gift in his ability to make complex aspects of music easy to understand, writing with a combination of wit, elegance, and passion that was inspiring to both amateurs and professionals. Eloquent and highly entertaining, his Globe writings inspired admiration and controversy for their exacting standards. The selections offered here serve as witness to some of the most important music and music-making of the time, in Boston and elsewhere. This book will be of equal interest to a wide variety of concertgoers, music aficionados, record collectors, teachers, and students. At the same time, it is a valuable artifact of reception history and shows how pieces of music, whether familiar, unfamiliar, or newly created, were interpreted by artists and received by audiences and critics. Defending The Music also serves as a companion volume to existing compilations of Steinberg’s work published by Oxford University Press.”