Elizabeth Elkins sorts fact from fiction about Nashville’s Timothy Demonbreun
The record is full of gaps when it comes to the life of Timothy Demonbreun, the French Canadian fur trader who has come to be known as Nashville’s first resident. Elizabeth Elkins goes about getting the story straight in We Should Soon Become Respectable, a lively, well-researched history of a mysterious man.
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Rickie Lee Jones recalls her family and career in Last Chance Texaco
Rickie Lee Jones’ memoir looks back at her family, her career, and the long road to seeing the beauty in her life. Jones will appear at the online 2021 Southern Festival of Books on October 9.
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Mary Gauthier delves into her life and art in Saved by a Song
In Saved by a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting, Grammy-nominated folk musician Mary Gauthier unpacks her ideas around “what makes a song matter.” This investigation takes us through Gauthier’s personal narrative as a queer woman, a survivor of addiction, and an artist who reaches deep into the wounds of her childhood to reckon with her past traumas through song. Gauthier will discuss the book at a ticketed virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on July 6.
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Brandi Carlile pens a frank, vulnerable memoir
Americana artist Brandi Carlile disarms us with her earnestness in Broken Horses, a candid rendering of her personal story and her ascent to Grammy-winning fame.
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Dolly Parton, Songteller places the country icon’s songwriting at the center of her story
Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics follows the country legend’s life and career from her earliest days growing up in Appalachia to her most recent creative ventures. Co-written by Parton and Nashville-based music journalist Robert K. Oermann, Songteller includes full lyrics to 175 of Parton’s songs, as well as unabashed anecdotes from the remarkable woman with the “Smoky Mountain DNA” who penned them.
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Late R&B legend Denise LaSalle always called her own shots
Always the Queen: The Denise LaSalle Story offers a candid account of the life of the late R&B icon. This posthumous memoir, written with blues historian David Whiteis, also serves as an entertaining and boldly rendered look into the history of the musical genre LaSalle loved.
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