National Network for Equitable Library Service

Discover the stunning rise, fall, and legacy of N.W.A, one of America's most revered and iconic enduring music groups, who put their stamp on pop culture, black culture, and who changed hip-hop music forever in this comprehensive and authoritative work of music journalism. Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella caused a seismic shift in hip-hop when they decided to form N.W.A in 1986. Suddenly rap became gangsta and relevant on the West Coast.

Unleash the song of your soul with Zen Guitar, a contemplative handbook that draws on ancient Eastern wisdom and applies it to music and performance. Each of us carries a song inside us, the song that makes us human. Zen Guitar provides the key to unlocking this song-a series of life lessons presented through the metaphor of music. Philip Sudo offers his own experiences with music to enable us to rediscover the harmony in each of our lives and open ourselves to Zen awareness uniquely suited to the Western Mind.

With dazzling, lyrical verse in the folk revival style, Colin Meloy pays tribute to Pete Seeger, a visionary who changed the world with song. Pete Seeger once sang that if he had a golden thread, he would use it to weave people from all over the world to one another. That golden thread, for Pete, was music. Born into a family of traveling musicians, Pete picked up his first instrument at age seven.

Young Neil is a detailed chronological narrative of the early life of iconic Canadian musician Neil Young. Exploring a time in this Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s life that has yet to be documented with such depth of research, Young Neil is an exhaustive document of his “Sugar Mountain” years, from 1945 to 1966. From his birth in Toronto through his school years in Florida, Ontario, and Manitoba, the book examines the development of Young’s unique talent against a backdrop of shifting postwar values, a turbulent family history, and a musical revolution in the making.

From behind the drumkit to the top of the charts: the backstage story of the Bee Gees

Sam Cutler was tour manager for the Rolling Stones at some of their major gigs in the late sixties, including the infamous concert at Altamont where a man was murdered by a Hells Angel in front of the stage while the Stones played on. After the show, Sam was left behind to make peace with the Hells Angels, the various mobsters and organizations who had taken an overt interest in the event, and the people of America. There has never been an official investigation into events at Altamont and those involved have never before spoken on record.

Legend. Bum. Genius. Con Man. Devoted husband and father. Myth. Storyteller. Inspiration. Drunk. Visionary. Tom Waits is all of these things.

Waits is the lifeline between the great Beat poets and today’s rock & roll heroes. He’s old enough to be your dad and cool enough to be your hero. One of the few truly original musicians recording today, he’s also the rare singer who can actually act, and he has put together a respectable body of work in movies.

Whispering Pines is the first comprehensive history of Canada’s immense songwriting legacy, from Gordon Lightfoot to Joni Mitchell.

A vivid and energetic history of Van Halen’s legendary early years

Canadian songwriters have always struggled to create work that reflects the environment in which they were raised, while simultaneously connecting with a mass audience. While nearly every songwriter who successfully crossed this divide did so by immersing themselves in the American and British forms of blues, folk, country, and their bastard offspring, rock and roll, traces of Canadian sensibilities were never far beneath the surface of the eventual end product. What were these sensibilities, and why did they transfer so well outside Canada?