Meet the Author: David Menconi

David Menconi will make an appearance at the Warren County Memorial Library on June 3rd at 11 AM to discuss his book, “Step it Up and Go.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Menconi is North Carolina’s 2019 Piedmont Laureate, and a longtime music/arts critic. His writing has appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer, Rolling Stone, New York Times, Spin, Billboard and Salon.com. See davidmenconi.com for more.

His latest book is “Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music, from Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk,” published by University of North Carolina Press. Previous books include 2015’s “Comin’ Right at Ya,” a history of the band Asleep at the Wheel co-written with Ray Benson and published by University of Texas Press; 2012’s “Ryan Adams: Losering, A Story of Whiskeytown” (UT Press); and a novel, 2000’s “Off the Record.”

ABOUT THE BOOK

“Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music, from Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk”

This book is a love letter to the artists, scenes, and sounds defining North Carolina’s extraordinary contributions to American popular music. David Menconi spent three decades immersed in the state’s music, where traditions run deep but the energy expands in countless directions. Menconi shows how working-class roots and rebellion tie North Carolina’s Piedmont blues, jazz, and bluegrass to beach music, rock, hip-hop, and more. From mill towns and mountain coves to college-town clubs and the stage of American Idol, Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk, Step It Up and Go celebrates homegrown music just as essential to the state as barbecue and basketball.

Spanning a century of history from the dawn of recorded music to the present, and with sidebars and photos that help reveal the many-splendored glory of North Carolina’s sonic landscape, this is a must-read for every music lover.