Backbeat Books News Today

As his classic tune turns 50, Camden's Don McLean defies a damaged reputation, dismissing his family's accusations and continuing to profit from a beloved song.

An OG Beatles fans charts her journey of Fab Four admiration and introductions over decades.

Today, Veteran music journalist Katherine Yeske Taylor releases She’s a Badass: Women in Rock Shaping Feminism (hardcover; $34.95; ISBN: 978-1-4930-7254-5.) via  Backbeat Books (a division of Rowman & Littlefield.) The exciting collection includes  twenty in-depth chapters, each focusing on a groundbreaking artist as she discusses feminism and what it means to be a woman in the music business (and in life in general).

Heart’s Ann Wilson She’s a Badass excerpt

Tonight, Wednesday, August 23, 2023 – two days shy of what would have been Shorter’s 90th birthday, he'll be feted at the Hollywood Bowl.

A beautiful color illustrated history of bass guitar from the 1950s to the present. I found it to be an easy read, applicable to any bass

The Mamas and the Papas, sunshine pop purveyors of the '60s, finally get a definitive biography of their short but wild ride on the charts.

Many of us who were inspired into journalism as young people identified with a certain archetype - the newspaper man, the truth-telling, ink-stained wretch who fought the good fight, loved great stories, and took no guff but had a tender heart. I was lucky to work for an editor like that, except that he has about four times the requisite portion of heart. His name’s Tim Ghianni, and after literally walking the streets and working the beats of Nashville for fifty years, he’s told his story an...

A new book details the brief period in the '70s when rockers left the stage for the dance floor and pumped out disco hits.

Bluesman Tommy Castro and the Painkillers will headline the Spire Center in Plymouth on Thursday, April 6.