Step It Up and Go - by David Menconi (Paperback)

About the Book

"This book is a love letter to North Carolina's popular music in all its many-splendored glory, from bluegrass, folk, and country to R&B, rock, and pop. Though the state's diverse music scenes have often operated in the shadows of better-known hubs for popular genres-New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Nashville, Austin, and Athens, Georgia-David Menconi shows North Carolina's influence on American popular music runs deep. He uses profiles of artists and their role in creating or shaping genres to reveal the richness of the state's musical landscape, with an arc that runs from the origin of recorded music in the state to the digital age"--

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"An absorbing love letter to the artists, scenes, and sounds of North Carolina's contributions to America's popular music. . . . Thoroughly researched and endlessly enjoyable."--PopMatters

"Captures the rich diversity of North Carolina's music through colorful stories, poignant photos, and humorous anecdotes. Menconi's a masterful storyteller and a delightful guide to the music of the Tar Heel state, and every chapter in the book deserves to be lingered over and treasured for its loving attention to the details of the lives and music dwelling in the state."--No Depression

"David Menconi delivers a series of profiles of musicians and movers and shakers, from the famous to the obscure, from North Carolina. He details each artist's origin, work ethic, good and bad luck, and ultimate contribution to the state's musical past."--Journal of Southern History

"Locates the soul of North Carolina music in its people's humble pragmatism. . . . Menconi's loving testament to our state's musical heritage is brisk and fun but will also be cited as a reference for years to come."--Brian Howe, IndyWeek

"Menconi [has] a deep and widespread insight into how music and business intersect, and an encyclopedic knowledge of the North Carolina scene."--John Lawless, Bluegrass Today

"Menconi [takes] a narrative approach, exploring a wide variety of music styles and packing his book with compelling stories."--Eddie Huffman, Greensboro News and Record

"The indispensable book you didn't know you needed. . . . Menconi leaves no disc un-spun as he fills the book with stories and sidebars and photos that could only have come from one who lived to tell the tales. . . . Step It Up and Go will surprise, inform and entertain -- and often, all three at once."--Mountain Times

"When it comes to music, North Carolina's contribution hasn't been shabby. . . . A survey of this talent is long overdue, and now music critic David Menconi offers one in Step It Up and Go."--Wilmington Star-News

"100 years of sound. From American Idol to Nina Simone, NC's rich musical legacy thrives. . . . Not every state can merit a hefty book about its music history, or fill an index with so many well-known names."--Raleigh News and Observer

About the Author

Music critic and journalist David Menconi spent twenty-eight years as staff writer at the Raleigh News and Observer. His most recent book (with Ray Benson) is Comin' Right at Ya: How a Jewish Yankee Hippie Went Country, or the Often Outrageous History of Asleep at the Wheel.