I may have heard Hank Williams and Robert Johnson years earlier, but my love affair with American roots music didn’t begin in earnest until I encountered a much less imposing voice: Peter Guralnick.
Even among those who speak with the pen, Guralnick is soft-spoken. He is also the most honest and loving music writer I have ever read. What is most remarkable about the numerous profiles Guralnick has written of country and blues artists is that they are simultanously truthful and affectionate. The foremost writer on American vernacular music earned his position in large part by listening to the artists he admires, and, to the greatest extent possible, letting them speak for themselves.
I wish I could write about the man who may be my favorite author as skillfully as he has written about his many heroes. Maybe, someday, I’ll get a chance to interview him and write the profile he deserves. (If I do, I’ll fulfill a modest dream, much like Guralnick did when he got the chance to talk to Sam Phillips.) Until then, however, with only scant biographical details and hearsay to rely upon, the best I can do is to recommend his books.
While he is probably best known for his two volume biography of Elvis Presley, Guralnick’s body of music writing consists mainly of much shorter pieces, such as those collected in Feel Like Going Home and Lost Highway. Those two works and the long-form book Sweet Soul Music form a trilogy on country, blues, and soul music that is remarkable in both its breadth and depth.
I begin with Guralnick not only because my experience with roots music begins with him but also because it is with the spirit of Guralnick’s writing in mind that I embark upon this new trial in my own journey as a music writer.
