Songbook: KEXP's Music & Literature Series
Most Recent Event:
On Monday, October 2nd, 2017, KEXP hosted a special evening with Billy Bragg, singer/songwriter and author of the book Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World, out now via Faber & Faber. Called the first book to explore this musical genre in depth, Bragg traces the history of skiffle, revived and popularized in England during the mid-1950s and thought of as "a critical stepping stone to the second folk revival." A blend of jazz, blues, and ragtime, skiffle is said to have paved the way for bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. DJ Greg Vandy, host of The Roadhouse on KEXP, led a conversation with Bragg on this fascinating moment in music history, followed by an audience Q&A and book signing with the author. Elliott Bay Book Company was on site at the event with copies for sale.
Billy Bragg has been a tireless recording artist, performer, and political campaigner for over thirty years. He debuted in 1983 with the punk-charged LP Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy, and his most recent release is 2016's Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad, a collaboration with Joe Henry, recorded at various points on a journey between Chicago and Los Angeles by train in March of that year. Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World is his second non-fiction book; in 2015, Faber & Faber published A Lover Sings, a collection of over seventy of his best-known lyrics, selected and annotated by the author.
• 8/24/17: Barrett Martin and The Singing Earth
• 5/30/17: Mike McCready and Of Potato Heads and Polaroids
• 4/20/17: Damon Krukowski and The New Analog
• 10/28/16: Lol Tolhurst of The Cure presents Cured: The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys
• 10/14/16: Taste of Iceland: Literature
• 7/20/16: Trouble Boys: the True Story of The Replacements with author Bob Mehr and former Replacements manager Peter Jesperson
KEXP is located at 472 1st Avenue North (at the corner of Republican).
Attendance is first come, first served. Made possible in part by: