A warm, entertaining appreciation of a key period in the career of a vital American band.
The author’s second book on the Allman Brothers focuses on the early 1970s, when the band recorded the titular album.
Rock journalist Paul draws on extensive interviews with band members and others from their circle, including tapes recorded in the 1980s by the band’s archivist, Kirk West. The author begins with Gregg’s and Duane’s musical careers before forming the band, and he follows them through their early success. The deaths of Duane and bassist Berry Oakley in 1971 and 1972, respectively, might have ended the band, but Gregg and guitarist Dickie Betts took over leadership roles and brought the band—with new member Chuck Leavell on keyboards—back to the studio to record Brothers and Sisters, which was released in 1973. Paul diligently explores nearly everything involving the album and time period, including the band’s encounters with the Grateful Dead, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and then–presidential candidate Jimmy Carter; the drug problems of several members; the dishonest business dealings of their predatory record company; and domestic dramas, including Gregg’s tumultuous marriage to Cher. The author also shows how Betts and Gregg had differing visions for how the band’s music could evolve: Betts leaned in the direction of lyrical tunes with a country flavor, while Gregg adhered to the group’s blues-band origins. At times, it seems a miracle that any album got made, let alone one that Paul credibly touts as central to the era. The author covers some of the Allmans’ live shows, notably the 1973 Summer Jam at Watkins Glen concert, where they shared the stage with the Dead and The Band and played in front of 600,000 people. The book is full of trenchant observations by friends and contemporaries, creating a valuable perspective on the music scene in the early ’70s.
A warm, entertaining appreciation of a key period in the career of a vital American band.Pub Date: July 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781250282699
Page Count: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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