I’ve always been the DJ,” I write in the “Coda” section of my music-based memoir The Tracks of My Years, “inviting others to join me in what I’m feeling in a song.” And invite them I did to the Bur Oak music venue on August 13 in Madison, Wisconsin, where nearly 100 neighbors, friends, and book and music lovers enjoyed an evening of music and words. My reading of excerpts from The Tracks of My Years, among them “You’ve Got Your Troubles,” “Fire and Rain,” “The Tracks of My Years,” and “River,” was musically enriched by the pitch-perfect guitar playing of my good friend Sean Michael Dargan. Together, we cast a spell of memoir and melody that had the audience entranced for almost three hours.
And they purchased a lot of books in the process!
The Tracks of My Years sits at the intersection of popular music, cultural history, and personal narrative. Through each chapter, a specific song such as “Like A Rolling Stone” serves as the anchor for a memory: of knowledge; of heartbreak; of war; of return; of disillusionment; of community. The structure is part memoir and part curated playlist—each “track” shaping and reflecting the emotional terrain of the 1960s and ‘70s.
In addition to the rewarding local send-off, Tracks and I were featured at the national convention of the Vietnam Veterans of America at a book signing event hosted by Octavia Books in New Orleans on August 9. Already, there have been multiple radio/podcast interviews, while reviews have appeared in the Vietnam Veteran Magazine, Substack’s No Fences Review, and Stars and Stripes. Plus, I’ll be appearing at Mystery to Me Bookstore in Madison on Tuesday, September 9, and the Wisconsin Book Festival on Friday, October 24. And the Spotify playlist of
The Tracks of My Years is definitely worth a listen –
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2SiTq5A3GboxJ4uTNdMGJ1
At each and every opportunity, I give a well-deserved shout-out to Legacy Book Press for all their support and encouragement. As the old radio DJs used to say, “the hits just keep on comin’.