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 Caught in the Carousel - Music Reviews and More
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Getting in Tune, by Roger Trott
Hew, Screw + Glue: How Stuff is Made, by James Innes-Smith
Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride With Tommy James And The Shondells , by Tommy James
Mingering Mike, by Dori Hadar
New York Dolls, by Bob Gruen
Red Album of Asbury Park, by Alex Austin
Satchmo: The Wonderful World And Art Of Louis Armstrong, by Steven Brower
Stalker Girl, by Rosemary Graham
Stone Roses, by Alex Green
Three Wishes: An Intimate Look At Jazz Greats, by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz
The Red Album Of Asbury Park
Alex Austin
VBW Publishing
The follow-up to 2005's The Perfume Factory, Alex Austin's The Red Album of Asbury Park rejoins protagonist Sam Nesbitt and his unquenchable thirst for rock and roll glory. Set at the tail end of the '60s in an Asbury Park that presages the arrival of Springsteen, Austin guides Nesbitt through the back alleys of the life of a struggling musician and on the way he comes face-to-face with its seedy underbelly—its demons, its drugs, its dark, doleful nights. Austin namechecks the Beatles, RFK, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, and places Nesbitt at the dawn of a decisive and future-altering decade. There are all-night jams, racial tensions, parental angst, hand injuries, the electricity of new love and even a murder, all of which are placed tauntingly in front of Nesbitt, as Austin challenges his lead character to make decisions that will change not only his life but the lives of those around him. Writing with an assured and highly charged narrative velocity, Austin's voice is authentic and true, making Nesbitt a narrator who is likable, flawed and helplessly tragic. His innocence may get swallowed by his experience, but his optimism and youthful romanticism remains in the end: "I was still in love with her and of course always would be, and in a vague way, without any details, I thought that somehow it would all come out right." An affecting and honest work that rolls out like a pop song and resonates unforgettably, the way a great chorus should.
—Alex Green
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