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It Still Moves (book)

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It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music
First edition
AuthorAmanda Petrusich
LanguageEnglish
SubjectAmerican music
PublisherFaber & Faber
Publication date
August 26, 2008
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages272
ISBN978-0-86547-950-0

It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music is a 2008 book by American music journalist Amanda Petrusich.[1]

Publication

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The project originated in a piece for Paste Magazine, where Petrusich served as senior contributing editor.[2] She published the 272-page book with Faber & Faber on August 26, 2008.[3]

Content

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In The Guardian, Joe Boyd described the book as "a terrific piece of travel writing" and "a tour through the roots of American rural music."[4] Petrusich investigates on the influence of blues on later genres of popular music, beginning with the work of ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax.[5] In The Village Voice, John S.W. MacDonald described the project as "show[ing] us what the current indie-folk scene and its record-collecting twenty- and thirtysomethings...have to do with classic American folk: what bands like Iron and Wine and Califone have inherited from that tradition and what they’ve thrown away. To do all this, [Petrusich] hit the road, heading south in her beat-up Honda Civic to Memphis, Nashville, and Appalachia to find the seeds of folk and the birthplace of rock 'n' roll."[6]

Reception

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Reviewing It Still Moves for PopMatters, Derek Beres describes Petrusich as "a passionate writer whose love for music shines through on every page. As she explains early on, she is not concerned with how many records are sold or what tactics artists use in the studio. Her approach is more intangible, hence more emotionally tactile: Who are these people creating this music? What are their dreams, ambitions, philosophies?...This is, in large part, what makes this book so enjoyable—the people behind the songs, not to mention her own personal perceptions of what goes on behind her scenes."[5]

References

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  1. ^ Gibbs, Jonathan (3 January 2009). "It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways and the Search for the Next American Music". Financial Times. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  2. ^ Weinberg, Steve (August 21, 2008). "Amanda Petrusich: It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  3. ^ "IT STILL MOVES by Amanda Petrusich". Kirkus Reviews. June 1, 2008. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  4. ^ Boyd, Joe (23 January 2009). "American beauty". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  5. ^ a b Beres, Derek (29 October 2008). "It Still Moves by Amanda Petrusich". PopMatters. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  6. ^ MacDonald, John S.W. (August 19, 2008). "The New Weird America of Amanda Petrusich's It Still Moves". The Village Voice. Retrieved 6 July 2017.