Welcome to my site. It includes a brief bio and pages about my various books (mostly music-related, though
Riding with Strangers is about a cross-country hitchhiking trip). Also a performance blog exploring my musical repertoire with background and commentary on hundreds of songs, and an occasionally ongoing blog about immigration, nationalism, and belonging. Plus information about my CD,
Street Corner Cowboys, and other writing and album projects, including an instructional DVD on the Bahamian guitar style of
Joseph Spence. There are pages about various aspects of blues, corridos, and popular music, appreciations of my father others, an archive of my newspaper and magazine pieces, and whatever else seemed worth putting up here... Including pages on
The Mayor of MacDougal Street, the source of the Coen Brothers'
Inside Llewyn Davis; on my pop music history,
How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll; on
Dylan Goes Electric, which is soon to be a major motion picture; and on my new one,
Jelly Roll Blues, exploring the censorship of early blues and jazz through the songs and stories of Jelly Roll Morton.