When you walk into Fanny’s, you’ll notice a small but very intentionally-sourced shelf of books. As a book worshipper, I’ve spent a lot of time thumbing through the collection as I’ve waited to pick up an instrument being repaired. I love knowing that though it’s a small collection, it’s thematically focused, and largely centered around the working-musician lifestyle, or amplifies stories of female musician legends.
The coolest part to me though is how the Fanny’s book collection so clearly reflects the ethos of the business — community voice being at the heart of it. Between biographies of Memphis Minnie and Mavis Staples, you’re likely to see names of friends and neighbors — instrumentalists, singer-songwriters, musicologists, and more.
I hope to make this blog post the beginning of a series about local authors who’s work is featured on the sacred little shelf in Nashville’s most comfortable music store, but for starters, here’s three goodies:
1. Bass Players to Know, Ryan Madora
Learning to really play music requires immersion in the legacy of the instrument at hand. Each one of us who plays is a part of a long and sacred tradition. To know that each note is a continuation of that tradition deepens our playing greatly. It is important that beginners and life-long learners to know not just what notes to play, but who to listen to, as we find our own voice.
Incredible bass player and writer Ryan Madora provides the reader with a non-overwhelming structure to listen and learn from the greats. Amplifying the contributions of players who are often under-recognized, this book highlights the bass players who’s lines have shaped American music. Madora digs in to the nuance of notes, walk-ups, bass lines behind classic records, modern top-forty hits, and fleas known groovy B-sides. An invaluable tool for pros, hobbyists, and students alike, Bass Players To Know features a diverse range of players who have shaped the journey of the instrument, including Ray Brown, Jack Bruce, Cliff Burton, Duck Dunn, Louis Johnson, Edgar Meyer, Willie Weeks, and many others.
2. Bandlife, Matthew Paige
Tour. The strange, surreal place where time becomes both arbitrary and the boss of everything. The space where you are crammed in places with personalities big and small. The place where it is easy to really let yourself go if not paying attention, forgetting to hydrate, living on band meals, bar tabs, and peanut butter. Okay now I’m just projecting my own experience.
This book is written for touring musicians, by a touring musician who gathered the wisdom he discovered in his many years on the road. This book touches on staying healthy, traveling smart, maintaining positive inter-personal relationships, eating well, managing vices, sleep, money, emergencies and danger, cops, and finding a way to continue growing and developing through it all. I recommend this book to anyone who spends a great deal of time on the open road. Available at Fanny’s!
3. Good Booty, Ann Powers
This 2017 masterpiece by Ann Powers explores how pop music has shaped American perception and communication, giving us a vessel to express the seemingly unexpressable issues: specifically sexuality and race.
The book creates a fascinating century-spanning journey for the reader, from the Jazz Age to our modern day, almost personifying America as a human discovering her own sexuality and identity.
Publisher Harpercollins states: “Drawing on her deep knowledge and insights on gender and sexuality, Powers recounts stories of forbidden lovers, wild shimmy-shakers, orgasmic gospel singers, countercultural perverts, soft-rock sensitivos, punk Puritans, and the cyborg known as Britney Spears to illuminate how eroticism—not merely sex, but love, bodily freedom, and liberating joy—became entwined within the rhythms and melodies of American song.”
So friends, next time you stop in to Fanny’s, make sure to set aside a little time to thumb through some work by our neighbors and friends!
To visit Fanny’s online store, visit: https://fannys-house-of-music.myshopify.com/
To learn more about how you can support Fanny’s in fostering a safe, multi-generational arts space, visit https://www.fannysschoolofmusic.org
Blog by Georgia English / a Nashville-based musician, writer, illustrator, and educator.