You too can be a star! If you've ever dreamed of singing on American Idol or grabbing a Grammy Award, The Diva Next Door is for you. Switzer's book, designed for everyone from total novice on up, takes a three-step approach: how to get physically and mentally in shape for a singing career, how to create and fine-tune an act, and how to shine at auditions and to book gigs. Written in the style of a caring girlfriend, the book blends practical information...

Actor, singer, songwriter Tyrese Gibson crafts a memoir filled with every emotion and life experience one could possibly imagine. With personal experiences paired with reflective questions based on his extremely popular blog piece, "The Love Circle", Tyrese hopes to inspire readers to pursue their dreams and not let life's obstacles stand in the way. HOW TO GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY is organized into a series of fundamental questions that helped...

Dick Dale & the Del-Tones began holding weekend dances at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, California, in the summer of 1960. Over the next year and a half, Dale developed the sound and style that came to be known as "surf music." The result was the development of more powerful guitar amplifiers, a dramatic increase in the sales of Fender guitars and amplifiers, and a shift from New York to West Coast recording studios. More and more people were...

Revivez, au travers de témoignages inédits, les grands moments qui ont fait la carrière de Ravi Shankar Ces mémoires exceptionnels retracent le parcours d'un homme hors du commun. Dans une langue claire et élégante nourrie des témoignages des nombreux musiciens qui ont croisé sa route, Shankar se souvient de son enfance à Bénarès, de ses tournées en Europe à l'époque o il dansait dans la troupe de son frère Uday, de son engagement...

Billie Holiday-also known as Lady Day-had fame, style, a stellar voice, big gardenias in her hair, and lots of dogs. She had a coat-pocket poodle, a beagle, Chihuahuas, a Great Dane, and more, but her favorite was a boxer named Mister. Mister was always there to bolster her courage through good times and bad, even before her legendary appearance at New York's Carnegie Hall. Newton's stylish illustrations keep the simply told story focused on the loving...

From Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson of the award-winning hip-hop group the Roots, comes this vibrant book commemorating the legacy of Soul Train-the cultural phenomenon that launched the careers of artists such as Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5, Whitney Houston, Lenny Kravitz, LL Cool J, and Aretha Franklin. Questlove reveals the remarkable story of the captivating program, and his text is paired with more than 350 photographs of the show's...

In Not That Fancy, GRAMMY-award winning singer and actress Reba McEntire shares life lessons, behind-the-scenes stories and photos, and her favorite comfort food recipes to inspire you to enjoy the simple things in life.

For much of the 20th century, Dallas was home to a wide range of vital popular music. By the 1920s, the streets, dance halls, and vaudeville houses of Deep Ellum rang with blues and jazz. Blind Lemon Jefferson was discovered singing the blues on the streets of Deep Ellum but never recorded in Dallas. Beginning in the 1930s, however, artists from Western swing pioneer Bob Wills to blues legend Robert Johnson recorded in a three-story zigzag moderne...

An oral history of musical genres from the Palmetto State musicians who helped define the sounds From Jabbo Smith, Dizzy Gillespie, and Drink Small to Johnny Helms, Dick Goodwin, and Chris Potter, South Carolina has been home to an impressive number of regionally, nationally, and internationally known jazz and blues musicians. Through richly detailed interviews with nineteen South Carolina musicians, jazz historian and radio host Benjamin Franklin...