Will Romano – författare

Incurable Blues explores the life and genius of Hubert Sumlin, a highly influential guitarist who has survived cancer, alcoholism, and personal and professional tribulations to testify to the classic days of Chicago blues. Sumlin's incendiary guitar playing is heard on most of Howlin' Wolf's classic Chess sides. Sumlin's pick-less playing has inspired countless blues-rock luminaries. Author Will Romano places Hubert's playing and performing style in context, showing how it formed the basis of blues rock and rock n roll and how it bridges the gap between African folk; the work of early masters like Robert Johnson, Charley Patton and Peetie Wheatstraw; the revisionist British invasion guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Keith Richards; and the modern-era blues styles of Stevie Ray Vaughan and John Mayer.

Alcoholic. Epileptic. Technically challenged. Jimmy Reed nevertheless overcame these roadblocks to become perhaps the most successful R&B/pop cross-over artist of the '50s with songs like “Big Boss Man” and “Bright Lights, Big City.” Musicians, family members, and those whose lives Reed touched offer revealing and heart-wrenching insights into this now-revered bluesman. While Reed's alcoholism was no secret, its effect on his musicianship is less understood. This engaging book tells the real story that until now has not been told.

From its artful beginnings (Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, the Mothers of Invention, and those progressive forebearers, the Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles), through the towering guitar solos, monumental synthesizer banks, and mind-boggling special effects of the Golden Age of Prog (Rush, Pink Floyd, Yes, ELP, Genesis, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, UK), through the radio-friendly “pop era” (Asia, the Phil Collins-led Genesis, and a reformed Yes), and right up to the present state of the art (Marillion, Spock's Beard, and Mars Volta), this is a wickedly incisive tour of rock music at its most spectacular. This is indeed the book prog rock fans have been waiting for, the only one of its kind, as fantastic as the subjects it covers.

There's nothing like it in the Rush catalog—or, indeed, in the entire prog-rock canon. Stylistically expansive and intellectually ambitious, 1981's Moving Pictures was a landmark release, one that helped define the progressive genre and that ensured Rush's place in the rock pantheon. In this definitive account of the album's creation and legacy, author Will Romano explores the rare alchemy behind a record that continues to inspire musicians and listeners even today.While Permanent Waves and Hemispheres were important releases in Rush's evolution as a band, Moving Pictures marked a turning point for the Canadian trio in more ways than one. It was not only a creative triumph but a commercial one, with sales and airplay that blasted them into the stratosphere of rock stardom. Beyond the individual power of its seven songs, however, the key to its lasting significance is the distinctive overarching vision that Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart brought to the album. As Romano shows, Moving Pictures reconciled opposing creative sensibilities to a remarkable degree, giving the record real thematic depth while at the same time rendering it the very antithesis of a "concept album." Each track was carefully layered with cinematic and multisensory meaning, paradoxically using music to evoke experiences beyond the strictly aural.Consistently insightful and frequently surprising, this book is filled with behind-the-scenes details based on new research and interviews, and it guides readers through the album's dizzying array of allusions and inspirations. Newbies and fervent Rush fans alike will find this an illuminating exploration of one of the band's most enduring achievements.

Prog Rock FAQ traces the controversial, but much misunderstood musical genre through its five-decade history, highlighting the rise, eventual decline, and recent resurgence of one of the most inventive and storied popular musical forms of the latter half of the 20th Century. Prog Rock FAQ digs deep to deliver a view of progressive rock as you've never known it: Technical wizards, cosmic messengers, visionary producers, groundbreaking album-cover illustrators, and even innovative musical instrument vendors separate memory from myth, fact from fiction, to recount prog rock's most historically significant milestones and little-known tales. This interview-rich, unapologetic volume addresses topics taboo and burning alike, while welcoming the reader on an enthralling journey replete with rapturous visions, wondrous stories, and endless enigmas.

The first half of the 1970s was an especially fertile period for British progressive rock, laying claim to classics such as Tarkus, Selling England by the Pound, Larks' Tongues in Aspic, The Dark Side of the Moon, and Thick as a Brick. Collectively these and other works represent the best British progressive rock had to offer. Yet, it's Yes's 1972 three-track masterpiece, Close to the Edge, that presents a snapshot of an adventurous rock band at the peak of its powers, daring to push itself musically, both as individuals and as a unit. In this absorbing chronicle, which draws upon dozens of original and archived interviews and features rare photographs and an extensive discography, acclaimed music journalist Will Romano examines why Close to the Edge is the ultimate prog rock album.Yes had previously penned epic tracks for The Yes Album and Fragile, but nothing on the magnitude of the musical gems appearing on Close to the Edge. It's something of a small miracle – perhaps even magic – that the virtuoso quintet crafted such a cohesive and compelling album during an often-hectic recording process that very nearly relegated this monumental work to the dustbin of history. So potent was the power of Close to the Edge that even before its release it had forever shifted the personal dynamics of the group and the course of progressive rock. Rarely had Yes, or any rock outfit for that matter, been simultaneously so expansive and concise, spiritual and savage, profound and nebulous.