Rock N Roll Librarian
The Rock N Roll Librarian: Our Monthly Rock N Roll Book Club, co-hosted by Shelley Sorenson and Christian Swain. Shelley picks a book, usually a Rock N Roll biography, she reads it and I purposely do not and then we dig into it together. Shelley is a rocker from way back, and a professional librarian from way back. She goes way back with us too - the Librarian was our first “spin off” show! Shelley sees Rock N Roll Librarian as an opportunity to combine her love of books and love of music into something new! Proud part of Pantheon - the podcast network for music lovers.
Episodes
July 24, 2023 • 2 mins
The Metallica Report is coming!
Keep up with all things Metallica by going straight to the source for your news. This weekly report is hosted by Steffan Chirazi, long-time rock scribe and editor of the band’s online mag, So What!, and Renée Richardson, a well-known Bay Area radio personality who now oversees the band’s foundation, All Within My Hands.
Steffan and Renée will keep you in the loop each week with updates, features, a...
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November 4, 2021 • 96 mins
Shelley and Christian discuss this brooding coming-of-age mystery about 18-year-old Luna's search for her biological father, which leads her to England to find Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin's legendary guitarist. Luna comes to grips with repressed memories of her mother's suicide and the music and musician she was obsessed with. Fans of Led Zeppelin, in particular, will enjoy how the author has woven the band’s mythology through Luna’s ...
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March 12, 2021 • 107 mins
Praise the Lord! Shelley and Christian discuss the “Godmother of Rock and Roll”, whose obscure tale is told in the book Shout, Sister, Shout! The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe by Gayle F. Wald, 2007. Brought up in the Pentecostal church where congregants celebrated God with lively, joyful, rhythmic music using voice, trumpets, tambourines, pianos, organs, and guitars, Sister Rosetta brought rhythm ...
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December 28, 2020 • 105 mins
In this episode of the Rock n Roll Librarian Shelley and Christian discuss the book So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley (2017).
Roger Steffens, a respected historian and a leading Marley expert, has woven interviews of more than 75 friends, relatives, and lovers, music associates (including original Wailers Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer), into a rich testimony of the life of the reggae king―the full, inside account ...
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August 30, 2020 • 125 mins
In this episode of the Rock n Roll librarian, Shelley and Christian chat about Go-Go’s bassist Kathy Valentine’s story of what it took to find success and find herself, in ALL I EVER WANTED: A ROCK ‘n’ ROLL MEMOIR.
The Go-Go’s became the first multi-platinum-selling, all-female band to play instruments themselves, write and perform their own songs, and have a number one album. For Valentine, the band's success was the fulfillment ...
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May 27, 2020 • 105 mins
On this episode of the Rock n Roll Librarian, Shelley tells Christian all about the book RAGE TO SURVIVE: THE ETTA JAMES STORY.
One of the great women of American music, Etta was equally at home singing blues, R&B, and jazz, and gave us such amazing songs as “I’d Rather Go Blind”, “Tell Mama”, and “At Last”. She regales us with riveting stories of her chaotic youth in Los Angeles, her teen years in San Francisco’s Fillmore distric...
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March 24, 2020 • 100 mins
In this episode of the Rock n Roll Librarian, Shelley and Christian discuss the life of Jim Morrison (The Doors), as told in the ground-breaking 1980 biography “No One Here Gets Out Alive”. Here is Morrison in all his complexity - singer, philosopher, poet, delinquent - the brilliant, charismatic, and obsessed seeker who rejected authority in any form, the explorer who probed "the bounds of reality to see what would happen..." Seve...
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February 15, 2020 • 97 mins
On this episode Rock n Roll Librarian Shelley Sorenson and Rock n Roll Archaeologist Christian Swain explore a musician vital to the Stax Records and Southern Soul sounds, Booker T. Jones. As we discuss his memoir, “Time is Tight: My Life, Note By Note”, we play samples of many Stax hits and other important tracks that Booker wrote, produced, arranged and performed on, featuring Otis Redding, William Bell, Carla and Rufus Thomas, A...
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December 5, 2019 • 99 mins
Happy Holidays Diggers! Open up this present early! Shelley and Christian break down the new autobiography of one of the most beautiful punkers to ever hit the CBGB’s stage, Deborah Harry. The book is called, ‘Face It: A Memoir’ and it is a deep dig, warts and all of her life and times. It’s a great book, written by the Blondie singer herself and punctuated with expected pictures and unexpected fan art sent to her over the decades....
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October 17, 2019 • 87 mins
This episode Rock N Roll Librarian Shelley Sorenson and Rock N Roll Archaeologist Christian Swain go down the big muddy river and deep into the delta to discuss Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow’s new book ‘Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson’. This time, while on our Mississippi adventure, we will play many of the few Robert Johnson recordings and couple that with samples from famous acolytes throughout the r...
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August 13, 2019 • 107 mins
Join the Rock N Roll Librarian Shelley Sorenson and the Rock N Roll Archaeologist Christian Swain as they discuss the definitive biography of singer-songwriter Nick Lowe, best-known for "Cruel to Be Kind" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding"
Described as "Britain's greatest living songwriter," Nick Lowe has made his mark as a pioneer of pub rock, power-pop, and punk rock and as a producer of Elvis Costello,...
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June 11, 2019 • 102 mins
Shelley and Christian have a great time getting into the memoir from Bruce Dickinson, the larger-than-life, multifaceted lead vocalist of Iron Maiden, one of the most successful, influential and enduring rock bands ever.
Pioneers of Britain’s nascent Rock & Metal scene back in the late 1970s, Iron Maiden smashed its way to the top, thanks in no small part to the high-octane performances, operatic singing style, and stage presence o...
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April 17, 2019 • 88 mins
Shelley and Christian dig deep into friend of the show Meredith Ochs' latest book, Aretha: The Queen of Soul - A Life in Photographs. Since the book is filled with photos, along with three essays by Ms. Ochs, we decide to play as many disparate songs by the Diva of divas to showcase just how amazing Aretha really was during her lifetime.
Aretha Franklin’s voice was legendary, unforgettable: deeply rooted in gospel, yet versatile en...
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February 15, 2019 • 127 mins
Shelley and Christian dive into Bruce's autobiography, 'Born to Run'.
In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl’s halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That’s how this extraordinary autobiography began.
Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same hones...
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November 22, 2018 • 107 mins
On October 7th, 2017 Tom Petty joined the rock n roll orchestra on the other side. He was 67 years young. For rockers around the world, like Prince a few months earlier, it was a shock coupled with immense sadness. Forever on we will not have Tom around with his Heartbreakers disposing easy wisdom in song or slyly telling off adversaries with Southern charm or that kick ass band that hummed like a stock car racer. It was a hard one...
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August 20, 2018 • 91 mins
For more than fifty years, Paul Simon has spoken to us in songs about alienation, doubt, resilience, and empathy in ways that have established him as one of the most beloved artists in American pop music history. Songs like “The Sound of Silence,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Still Crazy After All These Years,” and “Graceland” have moved beyond the sales charts and into our cultural consciousness. But Simon is a deeply private pe...
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June 18, 2018 • 82 mins
This episode the Rock N Roll Librarian Shelley Sorensen and C Swain review ‘Hit So Hard’ by original drummer for the 90’s grunge band, Hole.
Patty Schemel's story begins with a childhood surrounded by the AA meetings her parents hosted in the family living room. Their divorce triggered her first forays into drinking at age twelve and dovetailed with her passion for punk rock and playing the drums. Patty's struggles with her sexuali...
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April 2, 2018 • 78 mins
This episode Shelley and Christian review “Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell” by Professor David Yaffe. Consider this a companion to our interview with Professor Yaffe on Deeper Digs in Rock.
Joni Mitchell may be the most influential female recording artist and composer of the late twentieth century. In Reckless Daughter, the music critic David Yaffe tells the remarkable, heart-wrenching story of how the blond girl wit...
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December 9, 2017 • 65 mins
This week Shelley and Christian review 'From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars' by Virginia Hanlon Grohl with forward by Dave Grohl. Published by Seal Press, April 2017.
Written by Dave Grohl’s mom (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) to answer her own questions about the experiences of other mothers who had raised rock stars, and based on interviews with women who had done just that. She was curious abo...
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September 7, 2017 • 63 mins
One of the four Monkees was actually a futurist.
Did you know that he helped birth MTV?
Did you know he put together one of the first country rock outfits of the late 1960's early '70's?
How about the fact he wrote 'Different Drum' famously covered by Linda Ronstadt.
Did you know that Mike Nesmith's mother invented Liquid Paper?
Shelly and Christian discuss this extremely interesting autobiography, 'Infinite Tuesdays: An Autobiog...
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