New Solo Album, 19 Ways Finished, Murphy's Outlaw Gig 2020!!!

Hey, folks.

Below is my fall newsletter, which just went out to my email list. (If you didn't just receive an email from me, you're not on my email list, but don't worry. I can add you. I have that kind of pull around here. Just shoot me an email at arted@artedwards.com with ADD in the subject line, and I'll make it so.)

Here's the newsletter.

It’s been a while since I caught up with you. How have you been? I’ve had a few developments since we last touched base.

1. This past February, I played a gig in Arizona with Murphy’s Outlaw. The band consists of at least three old friends/talented musicians—Jim Gerke, Dustin Denham, and Brian Blush—and the warm reception we received made me realize I need to make music, which I’d left behind a decade ago to focus on writing. Funny, but at 40, I felt too old to make music, but 50 feels like just the right age.

My renewed enthusiasm led to me contacting my Atlanta cohort and high school friend Bret Hartley, and the two of us immediately rallied behind the idea of a new solo album. We’ve been working on it since May. All of the material is written, Kevin Leahy’s drums and vibraphone are tracked, Bret’s just about finished with guitars, and at the moment, I’m deep in bass mode. Then it's acoustic guitar, vocals, and mix. I’ve made a pact with Bret not to put a deadline on this project, but a 2020 release feels eminent. I will of course keep you posted.


2. Shortly after the Murphy’s Outlaw gig, I finished my fourth novel, which is called 19 Ways to Destroy Your Rock Band. This is an eight-year project that started as a memoir of my time in the Refreshments and ended as a wild departure from reality that bears only coincidental resemblance to anything that happened. Lots of stretchers, as Mark Twain would say. So, hey, another novel, and this one's funny!

I’ve spend the last eight months looking for a home for 19 Ways, and so far I’ve come up empty. You know that I know how to self-publish these things, so worst case scenario, you will see 19 Ways by 2021, probably early in the year.


3. Finally, the wild success of the first Murphy’s Outlaw show means the boys and I want to make the show into an annual thing. That means in a mere three months, I will saddle up my four-string and escape the Portland gloom for the Phoenix sun, and the Outlaws will do it all over again.

A venue has yet to be set, but the date of the show is firm: Friday, February 21st. Remember, Brian and Dusty are both co-founders of the Refreshments, which means you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a set or two of Refreshments material as well as plenty of other goodies. In other words, time to make travel plans! 



That’s about it from my neck o’ the woods. Have a great holiday season, and if you want more frequent updates, feel free to friend me at Facebook or periodically check out my website.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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My Review of The Innocents by Michael Crummey up at Book and Film Globe!!!

The best part of reviewing novels is stumbling across a title as well crafted as The Innocents by Michael Crummey.

Take a look at my review for more details.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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My Review of Parisian Lives By Deirdre Bair up at Book and Film Globe

I admit I wanted to review Deirdre Bair's memoir Parisian Lives, about her time as the biographer of Samuel Beckett and Simone du Beauvoir, because I love Beckett, but what I found most interesting was her process for verifying the facts for her biographies. Check out my review of Parisian Lives to find out more.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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My Review of Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry up at Book and Film Globe!!!

Hi, friends.

I was lucky to get the chance to review Kevin Barry's latest novel Night Boat to Tangiers at Book and Film Globe. As revealed through his book, Barry is deeply committed to the process of elevating his characters through his use of lyrical, carefully chosen language. That's something I will always get behind.

Check out the review.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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My Review of The Warlow Experiment by Alix Nathan up at Book and Film Globe!!!

The best thing that can happen when I'm reading a novel is to be reminded of reading experiences from my formative years, back when I was learning to love books. This happened while reading The Warlow Experiment, my review of which just popped up at Book and Film Globe. Joyce, Dickens, and Austen are all in there to some degree. Not bad company.

Check out the review!

Yours in laying down the law,

Art


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My Review of Summerlings by Lisa Howorth up at Book and Film Globe!!!

I really liked writing this review for Neal Pollack and Book and Film Globe. Do you know why? Because I knew at least one person would get the joke of the review title.

Check it out!

Yours in laying down the law,

Art


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My Review of Destroy All Monsters up at The Believer!!!

I've been reading the music issue of The Believer for years, always hoping I might someday find my work there. 

The day has arrived.

This past week, my review of the rock novel Destroy All Monsters by Jeff Jackson appeared in the magazine. Jackson's work combines the rock novel form with the dystopia, and I couldn't get past the idea that his dark vision for a potential rock music future was somehow tied to our inability to cut the cord.

Feel free to take a look at this short review, and be prepared to scroll down to find it.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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My Review of THE NICKEL BOYS by Colson Whitehead up at Los Angeles Review of Books!!!

I'm lucky to have been granted the chance to review Colson Whitehead's latest novel THE NICKEL BOYS for Los Angeles Review of Books. A hint at what's inside:

"Whitehead creates individual portraits that are all the more evocative for their singularity. His focus allows us to fill in the rest of the world with our imaginations. Any real expansion happens one soul at a time." 

Come check it out.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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My Review of Daisy Jones & The Six up at Book and Film Globe!!!

"Being in a rock band has a desperate, barely-held-together feel—money, drugs, sex, creativity, drummers who won’t play the songs the way you wrote them."

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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I'm Making a Solo Album with Book Review Money

"What are you going to do with it?"

I was at my writing group the Whom, and one of my fellow Whomers wanted to know what I was going to do with the $250 I'd just been bragging about receiving for a book review I'd sold. This $250 marked the first real money I'd ever made from writing book reviews, and I was saying the figure like Steve Martin in The Jerk.

The question What are you going to do with it? took me aback. I'd been writing and publishing book reviews for years, and for the most part, for free. I like writing book reviews. I like to think I offer an author something besides "I liked it" or "I didn't like it." I also like the idea that books can remain part of the public conversation because of the way they communicate their messages over longer periods of time (as opposed to say, a blog). I clearly didn't need to get paid to write book reviews, so I never really cared if I got paid or not.

Suddenly, I'd gotten paid. And here's another funny thing: I was actually, suddenly, getting paid for all of my published book reviews. This kind of happened all at once. I'd started submitting my reviews to more paying markets, and these markets were accepting my reviews and mailing me checks. It was unreal. Didn't these people know I'd do this for free? That I'd done it for free for years? (Let's not fill them in.) By the end of 2018, I had secured $500 in book review money. It seemed important to do something with this dough, not to just deposit it and watch it disappear.

So, what am I going to do with it?

Anyone who knows me knows that I am always writing a novel. I do this because I like to write novels, and because I hope they serve as a good medium to communicate to people over longer periods of time. It's also fun to try hard to do at least one thing really well, and writing novels is my thing for that.

A funny thing happened on March 1st of this year: I finished a novel project, Nineteen Ways to Destroy Your Rock Band, which I'd been working on for eight years. Done. Finito. I've since been submitting the novel to various industry people hoping they might want to publish it. (No luck so far, I'm working on it.) I made a decision when I finished the novel not to jump right back into writing another one. This was kind of hard for me, since I'm always writing a novel, but I've managed to write nothing but nonfiction and book reviews since then. I'll probably start a novel after Labor Day.

I've also spent these six months reevaluating what I can do to keep the creative juices flowing even when I'm not writing a novel. One of the ways I celebrated the finishing of this novel was to play my first musical gig in a decade. I flew down to Phoenix and played a bunch of Refreshments tunes with Murphy's Outlaw, a band that includes my longtime friends Brian Blush, Jim Gerke, and Dustin Denham. This was great fun, and people seemed to like it. It really got me thinking about the decade I took off music to focus on writing, what I'd given up.

Another longtime musician friend, Bret Hartley, has a home studio, and he never misses a chance to encourage me to make another album with him. We did this in 2007, and both of us loved doing it and loved the results. The problem with making albums is that they can be expensive, but because of Bret's willingness to produce, it's not really that expensive. It might even be something a lucky book reviewer can pay for with book review money.

So, that's what I'm doing. I've signed on Bret Hartley, who produces and plays guitar, and drummer Kevin Leahy, whom you might know as the 13th and 15th drummer of the Bodeans. These guys are incredible musicians whom I happen to like quite a bit, and I've been working on all kinds of new musical material. We start laying drums in the fall, and I suspect we'll be finished with the thing sometime in the first half of 2020.

So, that's what I'm doing with my book review money. When you see me here or elsewhere promoting a book review of mine, I hope you read the review and buy the book, but also know that my income from the review is going to make new music.

That's pretty much the news from me. I'll be writing book reviews, raking in serious book review cash, and writing new songs all summer.  I hope you have a good summer, too.

 Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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My Review of The Personality Brokers by Merve Emre up at Kenyon Review!!!

My new thing is to reference a rock band into every review I write. This comes pretty naturally for me since I tend to think in rock band anyway. Bon Jovi manages to squirm its way into my review of The Personality Brokers by Merve Emre. I don't have control of these things.

Check it out!

 Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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My Review of The Ministry of Truth by Dorian Lynskey up at Book and Film Globe!!!

I've loved George Orwell since I was assigned 1984 in a community college English class in 1987. It was the second novel assigned in the class, between Tess of the D'Urbervilles and A Clockwork Orange, and I was completely high on just how revolutionary this work was. Of course, the book has taken on a whole new level of relevance in 2019, and having just re-read it and found it as together and complete as any novel you can name, I highly recommend jumping back in to 1984 if it's been a while--or if you've never read it.

I think Dorian Lynskey would agree. He just published The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell's 1984, and I reviewed it for Book and Film Globe. Do take a peek.


Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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My Review of WHAT IF THIS WERE ENOUGH? up at Kenyon Review!!!

There's no way the "Here we are now, entertain us" generation didn't play a big role in this.

Come read about it in my review of the superb book of essays WHAT IF THIS WERE ENOUGH? by Heather Havrilesky. The review just popped up at Kenyon Review.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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I Played a Gig/I Finished a Novel

So, I've had quite the week.

First, I played my first musical gig in about decade.

Murphy's Outlaw of Arizona--featuring two founding members of the Refreshments, my longtime cohort Jim Gerke, and my new bud Mitch Cole--invited me down to AZ to play a bunch of our old material. Little did I know that ten or so family members from Illinois or Colorado would make the trek to take in the spectacle. The week included a trip down to Dustin Denham's basement for rehearsal (where most of my AZ bands started); a great time on Thursday with my mom, dad, wife, and extended family; and a pass through two hours of Refreshments and other songs at Rock Bar on Friday night. This turned out to be a lot more fun than I expected, and I expected it to be plenty fun. A huge thank you to everyone who helped make it a very special trip for me.

Then, this week I came home and finished my latest novel, Nineteen Ways to Destroy Your Rock Band

(They say write what you know.)

This was an eight-year (!) project that started as a memoir of my time in the Refreshments and mutated over the last four years into a novel. It feels wonderful to finally have this thing off my desk. It is now in the hands of a few agents, and I hope to hear something soon. Know that I wouldn't expect the novel to be out any sooner than early 2021, but I wanted to report it's done. I'm sure I'll be posting more on it over the next weeks and months.

What does this mean going forward? It means I can relax a bit and have a good time in 2019 and 2020. First, Murphy's Outlaw is threatening to come to my neck of the woods (Portland, OR) over the summer to do it all over again. The plan is in its early stages, but it actually feel like it's going to happen. If you're interested, please friend me on Facebook, and I will keep you posted on details.

Also, sitting in with Murphy's Outlaws down in Phoenix next year is a no-brainer. I'd love to do it next week but will have to wait until next year.

What else? Who knows? But this thing ain't over, not by a long shot.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Art Edwards to let Buddy Out of the Cage for One Night In AZ in February!!!

One of the highlights of 2018 was watching the formation and ascendent star of Murphy's Outlaw.

This band consists of three of my best friends, two of which are former Refreshments and one a guy who was the lead singer of all of my AZ bands not the Refreshments. Despite the bass position of this band being more than ably manned by Mitch Cole, I couldn't help but watch on from Oregon and ... well, you know.

It seems my wish is being granted as I am officially scheduled to sit in for one night with Murphy's Outlaw on Friday, February 22nd at Scottsdale, Arizona's ROCK BAR.

I'm already starting to get a little geeky over this.

My understanding is you can get tickets at Rock Bar's Facebook Page and at their website.

Brian Blush asked me if I have any photos that might serve as appropriate. It took some digging, but I found an outtake from the Refreshments' first "photo shoot," the story of which you might find amusing.

In the summer of 1994, the Refreshments had our first LP Wheelie in the can. One problem: we didn't have a band photo.

You know, you're a band, and you want some cool, professional photo to put inside your CD. It's something bands do.

So, what do you do when you want a nice, professional photo of yourself? Why, go to Sears, of course!

As luck would have it, Sears had a sale, and the four of us put on our Sunday best and went to the Sears on (I believe) 44th and Camelback and threw down the credit card for the deluxe package.

It's probably one of my favorite memories of being in the band.

The young lady doing the shooting that day caught right on. "Which background would you like?"

"What are our choices?"

She started pulling down these tacky photo backgrounds, but I assure you, none was more tacky than the "space age" one that clearly dated from Star Wars time.

"That's the one."

So, we got all cozy--our little AZ rock and roll family getting its picture taken--and we came home that day (or back then probably had to go back and pick up a week later) with our photos.

The best one went into the inner sleeve of Wheelie. (I'm listening to Wheelie right now, incidentally. "Don't Wanna Know.") The second was a kind of outtake that found its way into some press stuff back in the day. Here's a partial.

That was 25 years ago. 

Wonder where I'll be in a year? How about 25?

Come see Murphy's Outlaw on February 22nd at Rock Bar and swing right along with Dustin Coleman Denham, Brian David Blush, James Allen Gerke, and of course, Arthur Eugene Edwards III.

Or Buddy.

My Review of THE MELODY by Jim Crace up at Book and Film Globe!!!

I've been waiting for a site like Book and Film Globe to pop up for some time. It features fun, smart reviews of books and films by authors that aren't obsessed with playing fair or who they might offend. Bluntness has its virtues--or maybe not, but it's fun anyway.

I was thrilled to have the site accept my review of the latest novel by Jim Crace called The Melody. Not a rock novel, per se, but there is a singer in it, and this guy can write. Come take a peek.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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