2017 Connecticut Book Award Winner
"readers won't be able to stop turning the pages" - Booklist
About Cajun Waltz
The lyrics of a Cajun waltz may be dark as midnight with heartache and trouble, but still the music swings. The same goes for what happens after a shifty musician and a lonely shopgirl let destiny sweep them into ill-suited marriage in swampy southwest Louisiana on the eve of the Depression.
Love doesn't much figure between Richie Bainard and Esther Block. They build a business together while dreaming opposite dreams of fulfillment. But like a gumbo simmering with peppers and spice, desires finally come to a boil.
Three generations of the volatile clan grapple with the region's economic struggles and racial tensions. The Bainard children, twins Bonnie and R.J. and their half-brother Seth, pursue separate cravings for money, sex, and religion. The chase in each case runs off the rails thanks to a softhearted, cold-blooded ex-marine; a dazzling young stepmother of mixed race and mixed motives; and a high school tart who proves tougher and truer than all of them.
Ultimately it takes the mass devastation of Hurricane Audrey in 1957 to cleanse the reckless passions. The aftermath is painful but pure, like an old blues song that puts tears in your eyes while you dance.
Booklist says Cajun Waltz is "raw and atmospheric," its tale told "in such a mesmerizing way that readers won't be able to stop turning the pages."
Love doesn't much figure between Richie Bainard and Esther Block. They build a business together while dreaming opposite dreams of fulfillment. But like a gumbo simmering with peppers and spice, desires finally come to a boil.
Three generations of the volatile clan grapple with the region's economic struggles and racial tensions. The Bainard children, twins Bonnie and R.J. and their half-brother Seth, pursue separate cravings for money, sex, and religion. The chase in each case runs off the rails thanks to a softhearted, cold-blooded ex-marine; a dazzling young stepmother of mixed race and mixed motives; and a high school tart who proves tougher and truer than all of them.
Ultimately it takes the mass devastation of Hurricane Audrey in 1957 to cleanse the reckless passions. The aftermath is painful but pure, like an old blues song that puts tears in your eyes while you dance.
Booklist says Cajun Waltz is "raw and atmospheric," its tale told "in such a mesmerizing way that readers won't be able to stop turning the pages."
To purchase Robert H. Patton's latest novel:
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Also available:
Hell Before Breakfast
"Highly entertaining."
- Wall Street Journal "Lively and spirited." - Boston Globe "Vivid, powerful." - Washington Post |
Patriot Pirates
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The Pattons
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Life Between Wars
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Up, Down & Sideways
"An impressive debut."
- Kirkus Reviews "Rich with comic episodes and wry phrasing." - Library Journal "A fluid, ironic comedy of morals." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) |
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Bonnie Raitt & Lowell George
An autumn night on Long Island in 1972. They played Steve Winwood's Can't Find My Way Home - but as far as I'm concerned, they were home already.
Bror Gunnar Jansson: believer
How have I not heard of this guy until about five minutes ago? His blues style evokes that primitive faith in, well, faith. Faith in the groove, faith in the heart, faith in the history - so count me a believer.
His name is Bror Gunnar Jansson. And he's good.
Willie Nelson - Last Man Standing
This new release from Willie Nelson is just so good I had to post it. He can write, sing, & play - almost forever, it seems.
Tom Petty - Another Opioid Casualty
The opioid death toll continues to be a rolling tragedy - correction, an unconscionable crime - inflicted upon all levels of American society.
Tom Petty is the latest national figure to succumb, but he's only one of the 64,000 people who die each year from hard drug overdoses - and of those, one of at least 35,000 - repeat, 35,000 - killed by prescription opioids as reported by the CDC. Which to my mind makes this article from New York's Daily News both compelling and hopeful. Its headline:
Study: 81% of pain patients prefer marijuana over opiates
Here are some nuggets gathered from the study:
Here's the link to the research paper: Cannabis as a Substitute for Opioid-Based Pain Medication: Patient Self-Report
And here's my takeaway: 64,000. 35,000. Enough.
- 97 percent “strongly agreed/agreed” that they could decrease their opioid use when using cannabis.
- 92 percent “strongly agreed/agreed” that they prefer cannabis to treat their medical condition.
- 81 percent “strongly agreed/ agreed that cannabis by itself was more effective than taking cannabis with opioids. The results were similar when using cannabis with non-opioid based pain medications.
Here's the link to the research paper: Cannabis as a Substitute for Opioid-Based Pain Medication: Patient Self-Report
And here's my takeaway: 64,000. 35,000. Enough.
Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens - RIP
You probably know some early hits - A Girl Like You, Behind the Wall of Sleep, Only a Memory, Drown In My Own Tears - but do yourself a favor and get their "best of," Blown to Smithereens. It's been out a while and the band has produced excellent stuff since, but it's the place to start to hear some topflight American power pop (emphasis on power).
A lesser known cut I've always liked is Strangers When We Meet. It's got the band's signature driving hooks but more than that, it's got DiNizio's smart & melancholy lyrics to take it beyond toe-tapping fluff (not that there's anything wrong with that). Here it is:
And now bandleader DiNizio is dead at 62. Just a plain bummer. But it's surely not an empty consolation to say his music lives on.
Animal Years - "Friends"
Hailing from Baltimore, steeping in Brooklyn, recording in Woodstock, NY - those ingredients have fueled the recipe for Animal Years' terrific new disk, Far From Home. Check out the band's website. And give an ear (and eye) to the single that catches the jubilant drive and rootsy warmth that the band's fans have long relished on disk and in live performance. The musicians can play, the singer can sing, and the tunes soar - after this, I guess there won't be much for us to say except "we knew them when."
Patton Veterans Project - "I Was There"
My brother, Benjamin Patton, has devoted himself for many years to working with American veterans. The mission of his charitable organization, The Patton Veterans Project, is to help veterans, military families and others coping with post-traumatic and service-related stress to improve their mental health.
Ben and his team conduct nationwide workshops in which veterans create short films - sometimes as documentaries, often in expressionist styles incorporating story-telling and abstract symbolism - to convey their experiences and states-of-mind. The workshops have produced extraordinary results in reducing symptoms of PTSD, empowering troubled veterans to seek treatment, and strengthening their bonds with family and community.
Here's an introduction to some of the amazing people Ben has worked with over the years:
Today a great many veterans, though in need of support, remain reluctant to seek out available resources. To address this issue, the Patton Veterans Project recently began a VA-sponsored clinical study with the the Edith Nourse Rogers Veterans Memorial Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts and UMass-Lowell to gauge the efficacy of the workshops as an engagement tool for these veterans.
Take a few minutes to watch The Bridge, a brief film created by several veterans last month at the first workshop of this study. Ben and his team will be hosting additional sessions in the Boston and New York areas in 2018. Stay tuned for more info from Ben's proud older brother or visit iwastherefilms.org to see more examples of the work.
And hey, donate a little something if you can - as good causes go, it doesn't get much better than this.
Cajun Waltz
2017 Connecticut Book Award for Fiction
2017 Connecticut Book Award for Fiction
Evidently they liked Cajun Waltz. You might, too.
Connecticut Humanities put on a lovely event at the Mark Twain Museum in Hartford. Here's a nice account of the festivities and the authors who were honored. All in attendance, readers and writers, were gracious and charming and, best of all, utterly enthused about books. My thanks to everyone involved.
The 2017 award winners are pictured below: Gray Jacobik (Special Citation for poetry); yours truly (fiction); Danielle Pieratti (poetry); Okey Ndibe (non-fiction); Karen Fortunati (young readers).
Check out their stuff - links to their works and those of all the finalists are available here.
Connecticut Humanities put on a lovely event at the Mark Twain Museum in Hartford. Here's a nice account of the festivities and the authors who were honored. All in attendance, readers and writers, were gracious and charming and, best of all, utterly enthused about books. My thanks to everyone involved.
The 2017 award winners are pictured below: Gray Jacobik (Special Citation for poetry); yours truly (fiction); Danielle Pieratti (poetry); Okey Ndibe (non-fiction); Karen Fortunati (young readers).
Check out their stuff - links to their works and those of all the finalists are available here.
Connecticut Center for the Book
2017 Awards
2017 Awards
Well now - Connecticut Center for the Book has nominated Cajun Waltz as one of five finalists for Connecticut Novel of the Year. I'm pleased and grateful for the time the judges gave to my book and for their good opinion of it. I'm currently reading the other four novels to gauge how very much better than mine they are - and also to see what elements of style & narrative I can steal from their talented authors. The five finalists are listed below. Give them a click.
Back Lash by Chris Knopf
I'll Take You There by Wally Lamb
Shadows of Paris by Eric D. Lehman
Cajun Waltz by Robert H. Patton
Beneath a Shooting Star by Susan Harrison Rashid
Winners of all the Center's book awards - for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and books for young readers - will be announced on Sunday, October 22nd, at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford. Click here to register. Be there or be square!
John Mayer @ Madison Square
My wife and I took in John Mayer last night at Madison Square Garden, show number four of his Search for Everything world tour. We've seen him a bunch of times, both on his own and with Dead & Company, and he never disappoints. The guy can play, perform, and engage at such a high level. His respect for the audience, his bandmates, and his musical forebears does him great credit. Plus he's got a lyrical gift both clever and touching. About the show:
I'd heard none of his new stuff except for an online snippet of Love on the Weekend that sounded okay, if hardly thrilling. Accompanied by his full band on an austere stage, he opened with a couple of new pop/funk tunes that, again, were nice but not really memorable. Slow Dancing in a Burning Room raised the heat (one of my wife's favorites - maybe I should worry). When Mayer commenced Waiting On The World To Change, it seemed the hit parade would begin. But midway through he cut to Bob Marley's War with bandmate David Ryan Harris contributing a strong vocal. Drummer Steve Jordan propelled the song's dark passion - his best moment of the night. The show's vibe jumped a level.
With Mayer subsequently alone on stage, evocative graphics and camera projections appeared. It was the first of a progressive uptick in visual flash that the tech-savvy Mayer is known for - by night's end the hall would be awash in vivid lighting and imagery and pleasantly hefty volume. My highlight of Mayer's acoustic set was the so-corny-it's-cool Walt Grace's Submarine Test, played on a National Steel guitar no less (perhaps a nod to Mark Knopfler). I also liked Mayer's reminiscence of watching MTV as a boy in the 1980s and listening repeatedly to Free Falling. Yeah, it's been covered a zillion times and Tom Petty's original is hard to beat - but Mayer puts the tune over every time he performs it, and the crowd predictably melted.
The night's next "chapter" was the John Mayer Trio comprised of Mayer, Jordan, and Pino Palladino on bass. The outfit roared from the get-go, notably redeeming Mayer's lame Battle Studies version of Robert Johnson's Crossroads with a freshly scorching rendition. This was Palladino's time to shine. For much of the night I thought his bass was mixed rather muddily, obscuring his brilliance as displayed most strikingly in Jimi Hendrix's Bold as Love, which closed the set in furious style.
So far, so good - though not quite total musical lift-off. "Chapter Four" began in a country-swing mode. Who Says, Stop This Train, Queen of California - all stirring and warm as usual. While Queen of California eased into a comfortable jam, Mayer switched his Martin acoustic for the Paul Reed Smith semi-hollow Super Eagle that he played throughout Dead & Company's tour. Hello, I thought - and scattered cheers from twirling older crowd members suggested I wasn't alone. Mayer noodled a bit as the jam behind him settled into a familiar groove. A press of his effects pedal compressed the sound of his Super Eagle to the signature wah-wah of one Jerry Garcia and Fire on the Mountain took shape. I'd wondered how Mayer's Grateful Dead forays might influence his solo stuff. I had my answer. Lift-off.
The show's full setlist is available here. For his first encore, Mayer played the aforementioned Love on the Weekend - and it was pretty damn good, with the loping pulse of, say, War of My Life, an underrated tune in the Mayer catalog. Next came Gravity. It's Mayer's signature piece, and he tore it up thoroughly. But I'm glad to see that he doesn't wheel it out every show anymore. It's become his Purple Rain, presenting an opportunity but also an obligation to emote the vocals and shred the guitar in a way that's become slightly canned. No matter. He played it fine and people loved it. Mayer finished alone at a piano playing another new one, You're Gonna Live Forever In Me. It's lovely, and ended the evening on an elegant note of reflection and gratitude.
The show was terrific. If I had any criticism, it's this - I prefer the band that supported the Born and Raised tour to this one. I felt something kindred and improvisational in their interplay that last night's highly professional outfit didn't quite capture. But then, it was only the fourth night of a six month tour. No doubt they'll gel and hit the heights that Mayer himself consistently reaches. I've got my tickets for their show in Hartford next August. I'll let you know.
Here's a nice look at last night's Queen Fire piece:
Tab Benoit
I caught the Louisiana bluesman Tab Benoit last night at The Warehouse in Fairfield, CT. A real strong show from a professional who knows how to bring spontaneity and audience-connection to every performance . I like players that can play - and Tab and his two bandmates are smooth as silk and loose as a goose yet can really impress with their tasty technical skill. Nice.
I must especially praise how Tab turns his guitar solos into dramatic expressions building to nice crescendoes that, surely hard to do for a road-warrior like him, just make you grin every time with fresh amazement. Check out his version of I Put a Spell On You for a bit of Benoit flavor.
And also, how about Tab's 1972 semi-hollow Fender Telecaster? Think it's seen a few bars and roadhouses? Interestingly, I've rarely encountered lead players using Telecasters. I think of that guitar as primarily a rhythm instrument, with Bruce Springsteen probably the most well-known example - and nothing against Springsteen, but when he does venture a solo he tends to sound like he's playing with mittens on. Another famed Telecaster-man that comes to mind is Muddy Waters, about ten feet from whom I watched perform on a chair with a blond Telecaster at a packed and sweaty North Chicago club in 1980. Yeah, that was a good night.
Here's a great website managed by Marshal Zeringue that's dedicated to, wait for it, books & writers & reading. If you're curious what your favorite authors are into, then this is the place for you.
I'll be honest and acknowledge that the book currently closest to my heart (other than the one I'm writing now) isn't yet a staple on a lot of reading lists. However, in hereby mentioning Cajun Waltz, I'm able to insert both its cover image
I'll be honest and acknowledge that the book currently closest to my heart (other than the one I'm writing now) isn't yet a staple on a lot of reading lists. However, in hereby mentioning Cajun Waltz, I'm able to insert both its cover image
and a plug from Booklist calling it "raw," "atmospheric," and "mesmerizing." But mainly I urge you to visit Writers Read. Because, think about it, if writers ain't reading, why should you? But they are, you should - and we thank you.
Finally, let me recommend Mr. Zeringue's connected website, Campaign for the American Reader. In an otherwise depressing political season, here's a campaign we can all get behind.
Cajun Waltz, the movie!
(well, yes and no)
(well, yes and no)
My Book, The Movie
My Book, The Movie is a fun website where authors get to fantasize about casting the Oscar-bound blockbuster movie (yet still cool with the Indie crowd) that their novel surely could be if only the right people would read it.
I never got around to imagining a full cast, but I'd be lying if I said one actor didn't cross my mind for a particular role. Here she is, and below is the film clip that led me to think of her. My full commentary is on My Book, The Movie website. Like I said, fun stuff - though I'm waiting by the phone as I write this.
A Musical Playlist for Cajun Waltz
Largehearted Boy is a terrific website dedicated to books and music. I was asked to suggest a downloadable song list inspired by, related to, or evocative of my new novel, Cajun Waltz. So I did. I continue regularly to pop into the site to see what other writers are recommending in connection with their work. I urge everyone to give it a try.
The great thing is, some of the contributors are bestselling household names and others are less well known - and Largehearted Boy provides one and all an engaging forum to connect with readers beyond the words on a page. The site has more of my commentary and also some download links, but below is the basic list. The songs reflect my no doubt twisted notions about the book and the tale it tells. Feel free (he urged his millions of readers) to come up with a list of your own.
- "Crawfish Fiesta" (Professor Longhair) – This piano instrumental by the late great Professor Longhair has the infectious bounce of Cajun Waltz's family patriarch, Richie Bainard. Richie's a Texan originally and the tune is pure New Orleans, but it speaks to his lifelong lust for good times at any cost.
- "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" (John Fahey) – If I could model my own guitar playing after anyone's, it'd be Lightnin' Hopkins or John Fahey. Fahey doesn't really stretch out here, but his arrangement of Reverend Gary Davis's tune has, again, a nice New Orleans pulse thanks to its horn rhythm section.
- "On Top of the World" (Hackberry Ramblers) – The Ramblers formed in 1933 and blended musical traditions of Louisiana Cajuns and East Texas cowboys. Many have recorded this song, including Cream and Keb' Mo'. When played slow, it comes across like a junkie's defiant preference for good drugs over bad love. Sped up by the Ramblers, it's a rollicking dance tune.
- "J'ai Passe Devant Ta Porte" (Dewey Balfa, Marc Savoy, D. L. Menard) – This is one of my favorite Cajun waltzes. Listening to it makes it easy to imagine a ramshackle dance hall packed with revelers on a hot Gulf night during the Depression. Fights might erupt outside, but inside people are grinning.
- "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy) – This chestnut by Jimmy Cox is one of the Depression's most iconic songs. Cajun Waltz begins in hardscrabble Louisiana in 1928. In many ways the fortunes of the novel's Bainard clan improve from there. And in many ways they don't.
- "Allons a Lafayette" (Joseph Falcon and Cleoma Breaux) – Recorded in New Orleans in 1928, the song and its two performers play a big part in Cajun Waltz. It's a buoyant tune with a bleak lyric—which is to say, it's Cajun.
- "Oberlin" (Amédé Ardoin) – Amédé Ardoin, the model for Cajun Waltz's Walter Dopsie, was murdered in the 1930s for letting a white woman wipe his brow with her handkerchief after a show. Somehow you can hear his fate in his voice.
- "Stagger Lee" (Professor Longhair)" – A barrelhouse boogie about coldblooded violence. Hey, it's Louisiana.
- "Baby and the Gambler" (Savoy Family Band) – I haven't sat down and translated the French lyrics. It doesn't matter. This swampy ballad sung by Ann Savoy is plain beautiful.
- "Crawling King Snake" (Big Joe Williams) – A blues standard, this version figures directly in Cajun Waltz. Two half-brothers playing a scratchy 78 on an old Philco player in the attic of their home on the shores of Lake Charles—it's a lovely moment from which nothing good will come.
- "St. James Infirmary" (Snakefarm) – Snakefarm's Songs From My Funeral is a haunting collection of reinterpreted traditional ballads. Their version of "St. James Infirmary" is strange, daring, and dark – yet you can't listen to it without tapping your foot. I like to think Cajun Waltz might prompt a similar reaction in readers.
- "Adieu False Heart" (Linda Ronstadt and Ann Savoy) – This song is about a woman stronger than the lover who abandons her. Fiddles, accordions, a fingerpicked guitar, and the lush harmonies of two amazing singers. A perfect way to say adieu.
Dead & Company
It was Dead & Company at Hartford's Xfinity Theater last night. My wife's an ardent John Mayer fan, so his presence as the new outfit's lead guitarist and co-vocalist was my bait to get her to accompany this old Deadhead back through the proverbial time-tunnel. Our seats were as good as you can get - and the show was worth what I paid for them.
My basic criterion for appraising any concert is Did it achieve lift-off? Whether it's a stadium rock show or an unknown singer-songwriter emoting to six drunks in a bar, did a moment occur when performer and audience achieved collective transport? It happens rarely, even with performers I love and have seen multiple times. The Rolling Stones are an example. I've always felt the highlight of a Stones concert is the first two minutes ("There's Mick! There's Keith!"); before long I find find myself starting to plan how I'm going to get my car out of the parking lot. Likewise Mark Knopfler, one of my all-time faves: after seeing him solo or with his old band, Dire Straits, at least half a dozen times over the decades, only last year at a modest venue in Charleston, South Carolina, did he achieve real lift-off. Something just happened between him and the audience, and the whole evening became euphoric.
The Grateful Dead were never a lock to find lift-off every night - their wonder lay in always seeming to try to. The first time I heard Scarlet Fire, in 1979 at the Capital Center in Landover, Maryland, was one such moment; a rendition of Ramble On Rose at the Providence Civic Center a couple of years earlier was another personal high point. So how about Dead & Company at Hartford in 2016? Well, they found lift-off three times. And three times, let me tell you, is pretty damn great.
The first came during the closing tune of the first set, Cumberland Blues. It's a song I like okay - but hey, it's not one of their best. The band kind of eased into it with a shuffle so laid back that I thought they were covering J. J. Cale or maybe Clapton's Lay Down Sally. But things changed when keyboardist Jeff Chimenti starting exchanging Tin Pan Alley piano riffs with Mayer's country-style fills. Bob Weir and drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart picked up on the interplay and starting chunking a little harder, and suddenly the bluegrassy Cumberland Blues was roaring along like Mystery Train on steroids. Boom! Lift-off.
Moment #2 was fleeting but so what? It came during the second set's Eyes of the World, a Dead concert staple I actually dislike but which in this case benefited from the haunting Estimated Prophet that preceded it. However, it was bassist Oteil Burbridge's jazzy solo that transformed Eyes of the World from its flimsy two-chord flutter into something magical. His manifest joy in his instrument seemed to thrill his bandmates as much as the crowd. Lift-off.
The third moment enjoyed a certain built-in advantage because it occurred during my favorite Garcia/Dead tune, The Wheel. In all the times I'd seen the band live in its various incarnations, it had never made it to that night's setlist. So my sense of the song was only in its original studio version and on assorted concert recordings, the latter always failing, in my view, to capture the soaring steel guitar that overlays the piano, acoustic guitar, and ascending bass line that introduce the melody. But last night John Mayer seemed intent on honoring Garcia's singular brilliance on that tune - and boy did he. Lift off.
So yeah, Dead & Company were decent last night. I'm still smiling.
The Forty-Nine of Orlando
He killed because they were free.
Cajun Waltz: "raw . . . atmospheric . . . mesmerizing"
"There is something haunting about the 1920s Louisiana bayou," begins Booklist's review of Cajun Waltz, "where Cajun music masks the racial tension and economic hardships while also feeding the soul." Booklist calls the novel "raw and atmospheric, " and says the tale is told "in such a mesmerizing way that readers won't be able to stop turning the pages."
That's pretty much the effect I was after, so I'm good with it. I hope others are as well.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
I’m ashamed to day I knew nothing of Sister Rosetta Tharpe until The Daily Beast did a piece on her recently. But my oh my, is she good. Listen to the lovely guitar fills she lays down behind her mesmerizing vocal performance of the great gospel standard, This Train.
Cajun Waltz - a little preview
If you'd like a glimpse into my forthcoming novel, Google's got a preview available. It'll give you a fair chunk of the tale - and who knows, maybe you'll come back for a bigger helping when the book's released in June. Either way, enjoy.
War Is Beautiful
Lately I've been reading, as a break from doing research for my own work, a lot of David Shields. He pursues a literary aesthetic that would scorn the fiction I write. I like him all the same. Shields rejects conventional narratives based on the carpentered plot-building of cause and effect. His books are collages of impressions, memories, and insights/puzzlements connected so obliquely they might as well be random - a lot like life, in other words. He's got artistic integrity and erudition quite intimidating to a bourgeois scribbler like me, but I love the wit and humility and sheer quest of his books. Give them a look. Maybe you'll like them, too.
War Is Beautiful is not typical Shields but is well worth checking out. Basically, he's compiled a couple dozen front-page photographs from The New York Times relating to war and war correspondence. The images, harrowing as many are, unwittingly promote that eternal trope of war's romance. The Times pro war? Surely not, you say. But then, Stephen Crane, in his great poem War is Kind, didn't intend the title literally. But he did intend it to be true.
Jesse Cook
Last night it was Jesse Cook and his stunningly talented flamenco-jazz band at Fairfield Theater Company's Stage One in Fairfield, CT. Labels are tough when trying to describe Cook's World Music sensibility, so I'll just say the man is is a virtual Jimi Hendrix of the flamenco guitar in how he pushes the instrument from traditional roots to far-out atmospherics, from high-energy salsa & rhumba to spacious and haunting soundscapes reminiscent of the Far East and even Africa. Stage One was packed, and he and his outfit took the roof off the place - plus his personal good cheer and the warm camaraderie among his bandmates made the mood infectious and intimate. Check out him and his music on his website.
A word, too, about Fairfield Theater Company: whoever books their acts is a f'ing saint of innovation and taste. To consistently bring the likes of The Subdudes, 7 Walkers, Johnny A, Lucy Kaplansky, David Lindley, David Wilcox, as well as innumerable up-and-coming folk, blues and jazz performers out here to the Connecticut suburbs is a great gift to the community. Moreover, the venue's sound, lighting, intimacy, and booze make for most pleasant evenings. Keep it up, FTC!
Brothers McCann
My wife and I caught Brothers McCann last night at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield, CT. Based out of Boston, they play rootsy acoustic with a range from jazz to bluegrass, all of it unfolding under shimmering harmonies up there with CSNY and Simon & Garfunkel. Check out their website for a taste.
They opened for the always terrific Martin Sexton, whom I've seen perform a couple times now and on each occasion has transported the audience. For much of last night's show, Sexton invited Brothers McCann to share the stage. A bit of that collaboration can be seen on Sexton's haunting Black Sheep. Enjoy!
Cover Crush
Flashlight Commentary, a real nice independent book-review site, has designated the front jacket of Cajun Waltz this week's "Cover Crush." I'll let Erin, who runs the site, tell you about it:
The jacket design for Robert H. Patton's Cajun Waltz gets me every time I see it. I love the red gold combination of colors, but I also like that the subject matter isn't a person. The jacket speaks to a certain era, but it does so without distant dreamy eyes, or a sumptuous gown. The items it features are actually rather masculine and as a reader who is constantly bitching, yes bitching, about the lack of diverse males in historical fiction, I'm rather intrigued to see where this particular story might go.
Erin's a "librarian" member of Goodreads and has reviewed and/or rated hundreds of books and is followed by hundreds of friends. Check her out. As for me, now I've got to lose sleep hoping my book is half as good as its cover. Thanks for nothing, Erin!
Hey, we've got a book cover! Here's the jacket for my new novel, Cajun Waltz, coming from Thomas Dunne Books next June.
And yes, the tale does feature a steel resonator guitar and a pinstripe fedora - though a hurricane, two shotguns, and a trio of spirited Southern women eventually steal the show.
And yes, the tale does feature a steel resonator guitar and a pinstripe fedora - though a hurricane, two shotguns, and a trio of spirited Southern women eventually steal the show.
Cajun Waltz is in the pipeline for publication next summer by Thomas Dunne at St. Martin's Press. Not yet sure what the jacket will look like, but this photo from the 1930s captures some of the book's flavor. A friendly-looking fellow with a banjo, right? Hell, I'd read it just for that.
The paperback of Hell Before Breakfast is now available from Vintage. Gotta say, the quality is great - heavy paper, thick matte cover, little things that make a big difference to readers and certainly to authors.
I had a great night at The House of the Seven Gables discussing Hell Before Breakfast last Wednesday. The hosts were wonderful and the crowd enthusiastic, for which any author is grateful. The book is out in paperback next month, by the way.
