Well, sorta. Elmore Leonard's new one, Be Cool, may be of interest to some here. Chili Palmer, last seen making a career change, from loan shark to movie producer, in Get Shorty, is back, and getting into L.A.'s other racket, the music business. Signs on to manage an alt-country band just looking for a hit, Odessa, "AC/DC meets Patsy Cline," and finds it ain't all that different from his previous lines of work (I'm sure Elmore means no offense to you industry types in the audience). Did he read Hit Men? It's wickedly funny, and though I have no first hand knowledge of the music biz, the satire reads true enough. And Harry Dean Stanton's in it. Terrific cast of characters, dead-on dialogue, sharp eye for pop cultural details: Leonard is a national treasure, pulp fiction division. Also, with all the buzz around the Comp Country & Western Recordings reissue last fall, it may be list-worthy to note the new bio, Ray Charles: Man and Music, by Michael Lydon. It's worth a look. For those with Seattle connections, the chapter on the city's late 40's jazz scene is a treat. And, after seeing others talk about it here, been making my way through Peterson's Creating Country Music. Hmmm. The thesis is compelling enough, and while I can see the heuristic value in the typologies (soft shell/hard core, etc.), and not that I haven't learned a thing or two, I gotta say, with all due respect to Prof. Peterson, the social scientific style of exposition leaves me cold. But then, I studied history in college. n.p. Odessa
