New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
While Peter Guralnick established his credentials with his early writings on blues and rock ‘n’ roll, Sweet Soul Music revealed him to be also be an astute observer and analyst of soul music. Guralnick chronicles the soul phenomenon with care, particularly as it emerged in the 1960s from the studios of Memphis and Muscle Shoals, framing the music within the social and political currents of the civil rights era. He also documents the transition from 1950s rhythm & blues to soul through Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Solomon Burke and James Brown. Portraits of the artists, including Otis Redding, Arthur Alexander, Aretha Franklin, James Carr, O.V. Wright, Al Green, Wilson Pickett, Booker T. & the MG’s, and the Muscle Shoals studio crew, fill most of the book, along with informative discussions of the record business and the crucial interaction of white and black musicians during racially charged times. The book’s original discography has been updated in subsequent editions to encompass CD releases.
–Jim O’Neal
www.stackhouse-bluesoterica.blogspot.com