Author Marie
Trout’s New Book, The Blues - Why it Still Hurts so Good, Set for
February 3, 2017 Publication, Explores the Healing Power of Music
All Book Sale
Proceeds Benefit the HART Fund
Huntington
Beach, CA – Author Marie B. Trout, PhD, wife and manager of blues rock
guitarist extraordinaire, Walter Trout, knows the blues. She has also lived with
the blues when her husband narrowly escaped death, and was saved in the 11th
hour by a liver transplant. Now, two years after Walter’s astounding recovery,
her original academic research of blues fans has congealed with professional
and personal experience into a book about the role of blues music to modern
audiences, its impact, and enduring power: The Blues – Why it Still Hurts
so Good.
Based
on a Grounded Theory research study of blues fans, musicians and industry
professionals, the book is scheduled for publication on February 3, 2017. To
celebrate its release, Marie will appear that same day at a panel on the healing
power of the blues (moderated by blues scholar and author Don Wilcock) during
the upcoming International Blues Challenge in Memphis, as well as a pre-release
party onboard the Rhythm & Blues Cruise in late January.
All
proceeds from the sale of The Blues – Why it Still Hurts so Good will
benefit the HART Fund, established by The
Blues Foundation for blues musicians and their families in financial need due
to a broad range of health concerns. The fund provides acute, chronic and
preventive medical and dental care as well as funeral and burial expenses.
Advance rave reviews of the new book are
already pouring in from musicians and authors:
“What a monumental discourse into the mysteries and
pleasures of the blues and a wonderful addition to one’s library.”
- John Mayall, “The Godfather of British
Blues,” Blues Hall of Fame inductee
“Incredible research unearthing things I never knew!
Totally captivating.”
– Jim Gaines, multi-Grammy winning
producer/engineer Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Lee Hooker
“This book is wildly, incredibly brilliant. I never knew
why I loved the Blues - and now I do. What a fabulous read.”
- Caroline Myss, New York Times
bestselling author of Anatomy
of the Spirit
Click HERE to read
further endorsements/reactions to the book.
After
surveying over a thousand blues fans and interviewing others, as well as
industry professionals, and musicians, Marie Trout found that beyond providing
musical entertainment to its current audience, the blues acts as a good friend
that “has your back and doesn’t let you down.” In 2013 and ’14, while working
on her dissertation, Marie took care of her, then, gravely ill husband, blues
rock musician, Walter Trout. She reflects:
-
I noticed that my academic research
and my inner torment at the time intersected. I lived the blues, while
studying the power of blues music to its fans today.
In
a gut-wrenching and expensive last-ditch effort, Marie moved 1,600 miles away
from their Southern California home literally carrying her deathly ill soul
mate onboard the plane in order to improve odds of him getting a life-saving
liver transplant. They left two teenage sons behind with a caregiver for six
months spent in the hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, fighting for Walter’s life.
Marie
discovered that emotional pain somehow lessened by blogging about it:
-
The blues community, our friends
and family saved Walter’s life and my sanity by offering support, love, and
kindness. This community made me feel that I was not alone as I faced constant
worry, financial devastation, and endless uncertainty. At my lowest point,
fearing ridicule and rejection, I sent my anguish out to the world asking for
help in a fundraiser and accompanying blog. That day something changed: when
sharing authentically, I was no longer alone in my emotional prison. When
others read it, responded, and shared their own stories, I realized that this
connection in many ways was similar to what blues fans expressed in my
research. They felt connected, and safe to be themselves, when listening to
blues music: they felt part of a soul-community.
The
notion that human beings bond and find resonance with one another when they
hear someone “tell it like it is,” was indeed a primary finding in her studies
of blues music fans today. After Walter recovered, Marie decided that this role
of blues music to contemporary audiences, along with its transformative musical
potential, and many other findings emerging in her research, had not been
explored sufficiently in literature.
Today’s
blues fans (who are primarily white baby boomers) express en masse that they
are encouraged, strengthened, and—yes find healing—through their love of blues
music, because it is raw, transparent, honest, and “real.” They simultaneously
express their frustration with a culture that is not. In providing context for
these findings, Marie explores what historically readied this generation
particularly for blues music and its subtle mood-enhancing, cathartic
qualities.
The
book further highlights how blues is uniquely powerful at expressing
paradoxical emotional realities that are difficult to put into words.
Involvement with blues offers respite from a mindset has left an entire
generation as emotional refugees, feeling that they work hard, follow the rules
for engagement professionally and privately, and still often “can’t get no satisfaction.”
Marie Trout writes:
-
Blues interaction offers another
way of relating in which non-competitive qualities are front and center.
Instead of “nail the test, perform, perfect, pretend” – the message is “be
yourself, be authentic, connect.”
Showing
how blues today still is a universal gift from the base of humanity providing
antidote to fast-paced, fragmented, and often superficial popular culture is a
story that Marie wishes to tell as another way of honoring the legacy of blues
originators.
Walter
is now completely cured. He is once again touring the US and internationally
with his band, and Marie will donate all proceeds from The Blues - Why it
Still Hurts so Good to the HART Fund, serving musicians without health
insurance.
-
It is important for Walter and I to
give back to the community that literally and figuratively bought stock in
Walter’s liver. And to help musicians in need of help, is just passing on what
we received. I hope many will find that the book gives them a new appreciation
for, and understanding of, blues music. And simultaneously that the funds
raised will be a blessing to those who are ill and are currently living the
blues.
The Blues – Why it Still Hurts so
Good will
be available for sale in paperback as well as Kindle/eBook on Amazon.com
starting February 3rd,
2017.
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