The current hardboiled music thread started when David White
suggested that it would be nice if certain recent
music-saturated novels could be released with CDs containing
songs mentioned in the text. I'm in the middle of a book that
would be a prime candidate for this approach, Crossroad Blues
by Ace Atkins. (By the way, thanks to whoever mentioned this
series when it was still in hardback, I made a note to pick
it up when it hit paper, which it now has.)
The main character, Nick Travers, is a "tracker" of old
bluesmen, their songs, stories and legends. This particular
book revolves around various people searching for rumored
recordings from a previously unknown recording session by
blues giant Robert Johnson. It's a strong debut. It's also
got me pulling out a bunch of my old blues records I haven't
listened to in a long time, reacquainting myself with songs
playing on Travers' car deck and the music of the bluesmen
mentioned, particularly, Robert Johnson.
However, that's not really what I wanted to talk about here.
Atkins writes in a "southern voice," for lack of a better
description. As a matter of fact, it took me a little while
to recognize this book as hardboiled due to this writing
style. It made me see how much I take an urban feel and
setting for granted in HB and noir. It made me realize that a
few authors, Atkins, Woodrell and, especially, Lansdale, are
creating a very viable alternative of, as Woodrell calls it,
Country Noir.
All of these writers adopt a more leisurely pace in speech
and plot development. I guess Barry Gifford and Fred Willard
would also fit in here. There is a lot of good ol' boy
camaraderie and joshin' around -- for instance, Hap and
Leonard's ritual insults -- that sucker you into taking it as
a nice surface happy, sunny southern world, until you are
sucker-punched by the barely hidden evil (often having to do
with racism) lurking not too far beneath this gentility. And
very few of the protagonists in this genre are professionals
in the traditional sense.
Just some preliminary thoughts on an intriguing subgenre I am
beginning to notice.
Mark
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