TAKE A JOURNEY THROUGH THE FOLK MUSIC REVIVAL
“An eloquent, searching account of a life lived for truth, love, and music.”
— JACKSON BROWNE
In this riveting memoir, Ellen Harper—folk matriarch, singer-songwriter, and mother to Grammy-winning musician Ben Harper—takes readers on an intimate journey through the folk music revival, including vivid stories of growing up in 1960s Los Angeles, raising three sons, and running the historic Folk Music Center.
Her recollections of famous and small-town musicians include personal memories of Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, the New Lost City Ramblers, Doc Watson, Paul McCartney, and many more.
Always a Song covers a transformational time in American culture, from the importance of protests and love-ins to the popularization of the sitar and the ukulele. With a foreword by Ben Harper and a sixteen-page full-color photo insert, this beautifully written book will appeal to music lovers and history buffs alike, offering a glimpse into a world of song that continues to inspire American music today.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING:
“The author crafts a compelling story of an ordinary life taking surprising turns.”
— KIRKUS REVIEWS
“Ellen Harper's extraordinary story is revelatory, inspiring, and compulsively readable. Harper's account of fighting the establishment in the name of art and equality is required reading—a songbook of protest, of freedom, of revolution and resurgence.”
— BRET ANTHONY JOHNSTON, internationally bestselling author of Remember Me Like This
“Ellen Harper's unique vantage as red-diaper baby, folk connector, counterculture witness, and maven of family and community is matched by her memory, wit, and compassion.”
— JONATHAN LETHEM, New York Times bestselling author of Chronic City and Motherless Brooklyn
"Ellen Harper strikes a major chord while sharing her real life experience in the folk music world from its very early days. She continues to make life happen in a meaningful musical manner. Always a Song is a great read."
— CLAUDIA LENNEAR, Twenty Feet from Stardom and former Ikette with the Ike and Tina Revue
“A bridge back to the world I remember as a child of folkies, beatniks, free lovers, poets, and intellectuals—all fighting for a new way of life—Harper's memoir is of a wonderful complicated family, the story of a woman, the story of America.”
— BOB FORREST, lead vocalist for Thelonious Monster and The Bicycle Thief
“Ellen Harper is folk music royalty, growing up with Pete Seeger and Joan Baez around the dinner table. Her story is both heartrending and a pleasure to read.”
— ROGER MCGUINN, Leader of the Byrds
“Truth-teller Ellen Harper writes through five generations of her multi-cultural family's odyssey of fighting to keep music real and powerful in American life. At times heartbreaking and humorous, but always inspiring and not to be missed by songwriters and singers, music fans, or anyone who likes a meaningful story.”
— PETER CASE, singer, songwriter, producer
“This book is a love song and at times a blues song; but always a folk song of community, compassion and justice. Full of love of family and love of music, a most fertile ground for sowing seeds of human harmony. Each chapter unfolds like another Child Ballad to the heartbeat of this remarkable woman, Ellen Harper. Indeed, there is always hope as long as we keep on singing.”
— JOHN YORK, former bassist for The Byrds
”Ellen Harper may be known to music fans as the mother of musician Ben Harper, but there is so much more to her story, as she reveals here in her gently humble memoir. A very personal take on the folk music revival with an especially lovely foreword by the author’s son.”
— JUNE SAWYERS, Booklist
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
ELLEN HARPER is the owner of the Folk Music Center. She released a duet album with her son Ben Harper and produced her own solo album. She received a PhD from Claremont Graduate University and lives in La Verne, California.
BEN HARPER is a singer-songwriter, a multi-instrumentalist, and a recording and worldwide performing artist. He has received numerous awards, including three Grammys.
SAM BARRY is an author and musician who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
