Thanks to this thick first-half of our twice-annual rock & roll book roundup, I’ve got another title under my belt. In January, I rifled through 500 pages of Pete Townshend’s autobiography on the Texas Riviera and, just prior to South by Southwest, swallowed whole a work of fiction by Lone Star hero Michael Nesmith. And mind you, I stopped reading books on my very last day of formal education. Yet now, after another spring in the trenches of local music festivals, a different coast beckons, and the only thing to do there, besides not work, is read. Five hundred pages of Jimmy Buffett anyone? John Lydon’s autobiography slots in for trips to Montreal and New Jersey next month. Springsteen on Springsteen herein has me jacked for the Garden State!

This article appears in June 21 • 2013.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.