On Highway 61: Music, Race, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom

This biracial fusion achieved an apotheosis in the early work of Bob Dylan, born and raised at the northern end of the same Mississippi River and Highway 61 that had been the birthplace of much of the black music he would study.As the book reveals, the connection that began with Thoreau and continued for over 100 years was a cultural evolution where, at first individuals, and then larger portions of society, absorbed the culture of those at the absolute bottom of the power structure, the slaves and their descendants, and re

"Take this Highwayand be enlightened." according to joshua carson. Dennis McNally, who has written excellent tomes about Jack Kerouac, as well as the Grateful Dead, paints his prose across an even grander canvass with On Highway 61.Indeed he traces an alternative, and more accurate history of America, vis a vis the development of music and popular culture over the last 150 years. This is a path that is examined with marvelous scholarship, research, and a clear eye on the social structure and consciousness . This book nails it On Highway 61, Music, Race and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom is a brilliant tour de force; the book is erudite, impeccably and thoroughly researched yet intimately conversational. Dennis McNally has provided the backstory for the alive, sexy, creative origins of our American (sub)culture, particularly as it has manifested through music. I am grateful to him for contextualizing the particles in the wave of this rich, multidimensional his. Read for work, or for fun and edification allthingsbritfan Husband has read this, made notes, will refer to it in one of the classes he teaches at a local university, and he even found the name of one of his university colleagues and mentioned it to him, so now colleague is going to buy the book too. Husband said this was a thrillingly crazy ride through culture/history/music and at every turn it gave him something else to think about. The endnotes were in his opinion very thorough and gave him ide

At the party, we meet the key players of the day." Sacramento Bee, Notable Fall Nonfiction Title"the book’s best qualities are McNally’s ability as a storyteller combined with his exhaustive scholarly research on the country’s rich African-American musical history and the response of the white audiences along the road." Chino News & Review"Dennis McNally has unraveled a tapestry of historical and societal collisions that inspired, drove, and conjured -- through the seemingly unlikely strands of Thoreau, Twain, Louis Armstrong, Ellington, W. Like McNally, we come to believe that 'the essence of the American idea centers on the pursuit of freedom,” and that achievements in that pursuit are often spurred by word and song.'"The Santa Fe New Mexican/Pasatiempo"In On Highway 61, McNally re-traces the roots of America's counterculture, focusing the hu