"STOMP and SHOUT: R&B and the ORIGINS of NORTHWEST ROCK and ROLL" BOOK

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  • FINALIST FOR THE 2024 WASHINGTON STATE BOOK AWARD IN GENERAL NONFICTION
  • "Blecha finally delivers his long-awaited magnum opus on early Northwestern U.S. rock music. Having conducted more than 300 interviews, he begins with the Northwest pioneers of jump blues and R&B including Ray Charles, Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, and saxophonist Billy Tolles. Showing the merger of R&B with rock, Blecha features Little Bill and the Bluenotes, the Dave Lewis Combo, the Wailers, and the Dynamics, which featured future jazz guitar icon Larry Coryell. He chronicles the national breakthroughs of the vocal trio, the Fleetwoods, and the instrumental blockbusters, the Ventures. Blecha furnishes new insights into the early music and stage act of the Seattle born-and-bred Jimi Hendrix and focuses on the proto-punk, unfettered wildness of the Sonics. He concludes with the commercialization of the Northwest sound by the highly successful Paul Revere and the Raiders. Along the way, he highlights major venues, such as Seattle's Birdland and the Spanish Castle, DJs, such as Pat O'Day, the role of "Louie Louie" in Northwest rock, and pivotal record labels such as Dolton, Jerden, and the Wailers' Etiquette Records. VERDICT: In a tour de force, Blecha offers all music fans the definitive book about the highly significant but much neglected story of Northwestern U.S. rock."
    [Library Journal, Dr. Dave Satzmary]
  • "In a well-written and wonderfully illustrated narrative chock-full of first-hand accounts, Blecha tells the story of important Northwest rockers."

[Pacific Northwest Quarterly]

  • "Stomp and Shout finally gives voice to the musicians, promoters, producers and entrepreneurs who laid the groundwork for the musical explosions to come."

[GRAMMY.com]

  • "Stomp and Shout succeeds in making the case for the Northwest Sound as a distinct musical genre and as a significant element of both Black culture and youth culture with a lasting impact on the regional psyche."

[Kurt Armbruster, author of Before Seattle Rocked: A City and Its Music]

  • "I can't think of anyone who knows more about, and has a deeper love for, the early days of NW R&B and rock 'n' roll than Peter Blecha. Lucky for us, he shares his love and knowledge in Stomp and Shout!”

[Mark Arm, Mudhoney]

  • An impressive geo-musical chronicle of the pre-grunge Pacific Northwest music scene with an insightful and fresh approach that adds an essential layer of voices to this critical chorus of music writers, historians, and artists."

[George Plasketes, author of Warren Zevon: Desperado of Los Angeles]

  • "Grunge fans should check out Stomp and Shout, a meticulously detailed early history of Northwest R&B and rock and roll. Blecha presents a fascinating narrative of the globally influential garage bands that also inspired Sub Pop Records. Highly recommended!"

[Bruce Pavitt, cofounder of Sub Pop Records]

  • "Stomp and Shout may very well go down as the last word on the primal music that oozed out of the Pacific Northwest’s primordial muck, covering the world in some of the most despicable, evil, exciting music ever perpetrated. Peter Blecha is probably the only person who could have written the story." 
            [Marsh Gooch, NuDisc.net]

  • "Long before the world discovered grunge, the Pacific Northwest was already home to a singular music culture. In the late 1950s, locals had codified a distinct offshoot of rockin' R&B, and a surprising number of them would skyrocket to success, including Little Bill & the Bluenotes, the Wailers, Ron Holden, Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Kingsmen, Merrilee Rush, and the Sonics.

    Peter Blecha tells the story of music in the Pacific Northwest from the 1940s to the 1960s, a golden era that shaped generations of musicians to come. The local R&B scene evolved out of the area's vibrant jazz scene, and Blecha illuminates the musical continuum between Ray Charles (who cut his first record in Seattle) and Quincy Jones to the rock 'n' rollers who forged the classic jazz-tinged “Northwest Sound."

    Blecha offers highly entertaining firsthand accounts gleaned from hundreds of interviews. DJs built a teen dance circuit that the authorities didn't like but whose popularity pushed bands to develop crowd-friendly beats. Do-it-yourself enthusiasts launched groundbreaking record companies that scored a surprising number of hit songs.

    Highlighting key but overlooked figures and offering a fresh look at well-known musicians (such as an obscure young guitarist then known as Jimmy Hendrix), Blecha shows how an isolated region managed to launch influential new sounds upon an unsuspecting world."

    [University of Washington Press]