On April 27, I told you that the first draft of the book Work Songs was done. Since then we've seen more people march in the streets for justice than any point in this country’s history, and 116,000 more Americans die from a disease that didn't even exist a year ago.
What a time to edit a book.
The isolation gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in this project with many long days and late nights spent wrestling ideas and shuffling words on a page. And while I am excited to say that I made the final edit to this book yesterday, I do think it's important to note that no amount of work over these past few months could fully shield me (or anyone) from the suffering and struggles that surround us all.
We’ve watched millions of people lose their jobs, hundreds of thousands die, and society fray at the seams with people posting, punching, shouting, and shooting each other in disputes over everything from masks to parking spots—this as countless service workers face abuse from customers every single day. While these things can happen in countries during the hardest times, it does raise one definitive question for us.
What song are we going to sing?
In the book I tell a story about Bessie Smith. With an uncanny ability to sing songs that gave voice to life’s hardest, and most universal, truths, she earned unprecedented fame and recognition in the 1920s. Smith sold more than six million records, and became the highest paid black entertainer in America.
Her work would shape the future of music, with Aretha Franklin, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Queen Latifah, and many more citing Smith as a pivotal influence and inspiration. While her legacy may live long, her life was cut short at age 43. On September 26, 1937, Smith died after the car she was in collided with a truck on Route 61 outside Clarksdale, Mississippi. Despite the fact that thousands of people came to her funeral, Bessie Smith was buried in an unmarked grave.
Janis Joplin and a nurse named Juanita Green wanted to change that. In August 1970, they bought a marble headstone for Bessie Smith, and the jazz historian John Hammon wrote the epitaph: "The greatest blues singer in the world will never stop singing."
A long overdue tribute to one of the most influential voices in history.
I love the idea that Bessie Smith is still singing today. Her songs galvanized a generation of people whose work inspired the next. It’s a part of the chain of influence and inspiration that has fueled our development as a species, whether in music, art, science, technology, business, health, or society. Each generation sings the songs of the last before they write their own.
And that’s really what this book is all about. Those old work songs taught the next generation the lessons they needed to do the work they do. Lessons that could support, strengthen, inspire, heal, teach, and give meaning. But if we let those songs die, we'll break the chain. We'll disconnect ourselves from the generations of workers whose words and songs we need the most.
So, as we stand in the wake of terrifying change, we must remember to look backwards—to hear the stories of the generations that came before us. Because if we can sing their songs, we might just be able to write our own.
What happens next?
I have a friend named Max Kuhn, and his paintings tell stories more powerful than any words I'll ever write. I asked Max if he would create the cover for the book, and he came back with this.
Whether it's Toussaint L’Ouverture and the rebellion that liberated Haiti, Ella May Wiggins and her songs that saved southern textile workers, or Jim Thorpe and the gold medal he won with mismatched shoes from a trash can, this image embodies the grit, heartbreak, and inspiration that the stories in this book are meant to convey.
Thank you, Max.
As for the rest of the journey, the book is with a graphic designer now for interior layout and design. Once that is complete, we'll send those files to a company in Grand Rapids, Michigan to be printed in hardcover with gold foil stamp (same size and format as American Hearts). This process will take 6-8 weeks, so the release date will be in early-November.
I'll write soon with an update on the book's production.
Until then my friends,
Matt