A Bonnie Raitt biography and an anecdotal look at rock's hometown of Memphis are among the latest music tomes to hit the bookstores.
"Bonnie Raitt: Just in the Nick of Time," by Mark Bego (Birch Lane; $22.50), is a study of the blues/r&b chanteuse who spent 20 years paying her dues before the 1989 breakthrough album, "Nick of Time."Little Feat fans will enjoy reading of the influence the late Lowell George had on Raitt.
Meanwhile, unlike previous books about the city, "It Came From Memphis," by Robert Gordon (Faber and Faber; $23.95), does not focus on Elvis Presley, Al Green or the Sun and Stax studios. Instead, Gordon offers enjoyable stories of Southern r&b and pop insiders Dan Penn, Alex Chilton, Steve Cropper and Willie Mitchell.
For a useful overview of African pop, you might want to check out "Afropop! An Illustrated Guide to Contemporary African Music," by Sean Barlow and Banning Eyre.
Although the 80-page hardback is hardly complete, it does offer a pretty good beginner's look at the continent's best-known artists and styles, from Ali Farka Toure to zouk.
Other world-music books, which usually can be found at Tower Books in Sherman Oaks, include "The Rough Guide to World Music," "Africa O-Ye! A Celebration of African Music," "The Da Capo Guide to African Music" and "African Rock: The Pop Music of a Continent."
- Fred Shuster