Music audiobooks

A History of Music in Western Civilization

By: Various

Narrated by: Various

Length: 11 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

From anonymous 10th century troubadours to world-renowned 20th century composers, A History of Music of the Western World explores the roots of the most influential music genres of our time. Essential listening for students and lovers of great music, the collection includes stimulating discussions by 15 prominent music authorities, including... Read more

So Many Roads

By: David Browne

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 15 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

The Grateful Dead's long, strange trip has been the subject of countless books—but none like So Many Roads. Drawing on new interviews with surviving members and people in their inner circle along with previously unknown details gleaned from the group's extensive archives, David Browne, acclaimed music journalist and contributing editor at... Read more

Dreams to Remember

By: Mark Ribowsky

Narrated by: Dan John Miller

Length: 10 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

When he died suddenly at the age of twenty-six, Otis Redding (1941-1967) had already become the conscience of a new kind of music. Sure, Berry Gordy might have built the first black-owned music empire at Motown, but Redding was doing something as historic: mainstreaming black music within the whitest bastions of the post-Confederate south. As a... Read more

Def Jam, Inc.

By: Stacy Gueraseva

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Length: 10 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

Def Jam is the hip-hop label that introduced mainstream America to the likes of Run DMC, LL Cool J, The Beastie Boys, Public Enemy and Slick Rick. Beginning in the NYU dorm room of co-founder Rick Rubin, this never-before-told story captures all the behind-the-scenes action, outrageous hype, and raw talent that made rap a household word. Read more

Mozart

By: Paul Johnson

Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie

Length: 5 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

As he' s done in Napoleon, Churchill, Jesus, and Darwin, acclaimed historian and author Paul Johnson here offers a concise, illuminating biography of Mozart. Johnson' s focus is on the music-- Mozart' s wondrous output of composition and his uncanny gift for instrumentation. Liszt once said that Mozart composed more bars than a trained copyist... Read more

Songs in the Key of My Life

By: Ferentz Lafargue

Narrated by: J.D. Jackson

Length: 4 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

Dumped by his fiancEe, rising literary star Ferentz Lafargue had a chance encounter with the seminal Stevie Wonder album Songs in the Key of Life. Healed by the songs, Lafargue was inspired to look at how music has shaped his life. In this entertaining memoir, he shares recollections of Michael Jackson, aerosmith, Kanye West, and many others. Read more

Gondola

By: Donna Leon

Narrated by: Antoinette LaVecchia

Length: 2 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

Of all the trademarks of Venice-- and there are many, from the gilded Basilica of San Marco to the melancholy Bridge of Sighs-- none is more ubiquitous than the gondola. The internationally acclaimed "American with the Venetian heart," Donna Leon, tells its fascinating story (The Washington Post). First used in medieval Venice as a deftly... Read more

Froggy Plays in the Band

By: Jonathan London

Narrated by: John McDonough

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Froggy wants to win a big prize in the marching band contest at the Apple Blossom Parade, so he flops up to the attic to find his dad's old saxophone. As they practice for the contest, Froggy and his friends learn the three most important marching band rules: Don't look left. Don't look right. And don't stop for anything! But will these rules... Read more

Flocabulary

By: Alexander Rappaport & Blake Harrison

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Length: 3 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Flocabulary has taken the educational world by storm. It's a dynamic new tool for teaching and learning. Now teens can hip-hop their way to history success! Featuring an audio CD with 45 minutes of original, educational, and cutting-edge music, this latest entry in the innovative Flocabulary series turns U.S. history-from pre-Colonial days... Read more

The One

By: R.J. Smith

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Length: 14 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

Senior editor at L.A. Magazine, RJ Smith saw his first book, The Great Black Way, win the coveted California Book Award. With The One, Smith profiles one of the 20th century's most innovative musical icons, the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. Drawing on extensive research and captivating interviews, Smith chronicles Brown's rise from... Read more

Man of Constant Sorrow

By: Ralph Stanley & Eddie Dean

Narrated by: Ed Sala

Length: 18 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

In Man of Constant Sorrow, Grammy Award winner Ralph Stanley opens up about his expansive career as an old-time musician. Stanley grew up in the Virginia mountains and first learned music from his banjo-playing mother. He interrupted his musical career to farm for a short time, but soon returned to music with his brother Carter. Later in his... Read more

Billie Holiday

By: John Szwed

Narrated by: Karen Chilton

Length: 8 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

Published in celebration of Holiday's centenary, the first biography to focus on the singer's extraordinary musical talent When Billie Holiday stepped into Columbia's studios in November 1933, it marked the beginning of what is arguably the most remarkable and influential career in ?twentieth-century popular music. Her voice weathered countless... Read more

Jimi Hendrix

By: Edward Willett

Narrated by: Ezra Knight

Length: 3 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

Willett pens a biography covering all the high and low points in the short life of the man "Rolling Stone" magazine called the greatest rock guitarist of all time: Jimi Hendrix. Read more

The Mysteries of Beethoven's Hair

By: Russell Martin & Lydia Nibley

Narrated by: Jeff McCarthy

Length: 2 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

Russell Martin, author of Beethoven's Hair, and his wife, Lydia Nibley, tell the story of how a lock of Ludwig von Beethoven's hair, clipped from the composer's head on his deathbed in Germany in 1827, ended up in Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1943 and was later sold at auction in London in 1994. Learn about this incredible journey through history... Read more

Jerry on Jerry

By: author

Narrated by: Jerry Garcia

Length: 5 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

These never-before-published interviews with Jerry Garcia reveal his thoughts on religion, politics, his personal life, and his creative process. Jerry on Jerry provides new insight into the beloved frontman of the Grateful Dead in time for the 50th Anniversary of the band.

Released by the Jerry Garcia Family and made available to the public for... Read more

Pete Seeger: Storm King - Volume 2

By: Pete Seeger

Narrated by: Pete Seeger

Length: 2 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

Pete Seeger's last project bridges generations!
Volume 2 of gems from the life of one of the most influential figures in American music! Listen to intimate, never-before-heard recordings of the beloved civil rights icon and environmentalist's stories wrapped in music from around the world.

Pete Seeger: Storm King audio collection presents Pete... Read more

The Children of Willesden Lane

By: Mona Golabek & Lee Cohen

Narrated by: Mona Golabek

Length: 8 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Based on the true story of her mother, Mona Golabek describes the inspirational story of Lisa Jura's escape from Nazi-controlled Austria to England on the famed Kindertransport.
Jewish musical prodigy Lisa Jura has a wonderful life in Vienna. But when the Nazis start closing in on the city, life changes irreversibly. Although he has three... Read more

Paul McCartney

By: Philip Norman

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

The definitive Paul McCartney biography, written with his approval by bestselling biographer Philip Norman.

Since the age of twenty-one, Paul McCartney has lived one of the ultimate rock-n-roll lives played out on the most public of stages. Now, Paul's story is told by rock music's foremost biographer, with McCartney's consent and access to... Read more

Jacky Ha-Ha

By: James Patterson & Chris Grabenstein

Narrated by: Tara Sands

Length: 4 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

In this #1 New York Times bestselling novel, get to know Jacky Ha-Ha, a funny class clown who loves to make people laugh—even when everything else in her life feels anything but silly.

With her irresistible urge to tell a joke in every situation—even when she really, really shouldn't—twelve-year-old Jacky Ha-Ha loves to make people laugh. And... Read more

The Dresden Manuscripts

By: David Wilson

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 7 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

A fascinating journey to rediscover the music of a composer who was lauded in his day yet forgotten soon after, The Dresden Manuscripts chronicles David Wilson’s thirty-year quest to locate, reconstruct, and perform the music of Johann Adolf Hasse, a composer who, along with his equally famous wife, mezzo-soprano Faustina Bordoni, had close... Read more

Razzle Dazzle

By: Michael Riedel

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 16 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

Razzle Dazzle is a provocative, no-holds-barred narrative account of the people, money, and power that reinvented an iconic quarter of New York City, turning its gritty back alleys and sex shops into the glitzy, dazzling Great White Way—and bringing a crippled New York from the brink of bankruptcy to its glittering glory.In the 1970s Times... Read more

Never Broken

By: Jewel

Narrated by: Jewel

Length: 10 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times bestselling poet and multiplatinum singer-songwriter Jewel explores her unconventional upbringing and extraordinary life in an inspirational memoir that covers her childhood to fame, marriage, and motherhood.When Jewel’s first album, Pieces of You, topped the charts in 1995, her emotional voice and vulnerable performance were... Read more

Deal

By: Bill Kreutzmann

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 13 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

On their fiftieth anniversary comes a groundbreaking rock-and-roll memoir by one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead.The Grateful Dead are perhaps the most legendary American rock band of all time. For thirty years, beginning in the hippie scene of San Francisco in 1965, they were a musical institution, the original jam band that broke... Read more

Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music

By: Barry Mazor

Narrated by: Barry Mazor, Dom Flemons & Ketch Secor

Length: 11 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

This is the first biography of Ralph Peer, the adventurous—even revolutionary—A&R man and music publisher who saw the universal power locked in regional roots music and tapped it, changing the breadth and flavor of popular music around the world. It is the story of the life and fifty-year career, from the age of cylinder recordings to the... Read more