Music audiobooks

The King of Ragtime

By: Larry Karp

Narrated by: Mirron Willis

Length: 11 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

It’s 1916, and time’s running out for Scott Joplin. Before he dies, he wants to provide for his wife and secure his place in musical history.Joplin has written a musical drama, and his young piano student, Martin Niederhoffer, convinces him to try to get Irving Berlin to publish and produce the work. The next day, Niederhoffer walks into his... Read more

Tammy Wynette

By: Jimmy McDonough

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 15 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

Tammy Wynette was one of the great female singers of the twentieth century, an artist who could plumb the darkest corners of her heart and transform private grief into public drama. Bestselling biographer Jimmy McDonough tells the story of the small-town girl who grew up to be the woman behind the microphone and whose meteoric rise led to a... Read more

Our Noise

By: John Cook

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 9 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

For twenty years, Merge Records has remained true to their belief that you can sign bands because you love their music and respect what they’re trying to do. As giant corporate labels struggle for survival, Merge has, in the unlikeliest of times, garnered a loyal group of artists and a secure and growing fan base and, most important, has brought... Read more

A Very Irregular Head

By: Rob Chapman

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 13 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

“I don’t think I’m easy to talk about. I’ve got a very irregular head. And I’m not anything that you think I am anyway” (Syd Barrett, Rolling Stone, 1971).Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett was the definition of a golden boy. With good looks and an aptitude for music, he was a charismatic child who fast became a teenage leader in 1960s England. Along... Read more

Holler If You Hear Me

By: Michael Eric Dyson

Narrated by: Cary Hite

Length: 9 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

Tupac Amaru Shakur (1971–1996) was an American rap artist, actor, and social activist. More than seventy-five million of his albums have sold worldwide, making him one of the bestselling music artists in the world. Rolling Stone magazine named him the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time.Shakur also gained notoriety for his conflicts with the law... Read more

The Doors

By: Greil Marcus

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 4 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

The best critic of popular culture in America considers the attraction of the Doors, which has endured despite the band’s short life, sampling the lasting songs and legendary performances that made Jim Morrison and his band rock ’n’ roll legends.A fan from the moment the Doors’ first album took over KMPX, the revolutionary FM rock ’n’ roll... Read more

The Mayor of MacDougal Street

By: Dave Van Ronk

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 10 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

Now the inspiration for a major motion picture written and directed by the Coen brothersDave Van Ronk was one of the founding figures of the 1960s folk revival, but he was far more than that. A pioneer of modern acoustic blues, a fine songwriter and arranger, a powerful singer, and one of the most influential guitarists of the ’60s, he was also... Read more

Love Goes to Buildings on Fire

By: Will Hermes

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Length: 13 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

Punk rock and hip-hop, disco and salsa, the loft jazz scene and the downtown composers known as Minimalists—in the mid-1970s, New York City was a laboratory where all the major styles of modern music were reinvented, all at once, from one block to the next, by musicians who knew, admired, and borrowed from one another. Crime was everywhere, the... Read more

When I Left Home

By: Buddy Guy

Narrated by: Mirron Willis

Length: 7 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

According to Eric Clapton, John Mayer, and the late Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy is the greatest blues guitarist of all time. An enormous influence on these musicians as well as on Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck, he is the living embodiment of Chicago blues.Guy’s epic story stands at the absolute nexus of modern blues. He came to... Read more

The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones

By: Stanley Booth

Narrated by: Nick Sullivan

Length: 17 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

Stanley Booth, a member of the Rolling Stones' inner circle, met the band just a few months before Brian Jones drowned in a swimming pool in 1969.He lived with them throughout their 1969 American tour, staying up all night together listening to blues, talking about music, ingesting drugs, and consorting with groupies. His thrilling account... Read more

Catch a Fire

By: Timothy White

Narrated by: Peter Macon

Length: 17 hours

Abridged: No

Bob Marley: One Love is now a major film from Paramount Pictures.This is the classic biography of reggae legend Bob Marley, updated and revised for the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death.Bob Marley left an indelible mark on modern music, both as a reggae pioneer and as an enduring cultural icon. Catch a Fire, now a classic rock biography,... Read more

On the Road with Bob Dylan

By: Larry “Ratso” Sloman

Narrated by: Ramiz Monsef

Length: 15 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

In 1975 as Bob Dylan emerged from eight years of seclusion, he dreamed of putting together a traveling music show that would trek across the country like a psychedelic carnival. The dream became reality, and On the Road with Bob Dylan is the ultimate behind-the-scenes look at what happened when Dylan and the Rolling Thunder Revue took to the... Read more

Drum Workshop

By: Chris Puleston

Narrated by: Chris Puleston

Length: 47 minutes

Abridged: No

Top drum workshop teacher Chris Puleston invites listeners to participate in their own home drum workshops. This audiobook program, with music by Chris Puleston, incorporates easy exercises and techniques for both beginners and more advanced students. Read more

Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans, with Wynton Marsalis

By: Joe Bevilacqua

Narrated by: Joe Bevilacqua, others & Wynton Marsalis

Length: 59 minutes

Abridged: No

Veteran radio producer Joe Bevilacqua hosts this entertaining, informative hour, recorded in the French Quarter of New Orleans and featuring jazz great Wynton Marsalis, jazz author and historian Donald Newlove, WNYC Radio talk show host Leonard Lopate, members of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and others. They discuss the origins of jazz and... Read more

One Song at a Time

By: Joe Bevilacqua

Narrated by: Joe Bevilacqua

Length: 1 hour

Abridged: No

Founded by Rod Kennedy, the Kerrville Folk Festival has run annually since 1972. It is the longest continuously running music festival of its kind in North America. For eighteen straight days and nights each May and June, over thirty thousand guests come from all over the world to experience the magic of what the folks there simply call... Read more

This Land That I Love

By: John Shaw

Narrated by: Traber Burns

Length: 7 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

A narrative history of the writing of "This Land Is Your Land" and "God Bless America" that uncovers the conflicts and common ground between two classic patriotic songsFebruary, 1940. After a decade of worldwide depression, World War II had begun in Europe and Asia. With Germany on the march and Japan at war with China, the global crisis was in... Read more

Birth School Metallica Death, Vol. 1

By: Paul Brannigan & Ian Winwood

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 10 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

A landmark release, this is the first of a two-volume biography of Metallica, the biggest metal band of all time, told via exclusive interviews with the band and their world.The California quartet has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, won nine Grammy Awards, and had five consecutive albums hit number one on the US Billboard chart.... Read more

Respect

By: David Ritz

Narrated by: Brad Raymond

Length: 17 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

This "comprehensive and illuminating" biography of the Queen of Soul (USA Today) was hailed by Rolling Stone as "a remarkably complex portrait of Aretha Franklin's music and her tumultuous life." 

Aretha Franklin began life as the golden daughter of a progressive and promiscuous Baptist preacher. Raised without her mother, she was a gospel... Read more

The Universal Tone

By: Carlos Santana

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 19 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

The intimate and long-awaited autobiography of a legend.

In 1967 in San Francisco, just a few weeks after the Summer of Love, a young Mexican guitarist took the stage at the Fillmore Auditorium and played a blistering solo that announced the arrival of a prodigious musical talent. Two years later -- after he played a historic set at Woodstock --... Read more

El Tono Universal

By: Carlos Santana

Narrated by: Gustavo Rex

Length: 22 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

The intimate and long-awaited memoir of guitar legend Carlos Santana

In the realm of guitar gods, Santana stands alone for what's come to be called his "universal tone"-both the fact that you can recognize a Santana song from just one note and the fact that Santana is well known to believe music and soul are interconnected. In the category of... Read more

Austin Mahone: Just How It Happened

By: Austin Mahone

Narrated by: Alex Constancio & Cameron Bowen

Length: 2 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

The official Austin Mahone book!

See how Austin went from being a kid from a small town in Texas singing and having fun on YouTube with his friends to headlining his own shows around the world. Complete with exclusive photos and stories from his childhood as well as lots of behind-the-scenes fun, Austin's first official book will give you the... Read more

The Leonard Bernstein Letters

By: Nigel Simeone

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 23 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Leonard Bernstein was a charismatic and versatile musician -- a brilliant conductor who attained international super-star status, and a gifted composer of Broadway musicals (West Side Story), symphonies (Age of Anxiety), choral works (Chichester Psalms), film scores (On the Waterfront), and much more. Bernstein was also an enthusiastic letter... Read more

Foolish/Unfoolish

By: Ashanti

Narrated by: Ashanti

Length: 1 hour 13 minutes

Abridged: No

In this humorous and honest poetry collection, ‘Princess of Hip Hop’ Ashanti shares her unique perspective on life and love. Foolish/Unfoolish is a collection of vibrant and honest "reflections on love" by R&B singer Ashanti. Ever since she was thirteen years old, Ashanti has kept journals of her poetry, thoughts, and ideas about life and... Read more

Play On

By: Mick Fleetwood & Anthony Bozza

Narrated by: Martin Dew

Length: 10 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

"After forty-six years of being on the road, this is the right time to look back in a way I've never done before: now and then. This is the story of my life in rock and roll -- and how the band that has meant everything to me came to define me. I'm looking forward to sharing it with you."

Mick Fleetwood has been a member of the ever-evolving... Read more