In 1939, a new record from a shadowy storefront on Detroit\u2019s east side starts showing up in juke boxes all over town. It quickly becomes a smash hit, sending men scrambling to cash in, by creating Detroit\u2019s first home-grown record company, Universal, which evolves into Mel- low Records. Here\u2019s the untold story of an unlikely pair of tattooed hustlers: an ex-con, and a shell-shocked World War I vet, plus: jukeboxes, the mafia, Hamtramck mamas, Wayne County grifters, the first all-female western swing act on records, the first rockabilly trio \u2014 all playing roles in sensational music originally pressed on 78 rpm discs that document the dawn of Detroit\u2019s recording industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cDetroit is not only a city of extremes, but one where things always seem to happen first: the inventive ingenuity of industry and the multi-cultural migration that fueled it; the arc of wealth, poverty, urban crisis and ruin; and, most recently, reckoning and rebirth. A culture of creativity has underscored it all, and it\u2019s this trailblazing spirit \u201cMaki\u2019s passion for both country music and record hunting is evident on each page, as he unravels the sordid origins of Detroit\u2019s earliest recording company. It\u2019s a riveting story, meticulously researched, beautifully illustrated, and an essential record col- lector\u2019s crate-digging companion.\u201d \u2014 NATHAN D. GIBSON, author of The Starday Records Story: The House That Country Music Built<\/em><\/p>\n 136pps, numerous black and white photos with additional drawings by Craig Maki,sixe: 4.25(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.32(d), Weight: .3 lbs<\/p>\n ABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/strong><\/p>\n Craig Maki<\/a><\/strong> is co-author of the ground-breaking Detroit Country Music: Mountaineers, Cowboys, and Rockabillies (with Keith Cady, University of Michigan Press, 2013); contributed to M.L. Liebler\u2019s anthology Heaven Was De- troit: From Jazz to Hip-Hop and Beyond (Wayne State University Press, 2016); wrote liner notes for I\u2019m A Whip- Cracking\u2019 Daddy – Ricky Riddle (BACM CD 644, British Archive of Country Music, U.K., 2019), Slow Down – Jack Earls and the Jimbos – The Sun Years, Plus (BCD 16935, Bear Family, Germany, 2010), Cool Daddy – Jimmy Kirk- land (RCCD 3054, Rollercoaster, U.K., 2007); and furnished pieces to music magazines: American Music (Sweden), and Blue Suede News (U.S.A.). Maki enjoys playing music and collecting old records. For ten years, he hosted radio shows on public stations in Southeast Michigan, featuring rockabilly and country music. Find his blog at www.carcitycountry.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1939, a new record from a shadowy storefront on Detroit\u2019s east side starts showing up in juke boxes all over town. It quickly becomes a smash hit, sending men scrambling to cash in, by creating Detroit\u2019s first home-grown record company, Universal, which evolves into Mel- low Records. Here\u2019s the untold story of an unlikely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15272,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[427,293],"product_tag":[503,502],"class_list":["post-15271","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-detroit-music","product_cat-detroit-writer","product_tag-craig-maki","product_tag-detroit-recording-history","first","instock","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/15271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=15271"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=15271"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/bookshop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=15271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2014 coupled with its often inevitable invisibility \u2014 that Craig Maki zeroes in on, as he unveils the never-before-told tale of the city\u2019s very first record producers, and the roots of the now-storied recording revolution that they sparked.\u201d \u2014 MICHAEL HURTT, co- author of Mind Over Matter: The Myths and Mysteries of Detroit\u2019s Fortune Records<\/em><\/p>\nSigned copies by Craig Maki available.<\/h3>\n
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