Joe Boyd at Waterloo Records
Oct 8, 7 PM CT • Austin: Waterloo Records • 600 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78703
From the legendary producer of Nick Drake, R.E.M., Toots and the Maytals, and Pink Floyd and author of White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s comes a riveting, world-spanning tour de force illuminating the artists, histories, controversies, and collaborations that shaped global music.
Paul Simon told Joe Boyd that when he first heard the accordion flourish that would open his multi-platinum album Graceland, it seemed to proclaim, "You haven't heard this before!" Yet the 1980s "world music" boom that Simon's album helped usher in had roots that extended back through the decades and across continents: tango on the eve of World War I, Latin dance across the '30s, '40s and '50s, reggae in the '70s, pre-War samba and pre-Beatles bossa nova, Eastern European ensembles filling capitalist concert halls during the Cold War, Indian ragas changing rock and roll in the 1960s, the folk music-inspired classical composers of the 19th and 20th centuries.
In this sweeping history compiled from more than a decade of travel, research, interviews, and deep listening, Boyd sets out to explore centuries of fascinating backstories to these sounds. He shows how personalities, events, and politics in places such as Havana, Lagos, Budapest, Kingston, and Rio are as colorful and momentous as anything that took place in New Orleans, Harlem, Laurel Canyon, or Liverpool. And, moreover, how jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll would never have happened if it weren't for the notes and rhythms emanating from over the horizon. The one-of-a-kind result is And the Roots of Rhythm Remain: a glorious, symphonic celebration of the music that shapes our world.
About the Book
“You haven’t heard this before!" the accordion flourish seemed to proclaim. Paul Simon told Joe Boyd that he immediately knew it would open Graceland, the multi-platinum album that helped usher in the 1980s “world music” boom. Yet that movement had roots extending back through the decades and across continents: tango on the eve of World War I, Latin dance across the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, reggae in the ’70s, pre-War samba and pre-Beatles bossa nova, Eastern European ensembles filling capitalist concert halls during the Cold War, Indian ragas changing rock and roll in the 1960s, the folk music–inspired classical composers of the 19th and 20th centuries.
In this sweeping history compiled from more than a decade of travel, research, interviews, and deep listening, Boyd sets out to explore centuries of fascinating backstories to these sounds. He shows how personalities, events, and politics in places such as Havana, Lagos, Budapest, Kingston, and Rio are as colorful and momentous as anything that took place in New Orleans, Harlem, Laurel Canyon, or Liverpool. And, moreover, how jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock ‘n’ roll would never have happened if it weren’t for the notes and rhythms emanating from over the horizon. The one-of-a-kind result is And the Roots of Rhythm Remain: a glorious, symphonic celebration of the music that shapes our world.
About the Author
Joe Boyd is a record producer and writer, known for his acclaimed memoir, White Bicycles. Artists he has produced include Nick Drake, R.E.M., Toots and the Maytals, Richard Thompson, Pink Floyd, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and ¡Cubanismo! among many others over the course of a nearly sixty-year career.
After graduating from Harvard in 1964, he tour-managed Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, and others before serving as production manager for the historic 1965 Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals. He then moved to London to open Elektra Records’ office and started the famous UFO club, which became the center of London’s psychedelic revolution. In 1979 he launched his own label, Hannibal Records, which was at the forefront of bringing global artists to western audiences. As a film producer, his credits include Amazing Grace, Scandal,and Jimi Hendrix. A gifted raconteur, he appears frequently on radio, podcasts and documentaries.
About the Venue
When Waterloo Records opened its doors on April 1, 1982, Austin was not quite the same town that it is today. The computer industries had arrived in the mid-seventies, but had yet to begin drawing the number of people into town that they would start to bring by the turn of the decade. Nor had Austin's reputation as a premier arts town – especially in both music and film – swelled its ranks of the creatively inclined. The boom years of the eighties had yet to fully take hold of the sleepy town. Simply put, Austin was a lot smaller.
But while a good deal more modest, Austin's music scene was well established. Texas music had always seemed to be vital and important, not only at home but far beyond the confines of our own barbed wire fences. From The 13th Floor Elevators to Willie Nelson, Texas artists were known internationally and their music respected around the world. Austin, however, had yet to become recognized on a national, let alone international, level as a live music mecca. The birth of South by Southwest still lay 5 years into the future and the Austin Record Convention, now one of the largest in the country, was no more than a suckling itself, having only come into being during the Spring of the previous year. Even Stevie Ray Vaughan wouldn't release his first album with Double Trouble, Texas Flood, until 1983, igniting a blaze of guitar still burning its way down the strip on Sixth Street. The Austin scene was vibrant and alive, but it was different.
Some things about Waterloo were different too. A building a mere 1,200 square feet housed the store at a location 2/3 of a mile further South on Lamar. Compared to the relatively roomy dimension of 6,400 square feet that Waterloo's main store enjoys today it's hard to imagine how cramped that original store must have seemed. Size, however, certainly didn't seem to matter to our customers, voting us best record store in the Austin Chronicle readers poll that first year, an honor they have granted us every year since.
Back then, what Waterloo really had going for it wasn't all that radical. It came more out of understanding the customer's viewpoint than planning a marketing strategy. It rose from the kindred soul of merchant and customer. Instead of catering to the music consumer, Waterloo catered to the music lover, if only because we were music lovers too. It was true then, it certainly still is today.
For more information on And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain, please reachout to Matt Hanks (mhanks@shorefire.com), Chris Taillie (ctaillie@shorefire.com), and Henry Thomas (hthomas@shorefire.com) at Shore Fire Media.
From the legendary producer of Nick Drake, R.E.M., Toots and the Maytals, and Pink Floyd and author of White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s comes a riveting, world-spanning tour de force illuminating the artists, histories, controversies, and collaborations that shaped global music.
Release: Sep 24, 2024
Hardcover ISBN: 9798988670025 • 960 pages • two 16-page full-color photo inserts
