Peter Guralnick has written extensively on American music and musicians. His books include the prize-winning Elvis Presley two-part biography Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love; an acclaimed trilogy on American roots music, Sweet Soul Music, Lost Highway and Feel Like Going Home; the biographical inquiry Searching for Robert Johnson; the novel Nighthawk Blues; and Dream Boogie, a biography of Sam Cooke. Sam Phillips' biography bears witness to the creation of rock and roll and the cultural revolution it was soon to inspire - initiated by the man who started Sun Records, and then recorded Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, B.B. King, Ike Turner, Howlin' Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis and countless others. Jess Walters even wrote, "Sam Phillips is an epic biography, at once sweeping and personal, in which the gifted writer Peter Guralnick captures the voice and life of a transformational figure in American music."
It took me a long time to finish, but this book covers Sam Phillips' extraordinary life in great detail. I was inspired in part to read this book after watching the first (and only) season of "Sun Records" on CMT in 2017. I had also seen Phillips interviewed on documentaries about music production, and I was anxious to learn more about him.
