James L. Dickerson is an award-winning newspaper journalist and author. A longtime resident of Memphis and Nashville, he was an editorial writer for The Commercial Appeal and a book critic for the Nashville Tennessean. His Memphis-published magazine Nine-O-One Network, at one time the third-largest circulation music magazine in the U.S., made history by becoming the first Southern-based magazine to obtain newsstand distribution in all 50 states and overseas. Back issues of the magazine are available for study and research to visitors at the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum. His biography of Scotty Moore, That's Alright, Elvis (Simon & Schuster), co-authored with the guitar legend, also was a finalist for the Gleason Award. His music history, Mojo Triangle: Birthplace of Country, Blues, Jazz and Rock 'n' Roll, was a first-place winner of the IPPY Award for best non-fiction book in the South. His biography of legendary record producer Chips Moman has illuminated previously unknown dark corners of the Memphis music industry. His book "Colonel Tom Parker" was purchased by Warner Bros. for the 2022 film, "Elvis," starring Tom Hanks and Austin Butler.
"Memphis native Dickerson sifts through more than 100 years of
musical, political, and cultural heritage in this work of
history-as-memoir to provide a captivating profile of the one-time
murder capital of the world. Beginning with the impact of bluesman
W.C. Handy in the early 1900s, Dickerson combines sordid tales of
brothels, racism, and political corruption with the role Beale
Street played in the simultaneous evolution of both the city and
American music. Chapters spanning a decade at a time cover the
early influence of blues women Alberta Hunter and Memphis Minnie,
backwater politician E.H. Crump, the rise of Elvis Presley and
Johnny Cash, the founding of the Sun and Stax record labels, famous
artists drawn to Memphis (including U2, ZZ Top, and Stevie Ray
Vaughan); and even fellow Memphians Justin Timberlake and former
Survivor vocalist Jimi Jamison. Dickerson (Ashley Judd: Crying on
the Inside) references personal connections-Elvis's father worked
in a store owned by one of the author's family members-and
first-person accounts of his own role in the Memphis music scene as
a journalist overtake the final third of the book. Nevertheless,
all musical cities deserve a biography this thorough." --
Publishers Weekly (March 2013)
"Dickerson has written a loving, decade-by-decade profile of the
town that gave us-besides Elvis-Carl Perkins, Booker T. and the
MGs, Jerry Lee Lewis, Otis Redding, Roy Orbison, Isaac Hayes, and
even the Box Tops, who with 'The Letter' scored 'the first pop hit
ever recorded in Memphis by Memphis artists' ... Dickerson takes us
into the back rooms with the movers and shakers on the business end
of the music, spotlights the fabled Stax house band (better known
as the Blues Brothers band) and traces the social history of
Memphis, all in highly readable, highly recommended style-Booklist,
first edition review; reviewed by Mike Tribby.
"I really enjoyed Dickerson's book on Memphis's music history
because we were always out on the road and had no idea what was
happening back at home in Memphis. Wish we had it to read back
then."-Scotty Moore, Elvis's first guitarist and manager.
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