10 music books to add to your holiday gift list

What should you give music lovers on your holiday shopping list?

Good luck trying to gift someone concert tickets; ticket services can be confounding. There are always gift cards to a streaming service or record store. And there are books about music.

Even if you don’t know the recipient’s Spotify Wrapped list, we have some music book recommendations from Taylor to Tupac, including a few of local interest.

“Taylor Swift: Album by Album” by Kase Wickham, Joanna Weiss, Moira McAvoy (Motorbooks, $30). Hardly a month goes by without a new book about the world’s biggest music star, but this one may rank as the most fun and fan-friendly. Three girl-moms who are professional writers collaborated on an album-by-album recap (including the Taylor’s Version discs), teeming with facts, opinions, gossip, thoughtful discussions and 175 photos. Sample commentary: “Contemporary Taylor thinks fame is a prison. But at that point, in 2021, I think she had this platonic-ideal level of fame she’d always wanted: I’m in the cultural zeitgeist.”

“Waiting on the Moon” by Peter Wolf (Little Brown, $30). Best known as the lead singer of Boston’s underrated greasy R&B group, the J. Geils Band, Wolf is a captivating storyteller who has crossed paths with dozens of boldface names in music and movies — from the time he sat next to Marilyn Monroe in a New York movie theater at age 10 to recording with Aretha Franklin. He roomed with David Lynch in their college days, befriended Van Morrison and romanced Faye Dunaway (she pursued him and they married). A memoir that’s hard to put down because you keep saying “Really?”

“Heart Life Music” by Kenny Chesney (William Morrow, $32.50). This memoir by country music’s stadium king is a lot like his music — at turns fun-loving and sincere without being overly personal or reflective. If you were hoping for a big reveal about his short marriage to Renée Zellweger, well, he offers brief, superficial publicist-like spin. He’s married to his music and the job. We learn about his small-town childhood, his mom giving birth to him as a high school senior, the sports-loving dad who coached him up and how he developed his love for the ocean. Fans will come away thinking Chesney is a super nice guy, a careerist whose band, crew and staff have become his family and his life.

“Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur” by Jeff Pearlman (Mariner, $32.50). Known as a sportswriter, bestselling author Pearlman conducted 652 interviews, including with the subject’s high school girlfriend and California crack dealers, to paint this portrait of the sainted hip-hop star who was shot and killed at age 25 in 1996. Pearlman portrays Tupac as a contradiction, a sensitive, poetry-loving student who projected a gangsta rap image while he was devoted to his crack-addicted, Black Panther mother. Pearlman’s storytelling skills combined with his dogged reporting (he even tracked down the baby in the single “Brenda’s Got a Baby” about a 12-year-old Brooklyn girl who tossed her newborn down a garbage chute) make this a compelling and captivating read.

“Willie Nelson: All the Albums” by Geoffrey Himes (Motorbooks, $40). A longtime critic for the Washington Post, Himes undertook the daunting task of grading 132 of Willie’s albums (and 20 compilation projects). Amazingly, 44 LPs earned a grade of A-minus or higher, including eight at A-plus, and only three discs merited a grade of F. Himes divides the albums into chronological eras and approaches his words with the right combination of criticism, quotes and anecdotes.

“What Doesn’t Kill Me Makes Me Weirder and Harder to Relate To” by Mary Lucia (University of Minnesota, $22.95). With her witty tongue and free-wheeling rock ‘n’ roll gestalt, this longtime Twin Cities DJ puts the fun in dysfunction. Yes, she came from a dysfunctional family (called her parents by their first names, no Christmas traditions) and enjoyed a wild ride in music, especially during her days as the franchise voice at 89.3 the Current (2005-22). But the focus of this memoir ultimately becomes about being stalked by a mentally ill listener. It’s harrowing and disgusting, especially the response Lucia received from her employer and the criminal justice system. Lucia’s listeners might have desired more about music and her older brother Paul Westerberg of the Replacements, but she has a more urgent story to tell.

“The MN Opera at Sixty” by Michael Anthony (Wise Ink, $50). Anthony’s long tenure as a music critic at the Star Tribune (1971-2017) nearly mirrors the life of Minnesota Opera, which dates to 1963. Buoyed by interviews with key figures and his reviews of many productions, Anthony paints an in-depth history with plenty of context on how some local highbrows desired to make the Twin Cities a relevant cultural center. In this coffee-table tome with countless production photos and newspaper clippings, the voices of such integral players as Wesley Balk, Martin Friedman, Dominick Argento and Philip Brunelle are featured as well as acknowledgment of the movers and shakers who have help sustained this refined art.

“Working Musician” by Al Zdon and James Walsh (Moonlit Eagle Productions, $25). This is essentially the posthumous autobiography of James Walsh, a force on the Minnesota music scene, especially in the 1960s and ‘70s. He played in polka bands, rock bands like the Underbeats and most notably the progressive rockers Gypsy. A music lifer who also produced 110 projects for others, Walsh explains the roller coaster that is the music biz from playing the Atlanta Pop Festival in front of 300,000 people to selling pianos in a suburban strip mall. Zdon, a Walsh friend since high school, contributed sidebar content, finishing the manuscript the day before Walsh died in March 2023.