Always a Song

Truth-teller Ellen Harper writes through five generations of her multi-cultural family's odyssey of fighting to keep music real and powerful in American life. At times heartbreaking and humorous, but always inspiring and not to be missed by songwriters and singers, music fans, or anyone who likes a meaningful story. -PETER CHASE, Singer, Songwriter, Producer Ellen Harper may be known to music fans as the mother of the musician Ben Harper, but there is so much more to her story.... A very personal take on the folk music revival with an especially lovely foreword by the author's son. -Booklist Ellen Harper strikes a major chord while sharing her real life experience in the folk music world from its very early days. She continues to make life happen in a meaningful musical manner. Always a Song is a great read. -CLAUDIA LENNEAR, Twenty Feet from Stardom and former Ikette with the Ike and Tina Revue The author crafts a compelling story of an ordinary life taking surprising turns. -Kirkus Reviews This book is a love song and at times a blues song; but always a folk song of community, compassion and justice. Full of love of family and love of music, a most fertile ground for sowing seeds of human harmony. Each chapter unfolds like another Child Ballad to the heartbeat of this remarkable woman, Ellen Harper. Indeed, there is always hope as long as we keep on singing. -JOHN YORK, former bassist for The Byrds A bridge back to the world I remember as a child of folkies, beatniks, free lovers, poets, and intellectuals-all fighting for a new way of life-Harper's memoir is of a wonderful complicated family, the story of a woman, the story of America. -BOB FORREST, lead vocalist for Thelonious Monster and The Bicycle Thief Ellen Harper is folk music royalty, growing up with Pete Seeger and Joan Baez around the dinner table. Her story is both heartrending and a pleasure to read. -ROGER MCGUINN, Leader of the Byrds Ellen Harper's extraordinary story is revelatory, inspiring, and compulsively readable. Harper's account of fighting the establishment in the name of art and equality is required reading-a songbook of protest, of freedom, of revolution and resurgence. -BRET ANTHONY JOHNSTON, internationally bestselling author of Remember Me Like This Ellen Harper's unique vantage as red-diaper baby, folk connector, counterculture witness, and maven of family and community is matched by her memory, wit, and compassion. -JONATHAN LETHEM, New York Times bestselling author of Chronic City and Motherless Brooklyn I read this book in a weekend, riveted by the intimacy and the honesty of Ellen's narrative. Always a Song is an eloquent, searching account of a life lived for truth, love, and music. -JACKSON BROWNE The author crafts a compelling story of an ordinary life taking surprising turns. -Kirkus Reviews This book is a love song and at times a blues song; but always a folk song of community, compassion and justice. Full of love of family and love of music, a most fertile ground for sowing seeds of human harmony. Each chapter unfolds like another Child Ballad to the heartbeat of this remarkable woman, Ellen Harper. Indeed, there is always hope as long as we keep on singing. -JOHN YORK, former bassist for The Byrds